Hi Travel Edgers,
For those of you who have not met me yet, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Andrew Pilkington, and I am delighted to be the new President of Travel Edge. Most people call me Andy, except my Mum and Dad, who have never ever called me that – to them, I am still “Andrew” (or “Andrew Charles” when my Mum is annoyed with me :-))
I thought I would start a blog to stay connected with all of you. Please let me know what you think of it. If it doesn’t resonate or feels irrelevant, then I will not impose myself on you. I appreciatehow busy you all are, especially at this time of year when luxury travel bookings are coming in hot.
Travel has coursed through my veins from an early age. Being a Brit who was born and bred in Liverpool, a large sea-faring city, I think that zest for travel is innate. I have lived and worked inthe UK, Spain, Venezuela, the US, and Canada. I have been lucky enough to work in travel at British Airways and American Express, as well as serve as a Board Member of Carlson Wagonlit Travel. More recently, I worked in the payments and financial services sectors.
Anyway, enough about me! Let’s talk about y’all, as my friends down South would say. (By the way, despite what my new friends in Atlanta tell me, I am still convinced that the plural of “y’all” is“all y’all” but I defer to the local experts…) It’s been important to me to spend as much time as I can listening to what all of you think about the Travel Edge Network - what works, what doesn’t, and what could use improving. I don’t have a magic wand to fix every issue, but I do believe that constructive dialogue with all of you is the way to help us surface the most significant opportunities and challenges and come up with a plan to deal with them.
As such, I have been travelling around the network and visiting many locations including Toronto, New York, Palm Desert, Orange County, San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Bermuda, Vancouver, and Victoria. The first thing I want to say is that I have been overwhelmed by the extremely warm welcome you have all afforded me (and I’m not just saying that). THANK YOU to all those whom I’ve met, and I cannot wait to see those of you whom I have yet to meet. I always make a point of taking a photo for social media. So here is a selection of Travel Edgers whom I have been lucky enough to meet.
As you can imagine, I have received a lot of feedback, and I am working with the team to figure out where we need to spend our time to address the repeat challenges that were raised. Among them, one theme that stood out to me was the need to create more of a sense of community at Travel Edge. The pandemic has come, and the pandemic has gone. It changed the operating rhythms for so many companies and industries, and, as you all know, travel was severelyimpacted. It is incumbent upon my team and I to restore that sense of community by implementing less virtual and more in person meetings. I know that many suppliers are very eager to have face time with many of you as well. We are currently choosing key cities where we know we have critical mass and designing a timetable of in person events for the remainder of 2024 - watch this space!
There were many other topics raised and I am in a series of discussions to address the highest priorities. One issue that was raised in a few locations was when air transactions get flagged as potentially fraudulent during times that are out of hours (usually on weekends). When the IC calls for assistance, they are charged for that and, in these potential fraud cases that Travel Edge has flagged, I don’t feel that it is appropriate. As such, I have spoken to the leadership team of the 24/7 desk, and we have agreed that those charges will not occur and will not be passed onto ICs in those instances.
On a separate note, I have not been to Bermuda since the 1990s but had the chance to recently visit thanks to Travel Edge’s significant presence there. Not only did I enjoy meeting our marvelous team of Travel Edgers but also took the opportunity to meet with influential government officials like the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport and the Bermuda Tourist Authority. I talked to the BTA about the possibility of us hosting one of our Top Performers trips in 2025 and there was some interest there for sure. More to come on that in due course…
I have to say - with the accents, traffic lights, and driving on the left, it felt a bit like being back home in the UK. Except for, of course, the weather. It was sunny and warm in February in Bermuda - I can’t ever remember that happening in the UK!!
On the way to Bermuda, I popped by New York and bumped into 3 Travel Edgers in the office there. Thanks to Michelle, Viktoriya and Cat for making me feel so welcome. I had to show real restraint in refusing their calorie-laden treats!!
Western Canada holds many happy memories for me, and I added a few more on a recent stop on the Listening Tour. One of our top Travel Edge ICs, Roger Kershaw, was kind enough to meet me at the airport and take me for lunch. He is passionate about delivering a fantastic customer experience for his impressive client base. I also spent time with another British implant, Alex Yates on the island - Alex specializes in arranging accessible trips for travellers with disabilities - a very worthy niche that she is carving out for herself. In Vancouver the following day, I met ICs Ian Yagi and Randi Winter, and they accompanied me along with a fun group of other Travel Edgers to a site visit at the Fairmont Pacific Rim, followed by a very nice Limitless dinner there. A good time was had by all :-)
Well, that’s a wrap on the first edition of my Blog. Please feel free to send comments my way. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in the coming weeks.
Best,
Andrew Pilkington