To think flights should be ATOL protected? Thomas Cook

[ShitFuckBastardBollocks]

Why is it just package holidays? Why not flights?

Booked my first ever family holiday and had no idea about ATOL protection not applying if you bought flights separately to the accommodation.

I got insurance.

Told this insurance does not cover airline bankruptcy/failure.

Called insurance and they said I cannot upgrade to Flight protection insurance because its now a known issue and it won't be valid

So I've spend 2600 on flights and my insurance is wank and I'm not ATOL protected.

So if I fly out and Thomas Cook go under how do I get home? I do not have the money to pay for flight s home

Does this mean I have to just abandon my holiday? :(

Ive been crying all afternoon.

This was supposed to be our first family holiday abroad and its just turned into hell

I paid the £100 deposit on my credit card then the rest by direct debit. That’s enough to cover he whole transaction so you might be ok just trying for a card with a very small limit OP.

I just failed the precheck for a vanquis card. The card for people with poor credit

Oh well.

Even if someone else on the holiday paid the £100 by credit card everyone on that booking would be ok

Thankyou it's.

If I have to rebook I will definitely take your advice x

Try checking your score on experian, and then do the credit card check. Might have some options for you.

Flights are currently protected under EU legislation. Our flight to Greece were delayed by 14 hrs. We received £1400 compensation. Google money saving expert.

Why the fuck should the tax payer bail out a travel company when the government wouldn’t bail out companies where jobs were lost!

The government didn’t bail out Monarch or BMI when they went bust recently, so it certainly isn’t going to bail out Thomas Cook.

If, as seems very likely, they do go bust in the next few days my sympathies are with the thousands of ordinary hard-working people who are going to lose their jobs as a result of mismanagement by directors who paid themselves huge six-figure salaries while ruining a once great business.

Not sure if this is of any use as slightly different scenario to ours but could be a useful starting point. Re our compensation, it took a few weeks to come through and obviously our flights were just delayed, not cancelled, but there may still be protection/cover somewhere.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/flight-delays/

Op, the government will get you back. Go on the holiday and take spare underwear and any medication, incase the next available flight isnt for a few days.

There is nothing you can do about it now, go, enjoy the nice weather/hotel/food you have paid for. Expect to be delayed by maybe a few days.
No one was left behind when Monarch collapsed.

What suppliers actually have Safi

It would be helpful to have a list of yes / no companies

I have never heard of it

Your flight is considered an EU flight (even if flying outside of the EU). You are also covered for flight cancellations. (We received more compensation than our flights had cost because the compensation is for a set amount). We booked flights/accomodation separately. Charter flight. Not sure if situation is different if a company goes bust. Personally I can't see why it would. If your flights are cancelled they are cancelled.

Those who pay nby credit card or have travel insurance are going to find that the best route if TC goes bust. If not and used debit card the charge back I postd earlier might work.
The EU compensation rules for late flights etc has a lot of get outs and I suspect those rules do not apply if a company goes bust and any way if it is bust it by definition has no money to pay you compensation.

Cancellation compensation under EU 261 is paid by the airline, so no good if they've gone bust.

Re SAFI, we had this and were booked to fly with Monarch 2 days after they went bust. It didn’t cover us as it only covered getting people home if they had travelled out.

I did pay by credit card though so got all the money back from them including the extra cost of replacement flights bought at short notice.

When Monarch went bust the repatriation covered everyone, not just package holiday customers, so it will probably be the same this time if they do go bust.

When are you due to fly OP? I suppose your problem is that if they go bust before you travel, you won't have money for replacement flights until you are refunded for the TC ones?

Look on moneysavingexpert, there's an article explaining your rights and how to do a chargeback. Can you cancel your accommodation without charge and then rebook it all when you've been refunded for another time?

Is there anyone who is booked on that could make a payment on a credit card?
I'm booked to fly out to Cyprus in 2 weeks for my wedding, I'm hoping it will go ahead. I know the holiday is atol protected but I don't know if the wedding package (through Thomas Cook) is protected too, so we may loose that

Martin Lewis write a article outlining everything you can/cannot claim, give that a read and fingers crossed you can atleast claim something back.

If you haven't gone yet, can you not just cancel your current travel insurance and buy an annual policy which also covers SAFI? Or will it not be covered? I know it's a specific exclusion for separate cover, but what about under a comprehensive policy?

LB it won't be covered. I phoned several insurers today and they all said the same thing. Any SAFI insurance taken out now won't cover Thomas Cook flights.

It’s only £1 you need to pay by credit card, the total cost needs to be above £100.
Everyone should get even a “bad credit” credit card for large purchases.

You can't buy insurance after the event, that makes perfect sense.

Honestly I'd only worry about it if they actually go bust. At the moment noone knows what will happen. It's sensible to plan ahead, but there's no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet.

I have flights booked next month with TC, also booked on a debit card. Watching the news with baited breath.

I wnat them to go bust.

Then I can get a charge back and be done with them.

Feel so sad for op & everyone else with booked holidays

SAFI - Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance. As others have said this covers the risk of an airline like easyJet, British Airways or whatever going under. It;s too late now to buy it for Thomas Cook as everyone knows it's touch and go.

The other thing to remember with SAFI is that many policies just give you a refund of what you paid. Which is great, but if you've booked flights to Malaga, leaving in a couple of days, have paid for accommodation and excursions and your airline goes under, the refund of what you paid months back won't be enough for a new flight tomorrow. This is why it's so important to actually check what you're covered for rather than doing what most people do and buy the cheapest policy. Cheap does not usually equal better.

We have a package booked with Thomas Cook leaving on 12th October - Scottish half term. We will get our money back as it's a package. But not right away. It's going to take weeks/months to sort it all out.

I have friends who work for them too and really hope they survive this crisis. But if they do, the whole business model needs to change. No more old-fashioned high street stores for a start.

When it happened with Monarch they repatriated all pax including flight only.

Imagine 'Operation Matterhorn' if sadly has to be executed will be much the same in reality.

'I wnat them to go bust.'

Cheers

I fucking well don't