Handling Over-the-Top Requests

Esat and Engin KadasterEsat and Engin Kadaster

Newport International Travel Esat and Engin Kadaster, owners of Newport International Travel in Newport Beach, CA, are well versed in fielding unusual requests. Esat recalls once having less than a week to arrange all the details for a private dinner that a corporate client needed to host for about 150 VIPs in a remote part of Europe

Another unique challenge the Kadasters have met not once but twice has been the securing of multiple permissions for a client who wanted to make the rigorous three-mile swim between the continents of Europe and Asia, inspired by Lord Byron's swim across the Hellespont almost two centuries earlier.

Each time, the Kadasters needed to obtain permission from about a dozen central and municipal government and military agencies, not only to allow the client to swim in a restricted area, but also to halt seagoing traffic through the busy straits. They worked with personal contacts in various political offices in Turkey, and they used professional relationships they'd nurtured during decades of travel operations in that country to fulfill both clients' requests. 

David Pistachio

Lewis Travel David Pistachio, an agent with Lewis Travel in Fresno, CA, had his most unusual request come from a high-maintenance client. "She wanted me to guarantee her an aisle seat on an airplane because she was having her hair done," he recalls, adding that he didn't pursue the logic behind her thinking. "I just said, 'Yes, I'll get you an aisle seat."

Luckily, Pistachio had access to the seating chart and knew he could obtain the aisle. "I don't know what it had to do with anything," he says. "I guess she thought the windows would roll down."

Mike O'MalleyMike O'Malley

Diplomat Travel Agency "I had a client about a year ago ask me how she can get three gallons of breast milk on an airplane," says Mike O'Malley, co-owner of Diplomat Travel Agency in Chicago. "She was in Chicago, where she had premature labor and had the baby. She had to get the baby back on the plane. We advised her to freeze the milk and put it in a cooler, and she got it through baggage that way."

Jeffrey Anderson

America's Vacation Center/American Express "One of the most unusual travel requests I've ever fielded as an agent was when a man called into AVC/American Express to book a vacation for himself and his mistress," recalls Jeffrey Anderson, vice president of marketing at California-based AVC. "He wanted to make sure that we didn't contact him on his house phone, and that his wife was not able to access the booking. Although we don't condone infidelity, AVC prides itself on its level of integrity and by keeping our customer's information confidential. Turns out, the man cancelled his booking a month before they were set to sail on the cruise—because his wife found out about his affair!"

Mary BrennanMary Brennan

Ambassador Cruises "The geographically illiterate sometimes create cruise doozies, such as asking to sail from Baltimore to Hawaii and back in a week," says Mary Brennan, owner of Ambassador Cruises, an agency in Fort Washington, MD. "One of my most challenging, researchable requests was simple on its face: to cruise roundtrip between New York and South Africa. Of course, no single cruise product exists to fulfill this wish, so I cobbled together a route from New York to London on the Queen Elizabeth 2, with a transfer on a ferry to the Canary Islands, followed by a merchant ship voyage to South Africa.

The reverse course to return to New York took too long for the gentleman, so the voyages did not materialize—but, I definitely learned about the many forms of sea travel."

Jane Essenburg

Earle Travel According to Jane Essenburg of Earle Travel in Indiana, unusual requests are usually about personal services that make a person feel at home.

For example, she once had a client who loved his dog so much the dog went on vacation with him and his wife to France. "And because this dog was so beloved, he did not ride in cargo; he rode on a seat in the Concord," Essenburg recalls. "At that point, the fare on the Concord was about $1,500 roundtrip."

Essenburg says that she didn't have any trouble arranging Fido's travel and accommodations, since France is a very pet-friendly destination.

Diane Embree

Michael's Travel Centre "We had a group traveling to Japan, about 30 people, and two days before they were scheduled to depart, I got a phone call," says Diane Embree, travel consultant for Michael's Travel Centre in Westlake Village, CA.

"The group leader wanted the group to be met on arrival with a special gift for each member: top quality chopsticks with their names in both English and Japanese characters." Embree was able to fulfill the short-order request by contacting a Japan-based tour operator.

Ada King

Connoisseur's Travel "I hate to say no to a client," says Ada King, co-owner of Chicago-based Connoisseur's Travel. "Ninety-nine percent of the time, I can make it happen."

Part of this ability to meet expectations is King's depth of experience of the destinations she sells.

"A person traveling to India might ask me 'Can we have dinner with the maharaja?' and I'll say sure. I've been to India 22 times, so I have superb contacts and ground operators that I work with."

King recalls an unusually demanding request: A client wanted to get married in Italy on the AmalfiCoast in high season and stay in deluxe hotels. The problem was they were booking only three weeks out.

"It wasn't easy," says King. "But they had a nice budget, so I was able to arrange a driver to meet them and take them to the Italian consulate in Naples for all of the wedding documents they'd need, and I was able to book them into the hotels they wanted."

Once again, King had the contacts—she knew who to call to make things happen on short notice.

David Eisen, Camie Foster, Jennifer Merritt, Joseph Pike and Mark Rogers