Thomas Cook - what you need to know - MSE News

Alan_Bowen

Protect My Holiday were certainly not covering bookings with Thomas Cook Airlines in the weeks before failure because I tried to get cover. They tend to be an insurer of last resort and only pay out in cases where you don't have ATOL cover or Section 75 protection. If you had booked when they were protecting TC, please let us know if you make a successful claim

jackie_w

Can someone give me a bit of advice please?

We booked through Thomas Cook to go to New York on the 21st November. It’s says on the ATOL certificate Thomas Cook Scheduled ATOL No 1179 is protecting the trip.
We booked everything with them, flights, hotel, transfers from airport to hotel and back and our theatre tickets. I paid the deposit of £250 on my barclaycard credit card, and everything else was paid on my husbands barclaycard credit card. The flights were with Virgim/Delta. I called Virgin to see if our seats were still available, and they told us they couldn’t see any seats for us. We have now rebooked with someone else.

We received text messages from Barclaycard to say they realised we had made a payment to Thomas Cook and if we needed to make a claim to fill out a form and return it to them along with supporting documents. So we did that.

I just happened to call Barclaycard today to see if they could confirm if they had received the claim, to which I was told just claim via ATOL????

Can anyone confirm if this is correct? I did originally think this was what I would need to do but then with the text message we received from Barclaycard I thought I would just claim back under section 75 for the deposit and my husband would claim under section 75 for what he paid on his card?

bradders1983

No, this is the credit card company trying to weasel out of it. Accepted procedure for credit card payments is to claim via S75. However the fact 2 people have made payments may complicate it.

jackie_w

bradders1983 wrote: »

No, this is the credit card company trying to weasel out of it. Accepted procedure for credit card payments is to claim via S75. However the fact 2 people have made payments may complicate it.

In what way could it complicate things? I actually don’t know why I paid the deposit on my card I never use it???

bradders1983

jackie_w wrote: »

In what way could it complicate things? I actually don’t know why I paid the deposit on my card I never use it???

I have no idea, it may slow the process down if the holiday was in Name A and Name B had made payments. When Monarch went under I foolishly had paid the balance off using two credit cards instead of one (to get the S75 protection) and had the hassle of having to make two claims, I was asked by both CC companies why the total didnt match the balance of the holiday.

jackie_w

bradders1983 wrote: »

I have no idea, it may slow the process down if the holiday was in Name A and Name B had made payments. When Monarch went under I foolishly had paid the balance off using two credit cards instead of one (to get the S75 protection) and had the hassle of having to make two claims, I was asked by both CC companies why the total didnt match the balance of the holiday.

Ah right okay. I booked the holiday but it shows my husband as the 2nd passenger so not sure if that will make any difference but we did detail on his and my claim what they payments were and what amount was being claimed under my card so hopefully this will help?

bradders1983

All you can do is give the CC companies as much details as you can.

N4t4lie

jackie_w wrote: »

Can someone give me a bit of advice please?

We booked through Thomas Cook to go to New York on the 21st November. It’s says on the ATOL certificate Thomas Cook Scheduled ATOL No 1179 is protecting the trip.
We booked everything with them, flights, hotel, transfers from airport to hotel and back and our theatre tickets. I paid the deposit of £250 on my barclaycard credit card, and everything else was paid on my husbands barclaycard credit card. The flights were with Virgim/Delta. I called Virgin to see if our seats were still available, and they told us they couldn’t see any seats for us. We have now rebooked with someone else.

We received text messages from Barclaycard to say they realised we had made a payment to Thomas Cook and if we needed to make a claim to fill out a form and return it to them along with supporting documents. So we did that.

I just happened to call Barclaycard today to see if they could confirm if they had received the claim, to which I was told just claim via ATOL????

Can anyone confirm if this is correct? I did originally think this was what I would need to do but then with the text message we received from Barclaycard I thought I would just claim back under section 75 for the deposit and my husband would claim under section 75 for what he paid on his card?

I think Barclaycard were going to do the claims via chargeback rather then Section 75 in this instance. It may be that they have been told by the administrators to go through ATOL and to not process chargebacks. What happens with chargebacks when a company has gone under is that you essentially jump the creditor queue and all refunds are given from money held by the administrator. An ATOL claim comes from the ATOL fund and not the original company money now in the hands of the administrator.

If it was a Section 75 claim then they are basically saying use ATOL insurance rather then their insurance to claim as that has to save the bank money.

The change of policy by the bank is not unusual in the first week of a company going under and it can take time for policy to settle down. And yes I appreciate how frustrating it is to not be given clear information in the first instance. One way or another you will get a refund, but be patient refunds are never instant in these cases.

bradders1983

The amount of moaning on Twitter towards the CAA...dear god. People demanding to know what order direct debit refunds are done in, what precise day it will be done, along a host of other silly questions.

Should just make everyone submit an ATOL form and wait 2 months like in the good 'ol days.

pjjonah

I paid for flights in October with TC using a Halifax credit card a few months ago, so I can see that I'm eligible for a Section 75 dispute refund with them.

I logged my claim last Monday (23rd Sep) but heard nothing from them after that. I've just been on to them again and they're telling me the 'high volume' of disputes mean it might take up to 45 working days to get a resolution!?|?

Does anyone know if there is a time limit on their resolution or am I supposed to wait 2 months to get my money back?