Picture by Dan Probert, 1 November 2008. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

The range of situations in which this will be a benefit includes disability, such as blindness, partial vision, being wheel-chair-bound, or not being able to handle your luggage yourself.  It is useful to any passenger that needs help during boarding or when transiting.

First time travellers could also request it if they are especially nervous, if they are transiting for the first time and need a bit of reassurance.

What will this service do for you?  An airline ground crew staff member will take you from the check-in counter to the boarding gate.  After landing, you will be assisted with disembarkation and taken to the luggage carousel or if you are transiting, they will take you to the check in counter of your connecting flight or the boarding gate if you are checked through.

How does the meet and assist booking procedure work?

1. Advise your agent or phone the airline you booked with and state that you want a meet and assist.  (Confirm that your chosen airline provides this service!)
2. State the reason that you require it.
3. You will be required to give your contact details.
4. The airline or agent will then take between 24 and 48 hours to call you back and let you know if it has been confirmed or not.

Most of the major airlines offer this facility to customers with a genuine need.  The airline will consider the request based on the priority they assign to the reasons you give, and their operational capacity on the day.  While it is offered by the major airlines, usually at no cost to the passenger, it is not offered by all airlines and there may be a charge.  ‘No frills’ airlines usually do not offer the service.

The code used by travel agents to book this service is MAAS.

Mango plane at Cape Town

These days one is able to book airlines directly without having to go through a travel agent.   Yet travel agents have not entirely disappeared and some of them are doing very well indeed.  Why this apparent contradiction?

There are several scenarios in which it is in your best interest to use an agent.

Group Bookings

If you are booking flights for a group of, say, ten or more travellers then do it via an agent.  Different rules apply for group bookings.  An agent is more likely to get you seated in a block together, rather than scattered randomly around the aircraft.  (This depends on how far ahead you are booking – if you leave it too late you may be scattered over several flights!)

A group quotation will come with at least two pages of rules governing it, which it is in your best interests to familiarise yourself with.  Your agent will point out key ones such as cancellation and change policies, but you should take the trouble to read all of them.

Secondary destinations

If you are going to book a flight between major cities such as London, Paris, Frankfurt or New York then your DIY Travel booking will work out fine.

However, if you are travelling between other cities you may very well find that an agent can get you there both cheaper and faster.

How so?  The airlines do not fly from any particular city to any other particular city.  Their route planning works on a hub-and-spoke principle,  The cities we just mentioned are major hubs.  Even if you start at a non-hub airport your DIY routing will work out okay as long as the ultimate destination is a hub.

Agents are specialists with a good knowledge of airline hubs and can often work out alternative routings for you that may be non-direct but cheaper.  Often too, they can find flights to meet connecting flights that have a sensible minimum wait time, rather than leaving you in a possibly boring terminal for 20 hours.

Journeys with multiple stops

The third time that DIY may not be best is where you’re planning a trip with multiple stops.  While some airline sites have search functionality for multi-segment flights, not all do.  The majority have only a departure and final destination selection for on-line bookings.  This is also true for some of the well-known ‘middle-man’ booking sites (and so-called “bucket shops”) where you are searching potentially hundreds of options for a specific route.

Special requirements

If you have extra requirements, such as specific meal selection, wheelchair assistance, meet-and-assist or an unaccompanied minor request, it may often be worth the peace of mind to pay a little more and have the booking competently handled by an agent and would be easier.  Sorting it out yourself can be a considerable hassle, or even impossible (because some airlines do not, for instance, permit kosher or halaal meal requests).  The agent will know, or can find out quickly, which airlines permit meal requests.  This would be of benefit for diabetics, persons who have religious restrictions on what they may eat, and people travelling with babies.

If you have to take a guide dog on board with you, this can involve a lot of ‘red tape’ depending on the carrier, and would save you a lot of time to use an agent.

When DIY Travel works well

When not to use an agent?  Domestic bookings, basic international (hub-to-hub).  Sometimes travel agents have “sweetheart” deals with specific providers that may make components more expensive for you.  Shop around for insurance: I bought travel insurance online for one of my own major journeys 25% cheaper than if I had booked it through the tied broker I usually use.

There is a world of choice on-line and depending on your travel requirements and how much of your own time you wish to spend planning your trip, will decide whether you will go on-line or through an agent.

A tip to remember.  Most Internet booking sites have people behind the scenes, validating and actioning the bookings.  Try to find a company that allows you to speak to the people.  In travel as in other things, there are times that arrangements can fail or otherwise go awry and you will want to hear a voice on the other end, when needed.  A 24 hour contact number is best.

low vision

Everyone worries about the absolutely blind and those in a wheelchair.  Not many in the aviation industry give much concern to those who have some vision, say enough to get around without a guide-dog.  This could be travellers with low vision, or simply someone who needs glasses to get around, but may have had them trodden on by an elephant in Thailand.

People with any sort of sight problem may largely have to take care of themselves!

The first and very useful thing to know, is that most airlines offer what is called a ‘meet and assist’ service.  This is often free and is available for check in, transit and arrival at the final destination.  You would have to provide certain particulars about yourself and why you require the service.  If you’re legally blind or partially sighted, it would be very unusual if they did not confirm your request.  Some airlines don’t offer this and it would be best to check, before paying for your ticket.

Now that we’re on-board and seated, what next?  Entertainment provided on-board helps pass the time on a long flight and has us feeling much more relaxed on arrival.  How can you make this more enjoyable, with low vision?  By making sure that the airline you’re travelling with provides you with your very own screen.  Not one of those flights, which I recently experienced, where there is one screen up on the bulkhead.  The Middle Eastern carriers, like Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, have state-of-the-art entertainment systems, where you have access to video channels, music channels and flight tracking.

Some South African Airways long haul flights have one tiny television-style display at the front of the cabin.  Frankly, the chances are that if you are not already visually impaired at the start of the flight, you will be well on your way by the time you land.

The following advice may sound totally arbitrary, but it really works.  An airline with a logo that is bright and can be seen clearly, is a help.  This makes it easier to find the right check-in counter more quickly.  If you wish to ask for assistance, that is fine, but if you don’t, this is just one of the ‘tricks’ to travelling by yourself, independently.

Reading the departure boards (which in some cases is the only way you can find out the departure gate) can also be a difficulty for low-vision travellers.  The suggestion given by one observer, “use binoculars”, though maybe useful in other contexts is just going to mark you as a potential mugging victim.  You may need to swallow your pride and ask for help.