Reports to: Senior Manager Travel and Conferencing
Direct Reports: None
Division: Group Finance

Department: SSC

• Senior Executive Travel Consultant is the dedicated and exclusive single point of contact for accurately and efficiently managing all aspects of our Executive stakeholder’s travel requirements, both business and personal/leisure, while delivering service excellence and positively promoting the customer experience and taking ownership of the end-to-end booking process.
• Performing at an expert/senior level, the applicant must demonstrate an extensive understanding of all aspects of the travel industry, including but not limited to; destination knowledge for both business and leisure travel, travel documentation required, travel regulations, restrictions, requirements, passport control, customs and currencies, international air travel, travel insurance, frequent flyer, and frequent guest programs.
• Travel forms a key component of our business and requires an individual with extensive knowledge of global corporate and leisure travel, to advise on visa and health requirements, airline networks and alliances, ground transportation options, understanding major city layouts, accommodation establishments and their locations, complexity of different time zones and provide various routings for planned travel. The importance of traveller Frequent flyer and frequent guest program must be acknowledged
• With customer service at the fore, the role requires a knowledgeable, proactive and dedicated individual who will provide expert service from start to finish, ensuring a positive and productive travel experience to travellers, while ensuring their personal requirements are met. Thereby creating a long-term mutually beneficial relationships with all internal customers
• Ability to think strategically and assist travel bookers and travellers with every aspect of the trip is paramount to ensure a seamless travel experience
• Position is best suited to someone who is customer focused, understands the importance of responding timeously to requests, takes pride in delivering expert service, is able to thrive in a demanding, fast paced environment and operates at a VVIP level.
• The position is predominantly for corporate travel, but there are aspects of leisure travel arrangements required and will form part of the portfolio.
• Personally available to assist in emergency travel situations

• Read, understand and adhere to all Service Level Agreements (SLAs) Travel Policies, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)and MCG governance and regulations.

Quotes and Bookings

• Respond timeously to all quotes and booking requests, ensuring adherence to agreed turnaround times in line with company policies and SLA’s.
• Research, quote and book all aspects of domestic, regional and international travel, including but not limited to flights, accommodation, car rental, transfers, visa’s, health requirements and other ground arrangements.
• Provide quote in standard quoting format.
• Book, issue, re-issue travel where required, using the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) – Amadeus and our Online Reservation System.
• Ensure accuracy of full name as per passport/identification documents prior to making a booking, by obtaining a copy of the relevant documentation.
• Ensure all components of the booking are booked using the same naming convention as for the flight booking.
• Ensure travel is quoted and booked in line with the companies travel policy for corporate travel as well as requirements for personal/leisure travel.
• Ensure all rules pertaining to all elements of the booking are clearly communicated to the customer, ensuring emphasis on cancellation rules/changes/no-shows.
• Ensure seating and meal preferences are booked and secured at time of booking creation.
• Ensure any other special arrangements are requested and confirmed timeously.
• Ensure travellers frequent flyer and frequent guest membership numbers are present when booking flights, accommodation or any other services.
• Ensure frequent flyer membership information is applied to all alliance partners if applicable.
• Ensure customers are advised on all travel requirements for their bookings i.e. passport requirements, detailed visa information, health requirements, foreign exchange, travel insurance, car hire, transfers, excursions, parking and any other relevant information for all services offered.
• Ensure that GDS queues are managed and cleared daily thereby ensuring effective management of all bookings, changes and/or updates are processed and communicated timeously to the customer.
• Adherence to ticketing time limits and other rules is crucial in order to minimize errors and to avoid ADM’s.
• Ensure that mandatory fields for back-office processing of financial documentation are always completed correctly.
• Attend to all customer requests and queries within the agreed SLA timeframes.
• Ensure adherence to all applicable fare rules, when making changes and reissuing of air-tickets.
  

Issue of Documentation

• Adherence to travel approval and governance processes always.
• All travel documentation necessary for travel must be completed timeously and accurately and sent to all relevant parties to ensure a seamless travel experience.
• All supporting vouchers are issued through the travel management system.
• Ensure that all processes applicable to MCG’s Duty of Care are adhered to prior to travel.
• Ensure that conditions of travel are clearly stated, communicated and indicated on the traveller itinerary.
• Upload client purchase order/requisition into the relevant systems.
• Ensure that all third-party requirements are adhered to prior to travel including pre-payments to ensure seamless travel experience.
• Ensure that when forwarding documentation to the client in digital format that each component is clearly identifiable as to which document it is .
  

• Ensure that all cancellations are processed immediately to avoid any unnecessary costs to the organization and to ensure maximum refund value at time of cancellation.
• Ensure all refund requests are logged and processed for all air tickets within 2 working days of cancellation.
• Ensure that all pre-paid land arrangement refunds are received and processed according to the company’s SOPs. .
• Ensure that record is kept of refunds and follow up until such time the refund has been received by the company.
• Ensure voucher cancellation in cases wherever necessary.
  

• Remain flexible to the wider business needs of the Company by rendering assistance for ad hoc projects and duties as required.
• Ensure knowledge transfer to team members in order to assist with up-skilling within the office environment

• Develop and maintain excellent customer relationships with the executives, ensuring the highest standards are always delivered with a personalized and individual approach to each executive.
• Build professional relationships with key vendors relevant and always support preferred supplier programs.
• Anticipate stakeholder needs through developing contingency plans for unexpected situations, such as emergencies or last-minute changes.
• Provide personalized service by tailoring travel arrangements to individual preferences and requirements.

• Diploma in Travel and Tourism or similar certification
• Must have valid Global Distribution System (GDS) Certificate – preferred Amadeus
• Matric Certificate
  

• Minimum of 8 years complex international travel consulting, operating at a Senior Level in the corporate travel management arena with extensive corporate and leisure travel experience
• Personal international travel undertaken
• Demonstrate an excellent understanding of airline terms and travel industry knowledge
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of fares, including contracted fares, construction and round the world fares.
• Knowledgeable and a clear understanding of airline miles and the use thereof for upgrading
• Clear understanding of company travel policy and the need for adherence thereto
• Advanced skills on Amadeus or alternative GDS, to ensure understanding of fare quoting, ticketing, changes and reissues. These must include the ability to reissue a ticket and construct a manual fare build. Relying on the GDS ticket changer is not sufficient as the consultant must be able to check the system if need be
• Experience with Travel Industry Voucher and Travel Itinerary systems, e.g. Procon, Quicktrav, Travelsoft etc.
• Clear understanding of all ticketing and refund principles and all regulatory requirements pertaining to BSP, IATA, ASATA etc
• Excellent understanding of all elements of travel, including airline terms, international travel requirements, ticketing and fares, geography, destination and product knowledge
• Outstanding customer service ethic
• Excellent telephone manner
• Excellent command of spoken and written English
• Advanced levels of IT literacy
• Ability to manage the key stakeholder emergency phone at all times
• Critical support role to Senior Executive Stakeholder who travel extensively
• As support to the Senior Executive stakeholder the successful candidate must be willing and able to put in the extra hours that are required of this position

Technical Competencies

• Computer literate in MS Word and MS Office
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to multi-task, prioritize and work well under pressure
• Excellent time management, organizational and follow-through skills
• Ability to respond quickly and accurately to requests for information
• Attention to detail and solutions orientated
• Deadline and results driven
• Global Distribution Systems
• Travel Management and Itinerary Planning
• Negotiation
• Customer Experience Management
• Document Management
• Travel Insurance
• International Travel Regulations and Visa Procedures
• Financial Transactions
• Currency Exchange Handling