thomas cook holidays

totallybroke_2

so i called to my local thomas cook yesterday to get some prices, my patner said to the girl 'now are you sure yous arent gonna go bust' (i nearly died) she said 'no, we have merged with co op travel and rather than have 2 shops opposite each other in a street for example, we have just been closing excess shops'

hmmm dunno what to think!!

stephb34

totallybroke wrote: »

so i called to my local thomas cook yesterday to get some prices, my patner said to the girl 'now are you sure yous arent gonna go bust' (i nearly died) she said 'no, we have merged with co op travel and rather than have 2 shops opposite each other in a street for example, we have just been closing excess shops'

hmmm dunno what to think!!

That is true Thomas Cook have bought the co op and they are getting rid of shops where there are too many on the same high street. Maybe shelling out money for them is whats put TC in this mess.

To all the gloaters who want Thomas Cook to go under, be prepared to pay a damm site more for your holidays than you do now cause the TUI group will have no competition hardly and be able to charge what they want, then you'll wish you'd supported TC a bit more.

budgetflyer

TC and TUI have operated like a cartel for years

cazcam

In September 2011 we booked our holiday to Turkey for 2012. Our flights are from Humberside and it was a Thomas Cook airline flight with good daytime flights times. In fact it was the same flight we went on in 2011. I have just had an email to say our flight has changed. We are now flying with Pegasus Airways and it is a night time flight, leaving Turkey at 6.00am. This will be a nightmare with the kids being up all night. We should have been flying back at 2.30pm on the original flights. I have phoned customer services who were very helpful, but told me that they have changed a number of Thomas Cook flights to use other arlines recently. I asked if this was as a result of the economic climate and she said yes, this was a factor, however they they have to have planes in for maintenance? They have said we can change our holiday one week either side of our dates if we want to fly from Doncaster which flys back in the afternoon (for the same price as the original booking), however she warned me that the same could happen with that flight?

Just wondered if anyone else had been told this?

tamiami

Thomas Cook are still in serious difficulties and running at a loss. How long can they carry on like this? And how long will the banks keep bailing them out?

stephb34

tamiami wrote: »

Thomas Cook are still in serious difficulties and running at a loss. How long can they carry on like this? And how long will the banks keep bailing them out?

And you know this because

1. Your on the board of directors

2. Your a major shareholder

3. You read a lot of the crap thats written in the papers and on
the news.

4. Or you work for the opposition and are muck raking.

Unless im mistaken the banks haven't bailed them out since before christmas, so they're not keep bailing them out.
Sales at the moment are pretty steady, seeing as they've cut capacity by 10% and they were 8% up on sales before christmas all in all things aren't too bad. I didn't see it myself so don't know the full tale but some travel person was saying good things about TC on breakfast telly on tuesday.
Did you read the papers in the last few days where thomsons aren't performing so well either, maybe its something called the Recession.

Sam Weihagen says TC have sold 42% of its summer hols and Thomsons only 35% !!

mick_vandick

Thomas Cook are still in serious difficulties and running at a loss. How long can they carry on like this? And how long will the banks keep bailing them out?

eh?

And you know this because

1. Your on the board of directors

lol!
Well said Steph!

vodkachick68

I have a holiday booked with thomas cook for august. I am not at all concerned or worried that they will go under. I pay a bit of each month to make it easier for me to budget. I personally think quite a few retail companies are finding things a bit difficult in the current climate,but from what i can see thomas cook are in no worse position than any other travel company.
I hope thomas cook continue to go from strength to strength and i for one will book with them again in the future!!

Standingtall

vodkachick68 wrote: »

I have a holiday booked with thomas cook for august. I am not at all concerned or worried that they will go under. I pay a bit of each month to make it easier for me to budget. I personally think quite a few retail companies are finding things a bit difficult in the current climate,but from what i can see thomas cook are in no worse position than any other travel company.
I hope thomas cook continue to go from strength to strength and i for one will book with them again in the future!!

I could not agree more, well said:j
I especially get sick of these so superior feeling people who sniffly criticise people who prefer independant travel and look down on those who travel package.

I have been in India, through work, for the last 7 days. My luggage has yet to catch up with me. Wow wee - isn't independant travel fantastic! I am an old hand now at this travelling malarky, and you know what? I cannot wait for my Thomas Cook two week package to Arillas (NW Corfu) this summer. No stress, no hunting for taxi transfers, no lost luggage (I can usually actually see it get on the plane at my local airport:rotfl:), English rep should I need one. Blooming fantastic!

I actually have been told my luggage is now at the aiprort for collection (New Delhi) - I fly homw this evening!:rotfl:When I get back I will have to go through a lengthy claims procedure with Air France in order to gain recompense for my expenses. What a nightmare.

Added to this, I have many friends who are rich, poor, manual, professional, etc, who book their holidays by various means. Some have lost flights, hotels, money (Crown currency) - a large majority of these people are now going back to package.

I sincerely hope TC find there way back to profitability. It is a tough climate out there but seeing long established companies go out of business will not help the holiday industry in any way whatsoever.

Moneybot

I do love the way this thread has polarised into pro and anti Thomas Cook and package holidays in general. A reported loss of £91m in the first quarter does not fill ones heart with glee but probably more to worry about if you are a share holder.
Would like this bit explained though:-
"I especially get sick of these so superior feeling people who sniffly criticise people who prefer independant travel and look down on those who travel package."
How are these people travelling then as they criticise independent travel and look down on those who travel package?