25 Transformations in 25 Years: Libya and the Dog

A few years ago, we had a traveler who was in Libya working in the Embassy in Tripoli. The area was growing unstable, with the neighborhood where the traveler was staying becoming subject to heavy gunfire at night. She was understandably frightened and searching for a way out. To complicate matters, she had a German Sheppard named Zeus, who needed to be evacuated as well.

One of our agents, Dana, worked with the traveler and her company through several late night and early morning phone calls and emails over a week period. The multiple itineraries that were setup proved wasteful as the Libyan government had not protected the airport and it was unsafe for passengers to enter the terminal. Throughout this back and forth, which included changing and cancelling itineraries, bad cell phone connections and hastily written emails, Dana was described by the company’s travel manager as the “calm in the storm”:

“Knowing Dana was working on finding a solution in the wee hours of the night reassured our employee that someone far away cared about her and her safety and that is priceless.” 

The traveler did finally make her way out of Libya via a ferry chartered by the US Government, after which Dana arranged for her travel home with her dog.

“I feel like Dana went above and beyond the call of duty in how she handled this situation. You all provide us with unmatched service, and I am truly appreciative.”

While we do strive for the type service excellence that Dana embodied in the midst of a dire situation for one of our travelers, we also are always looking to improve the travel programs for our customers. The traveler getting home is not where this story ends. What we did with this customer after the event took place in Libya was a complete review their risk mitigation procedures for their travelers and advised them on way to improves processes and ensure they were better protected should a future event like this occur. That was the bigger transformation out of this situation, and that is what Travel Leadership Consulting is all about.

Celebrating 25 Amazing Years of Travel Leadership Consulting

For 25 years, it has been the goal of MacNair Travel Management to transform the way people approach and experience travel. This journey began in 1989, when my wife, Ellen, and I founded Didion Travel & Associates. After becoming the official travel agency to the Bush/Quayle Campaign in 1992, the company would be renamed to MacNair Travel Management.

To commemorate this amazing milestone of our 25th Anniversary of what I like to call Travel Leadership Consulting, we are re-launching our blog here as the Travel Leadership blog. For our first blog series, will be sharing 25 of our best stories of corporate and personal travel transformations from the past 25 years. Look for updates to this series throughout 2014. We thank all of our partners and clients for their support and partnership over the past 25 years, let’s make the next 25 even better!