With so much of today’s news dedicated to covering the darker side of COVID-19, here at Corporate Traveller we want to shine a light on the good news stories out there. We’ve received wonderful feedback from our customers on how our people are working around the clock to get their employees home safe to their loved ones, so here’s just a taste of that good news flavour!
Customer Story | OfficeMax
One of our Corporate Traveller customers was travelling to Samoa on the 16th March. The NZ Government then announced that anyone arriving back into NZ had to quarantine for 14 days. So we called our customer to advise of the update, however our customer decided to continue with their trip. Once in Samoa, NZ then moved to Alert Level 3 and the Samoan Government announced they were closing their borders. We then urgently arranged a new ticket to get our customer home that very same day. Our customer was very happy and relieved to head home.
Customer Story | Fred Hollows Foundation
The Fred Hollows Foundation has student nurses and doctors who study and work at the Pacific Eye Institute in Suva. On 21st March, our customer decided to send staff back to their home countries to be with their families. At Corporate Traveller, we had to find urgent flights to the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and Ghana. This proved very challenging as many of these destinations have irregular flights, borders and transits were closing and airlines were suspending services. But we worked hard with Emily Woodroofe to change everyone to the first available flight, in an attempt to make it home.
Customer Story | Antarctic Heritage Trust
Following the Government’s global travel restrictions due to COVID-19, we worked to get a group of young explorers back to New Zealand from South America. With flights being cancelled, our Travel Manager Ashleigh Evans made herself available in every possible way to assist in getting their team back to New Zealand. She kept them up to date on what flights and routes were available to help them make an informed decision on what way would be best for them to get home given the circumstances.
Customer Story | Mainfreight
The NZ PM’s announcement on 14th March that travellers would need to self-isolate upon returning home, had a big impact on Mainfreight. Our customer had plans to hold Board and Executive Team meetings in Brisbane with a large contingent of attendees from NZ. With the first wave of flights due to depart Auckland on Sunday 15th, our After Hours team worked tirelessly to cancel flights. We also arranged for a Director in Brisbane to fly back to NZ before self-isolation came into effect.
Customer Story | Independent Verification Services
On 23 March, IVS was advised NZ was moving to Alert Level 4 by midnight, 25 March. Immediately our customer called Nicola Tarrant at Corporate Traveller for help. Nicola - in her usual professional manner advised all flights were sold out but managed to get our customer on a flight the next day.
Customer Story | TIL Logistics Group
TIL Logistics Group have been booking their business travel online for 8 years and with their business is growing, Corporate Traveller has now helped to streamline their business travel. With 10 different businesses, the booking process and reconciliation of travel and expenses was a long and time-consuming process. An online booking tool and a dedicated Travel Expert has simplified and captured spend, saving the business time and money.
Customer Story | Antarctic Heritage Trust
Following the Government’s global travel restrictions due to COVID-19, we worked to get a group of young explorers back to New Zealand from South America. With flights being cancelled, our Travel Manager Ashleigh Evans made herself available in every possible way to assist in getting their team back to New Zealand. She kept them up to date on what flights and routes were available to help them make an informed decision on what way would be best for them to get home given the circumstances.
Customer Story | Rentokil Initial
Our customer at Rentokil, recently attended a leadership meeting in Germany, with a planned stop-over via LA upon returning to NZ. Following the announcement that the US borders were closing to those who had been in Europe, Kirsty at Corporate Traveller presented all options to our customer. Within 30 minutes Kirsty had booked the last flight home via USA. Rentokil expressed their gratitude for our speedy assistance over this stressful time.