VA Should Clone this CSM :)

[Princess Fiona]

I'd like to report a quite spectacular example of customer service from VA. Shrek misplaced his wallet on Sat. Realized that he didn't have it after take-off SYD-ADL. Total disaster. Arrived in ADL without cards, money, or ID. The CSM from the flight approached him in the arrivals area, and asked him what was wrong. After he explained his predicament she said that she was collecting a hire car and would drive him into his CBD hotel. Better than that, on arrival she went to check-in with him and verified his ID etc to the front desk staff and he was able to check-in (I arrived much later from the Retro Roo flight).
Could not have received a better customer service experience, it was truly above and beyond.
I am drafting an email to VA to have her recognized for this. What a great ambassador for VA

 

[vmile]

Bravo! What more could you ask for.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Bravo! What more could you ask for.

The wallet back??

Good service. I guess it's one of those things.....a simple wallet, but without it, what do we do? I imagined myself in Shreks position and all a sudden the predicament becomes apparent. No cash or cards.....hopefully with a phone, something could be organised. I'm now curious as to what would happen if that CSM didn't help. Do any credit cards offer emergency access to cash somehow or is the only real answer to travel with separate stashes of cash?

 

[andye]

I try to keep a spare credit card in my carry-on when travelling

 

[Princess Fiona]

The wallet back??

Good service. I guess it's one of those things.....a simple wallet, but without it, what do we do? I imagined myself in Shreks position and all a sudden the predicament becomes apparent. No cash or cards.....hopefully with a phone, something could be organised. I'm now curious as to what would happen if that CSM didn't help. Do any credit cards offer emergency access to cash somehow or is the only real answer to travel with separate stashes of cash?

Fortunately he did get it back. Had fallen out of his bag onto the floor of my car. He drove it to the VA Valet at T2.

I'm really paranoid about stuff like that so my phone case always has $50 and a spare credit card in it.
It wouldn't have helped him though as I was still in SYD
I have no idea what would have happened. I probably would have ordered him an Uber and I was going to call the hotel and send through a CC authorization so he could check-in.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Fortunately he did get it back. Had fallen out of his bag onto the floor of my car. He drove it to the VA Valet at T2.

So it's not just kudos to the CSM...VAs valet parking attendants would also seem to be worthy recipients. At worst, it shows they don't search a car looking for such treats and at best, it means they are honest enough to not steal it!

 

[clazman]

Great story, and well done to VA

Do we think that it is acceptable that the hotel reception accepted the word of the VA girl that this was the correct person?

 

[Princess Fiona]

Great story, and well done to VA

Do we think that it is acceptable that the hotel reception accepted the word of the VA girl that this was the correct person?

At the time this was happening (unbeknownst to me). I was on the phone to Hilton to advise them. I suspect that may have been an added factor but don't know for sure.

 

[Cryptarcadian]

Great to hear, that's well above and beyond!

Do any credit cards offer emergency access to cash somehow or is the only real answer to travel with separate stashes of cash?

Some banks now let you get cash out of an ATM with a pair of one-time authorisation codes you generate from the banking app on your phone, rather than a card -- most notably, CBA's Cardless Cash and the CommBank phone app, which I believe was an Australia first. I actually use this all the time in lieu of a card now, as it means my card can never be skimmed at an ATM!

 

[Cynicor]

Great story, and well done to VA

Do we think that it is acceptable that the hotel reception accepted the word of the VA girl that this was the correct person?

Seems fine. Worst case the real person rocks up and gets another room and hilarity ensues for the fraudster. It's not like the room was already checked into and potentially had valuables etc.

Good to hear this story, PF