NEWS Special awards: This year’s winners speak to Juliet Dennis and Lee Hayhurst


Former Thomas Cook agent Donna Jones (second right) collects the Penny Akam Unsung Hero Award from sponsor Angela Day, Affordable Car Hire (second left), with Stuart Parish and Lucy Huxley, both Travel Weekly


GetTransfer.com’s Carl Cromie (second left) picks up the Innovation in Travel Award from sponsor Paul Broughton, Travelport (second right), with Stuart Parish and Lucy Huxley, both Travel Weekly


Cook staff honoured with Globe award I


PENNY AKAM UNSUNG HERO AWARD


t was only when the awards announcer said Longton that the penny dropped.” So said Donna Jones, who collected


this year’s Penny Akam Unsung Hero Award on behalf of the ex- Thomas Cook staff who, despite losing their jobs, sprang into action to help their customers after the company’s collapse in September. Jones and her team from


Thomas Cook’s Longton branch in Staffordshire set up pop-up advice sessions for customers hours after the failure. At least 100 affected customers queued to speak to the team on the morning the news broke. Jones was in tears as she opened the door. The Longton branch’s pop-up


was representative of the attitude of Cook’s shop staff up and down the country. Meanwhile, in resort, Cook reps headed to airports to help with the repatriation process. “A lot of other Thomas Cook


agents did the same, especially in our region, like setting up advice clinics


18 23 JANUARY 2020


I’m gobsmacked. We did what we were trained to do. Customers are at the heart of all we do


in coffee shops for clients,” said Jones. Jones herself was due to go on


a Cook holiday to Portugal on the morning it was announced that the company had collapsed. She has since joined Polka Dot Travel and opened a shop in Longton with four colleagues. On receiving the award, she said:


“We had been through [collapses] with Super Break and Monarch, so we knew what to do and customers were very grateful to have help with their Atol forms. I am just gobsmacked to receive this award. We just did what we were trained to do. Customers are at the heart of everything we do.”


Watch our Facebook Live interview with Donna Jones: bit.ly/2NYPEAv


INNOVATION IN TRAVEL AWARD


Start-up GetTransfer.com followed up its success at last year’s Travolution Awards by scooping the Travel Weekly Globe for innovation. The London-based firm was


chosen by a panel of experts for its innovative approach to supplying airport transfers to the trade. GetTransfer.com has developed


a platform that puts transfer requests out to tender, encouraging operators to compete for business. The Innovation in Travel


Award was sponsored by Travelport, the GDS and leading travel technology supplier. It commended GetTransfer. com


for “challenging norms to enhance travel firms’ ancillary offerings”. Arie Kravtchin, one of the three


co-founders, said: “We are very pleased to receive the innovation award. This is what our company is all about. We are trying to disrupt;


we are trying to make people’s lives better when they are getting in and out of airports. “We are really pleased to


be recognised by someone like Travelport, which is a big player and understands a lot of the pain points around transportation. “We set up our platform to


achieve significant pricing advan- tages for transfers around the world. Our product innovation proves we can improve the industry.” Only four years old,


GetTransfer.com has, to date, raised £2 million from private investors to establish its business. The idea for GetTransfer.com


came from the problems encountered by one of its founders while arranging a ski transfer. “We started with ski, but


realised this is a common problem around the world that we need to solve and improve,” said Kravtchin. In November, GetTransfer.com


won the 2019 Travolution Award for Best Technology Product.


travelweekly.co.uk


PICTURES: Steve Dunlop


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