Patience and length of time… for travelers

Do you have a passport to renew, a vacation to plan or a modification to a reservation to make? A word of advice: arm yourself with patience. Explanations, tips and tricks to get there (without tearing your hair out on the way…).

Silvia Galipeau
The Press

Let’s say that Jean de La Fontaine had seen oddly well. “We’re getting more calls than expected” seems to be the travel industry’s refrain these days. And we’re not talking about a small manageable wait of a few minutes while simply continuing with your tasks or telecommuting. Oh no! Depending on the companies and the needs, we are witnessing on the contrary an “exceptionally high”, “drastic”, “never experienced” volume. And bad news: “it’s climbing…”

“A peak period never experienced,” confirms Evelyne Power, who gave us an interview this week as spokesperson for the Department of Employment and Social Development Canada, responsible for the passport program.

It must be said that overnight (with the easing of restrictions), passport renewal applications, which were no longer exactly relevant, literally exploded. Proof: between 1^er April 2020 and March 31, 2021, Service Canada issued 363,000 passports. The following year, the figure more than tripled, to 1,273,000 passports issued.

In doing so, “the call center sees a higher number of customers wanting to know the status of their request”, continues the spokesperson. Pre-COVID-19, we received less than 5,000 calls here a day, for an average waiting time of eight minutes. Today ? Instead, there are 212,000 daily calls, for an average of 75 minutes.

Mandatory appointments

If you feel like going straight to the Passport Office with your application, like in the good old days, think again. The rules have changed. You may not have seen the memo, but since COVID-19, only urgent requests (for travel within less than 25 working days, proof or reservation in support) are now processed. on the spot. And only for far-sighted travelers who have made an appointment online.

If you show up, even early in the morning, even with all the insistence in the world, you are very likely to be sent home. We have seen some hard-headed people wait five or six hours, “but it is not encouraged”, specifies the spokesperson.

Only cases of extreme urgency (read: within two days of a trip) can come to the Passport Office without an appointment. This is to notify the security guard of said emergency, and we should slip you between two customers. But once again: patience: “Yes, three hours, it can be. »

As a bonus, plan to wait outside. Despite the relaxations in effect across the country, federal health guidelines differ: “In order to guarantee the health and safety of Canadians who access services in person, explains the spokesperson, clients who come in person must wait outside the office rather than in our waiting rooms. »

Friendly advice: we also invite all applicants (for non-urgent trips, therefore) to go to a Service Canada office (reservations strongly recommended) to have their famous request validated.

The number of typos that slip into this paperwork is staggering (30 to 40% error rate), small oversights that lengthen the process accordingly. But unfortunately, the employees of these offices are not authorized to process your passports. The post office (and the delays associated with it) is therefore always appropriate.

Overwhelmed tour operators

The entire industry seems affected by this renewed interest in travel. A phone call to Air Transat which drags on for four hours (in vain) here, or another to Expedia for three hours, there is no shortage of examples. Everywhere, we are assured that we are working “very hard” to reduce these waiting times, and that several online tools have also been put in place.

Nevertheless, it is mathematical: there is simply a lack of personnel to respond to the resurgence of this demand. At Air Transat, for example, the workforce is 50% of what it was pre-COVID-19, it is said.

“You must understand that, as in the restaurant industry, the field of travel has been affected by the pandemic”, explains Andrée-Ann Déry, spokesperson for CAA-Quebec, who notes the same explosion of calls as everywhere else. Here too, appointments to speak to a travel consultant are now mandatory.

Allow a week before finally talking to your expert.

“We are in a context of labor shortage when there is a monstrous demand, she continues, and in addition, people need to be reassured. According to her, appointments make it possible to better respond to demand without skimping on the quality of the service offered.

Her advice: Avoid last-minute trips (“prices go up and planes fill up very quickly”), and do your homework, she says. “Travellers have a duty to be understanding and a little more patient than usual…”