MSE News: Q&A: How safe are Thomas Cook holidays?

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Many worried travellers have contacted MoneySavingExpert.com to find out their rights if the troubled firm goes bust ..."

Read the full story:
Q&A: How safe are Thomas Cook holidays?

ladyjune

I recently won £500 of Thomas Cook vouchers so do not have a proof of purchase. I assume I would be better to use them quick just in case?:(

richardw

ladyjune wrote: »

I recently won £500 of Thomas Cook vouchers so do not have a proof of purchase. I assume I would be better to use them quick just in case?:(

Can you spend them at Thomas Cook travel agents on anything they sell or are they restricted to TC tour operator package holidays?

ladyjune

richardw wrote: »

Can you spend them at Thomas Cook travel agents on anything they sell or are they restricted to TC tour operator package holidays?

I can spend them on any holiday not just Thomas Cook ones but not travellers cheques/currency etc.

Mike.Stones_Co-op_Travel

Thomas Cook is not broke! It will probably make £300 million this year. If it ends up with an "overdraft" of £990 million, then that is less than 4 years income. I am sure many of you fellow MSE have a mortgage plus debts equalling 4 years of your salary.

What matters, is whether you can make the payments on the loan. Thomas Cook operates in many different countries, and has assets of £6,000 million - 6 times the amount it is borrowing.

It is a profitable business, fully bonded, and will continue to function! I have shown my faith by buying 5,000 shares yesterday, even though their High Street shops are often an annoying competitor to my own business!

downs523

I am worried, I have recently booked and paid for my honeymoon which is in feb 2012 to Mexico at a tune of just over 3k. Booked couple months ago and paid remaining balance a couple of weeks ago.... What should I do? Ring and try and cancel or just hope they honour it... Will I get charged if I request a refund??

Shrewdmoneysaver

Mike.Stones_Co-op_Travel wrote: »

Thomas Cook is not broke! It will probably make £300 million this year. If it ends up with an "overdraft" of £990 million, then that is less than 4 years income. I am sure many of you fellow MSE have a mortgage plus debts equalling 4 years of your salary.

What matters, is whether you can make the payments on the loan. Thomas Cook operates in many different countries, and has assets of £6,000 million - 6 times the amount it is borrowing.

It is a profitable business, fully bonded, and will continue to function! I have shown my faith by buying 5,000 shares yesterday, even though their High Street shops are often an annoying competitor to my own business!

The share price has not dropped by accident. A lot of people and entities will have taken large losses as it dropped rather than risking ending up with nothing. If the shares were worth having they would be going up again significantly. I note your bravery in buying shares but there has always been a thin line between being brave and foolhardy.

If I could not get anything like a Thomas Cook holiday offering and I was sure I was protected I might take a risk and go with them. Otherwise I would go elsewhere. Getting your money back does not compensate for the disappointment and the risk of being unable to book anything you want at short notice. ATOL protected holidaymakers already abroad have encountered huge problems in the past with hotels demanding money or evicting them because they are worried they will not be paid.

Quentin

Mike.Stones_Co-op_Travel wrote: »

their High Street shops are often an annoying competitor to my own business!

You break the rules by advertising your company name in your name!

Quentin

In the article, Martin says:

in the circumstances right now, if I were booking from Thomas Cook in its role as a tour operator, if it had Atol protection and offered a much better deal than anyone else, as I've got annual travel insurance - and I would likely pay on a credit card to give me section 75 on top - I would book with that treble protection boost.

Which seems to be saying you have protection, so book with the knowledge you can get your money back if they collapse.

But that isn't any good if they go bust and you lose your holiday! It took many months to get money back when xl went bust, and prices zoomed up so getting the same holiday at the same price was impossible if you could afford to pay again to get the holiday you wanted (and await the refund).

Shrewdmoneysaver

Quentin wrote: »

You break the rules by advertising your company name in your name!

Following the Thomas Cook and Co-op High Street Travel business merger it is expected 2 hundred closures will be announced

indierocker85

I want to firstly make absolutely clear, I am not in the travel industry and have no connections with it whatsoever.

I went on holiday in May this year with Thomas cook, and have in the past and I am confident that they can get through this.

It is very likely that with the rising cost of living, cost of fuel etc less people are holidaying. Also there have been a lot of natural disasters and some man made disasters in some popular countries, such as Egypt uprise, Thai floods etc etc. This will no doubt have had a knock on effect on bookings etc.

Now being a plc, whenever anything goes wrong, suddenly traders panic and the media jumps up and says "Thomas cook in trouble" etc etc.

The fact is, it is very likely in my opinion the company can make it through this. All holidays are ATOL and ABTA protected and most people have insurance too.

However, the stupid idiots that are the British Media make the situation so much worse by scaremongering. Frankly, people will now be very wary of booking with the company, and if everybody chooses not to book for that reason, then TC won't have a way to see its way through this downturn. Which would be massively unfortunate, as we would potentially stand to lose what is the second largest tour operator in Europe. Meaning it would have a massive effect on the Travel Industry in the UK, huge effect on hoteliers etc elsewhere in the world, and massive job losses. We should be doing our best to ensure there isn't this ridiculous panic forced upon people, and thus they will continue to book with the company as they would of done before, the company will gradually get back on its feet, and will live on. If we did hypothetically lose this company, the effects really don't bare thinking about.

I can say for one though I would have no qualms about going into my local agent and booking a Thomas cook holiday tomorrow. In fact, we are looking at the moment for our honeymoon. I will say that due to previous experiences I would always choose TC over Thomson any time.

Lets all do our bit and help see that this company doesn't get into futher trouble, due to our pathetic drivvel pushing newspapers and news channels.