04/10/2026
Thank you for the shout-out Sara Davies - love a bit of panic on a Sunday morning 😁
'Bit of a life lesson I learnt today, thankfully not the hard way, that I thought was worth sharing for anyone who travels a lot for work and books their own flights…
I fly A LOT for work. Granted, not as much as I used to, but still a significant amount, and I have an executive assistant, Katie, who is awesome by the way, and for years booking my flights has just been part of her role.
For my personal travel I’ve always used Cathy Chapman, but I never used Travel Counsellors for business because I always thought that’s what I have an EA for, so why add another person into the chain and potentially another cost?
However a year ago Cathy persuaded me to let her take over my business travel bookings too. (It turns out it doesn’t necessarily cost me any more anyway because often her commission comes from the other side.) But more importantly… thank GOD she did.
I was sat on the runway at Newcastle this morning listening to an announcement about bad fog and delays, and immediately started panicking because I’ve got a connecting long-haul flight and I NEED to get Stateside today because I have a massive show tomorrow.
Ordinarily, that would mean bothering lovely Katie on a Sunday morning (while she’s out watching her kids play football) and the two of us frantically Googling alternative connections, checking airlines and trying to work out what availability there is.
And let’s face it, it’s basically the blind leading the blind. Neither of us really knows what we’re dealing with, and we’ve got access to the same information as everyone else.
Instead, I just WhatsApp’d Cathy.
She was all over it like a rash. Straight onto her head office, finding alternative routes, holding availability and telling me not to worry because she’ll get me there no matter what.
And I know she will.
Meanwhile, my blood pressure has dropped from mildly catastrophic back to somewhere approaching normal, Katie gets to enjoy her Sunday morning with her family, and I can sit here knowing someone who actually knows what they’re doing is sorting it.
This is now the third time in a year I’ve been in a similar situation, and every single time Cathy has just sorted it. Each time I’ve thought about how much stress and hassle that has saved both me AND Katie.
So I’m sharing this because it’s something I genuinely hadn’t appreciated until I needed it.
Our time is precious, and there are some things where doing it yourself simply because you CAN is a false economy. Sometimes you’re much better off giving it to an expert who will do a better job of it than you ever could, and removing a whole load of unnecessary stress in the process.
So Cathy, thank you for once again saving my bacon today. And Katie, enjoy the football… I promise I’m not about to ruin your Sunday morning with screenshots of alternative flight connections' 😂
