Crap....due to go on a Thomas Cook holiday next week...

[Singlebutmarried]

.....and it looks like they’re going under

I’ve got travel insurance so alls not lost.

Flight only bookings aren’t covered by ATOL protection. you would need to claim back via your credit card company.

Who funds Atol cos this is going to be a huge bill if they go tits up.

I can’t see anyone booking with them going forward so even if they are saved now, it will be temporary.

news.sky.com/story/thomas-cook-to-meet-creditors-in-final-bid-for-1bn-rescue-11816496

I guess be grateful it’s a holiday and not your job. A friend of mine is facing losing her job

I keep reading this. It's ok for posters to be concerned for their holidays as well

Darbs

Who funds Atol cos this is going to be a huge bill if they go tits up

2.50 on every package tour sold, www.caa.co.uk/ATOL-protection/Air-travel-trust/About-the-Air-Travel-Trust/ says it has 170million surplus, which suggests it would have enough, but would cost a lot of it - depending on the various estimates of exactly how much it would cost.

Of course, Monarch also went bust during Tory party conference and there unprotected people were also repatriated, if similar happened, that would increase the costs but ATOL funds would not be used. Possibly it was for simplicity (the repatriation flights were mostly on the same schedule as the regular so little extra cost to take everyone and easier than validating who could be taken) or possibly for UK political reasons.

So whilst it shouldn't be a UK taxpayer expense to repatriate, it may be some 'cos there's an election coming up.

There’s a last ditch meeting tomorrow morning at 9. I reckon news will filter through a few hours after that. The tone of the TC customer support messages on Twitter have gone from “business as usual” to “our packages are ATOL-protected”. I think collapse is inevitable. We’ve been told by our tour operator that TC will contact us if our flight is cancelled, but a tweet in response to my husband when he asked TC to confirm that this was the process was that we would need to keep an eye on the ATOL website. So this lack of clarity as to process isn’t exactly helping either.

Cba to look up the weather at my holiday destination, been checking it every day as I’m looking forward to it and now it just makes me nervous. Argh.

Pile of crap all round, frankly.

There isn’t enough money in ATOL to deal with a failure the size of Thomas Cook. ATOL is managed by CAA so the government would pick up the bill.

My parents in law are away at the min having flown using thomas cook, their own apartment sk flight only, their flight isn’t atol protected.

I suppose we’ll see them when we see them!

There isn’t enough money in ATOL to deal with a failure the size of Thomas Cook

CAA currently estimating 100 million (the 600million was part of PR to make the UK government bailout seem more acceptable) and it has 170million surplus, so there is money there.

I was in a similar situation a couple of years back when monarch went bust 2 weeks before we were due to fly. It was a Thomas Cook package holiday but with monarch flights. Initially Thomas Cook said they'd find us alternative flights, they didn't and we had to cancel it, about 4 or 5 days before we were due to go. I'm pretty sure our refund came through within a couple of weeks though as we went on holiday (tui package) about 2 weeks later which I'm almost certain we paid for with the refund.

Either way the refund was much quicker than we expected it.

Yes. Technically if you have booked a package through another operator who have put you on a TC flight you should be fine, realistically though, TUI etc can't pull flights out of their arses at the drop of a hat.

Bugger me. I have a family holiday booked with them for October half term!🙈 if they go under will I get my money back????

Have you booked flights only, a package without flight or a package with flights?

It's just a very frustrating time that our flight is meant to leave 😬 if we were flying on Tuesday and knew 100% that thomas cook had gone on the Monday. I would book somewhere else on the cc and wait for the refund of our thomas cook holiday. But it looks like we will be waking up at 4am on monday to a yes or no. I'm trying to manage the kids expectations. It's going to a logistical nightmare for the company's who are going to have to pick up after if thomas cook go.

I'm in flipping Croatia and just hope we will get home at the end of our holiday

I’ve just bitten the bullet and booked a replacement holiday for October half term. Which could either prove to be a stroke of genius or an expensive mistake. It does mean I can stop worrying and move on. And that we’re definitely going to get a holiday - which is pretty important to me right now.

Just waiting for some news today hopefully.

We will get our money back one way or another, which is great and we’re fortunate enough we can rebook to go (which we’ll be doing in the next couple of days if it all goes tits up)

The only real disappointment will be that we can go to the hotel that we’ve been looking forward to for bloomin months.

We have flights only with Thomas Cook to fly out to Turkey in October half term, but returning with a different airline (booked ages ago, worked out cheaper that way). I'm trying to work out if my insurance will cover the cost of us having to book new flights to get there - called insurance yesterday who confirmed they'd refund the original flights if we couldn't get it back off the credit card company, but the lady wasn't sure about being able to claim the cost of new flights and the claims dept was closed when she tried to put me through. I'll be at work when they open tomorrow so new flight prices might have rocketed if news has broken.

Wording says this:

Section Q – Travel disruption cover
Before you reach your destination:
• Up to £5,000 (excursions up to £250) for cancellation
or abandonment of your trip after 12 hours delay or
additional expenses to reach your destination.
• Missed departure expenses up to £1,000.

Anyone in the travel insurance industry who could clarify?

Thank you!

Onion

If you paid by credit card, the extra cost of replacement flights is a consequential loss and yes you are covered. It will probably be better to go via the credit card as there will be no excess and your insurance company will probably expect you to try them first anyway.

We had Monarch flights booked just after they went bust and luckily I had the time and the foresight to book replacement flights early that morning. I've posted more about this near to the top of this thread, so won't repeat myself with the detail. I had to get the money back in two bits, the original £300 and the extra £200 but it was a bit like pulling teeth, but if you understand your rights, and get advice from MSE, you will be refunded.

My advice to you and anyone else facing loss of flight only bookings paid for by credit card is to look for new flights straight away if any announcement is made that TC go bust, because they'll get very expensive, very quickly for up to and including October half term and then sell out.

I also expect that, if they do go bust in the short term, it will be about 4 am tomorrow morning because that's what happened with Monarch because they have to cancel the air operators licence and they have to do it when there are no flights in the air.

So I'd be prepared to look for which flights you could book today and then get up at 5/6 am tomorrow morning, see the news and if they've gone, get booking flights straight away. If you wait until even 8/9 am it could be too late.

I’m looking on line at replacement holidays.

On the beach are giving good deals, but the flights are mostly Thomas cook.

Now in the past I’ve not paid much attention to the carrier, but if you are looking, please be aware that you could inadvertently book a TC flight.

Link to Moneysavingexpert article on what to do if you're affected, updated today.

Thank you Barbara. The Thomas Cook outbound flights were only £37 each (total booking just over £100 for three of us) so I have a feeling the credit card company won't pay out because it has to be each single flight that costs £100 or more - which means I'm looking at my insurance to pay out for any new flights I have to book - given the wording in the policy, what do you think?!

Thank you so much!

My replacement holiday is definitely all with Jet2 (no TC flights). I moved our departure date forward by a day, and switched the duration from 14 days to 13 days. Only £800 more than our original holiday (or £200 per person) - which isn’t bad less than 4 weeks out. Of course, if TC survive then I lose the cost of the original booking, but I decided I was prepared to take that risk.