Travel Agents Cope With Boston-Area Chaos

When a dragnet for suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing led to a lockdown of Boston and several of its suburbs on Fri., April 19, travel agents in the area coped, along with their neighbors, with uncertainty, fear and the need to carry on.

Joy Babcock, owner of Babcock Travel, a brick and mortar agency in Watertown, Mass., said 25 years in the industry could never have prepared her this week’s terror attacks in Boston and the methodical police search of her neighborhood that followed.

“All the attention today is focused about a mile and a half from here,” said Babcock, who was working from her Watertown home. “There’s an awful lot of work to do, but it’s hard to be focused; this is a scary scene.”

Babcock, a wedding and family travel specialist, was watching news reports while serving clients remotely. “The office phone rolls over to the house, so we were prepared.”

On edge
Strict instructions from law enforcement authorities had her on edge, she said.

“Very early this morning the police did a robocall to residents and informed us not to leave the house or answer the door unless it was a uniformed officer,” said Babcock.

“I’m thinking I need to get my mind off it, but I don’t know how.”

Babcock was grateful that none of her clients had been affected by the disruptions to air and rail travel in the Northeast. “To our knowledge, thankfully, we don’t have any clients stuck in this anywhere.”

On lockdown
With local transportation into and out of Boston shut down on Friday, and the authorities directing area residents to stay at home, with doors locked, travel agents with offices in downtown Boston were unable to get to work. Calls to a number of agencies around town were greeted by answering machines.
 
At Circles, an Ensemble agency headquartered in Boston, an established process for dealing with unpredictable events was put into action.

Like other multi-office agencies, Circles reroutes its calls in case of emergency. “We are a 24/7/365 organization, a global concierge service, so we have redundancy with offices in Toronto and Chelmsford, Mass.,” said Kate Urekew, executive director of travel/concierge product manager.

Calls rerouted
Circles’ backup plan was put into effect several times this week when its downtown Boston office was affected by police shutdowns.

“Unfortunately due to various different events throughout the last year, we are very well-oiled machine in regards to activating that plan quickly so there is no interruption in service to our clients,” said Urekew, referring to power outages caused by Superstorm Sandy and a February blizzard.

“Everybody’s clearly on edge, but the good news for us is that our management team acted extremely quickly this morning,” Urekew said on Friday.

Race day
On the day of the Boston Marathon bombing, the safety of the 100-plus employees in Circles’ Boston office was management’s top concern.

“Even when everything happened the day of the race, we had a plan with up-to-the-minute instructions for employees,” said Urekew, speaking from her home in Quincy, Mass.

Crazier than a movie
Marilyn Wexler, a home-based agent with Tzell Travel, was at the Boston Marathon on Monday, cheering for her son, Adam Kingsbury, 24.

“We stood in that very spot [of the bombing] a couple of hours before. We went home only because Adam’s feet hurt after the race,” said Wexler, who lives in a suburb north of Boston. “You think, my god, those people who hugged the runners at the finish line – I hope they are okay.”

On Friday morning, as the manhunt for one of two suspects was underway, Wexler said, “What’s going on is crazier than anything you see in a movie.”

A tough week
As for the days since the bombing, she said, “I’m working. I am feeling very lucky. But I have had an extremely tough week. There is the whole Marathon issue, the American Airlines system crash, terrible weather issues.”

“There are so many delays from a lot of things – a lot of calls.”

Wexler added, “I am getting some bookings, but I am concerned this is going to be very tough period. I am also concerned for the City of Boston and their tourism.”

Planning ahead
Liberty Travel has two Massachusetts offices that were within the lockdown area and unable to open on Friday. Customer calls to those locations were being rerouted to other Massachusetts offices, Liberty said.

Liberty also said that its 24/7 call center at its headquarter in Ramsey, N.J., was “cued up for increased call volume tonight from passengers who are unable to get to Logan Airport. While the airport remains open, many people are staying in as instructed by law enforcement.”

“Our thoughts are with the entire Boston community during this time,” Liberty said.
 
Authorities shut down Amtrak service between Boston and New York City Friday afternoon, along with Megabus and Greyhound service between the two cities.

Service at Logan International Airport resumed with delays later in the day along with taxi services.

Fran Golden contributed to this report.