Why Hire a DMC?

We recently provided destination management services for a South American Pharmaceutical client. The program was relatively small in size - 20 guests travelling in on two flights, each scheduled to arrive within 30 minutes of one another. The plan was to greet guests, retrieve luggage and promptly shuttle them to their hotel. The first flight arrived on schedule and our guests were greeted and sent without incident. The arrival of our second flight carrying 17 passengers did not go according to plan. Approximately 2 hours after the flight was scheduled to arrive, the worst-case scenario was playing out. Our guests were sitting on a plane waiting to push away from the gate and their flight was cancelled - about 12 hours into their travel day.

That's when our PES staff jumped into action. First our travel team worked with the airline to rebook guests on later flights. We had confirmed seats for our guests before they made it off their cancelled flight, way ahead of almost everyone else. After arranging new flights, our team worked with our ground transportation supplier to line up subsequent transfers. Our team also connected with the hotel and had guests pre-checked into their rooms. Everything that we could do to minimize our guests waiting was taken care of.

Over the next 10 hours, our guests arrived on 5 separate flights; some were even routed in on a different airline. For every arriving guest, we had staff waiting in baggage claim to greet them and vehicles curbside to transport them. What should have been a simple airport greet, turned a bit complex and really got me thinking what would have happened if our client didn't have a DMC?

• How much longer would it have taken for all of our guests to arrive if we hadn't re-booked them promptly?
• Since passengers and luggage were arriving on separate flights and carriers, would our guests have spent an hour or more hunting for their baggage between terminals? If left to the airline, would it just have been delivered the next day to the hotel if our staff wasn't there to facilitate?
• Our client paid for the ground transportation. Who would have passed along the new flight arrival information to the ground transportation company or would the guests be forced to track down and take taxis to the hotel?

The cancelled flight turned out to be an inconvenience, but thankfully our staff shined and at the end of the day, that's all it was - just an airline inconvenience.