Dear Valued Travel Partners,

Great news! As I’m sure you’re feeling, business is back! That pent-up demand we’ve been hoping for is finally here. The bad news, though? It’s boiled over, coming more quickly and in bigger waves than we had anticipated, which has led to the pain points such as long hold times that I referenced in my last service update.

However, I’m happy to report that we’re making good progress toward reducing these hold times through various actions, and I’d love to get your support and participation behind these initiatives.

The Ins and Outs of Travel Credit, Date Changes, and Moving Scheduled Air

ALG Vacations™ has been hosting two webinars daily on these common topics, and if you haven’t joined us yet, you definitely should! Over 1,500 of your colleagues have, and all provided positive feedback, with many commenting that they hadn’t realized the depth of improvements we’ve made to our self-service options over this past year. Hundreds of them are now bypassing the phone and taking care of these changes themselves, which has helped to reduce answer and hold times overall.

Two sessions a day means there’s a lot of flexibility to attend, and we’re recording them daily and posting them, too. However, we do believe there’s no substitute for live attendance, especially if you may have questions. I cannot emphasize more strongly how much I encourage you to sign up for one of these webinars and learning to use our online tools—you’ll never look back!

You can find a recording here, or sign up for any of the following sessions to learn firsthand from our Education team “The Ins and Outs of Travel Credit, Date Changes, and Moving Scheduled Air”:

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April 20 at 12 PM ET/11 AM CT

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April 22 at 11 AM ET/10 AM CT

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April 20 at 4 PM ET/3 PM CT

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April 22 at 4 PM ET/3 PM CT

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April 21 at 11 AM ET/10 AM CT

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April 23 at 11 AM ET/10 AM CT

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April 21 at 4 PM ET/3 PM CT

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April 23 at 2 PM ET/1 PM CT

Process Improvements

As I’d mentioned in my most recent communication, we have a new team focused on process improvements and have already seen the impact of the team’s work as wait times continue to slide down. Even so, we’re continuing to aggressively staff up our call center, with 100 new team members set to be finalized by mid-April.

On top of that, we’re continuing to invest in new automation and technology. As mentioned, once you use our self-service options, you won’t want to manage your bookings any other way. Advisors have even begun requesting more features, with many in the works as we speak. For instance:

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Travel Protection Plus calculation and commission payout is underway, which will eliminate the element of human error.

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More intuitive experiences and improvements to the cancel/rebook/refund request processes so that you can easily follow what needs to be done.

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We are always working on ways to get you updates once steps to fulfill your request are completed.

Travel Credit Policy Improvements

The ALGV travel credit initiative has been a tremendous source of help for our industry’s recovery, and part of why is because we adapt it to the ever-evolving needs of our market. Now we’re doing it again with a policy update that shows even more leniency toward passengers, scheduled to roll out 4/28/21 for both new and retroactive per-person travel credit.

Applicable for travel credit provided as refunds for air and hotel packages without Travel Protection Plus or Travel Protection refunds in the form of a travel credit, ALGV is now allowing customers to rebook and embark on travel 13 months from the original departure date. Previously, they had 12 months from the date of issue, but now, if they need to reschedule, they can do it sooner and have a larger window to plan within.

Please note, however, that this policy:

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Only applies to per person travel credit

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Excludes per booking travel credit, including Rebook Now. Recharge Later.

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Is retroactive only for those where this new policy extends and improves their original expiration date – customers benefit from best-case scenarios!

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Does not include any other per booking credit

These updates will take place on affected accounts automatically; we will not be sending emails from our accounting team. You can, however, sign on to VAX after 4/28/21 using these instructions in the education campus to check the travel credit balance on any eligible booking.

Final Notes

Last but most assuredly not least, we remain committed to offering continuous and frequent communication.

We know that in the past year, the best comments we received from advisors like you were that our communications were needed and welcomed. And we ourselves have benefitted from making sure that it’s a two-way street as we listen closely to your feedback.

I promise to continue to do so as we keep on looking for ways to get better and better. Let’s keep DOING IT TOGETHER!

Sincerely,

Jacki Marks
Executive Vice President, Trade Brands
ALG Vacations™

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