National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - News and FeaturesThe NCAA News -- November 9, 1998 Happy landings
Worldtek minimizes championship travel hassles so athletes, coaches can focus on their goals
BY GARY T. BROWN
Every available phone starts ringing. Washington State needs to get to Tempe on Thursday morning. So do Idaho and Illinois. Hawaii's coming to Stanford Friday, but none of the available flights can accommodate the Rainbows' traveling party, so you've got to find a second flight that arrives at about the same time. South Carolina wants to bring its band to Durham. Northern Iowa needs to know if it can fly to Lincoln or if it has to charter a bus. Twenty other callers ask similar questions. And never mind that the holiday season has put the usual crunch on flight availability. You're already losing your hair and it's only 8:30. You've entered the Worldtek Travel zone. For the NCAA's official travel service, every championship is a giant jigsaw puzzle that has to be pieced together quickly. It's no snap to configure 64 teams to 16 sites and make everybody happy. But it's Worldtek's job to get participants to the site on time, on target and on focus so that the event can start on cue. And the phones really do start ringing just moments after selections are announced. "Almost immediately," said Shelley Mongillo, who helps coordinate NCAA championships travel from Worldtek's home office in New Haven, Connecticut. "And the first question they ask is if they can leave at the time they've determined to be best for them -- and if the entire travel party can be on the same flight." Thus the puzzle begins. Mapping out flights Worldtek pretty much knows the lay of the land -- as well as the air --from the get-go, with completed brackets faxed to them as soon as they are filled. And NCAA policy requires teams to drive anything under 250 miles in Division I and 400 miles in Divisions II and III, so Worldtek knows how many flights it can expect to arrange. But accommodating schools' particular needs is the trick. "It's always a challenge to give the schools exactly what they want," Mongillo said. "But over the years we have developed a wonderful relationship with the institutions. They understand that they're booking last minute. And the agents are well-versed in booking groups last-minute -- that's their area of expertise -- so they handle things very well with the schools." Mongillo said there are some frustrating moments once in a while, especially if they have to split a travel party into two flights, which happens often in basketball and football, where the travel-party allotment is larger. And sometimes, callers not familiar with the process who are new to championships competition may be apt to lose the glow of having been selected and take on the edge of not being able to get what they want.
Each arrangement may take as many as five or six calls. Once the flights are determined, the next trick is getting the seat assignments to the right people. It's common for schools to change names within the travel party several times. Then the tickets are issued and overnighted at Worldtek's expense. Mongillo also said the agents learn quickly how to use their time during championship seasons. "When we have a university on on one line while holding for an airline group desk on another, we can finish existing records, ticket-approved files, book seat assignments, fax itineraries and receive new reservations by e-mail," she said. Much like teams advancing through a bracket, Worldtek treats each travel accommodation as a game of its own. Once a school is booked, it is scratched from the bracket. Those left standing at the end of the day get a call. "Sometimes there may be a school within 300 miles of a site and they decide they'd prefer to motor coach instead of fly," Mongillo said. "They don't always call to let us know." There may be more than one championship being arranged on a given day as well. In soccer alone, four fields are filled in a two-day span in November. During peak periods, agents will field more than 100 calls per day. Hectic times, funny lines But agents keep a sense of humor amid the madness, Mongillo said. Some of her favorites that have been quipped during late hours include:
But while those remarks were made in jest, Mongillo's personal favorite was the real deal, coming from an agent who'd had a particularly long day but had to field one last call: "Good afternoon, NCAA sports department, this is nonrefundable, how may I help you?" But all the stories have happy endings, and teams usually find that they're able to focus on the most important thing -- playing in the championship -- rather than worry about getting there. And getting there should be even easier this year, now that Worldtek has installed a phone prompt for callers' needs to be properly addressed right away. Options will include numbers for new reservations, questions about existing reservations, questions regarding tickets, and separate lines for officials and committee members. "It should speed up the reservation process and save time on their end," said Mongillo. And time saved is time earned at the championship venue, which is, after all, why everyone travels in the first place. |
Imagine yourself in a travel agency the Monday after the 64-team Division I Women's Volleyball Championship field has been announced.
"Sometimes a school that hasn't been in doesn't really understand the procedure and may tend to be impatient," Mongillo said. "Or when schools call in at the same time, they don't always like having to hold or be called back. But we do get all our callbacks done -- the agents know they're working late those days."