Service Recovery And Disruption

---
name: service-recovery-and-disruption
description: "Run travel disruption and service recovery: triage the failure, rebook the traveler fast, escalate to supplier/insurance, decide goodwill deliberately, and document every change. A well-run recovery protects the traveler and earns the repeat booking. Supplier remedies and insurance terms are verify-at-use."
---

# Service Recovery & Disruption

When travel breaks — a cancelled flight (IROPS), an overbooked hotel, a supplier default — the recovery is a **sales activity**, not just damage control. The traveler remembers who answered.

## The loop

1. **Triage the disruption.** Identify the failure, who owns it (supplier vs traveler-caused vs force-majeure), and the traveler's immediate need — traverse the disruption / service-recovery tree in [`../../knowledge/travel-agency-decision-trees.md`](../../knowledge/travel-agency-decision-trees.md).
2. **Rebook fast.** Move the traveler to a working option before litigating whose fault it is. Speed protects the trip; the reconciliation comes after.
3. **Escalate to the right party.** Supplier remedy / rebooking desk, travel insurance claim, or credit-card protection — route to whoever actually owes the remedy (`[verify-at-use]` against the policy/supplier terms).
4. **Decide goodwill deliberately.** When no one strictly owes a remedy, decide whether an agency goodwill gesture is worth the retained relationship — a judgment call the operations-lead frames (fee/margin context).
5. **Document the change.** Every rebooking, credit, and communication goes in the itinerary change log — see [`../itinerary-design-and-quoting/SKILL.md`](../itinerary-design-and-quoting/SKILL.md). Undocumented recovery is an E&O gap.

## Metrics

| Metric | Reads | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Time-to-rebook | disruption → traveler re-accommodated | The traveler-experience metric |
| Recovery-to-repeat rate | disrupted travelers who rebook | Recovery's real ROI |
| Insurance/supplier recovery | remedy dollars recovered | Don't eat costs someone else owes |
| Change-log completeness | % of changes documented | The E&O shield |

## Anti-patterns

- Litigating fault before rebooking the stranded traveler.
- Eating a cost the supplier or insurer actually owes.
- A verbal-only recovery with no change record.

## See also

- [`../itinerary-design-and-quoting/SKILL.md`](../itinerary-design-and-quoting/SKILL.md), [`../group-vs-fit-trip-operations/SKILL.md`](../group-vs-fit-trip-operations/SKILL.md).
- Best practice: [`../../best-practices/service-recovery-is-the-repeat-booking.md`](../../best-practices/service-recovery-is-the-repeat-booking.md).