On-line bookings, rock bottom pricing, and rationalisation are truly killing off high street travel shops.

..and what didn't help were the usually totally disinterested staff, who were only generally to be seen when there were no customers (always at lunch together when most of the working populace would be looking for holidays!!!)with a startling lack of knowledge re the destinations/packages available outside of Ibiza or Magalluf!!
Apologies if this upsets anyone but that has certainly been my experience when I've actually visited a travel agent in the last 10 years.

Ian Ailles has been critical of a discount culture he said had dominated the UK mainstream business and left it with no profit this year, and said they chased too much volume. He also said that they had flights for 2011 sold out by the end of 2010 and that they must have been significantly underpriced.

They have been undercutting agents, even their own, by quite a margin. Hopefully they will now start selling at realistic prices and improve the quality of their product.

He also said that they had flights for 2011 sold out by the end of 2010 and that they must have been significantly underpriced.

We booked our flights for Rhodes for 2012 back in June with T.C because they were coming out 30% cheaper than Thomson for the same departure airport/day. Suggests very strongly that someone had c**ked up the pricing!!

brewerdave wrote:

He also said that they had flights for 2011 sold out by the end of 2010 and that they must have been significantly underpriced.

We booked our flights for Rhodes for 2012 back in June with T.C because they were coming out 30% cheaper than Thomson for the same departure airport/day. Suggests very strongly that someone had c**ked up the pricing!!

I think it was intentional, from what Ian Ailles has been saying.

"significantly underpriced" sounds like an admission of error. If he was pleased with it he'd have said something like "exceptional value".

I don't think he was impressed at all, to be honest. Mainstream made nothing. The profit out of the UK was £19 million. It all came from the agency side of the independent businesses.

tough at the top - senior manager changes.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/04/thomascook-idUSL6E8C409P20120104

so the ex CEO got £1.17million to leave after this mess. There's probably some envious bank directors out there.

Thomas Cook defends fall in bookings

Thomas Cook group chief executive Sam Weihagen has defended the brand after leaked figures revealed a 33% fall in bookings since the New Year.

Weihagen insisted that the fall in bookings was due to a reduction in the number of summer package holidays for sale.

He added that the fall in bookings was close to what the company had expected.

"We are a much-loved brand. We are putting our best foot forward. It's a shame to see that others are trying to make things more difficult," Weihagen told the Sun newspaper.

"We reduced the number of holidays we had to sell this year. When you take that into consideration we are very close to where we expected to be and certainly in line with last year."

Thomas Cook shares dropped five per cent to 14.25 yesterday but were back up 1.3% today at 14.44.

With permission from Travelmole

Thomas Cook admits delays to hotel payments

Thomas Cook admitted today that hoteliers in Turkey are owed money by its bed bank Hotel4U.com, but it claimed the payments would be issued within the next couple of weeks.

A spokesman said he was not able to confirm claims that Majorca hotels were also waiting for overdue payments from Hotels4U, but he promised to look into the matter.

He said there had been a delay with some payments to hoteliers in the Turkish resort of Bodrum, who were owed money from the end of 2011. "The payments are all pretty much sorted out now and all payments will be up to date in the next couple of weeks," he added.

He said he was unable to confirm how many hotels were waiting for payments or how much was outstanding and he denied reports in a Turkish publication that hoteliers had not been paid in relation to early booking offers for 2012. "Early booking discounts have always been paid and will continue to be paid," he said.

With permission from Travelmole

My daughter booked a holiday online with thomas cook late summer of last year leaving Bristol on 20/04/12 to Marmaris , this holiday was AI at the Ideal Prime for 3 adults and 1 child with a free child place the holiday was payed in total in November , 10 days ago this holiday had been transferred to Birmingham flight different time , so holiday cancelled and all money transferred back in to account. How can they do this when the flight is still showing on the Bristol departure board .

That doesn't seem ethical llindy. I've just checked their website and it still says there are flights from bristol, even giving the departure times. If I was your daughter I'd ring them to find out what it's all about.

Do you mean Bristol airport's departure board on the day you checked or their April departures list on the internet?

In the first case the answer is simple, the date they are changing the flight schedule on is probably between now and then.

In the second case the answer may also be simple - airport websites (and not just in the UK) are hopeless at getting schedules updated, they will put up flashing news items months in advance about new flights but say little about services which are lost.

I'm afraid when you book way, way in advance like this you are locking yourself into a contract but they are only seling a provisional plan and have easy ways out. All the big TOs (and airlines) do it, we've discussed it before and I did suggest that they should be required to disclose what stage of planning the holiday is at before you sign up.

Thomas Cook flights from Bristol seem to depart on a Monday, so 16 April or 23 April, but none on the 20th.

At the moment the Thomas Cook flight is still showing depart friday 18.40pm 20/04/2012.
But when i try to check through the thomas cook website then the flights are not available . My daughter has now re booked still going to Turkey but flying with EasyJet on the Sunday 22/04/2012 they booked through travel republic and it worked out cheaper than TC so they done them a favour in the end .

Make sure they are aware they haven't booked a package holiday. Travel Republic only sell component holidays.

we're going off the TC topic, but also make sure they have booked the transfer - it won't come as standard - and they will have to get very good insurance because if the outward flight is cancelled no-one else will refund the hotel and transfer costs.

Thomas Cook announces further GBP91m loss

Thomas Cook lost a further £91m from operations in the first quarter to December 31, despite a 3% rise in revenue following the acquisition of the Co-operative, its new venture in Russia and increased activity in Northern Europe.

It blamed the increased loss, which compared with a deficit of £37m in the same quarter the previous year, on tougher trading conditions and rising fuel costs. In particular, the West and East Europe segment reported significantly increased losses, in part due to ongoing disruption in the Middle East and North Africa.

In its interim management statement released to the Stock Exchange this morning, the company said it remained focused on implementing its UK turnaround strategy and it is on track to deliver the planned £35m benefit in the current financial year, which will "help to offset the headwinds faced from a weaker consumer environment".

"We have taken action to adjust capacities where appropriate and, for both the winter and summer seasons, in many markets, we have less left to sell than for the comparable period," it said.

Group chief executive Sam Weihagen added: "I have been encouraged by how our bookings have developed, particularly in the UK where our market share for both the winter and summer seasons remains broadly stable.

"As expected, the first quarter has been adversely impacted by the uncertain economic environment across Europe, input cost inflation and the ongoing disruption in MENA.

"We continue to work hard on restructuring the UK business and a full strategic review of the Group is progressing well."

As part of the ongoing review to reduce debt, Thomas Cook will sell its Indian subsidiary, it announced today. "This is in addition to the previously announced non-core asset disposal programme where we have made good progress," added Weihagen.

Overall bookings for Cook's UK business are 1% down for the summer, although sales through its specialists and independent businesses are up 18%. Volumes in its bed banks Hotels4U and Medhotels are well up on last year, Neilson is benefiting from a better ski season and Gold Medal is recovering under its new management, it said.

Differentiated product bookings are up 7% and Cook claimed it was on track to reach its target of 25% of differentiated product bookings for mainstream for summer 2012.

Mainstream bookings are down 9% but the company had already cut capacity by 11%. It said improvements to its yield management systems, together with more integrated pricing across its distribution channels, had resulted in less discounting and a 4% increase in the average selling price.

Winter bookings remain subdued, however, with the UK programme only 76% sold - roughly in line with this time last year. Following cuts to its long-haul capacity, the programme is 93% sold and Cook has 51% fewer holidays to shift than a year ago and the average selling price is higher.

The company added: "The trends which we have seen in the first quarter are expected to continue for the rest of the first half, but summer trading is more encouraging."


Thomas Cook warns of long road to recovery

Thomas Cook chairman Frank Meysman told shareholders at its annual general meeting today that it will take several years for the company to rebuild shareholder value and he confirmed there would be no further dividend payments until it has strengthened its balance sheet.

At the same time, he promised to respond to criticism from shareholders concerning directors' pay by installing a "proper pay for performance approach". The Board has agreed to introduce deferral and clawback in respect of future senior executives' bonuses, and to reduce the level of matching awards due under the co-investment plan.

"My objective here is to ensure that we avoid inappropriate windfall gains and excessive dilution on the one hand, yet provide incentives that will be meaningful, in terms of motivation and retention, to the key executives whom we rely on to deliver the recovery," he said.

"The Board believes that the proposed approach aligns the interests of our executives with those of our shareholders and is fair to all parties in the current circumstances."

Thomas Cook was roundly condemned at last year's AGM by shareholders for bonuses paid to directors, in particular those received by former chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa who presided over the company at a time when its share price plunged due to mounting losses.

Peter Middleton, chairman of Cook's remuneration committee, today stood down to be replaced by the Group's senior independent non-executive director Roger Burnell.

Burnell, a former chief operating officer of Thomson who joined Thomas Cook as a non-executive director in 2007, will lead the remuneration until his retirement next year. Meysman said he was seeking a number of new non-executive directors to strengthen the Board.

He is also continuing to search for a permanent chief executive to replace Sam Weihagen, who agreed to head the business temporarily following the sudden departure of Fontenla-Novoa last August.

Meysman praised Weihagen, describing him as "a first-class CEO". "Sam really was the right person at the right time and he stepped up to the challenge. And together with Paul Hollingworth and his financial team, they have grasped a very difficult situation and led us successfully through some really stormy weather where others would probably have failed," he said.

"Having Sam in place has bought me sufficient time to run a thorough search for a future CEO."

He revealed he had conducted a first round of interviews but gave no indication of when the Board would appoint a replacement chief executive.

Meysman said the Group had extremely strong brands, including Thomas Cook, Ving in Scandinavia and Neckermann in Germany and Belgium, but he acknowledged it had been a tough year for its employees.

"On behalf of the Board I would like to thank them for their dedication and high standards.," he said.

"Over the past few months I have visited different core units of our business and I have been convinced of that commitment of the strength. I've also been convinced of the need to do a better job in sharing best practices, in having a culture where people accept that somebody else has a better idea. But that is an opportunity because this is not just a UK company; everybody in the industry envies, and rightly so, our position in Germany and Scandinavia."

In other changes announced today, Peter Marks, group chief executive of the Co-operative Group will chair the health, safety and environmental committee, a role previously held by Burnell, while Cook chairman Frank Meysman will continue to chair the nominations committee.

Martine Verluyten, chair of the audit committee of the Flemish Region of Belgium, will chair Cook's audit committee.

With permission from Travelmole

Fly ThomasCook are offering great prices for Summer 2012 flight only. We could save £500. Just a bit concerned if they will still be around in the summer. Two years ago we booked with GoldTrail and were lucky to be on the last flight out of Newcastle before they went belly up. What do people reckon?

We've got flights booked and paid for ex Cardiff to Rhodes for mid-June -they were MUCH cheaper than Thomson when we booked but starting to fret a bit both because of Thos. Cook predicament and the messy situation in Greece - we have the villa balance to pay for in mid April - that'll be decision day for us
I've already decided against car hire in advance - and I'm not buying euros until much closer to the date
Don't think I'd book any more flights with Thos Cook at the moment!