We had been to Andaman from 29th to 2nd Feb. We had completed the booking process almost 2-3 months in advance. The hotels in both Port Blair and Havelock were suggested and chosen by us and the ...
travel agent just did the booking on our behalf as we wanted those very specific hotels.
During the booking itself we had mentioned that we would be going by govt ferry one time and the Makruzz on the other way for trip between Port Blair and Havelock.
As a travel agent, you are supposed to put up an itinerary which is most comfortable to the customer knowing their flight timings and hotel check in and check out times and to confirm the itinerary with the customer beforehand.
In that respect I will say Andaman Emerald holidays has failed miserably.
Some things which are most important and overlooked by a supposedly big travel agent like Andaman Emerald.
1. Customer comfort - They had booked a reservation in an early morning 6 30 government ferry from Port Blair to Havelock for us, when they could have easily booked a MAKRUZZ (private ferry) which had a better timing of 8 15. When we tried to reason out with the travel agent - Mr Probin, he tried to argue saying that it was part of itinerary and that they give same itinerary to other customers as well when it was never specifically mentioned anywhere in their itinerary. The reason he gave was that hotels in Havelock have early check out and government ferry timing from Havelock was at 9 or 10 am, so customers found it difficult to while away time. Usually check out timing for resorts at Port Blair are early in the morning (before 8 or 8 30) and not Havelock. Atleast for our Havelock resort the check-out timing was 11 am. If it was planned well, we could have comfortably gone by Makruzz at 8 am and returned by Govt ferry from Havelock by 9 or 10. Being a big travel agent, these are the basic things which should be taken care of (knowing resort check in check out times is bare minimum) and you should be putting customers comfort and convenience on priority not yours. Because of this complete lack of planning or misplanning, we missed out hotel breakfast at Port Blair. When we mentioned this to our agent, he asked us to get the breakfast packed from hotel at 5 30 am (when the hotel kitchen might not even have opened). When the hotel refused that, he argued that he could not help us in that aspect but later he said he would arrange breakfast for us at Havelock. On reaching Havelock, the travel escort took us to a shack for breakfast that we could hardly gulp down an idli at that place!
And after making us wake up so early and rush through to Havelock, there was absolutely nothing planned for the whole day.
2. Itinerary Mess Up- Faltering on the itinerary on both the planning and execution is the worst thing one can do. Andaman Emerald managed to do achieve both. After the first day itinerary mess up, on our last day, we had our ferry back from Havelock to Port Blair, after which we were supposed to have a Ross island visit. We reached Port Blair by Makruzz (return trip was Makruzz) by 12 45 and after that, as per our itinerary was a Ross island trip. We went for lunch and were waiting for a call from travel agent for our Ross island Visit. After waiting till almost 3 pm, we ended calling up the agent. To our rude shock, we were told that the visit can’t happen as the last ferry to the island is at 2 or 3 pm. We were never informed about these timings earlier, if it had been, we would have planned our lunch and other things accordingly. Nothing was mentioned even by our driver.
When we tried to reason out with Mr. Probin, he started arguing again and tried to make it sound as it was our mistake and said he would get the tour done next morning. His tone was very rude and he sounded as if he was doing us an obligation by arranging it next day. We had a return flight to catch the next day and were very sceptical about having anything planned on the last day. We requested to show us something else instead of Ross and we suggested ChidiyaTapu but again he said it was very far off. Since they ruined the last day for us and with nothing to do, we asked him to atleast show us the market place so we could collect some souvenirs, after much hearsay, he reluctantly agreed.
We did manage the Ross island visit the next day, as luckily for us, we had a late morning flight.
3. Basic etiquette while communicating with customer - You cant be rude to the customer, especially when you are the one at fault. This was something which was not really expected from renowned travel agents. Whatever communication we had with travel agents with respect to our itinerary , was not polite to say the least.
4. Allowing of payment through credit card - We had done a part payment on our bookings through card on travel triangle. The rest was to be paid after reaching. After reaching, we were told to make the rest of the payment, to our surprise, they did not accept payment through any cards, but only cash. It becomes inconvenient travelling with cash or for that matter withdrawing huge amounts of cash from the ATM. Not sure if this is the general norm for all travel agents in Andaman or only this one.
A couple of good points I would like to mention is that we were taken to elephant island little early, (we were the first ones to reach) which made for very good photography and exploring. Also the place we were taken for Scuba diving was a nice place with good instructors and quite reasonable.
Despite everything, the trip was a very memorable one and with better planning, could have certainly been our best.
Scuba diving experience was mind blowing!!