Ibiza (San Antonio), Costa Brava (Calella) & Mallorca (Magaluf) - it was a long time ago, but I still look back at some of my escapades and have a good laugh.

I have so many stories about crazy things that happened when I was a rep - births, deaths - I was even punched once because one holiday maker got a room for one night with a shower instead of a bath - he only had to use that room for about 12 hours but it was my fault (?) that the hotel was overbooked so I got a punch.

I had a holiday maker arrested at Gerona airport because he wouldnt get off the baggage carousel - he kept going round & round and nothing would make him up get off - nothing until the Guardia came along and pointed a few guns at him, he was last seen being frog marched off and was deported the next day!

We worked horrendous hours for dreadful pay - but I loved it, although its not a job you can do for a long period of time as you soon burn out.

I lead a much more sedate life now, how about you?

Carmel

When I was working as a rep I was in Lanzarote and we had this flight that was taking off from Belfast then going to Glasgow to pick more passengers up. The flight was delayed for 4 hours in Glasgow and Airtours put a free bar on for them !!! Everyone was obviously filling their boots and trying to drink as much as they could. Cut a long story short the flight eventually landed and when the passengers got off half of them couldn't even recognise their own luggage on the carousel !! They slowly were coming through shouting, dancing etc and getting on their coaches and clearly already in the holiday swing. I was waiting for a family of 4 to come through (Glasgow) Mum and Dad and two 8 year olds, the dad looked like Buster Bloodvessel, the mum like Aviligne from Bread with ginger hair, short skirt and corned beef legs and the 2 kids with Rangers tops on with number 8 Gazza on the back. Now unfortunately this family had booked 2* accomadation but had been overbooked so we were upgrading them to a 4* hotel in the same resort, basically 5 mins walk from were they had origionally booked. I didn't get that far, he just smacked me right in the mouth and spliting my lip, the guardia civil were all over him and sent him back on the flight he'd just got off. He was taken round to departures and when he was checking in and his bad coming through with the GLA (Glasgoe tag) on it I whipped it off and banged on a Stansted one !!! So when Brave Heart was back in Glasgow scratching his fat head his bag was actually in Stansted!!!! Oh yeah, and I slept with his wife......

Ha Ha......That was hilarious!!!! Nice one!

hi ..ex.airtours rep.... ..i for one am not impressed with your story ..two wrongs do not make a right.................john-doe...........

I totally agree Johndoe

Ex airtours rep

You slept with his wife The women you just dissed in your post.

Your name says it all

Safe this discussion turning into personal comments being thrown at members, perhaps it is better that we revert back to discussing the role of the holiday representative.

Thanks.

MarkJ HT Mod

The end bit of my story was to just finish it with a bit of a humerous qoute, of course I didn't sleep with her, I'm not going to bad mouth her and then do that... Get a grip.
And the reason why it's Ex, is because I thought 7 years of working in Mexico, Menorca, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Majorca and The Carousel was enough.
Lifes to short Jackie, lighten up, I suppose with your attitude you wouldn't have made a good rep anyway.
Regards.

I just thought you were being a bit of a cheeky monkey myself! There's a world of difference between a client being a whinging, moany pain in the backside and being punched by one for no reason after all.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.. what a good idea to send the bags to stanstead!!

The Holiday rep is not there to be abused in any shape or form..no matter how frustrated you feel about the circumstances in which you find you need your rep. I would be inclined to say that if you want help from your holduy rep.. you should at least be civil. manners cost nowt and they are more likely to try to help you if you are not shouting and screaming at them. If you are just an obnoxious then you are likely to find they send your luggage to stanstead!

Not so sure about your taste in women though!!

ps.. lets try to have some humour here.. i think it is meant to be tongue in cheek, but unfortunately facial expression and tone of voice are difficult to convey in print!

Revenge is a dish best served cold.. what a good idea to send the bags to stanstead!!

Might be a point of view but shows a distinct lack of professionalism on behalf of the rep. Tales such as this only serve to strengthen the negative attitudes that people hold about reps.

The Holiday rep is not there to be abused in any shape or form..

But then neither is the customer - See above.

ps.. lets try to have some humour here.. i think it is meant to be tongue in cheek,

Perhaps... But then this is not a chat forum so much of this is against T&Cs

fwh

without wishing to get into an arguement.. how professional would most people be when they have just been clumped by an obnoxious drunk?

the customer is not there to be abused either.. but then again, they decided they would assault the rep...the rep was the first one "wronged".. would the rep have sent the luggage to stanstead otherwise?

next point.. 2 wrongs do not make a right ( said somewhere else i think by Johndoe maybe?)..but lets get real here and try not to judge people.. this is not what this forum is about...

next question.. slightly more on topic.. where does it say anywhere in a reps job description they are to be used as a punchbag?

In answer to what holiday reps do - well clearly they can cause a little inconvenience to you if you do not treat them with the respect they deserve. Akin to a nasty restaurant customer having his soup messed with isn't it?

Treat others as you would be treated yourself.

I totally agree SandC... well said...

Thanks Val and Rob for your defence there, much appreiciated.

If you ask most Reps, I'm sure they will agree, if a guest comes up too you and is screaming and shouting and really in your face then you feel like telling them where to go on the other hand if a guest comes up and is alittle angry but polite then they will bend over backwards to help people, I did everytime, hand on heart I can say that. We weren't on great money but used to make it up on excursions and car hire etc and doing a few deals with bars. I once lent a guest £100 in 1995 when they had their bag snatched, I took them to the police station, translated for them, got their crime report etc and they said they would mail the money to my parents, they never ever did and didn't even ring my parents to say I'd lent them the money !!!
Even if they had lost the paper with the details on they could have got intouched with the company in England or even phoned Airtours in resort to get hold of me, the possibilities would be endless to get back intouched with me. Not being big headed but I was great at my job and the reports that I used to get off most of the guests were 1st class, of course you can't please everyone but I would like to think I pleased most of them.
Thanks again troops for you support.
When ever your on your hols and the rep really does help you out, ok I know it's their job but a thank-you and a smile goes a really long way and we do actually feel abit sad at the airport when you leave , honest.
Thanks again guys

on the other hand if a guest comes up and is alittle angry but polite then they will bend over backwards to help people

Really.? then I must have been on another planet dealing with Aliens for the last 30 years.....I've felt like decking a few unhelpful, obnoxious, jumped up squirts in a uniform on quite a few occasions.....
The most recent one that comes to mind is when my elderly mother was rushed into hospital quite unexpected and we wanted a flight home....the young rep was as helpful as a hole in the head...we ending up walking over a mile in the pouring rain to book our own flights home and to add insult to injury, the airline tickets were cheaper than the rep had quoted us.

So, you think sending someone's bag to Stanstead is funny?...you sound like an immature and if it had been my bag and I found out, then you'd have needed a body bag.

Sanji.

That's bad that but I bet that the rep was in their 1st season and they didn't complete it also, I've seen it loads of times were new reps come on board and treat the job like a holiday but they get found eventually. The whole team has to work together and if someone is jerking about then they just get sent home, the other reps won't stand for it.
Death in resort or if a relative dies while someone is on holiday is hard, you get really emotionally involved but you can't really show it and just have to give 150% into helping them out. When they say thank-you after sorting stuff out for them you cant believe it as they are finding time to say it after a great loss.
I had to deal with a car crash were a Dad died, his eldest 13 died and the youngest 9 survived but with terrible injuries, I had to break the news to his wife !!! That was 11 years ago and I still get xmas cards off her since then and birthday cards, I helped her so much and treated her like she was my own mother or sister.

Its easy to be nice to customers who are pleasant and undemanding. Being able to give the same service to the rude ones is what makes you a professional. I know from my own experience its not always easy but I would expect to get sacked if I behaved like the ex airtours rep who posted. (Not that I actually believe his story.)

In answer to what holiday reps do - well clearly they can cause a little inconvenience to you if you do not treat them with the respect they deserve

What.!!!!!!!!
That's blackmail...
It's like me saying "treat me with respect as a nurse, otherwise I'll put a suppository in your mouth instead of up your "

Let's get one thing straight shall we.....NOBODY deserves respect....to receive respect, you have to earn it in this world and then respect will naturally be shown to you.

I guess that's what seperates the professionals from some of the riff raff in a uniform.
Note: I said Some.

SanJi x