Really feeling for everybody who has suffered job loss because of this collapse.
We travelled to Turkey last week with Simpson Travel who booked our flights for us with... yeah.
Currently waiting for repatriation info, but with a week to go we are way down the priority list.
Is anybody else on holiday and affected?
Most holidaymakers will be fine and will likely have insurance, worst that happens could be a few extra days in the sun paid for by the insurance co. Enjoy your holiday, it’ll probably work out fine.
It’s the staff I feel for, won’t many be trapped in foreign countries with little luggage and no family by their sides ? And no pay.
What a mess, but it’s been a long time coming.
Not on holiday yet ,should be going at the end of the month and one of our flights was with Thomas cook,hopefully our travel agent will sort an alternative flight.
I don’t get how these companies are allowed to get into 200m debt .
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Wasn’t it nearer £1.7 billion ?Originally Posted by mk1974
Yes, £200m was just a buffer requested to see them through winter.
On the plus side, they have become carbon neutral overnight, so the environmentalists will be happy.
I live in Peterborough (where the TC head office is) and have a few friends who work(ed) for them... they're the one that have lost the most and have been called in to clear out their lockers this morning - people on holiday will be repatriated, and customers who have booked, but not yet gone, refunded.
I used to live in Peterborough and still live close, TC was always a 'flagship' employer in the city, its going to leave a big hole.On the plus side, they have become carbon neutral overnight, so the environmentalists will be happy.
I live in Peterborough (where the TC head office is) and have a few friends who work(ed) for them... they're the one that have lost the most and have been called in to clear out their lockers this morning - people on holiday will be repatriated, and customers who have booked, but not yet gone, refunded.
Cheers..
Jase
Its surprising how many people are affected, I have 13 people at work who had holidays or flights with TC over the next three months.
A £200 million bailout/loan by the Government would have protected some 9000 UK jobs and saved tens of thousands of holidaymakers from a whole lot of anguish. It would also have allowed time for the inevitable formal restructure of the company. It would have been a price worth paying.
It was already allocated for the Brexit info campaign.
Expert on LBC this morning said that it would have delayed the inevitable by three months.
Sympathies for the OP and obviously don’t know his circumstances but what I don’t get is why the taxpayer is going to have to foot the bill for repatriation of thousands of people.
We've a holiday booked in November using TC for flights.
It's booked as an ATOL protected trip through another company, so I guess it's down to them to find us alternative flights.
Definitely a blow for the people who've lost their jobs though.
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
The ATOL underwrite and the air travel trust
Isn't this where its gets a bit complicated? the media are saying it is only packages that are underwritten and not flights only.
I didn't book the flights, I have a package holiday with another company including flights.
No mention anywhere on the certificate of Thomas Cook, so they, I think, are bound to get us flights or, possibly, refund us.
Will have to see.
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Not everyone has ATOL protection.
Free market, competition blah blah, good riddance. Cheap flights and cheap holidays should never ever been allowed if only for the sake of environment.
Anyway, surprised chancers have not discovered new type of holidaying yet, book a few days or shortest break possible with a tour operator which is about to collapse and with luck one will be able to stay all inclusive, curtesy of the insurance, for a couple of weeks if not longer, if they are not too tight to buy one naturally..
Last edited by VDG; 23rd September 2019 at 08:58.
Fas est ab hoste doceri
My daughter working for them in Tenerife, looking like no wages ,no accommodation and no help getting a flight home.
Just checking flights from other airlines, they seem to have jumped in price .
you said why is going to cost the tax payer, the government underwrites the funds.
What the government should be doing is stopping all of the airlines instantly doubling their prices and taking advantage of this unfortunate situation.
If the media is to be believed stupid people were still booking with them yesterday evening, taking their money has to be close to fraud.
Last edited by adrianw; 23rd September 2019 at 08:53.
As a tax payer I would not be happy subsidising people taking foreign holidays. Subsidising manufacturing yes, but not liesure industries.
I had a return flight booked to Birmingham when Monarch went south.... the ATOL alternative flight was two days later and to gatwick so no bloody use
had to get one to Bristol and get a train - to be back the day intended
Well, like I said, we'll see.
Change of dates wouldn't work for our holiday, so I'm not going to worry about it yet.
More important things in life than holidays.
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Truly sorry a lot of good people have lost their jobs but it’s been mismanaged for years and the inevitable guillotine has dropped, sorry to see another household name go under but i am sure from the ashes another tour operator will rise
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Okay, why does the government underwrite these funds and anyway, not everyone is paid out by them. ATOL is supposed to be funded by the industry.
Don’t see how government can manipulate prices.
Whilst a rescue was still possible the airline still had to take bookings, not doing so would only hasten it’s demise.
I guess because they were once successful companies who have thousands of employees depending on their wage. I’d imagine the Internet travel diy sector has destroyed their model. There must have been a point where they start borrowing to keep afloat and pay the wages then it just snow balls.
I don’t really understand how it works but can’t they go into some sort of hold as far as taxes and HMRC related stuff goes?
I see all the other holiday companies have reacted.... I had been looking at a Holiday with TUI, £500 PP difference from yesterday to today!
I know TC have been in trouble for a long time, read something this morning that they had 550 retail shops all loss making, just didn't move with the times... Customers are going to get reimbursed but the poor staff, sad times......
Last edited by Rob153; 23rd September 2019 at 09:29.
The masses have adopted the easyJet model. I remember when they started with 2 planes. So the internet and people’s thirst for paying the bottom line leads to the inevitable. As for people complaining about the survivors ramping up charges ...... that’s all the algorithms mate. All part of that lovely internet revolution
My sis in law due to fly home to LA tomorrow on Thomas Cook. She’s been left on her own. I’ve told her to sit tight and try and rebook in a couple of days. Simon Calder on the BBC this am said low season, plenty of capacity. So it’s definitely people surging to seek alternative arrangements that is causing the price rises.
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Experts are the new soothsayers, apparently.
Welcome to Brexit Britain everyone. Get used to it.
As I understand it, it is industry funded, £2.50 of each booking ( maybe per person) goes into the ATOL pot to be used when this sort of thing happens, I guess the scheme is underwritten by the Government in case there is a shortfall.
Cheers..
Jase
You’d think all these repatriation flights would be going out empty!
Reports this morning suggest will cost taxpayer 100-500 million. Why are we subsidising holidaymakers? Think fewer people will have ATOL now anyway - more likely to book cheap flight with budget airline and accommodation separately.
Last edited by Kingstepper; 23rd September 2019 at 10:17.
Condor whose parent company is Thomas Cook are asking the German government for a bridging loan to keep flying on a transitional basis. It will be interesting to see what Mummy Merkal's response is to the request for funds. I suspect it maybe a more positive response.
Err, we're not.
Also, not their fault the tour operator went bust stranding them abroad, the government is trying to bring back it's citizens safely.
I agree with bring them home, but not with the bail out of a private firm that screwed up.
Mwah.
For one, the tourist industry is an industry. It may not create stúff but certainly creates jobs and generates a mountain of revenue. So why thát industry not.
As to the tourists. If you drive across Europe in your car without travel insurance and get standed in Poland with a blown engine, do you expect the state to repatriate you? Is it any different because it affects móre?
The difference is, a lone trip you take the responsibility for your travel arrangements. A package holiday, is supposedly covered for such instances with liability insurance.
We are if ATOL 'insurance' on their package doesn't cover the cost (w/o government funding) or they haven't even got ATOL cover/sufficient travel insurance for their holiday.
Not their fault but not mine (as taxpayer) either.
The definition of a package holiday seems to be coming into question now, it may run and run, is it a package with the tour operator or with the travel agent it was booked with? the wriggling seems to have started.
I do sympathise with the company, employees, and customers.They were an ailing company stuck in the past with bricks and mortar presence on the High St. Pumping £200 million of public money is no guarantee of their survival. Most people can plan everything nowadays on line right down to car rental etc.
There's far too much competition out there to guarantee there survival.
You can't do profitable business whilst having the massive overheads on the High St. and trying to match on line prices.
It´s not a force majeure and is the large number a fundamental reason for the state to spend the tax payers´ money on it?
Again; if on your own or through a small company you´d be left to your own resources so why is this different?
Ok, let the state organise it under the condition of the travellers paying it back through declaring it on the next tax return form.
Frankly, Brexit has nothing to do with the demise of TC, and it is not appropriate for silly political posturing. Unfortunately, TC’s business model has not kept up with the times, and thus it has become uncompetitive.
I feel very much for those who have lost their jobs (other than the strategic management); it’s not the workers’ fault.
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I wouldn’t say Brexit has nothing to do with it, it’s not a huge part of it by any means, but I expect it didn’t help matters.
Cheers..
Jase
In 2010/11 I bought shares in 23 companies to generate income from the dividends. Most have done well, a couple gave done very well but a couple have done badly........Thomas Cook is one of them!
When the firm initially had problems a few years ago the share price fell heavily then partially recovered, it looked like the company would do OK so I hung on to the shares rather than sell at a loss. That was a mistake, tge company continued to struggle, the shares haven’t been worth much for a couple of years but I hoped the company would eventually recover or get taken over.
Now the shares are worth zilch I’m disappointed but not shocked, I’d already accepted the loss a long time ago. Travel companies have a poor record long- term, lots of seemingly sound companies have gone bust.
Travel and leisure isn’t a good investment, lesson learned. However, I’m still surprised that a company the size of Thomas Cook didn’t manage to survive in some shape or form.
Every employee knew that TC was a risky company to work for, everyone knows everything in large companies now a days, so they knew the risk. Also any passenger with even half a brain must have known that JC where tottering on the edge and frankly their business model just does not have a future.
Just ask yourself a simple question, would you have invested in buying shares in TC twelve months ago ?
So don't expect the hard working taxpayer to bail out a failed company without a future.
https://www.expansion.com/empresas/t...02f8b46c0.html
We're in Gran Canaria at the moment and flying back tomorrow evening (Jet2). The mood on the ground here seems a little somber. We needed to check our pickup times earlier which meant a visit to the rep area in the hotel. Long line of German guests waiting to see the TC rep, who I'll give massive credit to turned up early at 9am in their branded shirt to assist guests. If the bar was open I'd buy him a pint or 10.
We have friends in other resorts who have been left with no one to contact other than the CAA information page. And flights home/to resorts have doubled in price. If any anger needs to be directed somewhere it's at the rampant profiteering that happens in these situations....
It's all foreign to me, but folks booking a holiday with TC wouldn't give a fig about Brexit, they're just interested in getting away from it!
the germans will be fine they will just head back to Frankfurt on Condor.
Yes believe that wing (no pun intended) has been secured. Talk of Merkel even dipping into the coffers for a bridging loan to provide short term cover for the quarter.
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Assuming they are not kicked out of the hotel when Thomas Cook aren't going to settle the all inclusive or pay the rooms. But agree travel insurance should cover it but people may have to pay for their holidays twice and re-claim I think.
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