Thomas Cook

[dragon]

Peacocks stores have entered administration. RBS pulled the plug on them causing the problem. Hope this doesn't happen to TC as their survival depends on RBS. TC were financially secure until April 2013 but if RBS can do this to Peacocks, which was one of the few retailers that did well over Christmas, then they can do it do other companies.

[Chris221273]

Their sales were up 15% over Xmas, but being £640 million in the red probably didn't help there cause!!
Hope TC don't go the same way, otherwise flight/holiday prices will go through the roof!!!

[dragon]

Their sales were up 15% over Xmas, but being £640 million in the red probably didn't help there cause!!
Hope TC don't go the same way, otherwise flight/holiday prices will go through the roof!!!

They owed Lloyds (who didn't have a problem) as well as RBS. RBS wanted a stake in the business and Peacocks refused, so they pulled the plug, so had nothing to do with the amount of debt. Just hope they don't do the same to Thomas Cook!

[JT]

I thought that tcook owed most of its debt to 4 German banks

[dragon]

That was the original £100m but it's been increased to £200m with RBS, Barclays, HSBC and Unicredit. Just hope that if RBS do something similar that one of the others will step in.

[JT]

Sorry Dragon I should have said the 800 million they already owed was to German banks and that is what confused me when I heard the UK government say they would not let them go under

Why not the company is owned by German banks so what does it have to do with the UK

[dragon]

They get the money I suppose from wherever they can to survive. To be honest I'm concerned about being in the situation again where a company has gone bust. Especially as we thought that this had been sorted. Still I suppose to be realistic no company is safe any more. It's just that less companies means higher prices. There is a welsh saying 'sdim pwynt mynd o flaen gofid' which roughly means there's no point worrying until it happens

[Keith]

We have been looking for tickets in August and TC have been the cheapest so far. I just havnt dared booked them as i dont know whether they can survive. I dont want to be in the same situation this summer as a lot of members where last year!!

[dragon]

Whoever you book with make sure you pay at least £100 with a credit card so that you'll have financial protection. After having our money for booked flights repaid and getting consequential losses back last year so quickly after Aegean went bust, I won't worry in future. I wouldn't be concerned about booking with TC as I think there probably isn't one company that's safe.

My comment on the TC situation was that we thought that they were financially secure until April 2013. Following what's happened to Peacocks a bank can recall the loan at any time so they're not as safe as we thought. If I was booking now and TC was the cheapest I'd definitely book with them. My reason for hoping that TC survives is that the more companies there are, the more competition there is and so keeping the prices down. Book your holiday and start your countdown

[Keith]

Cheers for that dragon. I did notice from reading the forum last year that if bookings were made with a credit card you could be fully refunded. I dont have a credit card but i do use a debit card. Do the same rules apply to debit cards i wonder?.At the end of the day we have our rooms booked for August and by hook or crook keith and co will be in Icmeler this August!!

[dragon]

To get the protection of Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 you must pay part of your booking with a credit card and the total booking must cost more than £100.

Have a look at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shoppi ... -purchases

If you book with a debit card and the company goes bust you're not guaranteed your money back as it is not a legal requirement. There is what is called 'Chargeback' that you can claim back within 120 days but this claim is not as straight forward as using a credit card.

Have a look at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shoppi ... chargeback and
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/ ... bit-cards/

My advice would be if you can pay part of it with a credit card it would definitely be worth it. If I didn't have a card I'd ask a family member to pay a small part of the booking for me and repay it as soon as I'd made the booking. The amount paid on the credit card can even be as small as £10 and yet you'll get the protection for the full amount. Well worth it, I think.

Another thing to think about is that if the company goes bust and you need to rebook, you can claim 'Consequential Losses' because the new booking could cost you more.

[dksbbs]

Dragon

I am not 100% but i think even the deposit must be over £100

Also someone else paying on behalf of you with a credit card removes the protection as the contract is now between you and the credit card holder unless they are travelling with you as a member of the party.

Dave

[dksbbs]

Dragon

Just double checked I was wrong, you were correct regarding the deposit amount of £10

Dave

[carol0912]

Hi Keith
Why not get a credit card to pay for flights and pay when bill comes in. That's what I do. Better safe than sorry.
Will see you August. Holidays only overlap by 4 days so will have to make the most of it. Think we should all have a night at apartments before you go (also make Genghis's night) lol.
We will have a ball!!
See you then and good lick with flights x

[dragon]

Hi Keith
Why not get a credit card to pay for flights and pay when bill comes in. That's what I do. Better safe than sorry

If you apply for a credit card, if you get one with 0% interest then you wouldn't have to pay it all at once. Have a look at
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/ ... edit-cards

Also someone else paying on behalf of you with a credit card removes the protection as the contract is now between you and the credit card holder unless they are travelling with you as a member of the party.

When XL went bust a few years ago we had used our credit card to pay for our daughters. We had no problems. One phone call and one email and their flight home was sorted. The only problem that would arise is that the card holder would need to do all the phone calls, claim etc should the company go bust.

When Aegean went bust we booked new flights at nearly double the cost with a 0% interest credit card. We had a refund for the original flights and consequential losses back within a few weeks so we hadn't paid anything extra out at all.

So if you can't get a card of your own you're next best option is having someone else that can help you. If this isn't possible then you may have protection with the debit card 'Chargeback' but as this isn't guaranteed it could end up by a claim taking a long time to go through and they may not pay at all.

[adewolves]

Holiday bookings down 33% in January which is a big month for them, I really can't see them lasting after 2013, which is the year the banks have secured them so I believe. A shame really as I believe the only reason their bookings are down is because of a fear factor by the booking public. The price of their flights aint helping though they are well top end at the moment.

[teac532s]

Hi. I managed to book 2 weeks for 6 people in June this year to Icmeler from Belfast through T.Cook at a price of £368 per person which I thought was very good at the time. It was booked just one week before the Agean collapse so I would dread to think what the price would have been had I waited. I will say that I came close to booking at the time with Agean but just could not get all the flight money together so went with T C. I agree that lately the prices are very high if trying to book now and this will not help the situation they are in. If they did go out of business it would leave the Belfast travellers with only one company operating to Turkey ,Thompson , and I would imagine it would soon be priced out of many peoples range. I hope they do survive for a bit of competition here but it is hard to see the bank extending any more cash to a failing company.

[dksbbs]

My feeling is that Thomas Cook will survive but more than likely in a different format that we know today, they will downsize and concentrate on the more profitable areas so choice will be restricted.

Dave

[Tiberius]

Holiday bookings down 33% in January which is a big month for them, I really can't see them lasting after 2013, which is the year the banks have secured them so I believe. A shame really as I believe the only reason their bookings are down is because of a fear factor by the booking public. The price of their flights aint helping though they are well top end at the moment.

Really? Thomas Cook have came out consistently as the cheapest flight provider in every search I have done in the last 4-6 weeks. Granted from Newcastle so may be different elsewhere in the country but they're very competitive at the moment up here as opposed to Jet2 etc who are a good £1-200 dearer.

The only thing that is putting me off booking with them is that I genuinely feel they may go under. You just have to look at the peacocks situation as to how ruthless the banks are being at the moment. That was a profitable business with increased sales and they still wouldn't help them out..... Thomas Cook has an outstanding Debt 5 times that of Peacocks who's pre tax profit in 2011 was £39.4m. Granted Thomas Cook are reported to have made £191.1m last year but if you do the maths the debt/profits ratio are roughly the same for the two companies i.e profits equal 1/5th debts there or there abouts....... I'd say come the end of the season the CAA are going to be busy again

[dragon]

Thomas Cook probably made a big mistake by merging with the Co-op as the high street is not doing so well and they've overstretched themselves. With regard to Peacocks I still can't understand why the government haven't stepped in as RBS is 83% owned by the taxpayer.

If I was booking a flight now I would still use Thomas Cook as even though it's a risk, it's also a risk with every other company as well. If you book with a credit card there is no reason to hold back in making a booking as if the company goes under you'll have the cost of the flight and any additional costs of a new booking back. The claim is simple and straight forward and most are dealt with quickly. The only worry I would find is if a booking was made without a credit card and I think that that is risky with any company as things are now.