Thomas Cook tricky situation

Robin9

Jack - there were two different scenarios re TC.

1) The package holiday that was covered by ATOL - who are arranging flights at the end of the holiday.

2) Flights only - which are not covered.

Which one are you ?

Alan_Bowen

Although flights were not ATOL protected by TC and the CAA will not, therefore, be offering refunds for them, the CAA was ordered to repatriate those abroad for 14 days after the failure at no charge. Despite what has been suggested previously Thomas Cook Airlines was considered to be a scheduled airline and therefore airline failure insurance would be effective.

The problem with this type of insurance is that it is written in such a way that it is very, very hard to make a successful claim. It kicks in only if there is no other possibility of cover, so they insist you try the CAA ATOL scheme first, then your credit or debit card issuer and only then will they consider claims

bransoj

To give some balance...i was in a party of 6 thats been in Lake Tahoe then San Francisco and had flights through Thomas Cook. We found out whilst in Lake Tahoe that TC had gone belly up. Followed the guidance on the CAA website which was to call Virgin or BA to get a flight back as close to our original date as possible. Initially only the Virgin number was available so tried that but after 2hrs on hold i gave up. Following morning i called BA, answered within 20 seconds and within 15 mins we were booked on a flight back just a few hours later than our scheduled flight. Only slight issue was it was back into Heathrow instead of Manchester. We were offered a flight up to Heathrow but it meant nearly 7 hours at Heathrow and bearing in mind we had a 23 month old and a nine year old with us we rang the taxi driver who was meant to be picking us up from Manchester who was happy to collect us from Heathrow and we paid a bit more.

We were checked in with no hassle at San Francisco despite a slight name issue on the booking as the phone agent had mixed up a name on our booking but it was sorted in a few mins. Cracking flight back from San Francisco setting off Saturday evening on one of their A380s with top class cabin crew who couldnt have done more when our 23 month old was sick all over herself and me. Was miles better than the service we got flying out with Thomas Cook. Eventually got home to Chesterfield about 7pm yesterday so about 5 hours later than we would have been but still before the flight from Heathrow to Manchester would have taken off.

The fact the flights were sorted so quickly meant we were able to enjoy the rest of our holiday knowing we would be able to get home and we just gave ourselves more time at the airport for coming back in case there were any issues. With so many folk to get home there is going to be the odd issue.

bradders1983

bransoj wrote: »

To give some balance...i was in a party of 6 thats been in Lake Tahoe then San Francisco and had flights through Thomas Cook. We found out whilst in Lake Tahoe that TC had gone belly up. Followed the guidance on the CAA website which was to call Virgin or BA to get a flight back as close to our original date as possible. Initially only the Virgin number was available so tried that but after 2hrs on hold i gave up. Following morning i called BA, answered within 20 seconds and within 15 mins we were booked on a flight back just a few hours later than our scheduled flight. Only slight issue was it was back into Heathrow instead of Manchester. We were offered a flight up to Heathrow but it meant nearly 7 hours at Heathrow and bearing in mind we had a 23 month old and a nine year old with us we rang the taxi driver who was meant to be picking us up from Manchester who was happy to collect us from Heathrow and we paid a bit more.

We were checked in with no hassle at San Francisco despite a slight name issue on the booking as the phone agent had mixed up a name on our booking but it was sorted in a few mins. Cracking flight back from San Francisco setting off Saturday evening on one of their A380s with top class cabin crew who couldnt have done more when our 23 month old was sick all over herself and me. Was miles better than the service we got flying out with Thomas Cook. Eventually got home to Chesterfield about 7pm yesterday so about 5 hours later than we would have been but still before the flight from Heathrow to Manchester would have taken off.

The fact the flights were sorted so quickly meant we were able to enjoy the rest of our holiday knowing we would be able to get home and we just gave ourselves more time at the airport for coming back in case there were any issues. With so many folk to get home there is going to be the odd issue.

Being offered a flight same day is very lucky. Mates of mine were only offered one next day from LA, and I have seen two cases out of Las Vegas where people have only been offered flights 4 and 7 days later respectively, to the "wrong" airport.

bransoj

bradders1983 wrote: »

Being offered a flight same day is very lucky. Mates of mine were only offered one next day from LA, and I have seen two cases out of Las Vegas where people have only been offered flights 4 and 7 days later respectively, to the "wrong" airport.

No idea then but i cant say anything other than the whole process was pretty easy and worked fine. Could be down to location and time we were due to come back, could also be that we had a 23 month old and a 9yr old with us which helped out case or it might just be that we called in quite quickly and got sorted as soon as we could. It may also have been down to the fact that it just so happened BA flew the times quite close to the Thomas Cook flights. Think we should have flown out at 2:30pm and there were BA flights to Heathrow at 4:30pm and 7:30pm. They only offered us the 7:30pm one so suspect the 4:30pm flight was full.

photome

Friend of mine came home yesterday from Cyprus on a thomas cook plane at the same time as originally scheduled and to the same airport

bradders1983

photome wrote: »

Friend of mine came home yesterday from Cyprus on a thomas cook plane at the same time as originally scheduled and to the same airport

Indeed, however all customers in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York (with the exception of one flight) have been told to ring BA and Virgin up and get on one of their planes free of charge, however they obviously have their own customers to deal with so space is limited, hence people being offered 4/7 day delays to get home (to the wrong airport)

bagand96

photome wrote: »

Friend of mine came home yesterday from Cyprus on a thomas cook plane at the same time as originally scheduled and to the same airport

Would have been an aircraft that Thomas Cook had leased from SmartLynx or Avion Express. These were operated in Thomas Cook colours, with Thomas Cook cabin crew, although pilots and aircraft were actually from one the two carriers mentioned.

Because they weren’t actually TCX aircraft they weren’t impounded and can still be flown. For the repatriation flights they are now technically leased to Titan Airways and are operating under Titan flight numbers. Interestingly the Thomas Cook cabin crew are still operating on these aircraft, allegedly without knowing if they’ll even get payed for it and who by.