Readers may remember Charles Veley, official title-holder as the “Most Traveled Man,” from our previous profile.

This week, as the airlines in the US seemed to melt down, Veley swung into action.

To escape a coup in Fiji? No. Riots in Haiti? No again.

No, Charles Veley had to rescue his family vacation–and his mother.

So what happens when the World’s Most Traveled Man plans a vacation with his whole family–and three airlines go bankrupt?

In January, Veley bought five round-trip tickets on ATA via a code share with Southwest, for his family vacation to Kauai, scheduled for this June.

He had even convinced his mother, “who never, ever travels,” and stepfather to join them. “They were on a much more complicated multi-stop ticket, which included a leg on Aloha airlines, which they booked from Cheaptickets.com.” It doesn’t get much more complex than that.

Last Thursday, he recalled, Southwest sent out an email alerting passengers that ATA was no longer flying to Hawaii. “I got out of bed, read the email and said ‘What?’’ Our family had five tickets on this airline.

GASP as he checks his email!

When ATA went under, it announced that passengers who bought their tickets with a credit card had recourse under the federal credit law, and could essentially deny payment on their ticket.

But that wouldn’t exactly help the Veley family get to Hawaii.

“I had to do some real quick work to pull it out of the fire,” said Veley.

THRILL as he speed dials the airlines!

“For those of us on ATA booked through Southwest, they gave a special number to call, but they also said, ‘Please don’t call, we need to take care of people who are flying before April 11.’ But I put it on speed redial; I didn’t get through until about 3 in the afternoon. It just kept ringing and ringing.”

But once the line finally picked up, “I was on hold for five hours.”

That’s right. Five hours.

WONDER at his patience!

“A guy came on after 90 minutes and said ‘You’ve got an ATA problem. I can’t really help you but I’ll pass you along to that department. But I have to advise you that it’s going to be a long hold time.’ I said I’ve just been holding for 90 minutes, and he said ‘That’s not very long.’ Hours later, a man from Southwest came on, and I almost didn’t hear him through the noise of the kids. But I caught him before he hung up.”

But what happened next says volumes about Southwest’s customer service in a crisis. “The only other nonstop from the Bay Area was on United, so I had put a hold on United tickets. After taking my information, [the Southwest agent] said he would look into other carriers while I went back on hold. I stopped him and told him we had strong flight preferences for United flights 65 and 62, and that I had reserved five seats just in case.”

When the agent returned, he informed Veley that he couldn’t get seats on the United flights.

“So I gently reminded him that I was already holding give seats,” Veley continued, “Then the most extraordinary thing happened. He said ‘Let me see if I can’t just buy those for you.’ He logged into the UA Web site as me, and bought over $4000 worth of tickets using a Southwest corporate credit card.”

MARVEL at the competent customer service!

Veley also managed to fix his mother’s multi-leg, multi-carrier tickets through American Airlines and US Airways … for no additional charge.

The good news is that multiple airlines came through and a family vacation was saved. But, pointed out Veley, “It was a lot of hassle, and I really have to wonder about all the other people out there.”

By Sarika Chawla and Matthew Calcara for PeterGreenberg.com.

Read Veley’s profile: Travel Tips from a Travel Hero: Charles Veley, the World’s “Most Traveled Man”

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