Dead: Thomas Cook

"facw" (facw) 09/23/2019 at 10:01 • Filed to: Planelopnik, Thomas Cook, Airlines, Condor

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The British airline and tour service Thomas Cook has shut down operations and had its stock delisted. The British government has organized charter flights to get stranded Britons home, and will be paying for hostel/hotel expenses for stranded travelers.

Thomas Cook subsidiary Condor (once Lufthansa’s charter airline) has been seeking a buyer, and is currently trying to arrange for a bailout from the German government to allow it to continue operations.

Thomas Cook was one of the world’s oldest travel companies, having been founded in 1841.

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davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > facw 09/23/2019 at 10:15

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He actually died in 1892.

facw > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 09/23/2019 at 10:18

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OK, I laughed at that.

sony1492 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 09/23/2019 at 10:18

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M.T. Blake > facw 09/23/2019 at 10:19

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Well he was 178 years old...

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > facw 09/23/2019 at 10:20

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A story somewhat similar to Wow airlines

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > facw 09/23/2019 at 10:21

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Haha - I’m glad. Heard this story on the radio coming in. Would absolutely suck to be one of the people stranded!

Nick Has an Exocet > facw 09/23/2019 at 10:21

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These budget airlines are a really shaky travel proposition. I recently flew Norwegian and it was a serious fear that they would collapse before we flew. They had already announced that our route was being discontinued on Sept 15 and had taken HUUUGE losses from the Max issues.   Unlike a big airline, these folks just go poof when the money runs out.

facw > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 09/23/2019 at 10:24

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Would suck to be stranded in the UK. They flew to lots of nice places where I might not feel too bad about getting stuck for a little while extra (though obviously the people in the NYT story who paid $5000 for last minute tickets to get home might disagree) .

facw > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 09/23/2019 at 10:25

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Yeah, definitely a mess when these airlines just shut down without notice.

ranwhenparked > facw 09/23/2019 at 10:33

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Someone will probably buy the brand and revive it as an online reseller of prepaid travel packages or timeshares. 

user314 > facw 09/23/2019 at 10:33

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Wow, what a mess. I started hearing blurbs about Thomas Cook on Friday, but it was only referred to as a “travel agency”, leaving out that it also owned two airlines. That made this morning’s reporting that thousands were left stranded by the firm’s collapse rather confusing.

Everything you need to know about Operation Matterhorn , the repatriation of Britons stranded by the Thomas Cook failure.

user314 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 09/23/2019 at 10:36

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davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > facw 09/23/2019 at 10:42

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If someone else is footing the bill for your extended vacation, and you don’t really need to be back, sure. But that’s definitely not the case here.

facw > user314 09/23/2019 at 10:42

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Yeah, they were a decent sized operation. I pay a little more attention to them because one of my au pairs as a kid became a flight attendant on Condor (and sent me lots of random Condor stuff). Still while they’ve been hurting for a while, even going into to weekend it sounded like everyone was still expecting some sort of deal to keep them in operation. But I guess with vacation season coming to an end and Brexit looming, there wasn’t any real way to get a buyer in place, and a government bailout probably wouldn’t have done much but kick the can down the road.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Nick Has an Exocet 09/23/2019 at 10:48

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They’ve advertised quite a bit on the east coast as they used to fly out of secondary airports and saved the hassle of getting got the primary airports. But they also seemed to be playing hopscotch of where they fly out of and moving every 18 months after a location doesn’t work out. I wonder if it’s a bit like Ryanair where a core business strategy is pitting g airports against each other. 

Maxima Speed > Nick Has an Exocet 09/23/2019 at 11:01

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So if they had shut down in midflight do they have a kill switch like turning the electricity off?  “Uhhh ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking, our airline is has declared bankruptcy and as of right now all airline functions will cease. Please prepare for a water landing, or don’t. I don’t care I don’t have a job anyways”.

Svend > facw 09/23/2019 at 11:02

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One of my colleagues got a phone call from her son in Tunisia yesterday to say he won’t be home as planned as the hotel owners of the hotel they are staying at has locked all the doors and refuses to let anyone leave until they are compensated by the company for bills not paid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49787563

Guests at Les Orangers resort in Tunisia say they are being asked to pay extra fees to cover what the hotel is owed by Thomas Cook

Customers at a hotel in Tunisia say they were prevented from leaving the property on Saturday unless they paid extra fees - thousands of pounds in some cases - to cover what the resort says it is owed by the tour operator.

“We’re being held hostage,” said Ryan Farmer, from Leicestershire, one of those staying at Les Orangers resort in Hammamet, near Tunis.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live the hotel asked everyone who was due to leave that day to come to reception, where they were asked to pay “additional fees, obviously because of the situation with Thomas Cook”.

“We’ve been up to the gates, they had four security guards on the gates, holding the gates closed, and were not allowing anybody to leave,” he added.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > facw 09/23/2019 at 11:05

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It’s interesting that it will actually take government intervention to get people home. Usually, when a traditional airline implodes like this, the other carriers on the route will pick up the slack, but this is a unique case.

I can see these charter outfits being forced to carry a bond sufficient to get customers home someday.

facw > Svend 09/23/2019 at 11:06

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That’s pretty ugly. I mean I can understand the hotelier wanting to get paid (and it sounds like they will, eventually, though I wouldn’t be shocked if they take a haircut), but holding guests hostage seems like a great way to tank your online reviews. It’s not the guests’  fault that the company you made a deal with is bankrupt.

facw > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 09/23/2019 at 11:10

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Apparently as a tour operator they are required to carry some sort of insurance, which might be part of the reason you see such swift action. But also the Times article says they are looking to repatriate 150,000 Britons which seems like a huge number. Even with widebodies, that’s 500 flights worth.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > facw 09/23/2019 at 11:13

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I’d imagine part of the problem, since they ran largely on a charter-ish model, is that they served point2point routings where you were unlikely to have major carriers flying the same route to re-book onto.

What a mess.

I have a friend flying over to LA this week on Norwegian and can’t imagine what the hassles would be to get stranded on holiday with no network to help you out.

Svend > facw 09/23/2019 at 11:21

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It’s not good. There are often two or three types of police in Tunisia and neighbouring countries, normal police, religious police and tourist police. The tourist police will jump on any Tunisian business trying to rough shod a tourist. So I can imagine the hotel owner got a visit later on. 

Cé hé sin > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 09/23/2019 at 11:21

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Travel agencies, at least where I am, are already required to carry a bond for just this reason. Don’t know what happens in the UK.

Chinny Raccoon > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 09/23/2019 at 13:28

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They do pay a bond.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > Chinny Raccoon 09/23/2019 at 13:29

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I wonder, suppose the UK government tapped that right away to fund getting travelers home?

Chinny Raccoon > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 09/23/2019 at 15:37

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Travel_Organisers%27_Licensing

This covers package holidays, not if you’ve just bought a plane ticket (in most cases) . It also covers the cost of refunds for future bookings as well as repatriation. £2.50 from every booking is paid into the trust.

For flight only customers the CAA  have previously made arrangements for those customers to book on the CAA chartered repatriation flights. Not sure if that will happen this time. 

bubblestheturtle > facw 09/24/2019 at 17:44

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So the company was taken totally by suprise by it’s own bankruptcy and therefore it could not halt outbound flights and wind down inbound flights to get people back to their home-base ? Seems like very poor management at TC.

facw > bubblestheturtle 09/24/2019 at 17:54

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Unfortunately that’s how these things work. They didn’t want to shut down while they still had hopes of a bailout (either from the government or from someone taking over), and once it was decided they are supposed to preserve as much value as possible for their creditors. Customers  are considered creditors, but they are last on the list to be compensated (which is totally backwards if you ask me), so making them whole isn’t a priority.