Depends where you go. Long haul like New York i've found cheaper doing it on my own, but places like Spain I find it much easier to use an agent.
Thomas Cook travel - collapsed
- Thread starter utdalltheway
- Start date
I'm not British and I've never used a travel agency to book my holidays, I got to know about Thomas Cook only because they were on City's shirts. Do I need to add I never really liked the company after that?
And another one bites the dust . In this case Thomas Cook never moved with the times relying on the name. The closure of these high st shops is accelerating with 2,400 gone in 2018 alone. Online is where it is now.
Good. Can't stand folk who go abroad for the holidays as it means loads of family either have to shell out shitloads of not go.
What happens if somebody is due to fly back at the end of the week?
I think they should've been saved personally. It'll cost the government £600m to repatriate the flights, and loads of people will miss out on pre-booked flights and packages. Instead just give it the £200m baillout and help oversee a restructuring to be more up with the times. Now it's just waste for everyone.
Crazy that the upper management took huge bonuses a few months ago and they must have known the company was in trouble. It is always the customer and the workers who get stung while those at the top siphon off their cut months in advance.
As for going bust overnight they would have known months in advance about the situation but kept their mouths shut and carried on taking bookings and people’s money. Not just a few quid but would have been thousands per booking earning cash in their bank.
Too many shareholders and management taking out of the pot and they have killed the golden goose now.
As for going bust overnight they would have known months in advance about the situation but kept their mouths shut and carried on taking bookings and people’s money. Not just a few quid but would have been thousands per booking earning cash in their bank.
Too many shareholders and management taking out of the pot and they have killed the golden goose now.
Exactly.
Thenfigure i saw to repatriate the flights was £100m. Also i read the company needed another £900m from a foreign source which collage and the proposed bailout figure wouldn't have been enough.
There is no point bailing out a business model that has no future.
They had the £900m already agreed, the creditors just wanted £200m from the british government as a guarantee. When Monarch failed the bill to the taxpayer was in the hundreds of millions I believe.
The figure that was quoted was £600m to repatriate all the flights, but some of the package holidays are insured by Atos which would lower that figure.
Either way a bit ridiculous that the UK taxpayer loses out on hundreds of millions each time a travel agent or airline goes bust.
Yeah but at least they're paying their fair share of tax right?
I have been lucky as it was only my flights that were with Thomas Cook and I spoke to TUI today and I still get to go on my holiday but on the 7th of Oct instead now. I feel sorry for all the people who don't get to go on their holidays though, I think they will get refunds but its the stress of it and also the disappointment of not going on holiday.
Damn that sucks. Have they indicated on when/if you'll receive a full refund?
Is TUI at risk of going the same way anytime soon? Thinking of booking a holiday with them for next year.
They had debts of £1.7bn - bailing them out would be pissing money against the wall.
They've been a growing concern for years. This was more about when, not if.
I heard that they starting taking people from Loughborough to Ilfracombe for a shilling or something (I made up the example place names, but it was some such unremarkable journey, nothing about Egypt.)
I would look to avoid, they've issued a profit warning earlier this year.
There have been various warnings over the state of the company. There was talk in May of their shares being worthless because of the crippling debt that looked likely to put them under.
Well, TUI would get Thomas cook customers I guess now, so they might survive for a while?
Nothing is guaranteed, the issue is with their business model.
Saved for what? The business model is failing.. it would have prolonged their suffering is all.
If TC no longer exists then insurance policies etc are kaput so I’d imagine it’s something like that
Not in a comparable time, from my experience. I prefer the travel Office cause I want to get the Job done quickly. Also insurance-wise you are much better off, at least according to German law.
Not soonreally. They had a decent Profit 2018 and are still expecting positive, albeit much lower profits this year.
Funny how capitalists go full socialist mode when their business goes to crap.
Way of the world mate, rich cnuts get richer and walk away Scot free and the little guy gets shafted. Shit gets passed downwards until someone has no choice but to eat it.
Some info there about ATOL and ABTA. Had a friend who worked for a travel agency and consequently it was drummed into us to always make sure we were ATOL/ABTA protected. Never travelled without it.
Thomas Cook no longer has a fleet They were impounded.
I know. That is why I said they will able to survive a bit longer.
But if they still have profits, maybe they adapted a bit better than TC
Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
I wonder how long it'll take for the CEO of TC to give up his own money to help pay to get stranded people back?
Longer really when you think about it, pre-internet my old man would always use teletext holidays, i remember him finding a fortnight in Tunisia For four of us half board including flights and transfers for around £500 once.
Was anybody also utterly gobsmacked by the figure of 150,000 people currently on holiday with Thomas cook?
150,000 people is an awful lot of people who have been ripped off and clearly don't shop around for deals. It's no wonder so many people have crippling debts.
150,000 people is an awful lot of people who have been ripped off and clearly don't shop around for deals. It's no wonder so many people have crippling debts.
Aircraft licences and insurance were all void the minute they went under.
I think you have misread. 60m was the figure to cover Monarch, TC will be around 100m. Much of which will be covered by the ATOL fund that all tour operators pay into. Its at around 170m right now.
Even of the government did bail them out they would be back here again in a few years. You can't bail out every failing business.
Except that the company has not disappeared, it has ceased to trade. It is still a legal entity. Liquidators will come in and sell its, considerable, assets to repay a portion of the creditors, but there is still £1.5B hole in the balance sheet.
The other thing, about impounding the aircraft, does not make sense either. The costs of bringing everyone back to where they are supposed to be are borne either by ATOL or HM Govt, not the company. It's a waste of money to charter aircraft when you have a perfectly good fleet already available, where all you have to pay for is fuel, landing fees & cabin crew.
my first thought was how the feck did they go bust if that many people are on one of their holidays in September?
you'd think they were raking it in
Had no idea they actually owned an airline. That will feck you.
Putting the company into liquidation is the same thing as disappearing. Licences and insurance are now invalid.
Plus, many aircraft have been impounded by airports over unpaid fees, and Thomas Cook only owns a handful of its fleet. The rest are leased and upon bankruptcy went back into the hands of their owners.
I doesn't work like that, you can't just impound stuff that doesn't belong to you. I don't even think a liquidator has been appointed yet. Nothing is invalidated which as already been paid for.
You make it sound like some sort of free for all.
150K is only the number of british people. With other nationalities it was around 600K. Madness really.
You might disagree but it doesn't mean you are right.
Airlines are not like other businesses. The regulations around operating them see to that.
Many of the aircraft have been impounded. Some airports are parking vehicles in front of them so they can't go anywhere.
The aircraft operating certificates are invalid as they no longer have staff to operate and maintain them safely, same for the insurance cover.
Many of the aircraft owners will be in the process of taking back possession.
It's all a big mess and will take weeks to unravel. The stranded travellers need repatriating now.