Estravel - When is a travel agent not a travel agent.

Here's my situation - I need to be in New York for Christmas and New Year's, since that is my time with my kids and I am already looking forward to it. Unfortunately that is very much the most expensive time to travel and that's exactly why I was pleasantly surprised when I opened a forwarded mail from a friend about a special travel offer from Estravel. See, usually these year-end dates are as blacked out as possible. Now, I also received the same forwarded mail from couple of other friends, but that is a totally different subject matter. I am not price conscious - I'm value conscious.......
In any case I hope you have friends like I do.

Estravel would probably be considered an elite travel agency offering elite travel service in Estonia and one of the better recognized brands in the country. I don't really get the whole " We got a new logo" thing, but hey lately I've been discovering a lot of that - not getting it.

I have used them quite a bit in the past and do have their gold card and found out today that ownership of that card does qualify me as a frequent client, for what-ever that's worth.

So here's the offer - because they have some kind of birthday or anniversary thing coming up, they will get me across the Atlantic for less than 4000 EEK's and that's less than $400. WHOAA. That is not bad. Maybe even great. I know as well as you would've known to wait for the catch. So here it is - THE CATCH.

The travel starting point has to be Stockholm. Hmmm...but I'm here. OK not the end of the world, but then the next absolute must travel check point is London and even though I want to end up in NY, my travel itinerary needs to somehow include Miami. Did you get this? It took me a while.

Anyway being value conscious....I decided to play along. Not really proud of myself right now, but I kinda had a plan to take my kids to Florida anyway, seeing Grandma and going fishing off the Keys and so-on.

After listening to fake finger nails abusing the keys for let's say five minutes I was informed that almost everything I was interested in was possible except flying on the dates that I had requested and the New York - Miami leg would have to be in business class and that would actually cost more than all of the rest of my trip.

That's when it hit me - Deja Vu, I had been sitting in the same chair disappointed before. I mean the same exact chair.

So when is the travel agent not a travel agent? Is it when they make promises they can't keep and do it knowingly? Is it when you want to go to a certain place and they tell you to go somewhere different? Really, C'mon if they would have included Prague in my travel arrangements I think they should have offered to pay me.

Travel agent is not a travel agent when they can't help you to travel, to get from point A to point B. That's exactly what traveling is. Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ESTRAVEL!

Vapiano

Vapiano is a flagship of inefficient customer service. Not only that, they are a perfect example of how customer does not matter for lot of businesses in Estonia. Usually it's just not as visible.

OK, in case you have not eaten at Vapiano, here's a quick explanation of the operation they're running.

You walk in the door - you are handed a plastic card that will keep a record of your orders - you will walk towards a counter - you will wait in line - you will order your food when it's your turn - you will wait for your food to be prepared - you will receive your food - you will realize that this will not be enough - you will get in the next line - you will wait in line - you will order your food when it's you turn - you will wait for your food to be prepared - you will receive your food - you will take your food on a tray and look for a place to sit and consume your food - you will find a place to sit - you will realize that you would like a glass of beer or wine with your food - you will walk up to the bar and wait in line - you will order your drink - you will wait for your drink to be poured - you will receive your drink - you will turn around and realize that you have forgotten where was the place that you found for food consumption - you are very smart and find the same place you had set down your tray - you will eat and have your drink - you will get up and be surprised since you realize that they don't make you bus your own tray - you will wait in line to hand in the plastic card - you will pay - you will grab some gummy bears from a bowl and leave - you will feel all warm and fuzzy inside because of the gummy bears while walking away.

I see the same attitude everywhere - at my gym, at the grocery store, at the bookstore, at the car dealership when trying to explain to them that my car really should not behave all freaky like that and so on and on. The personnel thinks that they are running the show while I'm being naive and thinking that it really should be me - THE CUSTOMER.

Is it a remnant of a Soviet era, is it a Nordic style of interaction or just giving a finger to everybody because you don't care and the boss is not watching. Combination of things perhaps?

Bruxelles-Brussel-Brussels-Brüssel

It's not in a name, it's in an attitude. Brussels is a really laid back city, possibly too laid back for my taste, but in a good way. I know that I'm here in august and tens of thousands of EU representatives, officials and lobbyist are not, but I believe that the lack of them is actually bringing out the true spirit of the city.

And in the spirit of that laid-backness, not sure if that is a word in any language, I witnessed today an example of how businesses that could compete against each other can co-exist and co-operate in a perfect harmony.

Not far from the Square Marechal Montgomery where I'm staying, thanks to my good friend who was kind enough to offer his place for my accommodation, is Place Jourdan. An oddly shaped city plaza that has parked cars in a middle and is circled with cafes and bars on the outside.

Except for the parked cars there's something else in the middle. Maison Antoine is basically a kiosk that serves the best tasting french fries in Brussels. It doesn't matter what you call them - frites, chips or fries - one thing is for sure, everybody loves them. No surprise there.

What is different and maybe even special is the fact that not only do all the cafes and bars allow you to eat their fries sitting at their tables, but they encourage it with posted signs. It clearly states in French and Flemish that you are welcome to enjoy Antoine's frites at their establishments.

At some point they figured out that instead of taking on an impossible task of trying to compete with Antoine's fries they are better off supplying drinks to every thirsty Frites lover. You got to admit that this is somewhat unusual. Situation where everybody wins.

Maison Antoine is probably selling more fries because people know that they can enjoy them sitting down at the surrounding cafes and socialize with their friends while stuffing their faces with little sticks of heaven. Cafes and bars are probably selling more beer, coke and coffee because people who wouldn't visit them for no reason are there for the fries. Plus people are probably buying more fries and beer and coke and coffee than they would if they'd known that they would have to take the fries home. That's something that would rob the whole social aspect of dinner from them.

So here it is - everybody wins and everybody's happy. Perfect harmony. It's not that hard. It didn't take thinking outside the box or creating a Tipping Point for a Purple Cow swimming in a Blue Ocean. All it took was simple logic - if I let them do what they are good at and I keep on doing what I'm good at, everybody flourishes. Simple.

Now try to imagine an attitude like that with Mobile and Internet Tech businesses of Estonia. Impossible? Why not supply the users with free Wi-Fi wherever they go because of the potential traffic that will happen just because of the availability of free Wi-Fi? It's not that hard. Let's not forget that everybody loves fries. We do.