Travel Advisors Tell All on Their Craziest Client Requests

Ocean view rooms in land-locked cities? Trains to Hawaii? Cruises to Las Vegas? Travel advisors get many absurd requests in the course of their careers. But far more outrageous asks have floored even the most seasoned advisors.

TMR asked our readers to dish on their craziest client requests. Here are some of the most standout answers we received.

Call the airline – and the pilot

“Several times this has happened…to see if I could see if they (the airline) could change their schedule as the times posted don’t meet their needs.” 

“Client booking a flight, needed me to contact the pilot (not the airline) to make sure they could fly the plane at a low altitude because he has inner ear issues AND had a doctor’s note.” 

Doggy diet

“Couple going to Europe for 3 months, wanted to take their dog, but they called all the airlines and were told the dog and carrier had to be under a certain weight, I believe it was 100 lbs. The dog weighed 100 lbs. itself, so they wanted me to call the airline and say the dog was only 95 lbs. and they would buy a carrier that was only 5 lbs. I told them there is no such thing, the lightest carrier I could see is 20lbs for a large dog and perhaps the dog shouldn’t go. He then said it was a few months away, he would cut the food way back so the dog could lose 20 lbs. … I didn’t hear from them again.”   

Furniture-phobic

“I once took a group to San Antonio and one of the guests complained that there was too much furniture in the room and asked to have some of it removed.” 

Medication mishap

“Clients traveling on a 14-day Gorilla Trek in Uganda, Safari in Kenya, and going to Victoria Falls flying home to Utah. On day 7 of their vacation, I got a call from the client telling me she didn’t bring enough of one of her medicines with her and asked me If I could meet her son so that I could get what she forgot and overnight it to her… She had it all planned out, I was to fly into Salt Lake, and he was going to meet me at the airport so that I could bring her medication back with me and Express mail, or DHL it to Africa for her…  

“I did NOT fly to Salt Lake City… The medication would have never reached her in time anyway, so I reached out to the tour company and their guide who took my client to a clinic where she could talk to a Dr. She showed him what medication she was on and then the Dr wrote a prescription for something that was equivalent to what she was taking… She was comfortable with the outcome, so all ended well.” 

Mile High Club dreams

“This one tops it all, honeymooners flying to the Caribbean, wanted to know the size of the aircraft bathroom as they were newlyweds and wanted to be part of the mile high club!” 

Protein on the river

“Many years back I had a couple where the wife was not able to eat regular meals, and they requested that cases of protein shakes in various flavors be brought onboard for her for the 7-night Rhine cruise. AmaWaterways went above and beyond to make this happen and all that she needed for the cruise was provided without question or cost.”  

Texas to Hawaii

“At least twice, we have received a request from a guest to depart on a ship that leaves from Galveston TX and then do a 7-night voyage around the Hawaiian Islands. (Alas this is not geographically possible.)” 

Transporting breast milk

“One of the craziest requests we received was to find out the cost of shipping frozen breast milk to a villa in St. Tropez that we had organized for our clients from the US. I remember this phone call so vividly even today, trying to ask in the nicest way possible if the manufacturer of said breast milk was in the traveling party and if so, would it still be necessary to ship the breast milk if the means of production would be traveling with them? I mean, can you imagine this conversation?  

It was incredible to be asked for such a thing and we had no idea how to go about doing this or the international laws surrounding such a request so we had to scramble to find a solution for our clients. Find a solution, we did; in fact we ended up finding a few companies that specialize in shipping breast milk – something we learned on the job that day! But though we have a chuckle about it now, we learned that one of the key aspects of our business and our success was to learn to problem solve and find solutions to our clients needs at a moment’s notice.”