Charlie Funk
My wife, Sherrie, and I returned recently from a river cruise that originated in Paris and ventured out to Normandy. It was the most enjoyable vacation I have taken in years. Well, actually, it was a preliminary inspection trip for a group we will accompany in April, but nonetheless, it was just the two of us for several days in Paris and then the cruise.
Avalon Waterways did their usual exceptional job of providing an excellent physical product, remarkably good cuisine, good wines and outstanding staff. I think, though, that it was the other passengers we met who made this cruise exceptional.
I met a guy named Larry from the Boston area who is an only child, an engineer, a Corvette nut and served in Vietnam as a pilot.
Except for unsuccessfully fudging my way into pilot school (I would have paid the Air Force to let me fly), Larry was my twin brother from another mother. He and his wife, Taffy, no doubt were a major reason I enjoyed this cruise so much.
The four of us participated in most of the same excursions, two of which were most memorable. One was memorable for reasons that don't bear repeating (let's just say it involved un chien de Paris). The other was our visit to Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery.
Far and away, the most moving part of the day came at the American Cemetery, where a staff member offered comments to the 60 or so of us gathered at the memorial about the cemetery and expressed thanks for the sacrifices that U.S. soldiers had made in securing freedom for France. That was followed by the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, a multigun salute and, finally, the playing of taps.
There wasn't a dry eye in the group. The piece de resistance was presentation to all who wanted a rose to be placed on the grave of a fallen warrior of their choice. We saw several from Tennessee but were drawn to a staff sergeant who was killed on July 26, 1944. Sherrie took a photo of me putting our rose on his grave.
After we returned home, Sherrie, curiosity sufficiently piqued, searched his name on the Web. Not only did she find him and information about his background, she found the name of his daughter. A few more minutes of searching found a phone number for her. I called her.
In the next 45 minutes I learned that this now-72-year-old had never known her dad, that she was 2 when he was killed, that he had been declared missing on July 26, 1944, but not declared dead until 1949. I also learned her only sister had died before she was born, her mother had remarried a man who was a tank gunner but henpecked him so badly that he left, after which she married another man who "wasn't nice to me."
She met and married a German citizen who, at age 13, had been drafted into the Hitler Youth movement, given a rifle and sent to the Russian front. They had two children, one of whom was injured in a car wreck that "left him not quite right in the head and not able to have children [and] who needs my care," and the other had flatly decided he was never going to have children, making her the last in the family. She openly related her concerns about her son's welfare when she was gone, which she felt wasn't going to be too far in the future.
It took several tries to explain who I was and why I was calling, that I wasn't selling anything and didn't want anything. She came to understand that I had information about her father that no one had ever taken time to share with her. I promised to mail her copies of the photos of her dad's grave marker and a copy of all the War Department records we found relating to him.
Two days later I received a call from her. She was in tears and so deeply grateful to have the information I had sent to her. She also related again all the stories about her mom and two marriages, her sons, and this time told me about how her aunt and uncles had somehow managed to have her father's will overturned so that she had received nothing from her dad's estate.
This encounter was an experience and moment I will treasure the rest of my life.
As I was writing this column on Nov. 13, information began to pour in about shootings and bomb explosions in Paris, some in areas we had probably visited barely two weeks before. I was jolted back to the reality that as much as I had enjoyed our vacation and as blessed as I felt at having had the opportunity to share my experience with someone else and enrich their lives, there were those who had now been denied a similar opportunity forever.
We spent that weekend gleaning anything and everything we could about this horrific event. It raises the question: What are our responsibilities as travel professionals to our clients going forward?
This topic comes up regularly on the Facebook group that Sherrie and I moderate, Travel Agency Best Practices. Many assert that they can't and shouldn't be expected to know minute details about security issues. The majority of those who feel that way tend to be new to the profession and still laboring under the misapprehension that their only responsibility is to make the booking and pass along the money.
Many of those same people believe that because the "big guys" don't mention these things, they shouldn't have to. Trust me, every possible pitfall and issue that could arise is addressed in the terms and conditions to which a person booking online must agree.
It's like this: If you're not familiar with or know someone not fully familiar with some or all of the following topics, it will be in their long-term emotional and financial interests to become well versed in such things as:
- What passport, visa and proof of citizenship requirements apply to your clients for their trip? Here's a hint: It varies from country to country and within the same country, depending on the type of travel.
- What inoculations or other medical requirements does the client need to know about?
- What criminal record restrictions apply to the client for entry into the destination country? Another hint: An offense that is a misdemeanor in the U.S. could be a felony in the destination, rendering the client ineligible to enter without special, lengthy, often expensive, attention to the issue.
- What restriction does the supplier place on pregnant or physically challenged travelers?
- What documentation does a parent need from the nonaccompanying parent when taking a minor child outside the U.S.?
Not knowing the correct answers or not advising clients of these important bits of information puts an agent and agency at tremendous financial risk if boarding is denied and money is lost or forfeited.
And that doesn't begin to include the full range of knowledge that a true travel professional either has to have or know where to find and communicate to clients. None of the above is intended to provide legal advice, and I direct anyone reading this who is in need of assistance to contact a knowledgeable, competent travel industry lawyer.
Travel lawyer Mark Pestronk wrote a column in the Nov. 16 issue of Travel Weekly ("Advice to guide new home-based agents and tour operators") that applies equally as well to those who have been in the profession for a while, since just about the time we get dug in and comfortable with applicable rules, laws and precedents, something changes. If you didn't read that column, find it and read it post haste.
In the meantime, travel professionals need to be a voice of calm and reason with clients as events in Europe unfold.
There were early reports last week of cancellations of travel not only to Paris but to other destinations, including Mexico. Travel professionals have to be the ones who create understanding that terrorists win when we allow them to control our very lives through barbaric acts carried out on others.
Je suis Parisien, y'all.