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

luci

Quentin wrote: »

and they are removed from the ATOL permitted list with immediate effect:

I can't see where it states "they are removed from the ATOL permitted list with immediate effect".

Flight only booking made on the website have never been ATOL bonded so this is nothing new. However flight only bookings made at a TC shop may be covered.

Quentin

How's this for confidence from a Bank that is amongst the 17 they are trying to get help from:

One of their biggest shareholders (Lloyds Banking Group) has sold off nearly half their shareholding (at a considerable loss).

http://www.thomascookgroup.com/news-item?item=844405602790512

They have been decreasing their holding over the last few weeks:

http://www.thomascookgroup.com/news-item?item=808263452984393

dickydonkin

miamoo wrote: »

Great post. Also wanted to add if we dont support thomas cook, and keep booking, they could go under. That would be terrible for holiday prices, first choice/thomson would effectively have a monopoly and could charge what they liked.

And it looks like the sharks are waiting for the feeding frenzy:

Source - Travelmole

Thomson looks to calm consumer nerves with new ad campaign
'You're in safe hands' says Thomas Cook rival.

richardw

Another source http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2011/11/25/38886/thomson+campaign+says+youre+in+safe+hands.html

bagand96

Quentin wrote: »

This one does:

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2011/11/25/38888/thomas-cook-chief-overwhelmed-by-support.htm
Quote:
Flight-only charter seats bought from Flythomascook.com are not Atol protected.

Flight only seats bought on flythomascook.com have never been ATOL
protected. Same as booking flight only with Thomson, Jet2, Monarch etc

TC haven't been removed from any ATOL protection.

bagand96

dickydonkin wrote: »

And it looks like the sharks are waiting for the feeding frenzy:

Source - Travelmole

Thomson looks to calm consumer nerves with new ad campaign
'You're in safe hands' says Thomas Cook rival.

Quite sad but the world we live in I guess. Ryanair have ran newspaper ads "bye bye Thomas Cook" and lowcostholidays caused a stink with their ad.

fawny

It is a sad world we live in & it's stuff like that from TUI et al that could cause it to go under. Then they can put the costs of their holiday sky high. It's driving me mad. Long live Thomas Cook please.

Quentin

bagand96 wrote: »

Flight only seats bought on flythomascook.com have never been ATOL

Yes they have!

(You may be thinking of the airline website which never gave atol protection - thomascookairlines.co.uk)

It seems there is confusion about which of their sites offer ATOL protection:

Thomas Cook acknowledged there has been confusion about consumer protection of flight-only sales. A spokeswoman said: “Flight-only charter seats bought from Flythomascook.com are not Atol protected. But flight-only sales through Gold Medal are fully protected."

rlc22

bagand96 wrote: »

Quite sad but the world we live in I guess. Ryanair have ran newspaper ads "bye bye Thomas Cook" and lowcostholidays caused a stink with their ad.

I think this was prompted by the number of comments from people across the internet who thought that Thomas Cook was part of Tui and Thomson's sister company.

So not trying to hammer in the nails, but just to make it clear to people that they're a different company.

ETA: I was obviously talking about the Thomson advert.

I'm not impressed with Ryanair and Lowcostholidays approaches and they deserve the legal action that TC are threatening IMHO.

bagand96

Quentin wrote: »

Originally Posted by bagand96
Flight only seats bought on flythomascook.com have never been ATOL

Yes they have!

(You may be thinking of the airline website which never gave atol protection - thomascookairlines.co.uk)

It seems there is confusion about which of their sites offer ATOL protection:

Ok. I'll concede on one point. I said flythomascook.com have never been ATOL bonded. This is incorrect. flythomascook.com bookings before 1st November 2010 were ATOL bonded. However Thomas Cook stopped ATOL protection for flight only from 1st November 2010 - over a year ago! Nothing unusual, Thomson operate in the same way for flight only bookings.

flythomascook.com not being ATOL bonded has nothing to do with the events in the press this week. My point still stands - Thomas Cook have not been dropped from any ATOL protection - the various arms of TC provide/don't provide the same ATOL protection now as they did a week ago. The financial announcements this week has not changed Thomas Cook's ATOL situation.