Part Time - Job Summary
We are seeking a passionate and knowledgeable Part Time Travel Agent to join our dynamic team. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in travel and hospitality, enabling them to provide exceptional service and tailored travel solutions to our clients. As a Travel Agent, you will be responsible for planning, organising, and booking travel arrangements, ensuring a seamless experience for our customers.
Key Responsibilities
1. Member Enquiries and Customer Service
- Respond promptly and professionally to member enquiries by telephone, email, live chat and other approved channels.
- Support members with account access, membership benefits, booking questions, payments and general use of the travel platform.
- Take ownership of each enquiry, provide regular updates and follow it through to a satisfactory resolution.
- Record all interactions, actions and outcomes accurately in the relevant customer service and booking systems.
- Identify vulnerable customers or complex cases and escalate them promptly in line with company procedures.
2. Travel Sales and Booking Support
- Act as a knowledgeable travel agent, understanding each member's travel requirements, preferences and budget.
- Research and recommend suitable flights, hotels, holidays, transfers, car hire, activities and other travel services.
- Prepare accurate quotations and explain prices, inclusions, booking conditions, cancellation terms and relevant travel requirements.
- Complete bookings and support members with amendments, cancellations, special requests and additional services.
- Look for appropriate opportunities to convert enquiries into bookings while always prioritising the member's needs and good customer outcomes.
- Provide clear itineraries, confirmations and travel documentation, checking all details carefully before issue.
3. Travel Fulfilment and Supplier Liaison
- Manage booking fulfilment tasks, including confirmations, documentation, payment checks, supplier deadlines and pre-departure requirements.
- Liaise with airlines, accommodation providers, tour operators, bedbanks, transfer companies and other suppliers to resolve booking queries and service issues.
- Investigate booking discrepancies, failed confirmations, schedule changes, cancellations and refund requests, maintaining a clear audit trail.
- Ensure supplier responses and agreed actions are communicated accurately and promptly to members.
- Escalate financial, regulatory, safeguarding or high-risk issues to the management team in accordance with agreed procedures.
4. Out-of-Hours and In-Travel Emergencies
- Provide calm and practical assistance to members experiencing urgent problems before departure or while travelling.
- Assess the urgency and impact of each incident and take appropriate action within agreed authority levels.
- Contact suppliers to arrange solutions for disrupted flights, unavailable accommodation, missed connections, cancellations and other critical travel issues.
- Follow emergency, duty-of-care and escalation procedures, including immediate escalation to the UK duty contact where required.
- Maintain detailed case notes and deliver a clear handover to the Leeds team at the end of each shift for any unresolved or high-priority cases.
5. Global Teamwork and Service Standards
- Work collaboratively with colleagues in Leeds and other global service locations to provide consistent, joined-up support.
- Attend remote briefings, training sessions and performance reviews, including meetings scheduled with the UK team where reasonably required.
- Follow utc.travel policies, brand standards, data-protection requirements, security controls and documented operating procedures.
- Meet agreed service levels and quality measures, including response times, resolution times, booking accuracy, sales conversion and member satisfaction.
- Share recurring member or supplier issues and suggest practical improvements to systems, processes and knowledge resources.
Person Requirements
- At least two years' experience in a travel agency, travel operations, airline, tour operator or travel customer-service environment.
- Practical experience of booking and servicing international travel; experience using travel reservation or booking platforms is strongly preferred.
- Excellent spoken and written English, with the ability to communicate clearly and empathetically with customers from different markets.
- Strong customer-service and sales skills, with sound judgement and a genuine desire to resolve problems.
- Highly organised and accurate, with the ability to manage several live cases and prioritise urgent work.
- Confident dealing with suppliers and customers during disruption, complaints and emergency situations.
- Comfortable working independently during quieter out-of-hours periods while remaining closely connected to the wider team.
- Reliable and able to work shift patterns between 8am and 10pm, including some rota-based weekends and public holidays. (evening and weekend shifts can be home-working.
Desirable Experience
- Experience supporting customers
- Knowledge of flight disruption, schedule changes, hotel booking fulfilment and travel documentation.
- Experience with CRM, helpdesk, live-chat and travel booking systems.
- Travel and tourism qualifications or relevant supplier training.
Success in the Role
Success will be measured through consistently high member satisfaction, accurate bookings and documentation, timely resolution of enquiries, effective handling of emergencies, strong supplier follow-up, appropriate sales conversion and reliable communication and handover.
Pay: £13.50-£14.00 per hour
Expected hours: 20.0 – 25.0 per week
Experience:
- travel agent: 2 years (required)
Location:
- Leeds LS10 1PZ (required)
Work Location: In person
