We were able to give instant refunds where in some cases about two years later people got a refund from a cancelled COVID flight.

But we were able to do it instantly because we still had their money.

Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder.

It's Tuesday the 6th of May.

All this week I'm talking to the chairman and founder of Trailfinders, Sir Mike Goody,

about his 55 years in business, sending people to the four corners of the earth.

Yesterday, I learned about the foundations of the company and the fact that Trailfinders

have been one of the very first travel firms

to introduce computerization. And yet it remains the case that trailfinders will insist on

people booking through the phone or face-to-face rather than online. Today, Sir Mike Gulley

has been telling me about why he thinks booking

online isn't necessarily a great idea.

It's a very clumsy way of because once you start typing, you can't be interrupted. The

person advising you can't say, stop there. There's something you don't know. It's not very fluid.

You can't butt in. I mean, you can talk comfortably, you know, 180 words a minute or something,

but it's bloody difficult to type at that rate. And if you're typing and the other party can't

interrupt, and very often doesn't see it in real time even. It's a very clumsy way of doing it.

Let's go back to those early years, seven years before you were actually making money.

You've got a very strong entrepreneurial spirit, but even so, there must have been times

when you just thought, particularly as we were going through the minor strike, the three-day week,

those times when everything seemed to be going horribly wrong minor strike, the three-day week, those times when

everything seemed to be going horribly wrong. Yes, well, I mean, for some years we worked for

...