Thomas Cook collapses, leaving thousands of travelers stranded

[Sepeng]

So do our local operators have insurance like this (ATOL)?
I still find travel agencies useful if it's for something like a one-hotel all inclusive beach holiday - Mauritius or something like that.

 

[rietrot]

So someone explain why you would be stranded on holiday if you have already fully paid for the holiday itself? I would have assumed that if you managed to get to your destination and lived a few days there, then you already have 1) a valid return flight, and 2) valid remaining hotel accommodation.

You might have paid the travel agency. But they didn't pay their suppliers or the airline for example.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Well done to Boris for refusing to bail out Thomas Cook. Private companies mustn't think they can rely on the public purse if they fail!

 

[gregmcc]

So do our local operators have insurance like this (ATOL)?
I still find travel agencies useful if it's for something like a one-hotel all inclusive beach holiday - Mauritius or something like that.

Depends on what package you got. Reading the article on CNN is says you are not covered by ATOL if you only booked a hotel through TC.

If you booked a Thomas Cook package: Travellers on an ATOL-protected holiday should have received an ATOL Certificate either by email or by post.

The CAA statement said the authority would figure out the bill with the hotels directly, and protected travelers should not make payments to their hotel unless instructed otherwise.

If you didn't book a package: Thomas Cook customers that only booked a hotel and no package will not be bailed out by the CAA. ATOL protection only applies to hotels when booked as part of an air-inclusive holiday package.

“Consequently, if you bought a hotel only, this will not be ATOL protected. You should contact your card issuer, bank, or travel insurer for advice on whether you can claim a refund,” the CAA said.

 

[krycor]

This will be the eventual fate of all businesses around the world, no matter how big, small or rich or poor. People today do not have the required business skills people before them had. The way businesses are operating today is not sustainable and a global crisis are now in the making.

Or competition wasn't as fierce as it is today.

I think the opposite.. there is no business as usual and people who can't keep up will struggle. People who "try" and run the company as the past are gonna fail.

Global crisis.. it's well on its way already. When i saw this headline i was like .. wow i guess this is the 1st of many coming for countries where government doesn't step in. US will do what they always do and flush the system with cash, much like EU and JP.

PS. QE is already scheduled or in process.

 

[buka001]

So someone explain why you would be stranded on holiday if you have already fully paid for the holiday itself? I would have assumed that if you managed to get to your destination and lived a few days there, then you already have 1) a valid return flight, and 2) valid remaining hotel accommodation. I assume they are just a travel operator/holiday organiser, or do they operate an airline and a hotel chain as well?

How can your return flight be valid on a plane that is grounded?

They operate their own planes, but not their own hotels.

 

[gregmcc]

^ This.

https://www.thomascookairlines.com/

Though you can only see a insolvency note now.

 

[Mystic Twilight]

How can your return flight be valid on a plane that is grounded?

They operate their own planes, but not their own hotels.

Hence the question, which rietrot seems to have answered, because I couldn't see how a large packaged holiday company can only sell holidays to destinations only its own planes can fly to. If you managed to fly one direction on a different airline that was booked through the company, why wouldn't the return be valid. Hence again the question.

 

[buka001]

Hence the question, which rietrot seems to have answered, because I couldn't see how a large packaged holiday company can only sell holidays to destinations only its own planes can fly to. If you managed to fly one direction on a different airline that was booked through the company, why wouldn't the return be valid. Hence again the question.

A majority of Thomas Cook's package holidays was done on its own aircraft.

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

I see they have 40+ planes sorted for today's returning passengers …… that repatriation speed

 

[buka001]

I see they have 40+ planes sorted for today's returning passengers …… that repatriation speed

This has been on the cards as a certainty for about a week or so. So I think the UK Civil Aviation Authority had already put a contingency plan in place and it was just a matter of green lighting it as soon as Thomas Cook announced its closure.

They were requisitioning aircraft from Malaysia a few days back.

 

[Gordon_R]

There is another thread where I quote a BBC article which answers almost all the questions raised above:
https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...ving-thousands-of-travelers-stranded.1047801/
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49791249

 

[gregmcc]

They have been planning for this:

The UK government's plan to repatriate 160,000 travelers has been codenamed Operation Matterhorn -- led by the Civil Aviation Authority, the Department for Transport, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and other British government agencies.

Most of the travelers are booked to return to the UK at some point over the next two weeks, and don't need to return today.

Operation Matterhorn is modelled on the successful repatriation of passengers after the collapse of UK based Monarch Airways. The final cost of that operation to British taxpayers was about 50 million pounds ($62.4 million).

The repatriation effort with Thomas Cook is about twice the size.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

Thomas Cook collapse: Repatriation to take two weeks

The Civil Aviation Authority launches the UK's biggest ever peacetime repatriation to bring more than 150,000 holidaymakers home.

news.sky.com

"Brexit is 'good' for the nation". RIiiiiiight!!

Err...it nearly went bust in 2011, long before the word "Brexit" was invented.

 

[deweyzeph]

The vast majority of people who book Thomas Cook package holidays are elderly people and low-income working class people. Everyone else just books their flights directly with a normal commercial airline, and organise their own AirBNB or hotel bookings. Thomas Cook's problems are mainly due to more and more people questioning the point of using a travel agent to book their holidays when it's so easy to just do it yourself.

 

[Zoomzoom]

Err...it nearly went bust in 2011, long before the word "Brexit" was invented.

nearly is not actually and they have been trying hard to recover, Brexit is one of the final major nails in the coffin. You can't recover an ailing tour business if no-one is travelling no matter what you do.

 

[buka001]

The vast majority of people who book Thomas Cook package holidays are elderly people and low-income working class people. Everyone else just books their flights directly with a normal commercial airline, and organise their own AirBNB or hotel bookings. Thomas Cook's problems are mainly due to more and more people questioning the point of using a travel agent to book their holidays when it's so easy to just do it yourself.

Yip. Made the mistake of booking a trip to Turkey with them a year ago. The flight was horrible. Never again.

 

[Beyond.Celsus]

All businesses eventually die or get eaten up.

I will believe that the day Coca-cola goes under

 

[Gordon_R]

This is not the end of travel agents, nor package tours. It is the end of one company that took on too much debt during a merger, and was never able to make the numbers add up...

 

[BBSA]

I will believe that the day Coca-cola goes under

They will, once their customers realise their products are killing them.