Christmas and New Year at the Desk: The Busiest Fortnight of Our Year
Secret Santa, a decorated night shift, and 400 families flown home in fourteen days
By Simran Kaur, Senior Travel Consultant · Tue Jan 06 2026 · Published by Flight Desk India
Our tree went up on the first of December and stayed up until the sixth of January, which is roughly how long the holiday rush lasts. In between, the office looked like a party and ran like an operations room. Secret Santa, with rules The budget was fixed and immediately ignored. The best gift was a laminated card reading "I will take your next 11pm call" — redeemable once, and redeemed within a day.
The night shift got the good decorations Since most of the holiday calls come from Toronto, Vancouver, New York and Melbourne, the overnight desk was the busy one. So they got the tree lights, the speaker and first claim on the food. Fair is fair. Fourteen days, in numbers 400+ families flown out between 20 December and 3 January Longest single call: 68 minutes, a five-person itinerary rebuilt after a snow cancellation Calls answered on Christmas Day itself: 91 Consultants who took a full day off: everybody, in rotation, because a tired desk makes mistakes If you are flying next December Book by mid-September.
The December fare curve is the steepest of the year and it does not come back down. Fly out on 23 or 24 December rather than the weekend before — usually cheaper, always emptier. Keep at least three hours on any winter connection through a northern hub. Snow does not care about your ninety-minute layover. Take the morning departure. If it cancels, there is still same-day recovery available. Happy New Year from everyone in Mohali.
Thank you for spending part of your holidays on the phone with us.