Thomas Cook

[Beach Hut]

Well have booked a trip with them for me and the wife in February whilst Mini is dispatched on the school skiing trip. I paid by credit card in full so should I be worried in the light of todays news

BBC News - Thomas Cook shares dive 75% on news of bank talks

 

[Lord Bamber]

Well have booked a trip with them for me and the wife in February whilst Mini is dispatched on the school skiing trip. I paid by credit card in full so should I be worried in the light of todays news

BBC News - Thomas Cook shares dive 75% on news of bank talks

Arent you protected via the credit card?

 

[Beach Hut]

Arent you protected via the credit card?

I sincerely hope so, personally would rather just go on the holiday.

 

[seagullondon]

I opened this thread thinking it might be a new player

 

[Jim in the West]

I would be amazed if Thomas Cook went out of business in the near term. The FT today were saying that at the very least the banks would keep it going until end of next summer (summer is when these guys make all their money).

 

[simpleton]

You wont lose money but you might lose the trip if they did go under.

 

[Lord Bamber]

I sincerely hope so, personally would rather just go on the holiday.

I took that as a given But just in case, in a worst case, you are at least protected and get your cash back.

Cant believe TC are in this much trouble.

 

[Beach Hut]

That is the real issue I don't want to lose the holiday however cannot really cancel now, should have done better research.

Hell may hath no fury if Mrs Hut does not go on holiday in February.

 

[Stat Brother]

Not to mention ABTA insurance.
That probably guarantees your holiday still further, as TC going under would probably strain ABTA to breaking point (but what do I know!).

Where are you off too?.

 

[Beach Hut]

Not to mention ABTA insurance.
That probably guarantees your holiday still further, as TC going under would probably strain ABTA to breaking point (but what do I know!).

Where are you off too?.

I think the ABTA insurance is also subbed by the Government so quite a lot at stake her if they do go tits up, oh and San Francisco

 

[cloud]

But just in case, in a worst case, you are at least protected and get your cash back.

It's just a question of how long it takes. When IceSave went under it took me about 5 months to get my money back ...

Hope you weren't planning to go to Tenerife or any of those islands either, as the volcanoes there have been ready to blow for the last few months

 

[Driver8]

I should point out that I bought some Thomas Cook shares this morning so that's them probably f***ed.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Cant believe TC are in this much trouble.

Interesting as I have always wondered how they kept going given the advent of the Internet and the ability it provides to book cheap flights and accom direct and without the need for an agent. Granted it has a use for certain types of person and holidays but it must have lost a lot of trade.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

The travel industry has been struggling for years. At the time of 9/11, I was working for one of BA's companies, and the attacks had massive implications, resulting in several airlines going bust. We all had to agree to a salary cut, or face redundancies. The likes of EasyJet have done OK for themselves, but nobody is exactly soaring at the moment, no pun intended. The previous recession impacted heavily on the travel companies, but this one is something else. Thomas Cook and the other companies have tried to diversify and develop their own online businesses or low cost options, but it's all just so volatile, who knows what will happen.


As they used to say in the trade...Don't Just Book It: Completely Fook It

 

[clapham_gull]

I took that as a given But just in case, in a worst case, you are at least protected and get your cash back.

Cant believe TC are in this much trouble.

I'm sure I heard on the radio they had borrowed heavily to expand the business. Bad timing it would appear.

 

[simpleton]

Interesting as I have always wondered how they kept going given the advent of the Internet and the ability it provides to book cheap flights and accom direct and without the need for an agent. Granted it has a use for certain types of person and holidays but it must have lost a lot of trade.

I went into the one in North Street to change some spare euros and dollars at lunchtime on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago. There were four staff and no customers apart from me.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

They're not just travel agents, they have a large tour operator business too. Their HQ is in Peterborough, at least it always was when I worked in the trade, they may even be the largest local employer, so if they went bust, it would really hit that area hard.

Edit: they employ about 2000 people on their Peterborough site (popularly known in a not-at-all-complimentary manner as "the Farm" to us BA Holidays employees when our Crawley office was merged with the TC Posh one). So potentially a lot of pain if things go tits up.

 

[Postman Pat]

Interesting as I have always wondered how they kept going given the advent of the Internet and the ability it provides to book cheap flights and accom direct and without the need for an agent. Granted it has a use for certain types of person and holidays but it must have lost a lot of trade.

What some people don't realise is that if they book via a travel agent the whole deal is covered by ABTA. If they book individual bits only that part is covered by the supporting body.

If anyone books a flight, hotel, excursions etc... direct and the airline goes bust then they are only covered for the cost of the flight, they do not get any money back for the hotel etc..

Right now Thomas Cook is a much safer bet!

 

[Dave the OAP]

I suppose this is symptomatic of the current climate and bad publicity could take this company under.

We were booking up a cruise at Easter and also August but are thinking twice about going through tc, even though we normally book through Thomas cook with no issues.

Trouble is going direct to the cruise line, you may get on board credit, but the base cost is normally more. Thomas cook on some holidays we have done discounted down by 50% so it just shows how desperate they are to sell holidays.

Also with issues in Egypt/Tunisia etc they are stugling

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

What some people don't realise is that if they book via a travel agent the whole deal is covered by ABTA. If they book individual bits only that part is covered by the supporting body.

If anyone books a flight, hotel, excursions etc... direct and the airline goes bust then they are only covered for the cost of the flight, they do not get any money back for the hotel etc..

Right now Thomas Cook is a much safer bet!

Stick it on your credit card and it's covered. Failing that I have a year round travel insurance policy which covers such things (I think).

Also, if you book the component parts yourself you do not loose the whole trip if something goes wrong; you only need find an alternative to the component which has screwed up e.g. flight not flying then get another flight. Hotel screws up just book another. As I understand it when a holiday firm folds you loose the lot.