Thomas Cook - what you need to know - MSE News

silvercar

I would like to welcome new posters to the MSE forum. Sorry if it is a concern that has brought you to join us, but hopefully you will find some answers and support here. Please take a look around other boards on the forum and do stick around.

Browntoa

trev1865 wrote: »

i need to speak with a live person at thomas cook.all phone contact numbers are messages only.any ideas?

Any questions you have need to be directly to hotels etc that were booked on your trip if you want answers.

Any TC flights are gone , any transfer are gone ( unless 3rd party , again contact directly) .

cwaite

N4t4lie wrote: »

Not sure if you have seen the update on their web page yet. Says they will refund flight only bookings in 60 days. They will only 'try' to find alternative flights for those on packages with ATOL cover.

Let's hope Lastminute.com have finally learned from the collapse of other holiday companies to give a good service when this happens, when others went under they were pretty terrible.

I had a twitter DM back from them this morning which says


"We will check for the refund from the Airline and get back to you, It might take at least 60 days for an update"


This doesn't sound promising, if they have got to go the liquidated Airline for the refund! I would assume that as I booked with Lastminute.com then my contract is with them and not TC. Therefore they should give me a refund!

Alan_Bowen

For passengers booked with other tour companies, not Thomas Cooks, but using TC Airlines, you need to contact your tour company not TC. TUi, for example, has said this morning they will arrange alternative flights for their passengers. That is likely to be the case for many other operators as well, particularly if your flights are booked beyond 6th October

Nala89

Just a quick one, I have Direct Debits which are ATOL protected but I had some payments using a debit card, should I be able to claim these payments back using the chargeback scheme? I think I can (reading on Martin's Chargeback article) but my bank are saying I need to lump it in with my ATOL claim?

teezie

We booked with Love Holidays, only our flights were with TC, we have ATOL certificate. Yesterday they were trying to rebook people, today we've heard (all via social media) that our holiday is cancelled as there are 'simply no flights available'. However I can go to their website and book the exact same holiday with same flight times, but with flights provided by TUI, the kicker being that the flight prices are now more than the total cost of our original holiday, which is I guess why they won't rebook us. Very annoying all round.

Also we were due to pay last instalment (by credit card) automatically on Saturday, I guess we need to figure some way of cancelling that?

N4t4lie

cwaite wrote: »

I had a twitter DM back from them this morning which says


"We will check for the refund from the Airline and get back to you, It might take at least 60 days for an update"


This doesn't sound promising, if they have got to go the liquidated Airline for the refund! I would assume that as I booked with Lastminute.com then my contract is with them and not TC. Therefore they should give me a refund!

Unfortunately Lastminute will have to go through all their bookings and have to say up to 60 days as a maximum time, someone has to be at the end of the queue I am afraid, it may not be you. It is likely they are dealing with each effected customer with those due to travel in the next few weeks being prioritised. In this situation I know it is hard, but you will need to be patient. Yes your contract is with Lastminute and therefore you need to wait for them to obtain the refund, they will need to do cross referencing with the administrators; previous experience says the money for you refund will be available and you will not be left out of pocket. When other holiday companies have gone under most people have reported getting refunds within two months and given the situation that's not a bad result for consumers.

N4t4lie

Nala89 wrote: »

Just a quick one, I have Direct Debits which are ATOL protected but I had some payments using a debit card, should I be able to claim these payments back using the chargeback scheme? I think I can (reading on Martin's Chargeback article) but my bank are saying I need to lump it in with my ATOL claim?

Chargeback should generally only be used when there is no other means of getting a refund. When LowCost went under for example a lot of people used chargeback as there was no ATOL protection and we were all glad we could. If for some unknown reason ATOL don't refund your payments in full then use chargeback for the payments made on the card, but that seems very unlikely and won;t get you a full refund if other payments were made by DD.

Anyone covered by ATOL should not be using chargeback.

Nala89

Thanks for the advice. I'll go through the ATOL claim service

N4t4lie

teezie wrote: »

We booked with Love Holidays, only our flights were with TC, we have ATOL certificate. Yesterday they were trying to rebook people, today we've heard (all via social media) that our holiday is cancelled as there are 'simply no flights available'. However I can go to their website and book the exact same holiday with same flight times, but with flights provided by TUI, the kicker being that the flight prices are now more than the total cost of our original holiday, which is I guess why they won't rebook us. Very annoying all round.

Also we were due to pay last instalment (by credit card) automatically on Saturday, I guess we need to figure some way of cancelling that?

This happens I am afraid, depending on what level of ATOL cover the agent has will limit how much extra they can spend on replacement flights for customers.

If the card payment is on an automatic charge your best bet is to contact Love Holidays to get it stopped. I am sure that if they know your holiday is cancelled they can't take the final payment. It is up to them to refund you the cost, so makes no sense to take any more money from you.

It may take a bit of time, but be patient you will not be left out of pocket.