The Challenge: An unexploded World War II bomb was discovered in Paris, causing unexpected Eurostar disruption between the French capital and London. This was set to heavily impact travel for a client from the luxury goods sector.
The Solution: Quick-thinking action from Reed & Mackay’s Operations team resulted in getting all the client’s travellers home on alternative journeys with minimal disruption.
When 45 travellers had booked to travel back from Paris to London by Eurostar on the 7 March, the last thing they expected was a piece of history to disrupt their originally planned journeys.
At 7am that day, the Reed & Mackay team received its first report of travel disruption at Paris Gare Du Nord, due the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb. Soon after, the news came through that cancellations would affect all Eurostar services across the day.
As soon as they heard, the client’s dedicated consultants immediately ran reports to identify impacted bookings. Thinking ahead, they also sourced a standby operational team due to the anticipated surge in demand from widespread travel disruption. The client’s travel management team were also notified and provided with a traveller overview.
Speedy response, speedy results
Throughout the morning, a team of seven consultants either proactively reached out to affected travellers or assisted with travellers calling in. Understanding that everyone who had booked for Eurostar that day would also be looking for alternative transport, the objective was to re-book as many of the client’s travellers, as quickly as possible, onto a limited number of flights before all the seats sold out. The Reed & Mackay team also assisted with flight check in for some of the client’s travellers as requested. This was due to the expectation that flights would be over-sold.
Through continuous monitoring of seat availability, Reed & Mackay had re-booked the majority of travellers onto flights by late morning. Furthermore, when individual seats on flights sporadically came back into the system, the team quickly secured them for any final travellers left to re book.
Solving additional challenges
It wasn’t solely the unexpected Eurostar disruption that was having an impact on travel. By mid-afternoon, the Reed & Mackay team received reports from some of the client’s travellers that they would miss their flights. This was due to traffic congestion in Paris caused by the road closures around the unexploded bomb. Journey times to reach the airport were now taking more than two hours.
Consultants swiftly refocused to rebooking travellers onto later flights where possible. For the few who could not be re-booked, Reed & Mackay arranged airport hotel accommodation for flights the following morning.
Support 24/7/365 for travel disruption
Even though the client’s travellers had been rebooked onto alternative journeys, Reed & Mackay’s Emergency Travel Service (ETS) team was briefed in anticipation of any Friday evening/weekend disruption. Thankfully, this was minimal.
“The Reed & Mackay Operations team were alerted to disruption before many travellers were even aware. So we were able to proactively secure the last remaining seats on flights and contact affected clients, to both notify them of the disruption and simultaneously provide a solution in one phone call,” Reed & Mackay Operations Team Leader Andrew Whitaker says.
The client adds: “The Reed & Mackay team did a great job. They were so quick and helpful, big thanks to them.”
Get in touch
Mail hellouae@reedmackay.com to discuss all your corporate travel and event management needs.
