Jet2 has amended a survey sent to customers after an agent complained that it asked clients if there was anything it could do to encourage them to book direct.
Jill Waite, the owner of Pole Travel in Manchester, received the survey after she made a flight-only booking to Malaga but sent Jet2 her email address instead of the customers’ email.
The survey asked customers who they booked with and gave a list of options, including several online travel agents and Travel Counsellors.
When Jill filled in the name of her agency in the ‘Other’ box, she was asked on the following page of the survey why she had chosen Pole Travel. The list of options included a low initial deposit, the choice of accommodation, included transfers, and free kids places.
The following page asked customers if they had considered booking direct and they were asked to list the main reasons why they didn’t book with Jet2holidays or Jet2. The options included the accommodation or room-type not being available and the possibility of hidden charges.
They were asked on the following page how likely they were to book with their chosen travel agent again. And on the final page of the survey, it asked if there was anything it could do to encourage them to book direct.
After Jill alerted other agents to the survey on Travel Gossip’s Facebook page, she was contacted by Jet2’s trade team, who agreed to amend the wording.
Its final question has since been changed to ask customers if there is anything it can do to encourage them to book with Jet2holidays or Jet2, with the word ‘direct’ removed.
Jet2 told Travel Gossip: “We are aware of this email, which was received by an agent who had made a flight-only booking.
“We welcome all feedback from our independent travel agency partners, and we are amending the text after being made aware of it.”
It declined to say how many customers had received the original email, or if it had also been sent to Jet2holidays customers.
Jill said she thought that it might have been aimed at customers booking through online travel agents, rather than those who booked with independent agents. “But how can they know who those clients are?” she added. “Obviously this went out to the wrong client, and we can only presume thousands of others.”
Responding to Jill’s Facebook post, other agents wrote that they were ‘appalled’, ‘disappointed’ and ‘speechless’. One accused Jet2 of using agents ‘to get to the top spot’, adding ‘…now they just don’t seem to care’.
However, one agent urged others to remember the support given by Jet2 during the pandemic, but others said they wouldn’t give the operator customers’ email addresses in future because of the danger they’d be poached.
