01684 562406
Lee and Hilary, owners of Malvern World Travel , were in Parga on the Greek mainland for a Week’s Holiday from the 15th to 22nd of September 2019 and returned home with Flybe from Preveza. It became very clear that this was going to become a very sad day, seeing one of the last Inbound Thomas Cook Flights arriving from Gatwick into Preveza: This Picture taken by Lee just after our FLYBE Plane had been pushed back, ready for Taxiing to the Runway. You can see the shadow of the Wing of our plane on the tarmac.
We had heard on the Sunday 22nd, that Contingency plans were being put into place by our Tour Operator and other Tour Operators based on the mainland and also on the Island of Lefkada , if necessary, should the worst case scenario happen and most of the reps feared that they would have a very different day looking after clients in the morning, but in the full knowledge that everyone arriving with Thomas Cook flights would be able to continue their holiday as normal and use Repatriation flights if Cooks ceased to trade.
Sadly we heard that after the last Thomas Cook plane had returned to the UK, Thomas Cook and Thomas Cook Airlines Ceased to Trade in the early hours of the morning on 23rd of September.
At Malvern World Travel, all of our Clients with Thomas Cook Flights ( and all of our Holidays) are 100% protected, and alternative arrangements are, or have been made for them to continue their holidays as normal. It’s at times like this, that our Industry is United 100% and holds out strongly to help others.
On Sunday 22nd September, On our way back from Birmingham whilst driving home, at about 16.30, we had a call from a Malvern local Resident. When we got back home, at about 17.00, we telephoned the customers, to find out that they hadn’t booked a holiday with Malvern World Travel, but had made a booking directly they thought with Thomas Cook , and being a honeymoon booking , they were extremely worried, anxious and wanted to know if they would get their holiday.
We mentioned even though she hadn’t booked with us, hopefully we could give advice.
It looked as though she hadn’t been sent a confirmation invoice or Atol certificate from Thomas Cooks, which we mentioned they should have these as it’s required by law and it sounded very odd.
On Giving us permission to use her email and Booking reference,we Contacted our Consortium, The Travel Network Group ( TTNG) , who had already set up an emergency telephone desk, in case of Thomas Cooks Failure. Lucy at TTNG and I could not find the Customers reference number or details, which seemed very strange and we did wonder if Thomas Cooks systems couldn’t cope or had already been taken down.
We mentioned to the clients, that in the event of Thomas Cook collapsing it would be very important to have that Atol Certificate as a hard copy, before Cooks went off-line , as it might be more difficult to retrieve the information at a later stage.
After much patience, the clients said they had found the link they had booked on, and would e-mail us the details so that hopefully, we could find the Atol Certificate and confirmation and print out for them, as their printer was apparently in the Loft (!!!) We still couldn’t get into the booking on Thomas Cooks Manage my booking site.
After still talking the Customers through this , I Mentioned to Lucy on the TTNG help desk, that if we had now been sent the link, that she should go and help any other clients that had concerns, and hopefully I would be able to see the documents and Atol. The Customer said he could Now see that they were now Atol protected on the link he had.
At 19.14 when the link came through, I phoned the customers back immediatly, and asked them why they thought they were going to loose their holiday as they hadn’t actually booked a Thomas Cook Holiday.
Looking at the link it was clear to me, and I was then very Happy to wish them a Very Happy Honeymoon to Croatia with TUI……….. They Thought that TUI was all part of the same Company as Thomas Cooks, but now were very happily reassured by us at Malvern World Travel to forget all their previous concerns and enjoy their trip. We do hope they will also now be converted clients of Malvern World Travel.
IF YOU HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THE COLLAPSE OF THOMAS COOK AND NEED HELP TO RE-BOOK YOUR HOLIDAY YOU CAN CALL MALVERN WORLD TRAVEL ON 01684 562406 or [email protected]
WE ARE OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK FROM 09.00 to 20.00 BY APPOINTMENT
A LINK TO THE LATES INFORMATION ABOUT THOMAS COOK CEASED TRADING CAN BE FOUND ON THE CAA WEBSITE HERE.
“We urge anyone affected by this news to check the CAA dedicated website, CAA LATEST INFORMATION ON THOMAS COOK, for advice and information.”
The UK Civil Aviation Authority will be providing regular updates as their flying programme develops
