I think they've been having a few problems with the system. If you ask on here http://customer-community.thomascook.com/thomascook/topics giving your booking reference, the staff will check on the status of your etkts for you.

Yes, evidently there are some system issues. Two copies of the email with the ticket attachment have just arrived a few minutes apart!

At least we've got them now.

I've just rec'd an email for my flight only etickets - as far as I can see its exactly the same as the confirmation sent when we booked.

Anyone else having more trouble with the Thomas Cook booking website?
Their silly new fancy front webpage which tries to guess ahead of the customer as he makes his booking has pretty much gone berserk tonight.
I want to book for one person - so I select one. It tells me to wait, then returns OK.
I tell it the date, it tells me to wait, then changes back to 2 people. So I start again.
After 5 attempts I get as far as choosing a departure airport, when I do it says “wait”, and then changes back to two people again and forgets the date I put in.
I give up and go look at Thomson and the other competitors - their websites actually DO work.

This is no way for Thomas Cook to try to sell holidays when their company is in trouble. One of the first things they ought to do is invest in some sensible webdesign by people who believe in reliable functionality rather than silly gimmicks.

Im not totaly impressed by them at the moment, it has been 5 weeks, and it seems not all there holidays are up yet, so to be wanting to book a holiday to your choice of resort, you cant

As they dont as of yet, have flights up, or hotel packages, now I have posted on thomas cook forums, to see if someone can tell me what going on

Now I made it clear, if they take to long, I will book elsewhere, and I need to see prices on line, to work out which is the cheapest by different web sites

Now if thomas cook want to lose business, there certainly doing this, and the pnly thing I see going for them, and maybe proping them up, is the olympic games, and there exclusive rights to hotels, and ticket for the games, with out these they might have folded long ago

All other tour operators have their holidays up for summer 2013- but not thomas cook! No destinations are showing from our local airport.

So I have booked with thomsons- Im not hanging around for them to pull their finger out- I like to book 12 months in advance- gives me plenty of time to save!

belly

Lots of Thomas Cook holidays are loaded and have been for a few weeks now. Perhaps it's just your airport?

hi all...cant help but agree with what ukbill says ...the way it keeps telling you to wait and updating as you go along is annoying and needs seriously tweeking badly if its going to work....tweetie

Hi Tweetie,
I worked in IT for many, many years and actually I think that whoever is in charge of TC web development, looked at the Thomson “Late Deal” holiday finder and tried to copy the idea.
But they didn't realise that while Thomson are only trying to manage 6 weeks worth of holiday late deals, the wizards at Thomas Cook IT have tried to apply it over their whole vast holiday database!
And their computer server hardware simply has no chance of managing that size when customer demand increases. They messed up.

However it will solve itself. Customers will go elsewhere, and the demand for TC holidays will reduce. They might, as a result get into financial trouble, but everyone can blame the computer!

I was promised a reply from Thomas cook get satisfaction by Monday, to my question

Why is the resort for lido di jesolo summer 2013, not available to book

Not had a reply yet, but maybe they cant answer it

Maybe they haven't heard back from the operations team? You could always ask if they've had an update.

Cook shareholders vote on firm's future

Thomas Cook is to meet with shareholders today to seek approval for the sale of five of its Spanish hotels and the sale and leaseback of part of its fleet of aircraft.

The company has warned investors that if they don't back the disposals it could collapse.

However, major shareholders including Invesco, Standard Life and Marathon have already expressed support for Thomas Cook's strategy to turn the loss-making business around.

The operator, which last week appointed industry outsider Harriet Green as its new chief executive from July 30, will announce its interim results on Thursday. It has already revealed winter losses of £262m.

It will tell shareholders today that approval for the sell-off of some of its assets is crucial to the recent deal it reached with its lenders to extend a £1.4bn loan repayment until 2015.

With permission from Travelmole

Thomas Cook shareholders approve sell-off

Thomas Cook has received the backing of its shareholders for the sale of five hotels and sale and leaseback of 19 aircraft.

Investors voting overwhelmingly in favour of the disposals at a general meeting today, with only 0.01% opposing the sell-off.

The sale of Thomas Cook's interest in Hoteles Y Clubs de Vacaciones to hotel chain Iberostar will reduce the operator's debt by €94.6m; the sale and leaseback deal is worth a further £183m.

The firm's share price has risen slightly on the news, up from 21.50p yesterday to 21.70p.

Cook had made it clear to investors that rejecting the disposals was not an option as it must pay down £100m in 2013 and 2014 as part of the deal with its lenders to extend its £1.4bn loan until 2015.

Its interim results will be announced on Thursday but the company has already admitted to winter losses of £262m.

With permission from Travelmole

Sunaddict wrote:

Maybe they haven't heard back from the operations team? You could always ask if they've had an update.

I well aware that the girl is checking with the operations team, but its a fiasco, they must know in hand what there doing with there resorts. Now the resort Im looking at is in the brochure for 2013, but it cant be booked instore or online

To me this delay is lost business for them, and I had 3 options going

1....Thomson, this choice for hotel, is now fully booked, butdate at end of July is free for now
2....Thomas cook..choice of hotel and resort, not available
3.....DIY.....This resort and hotel , has been costed with owner, but I need to wait for flights

Thomas Cook admits its brand was hurt

Thomas Cook has admitted its brand was damaged by publicity surroundings its financial problems earlier this year.

It said its sales were hit by a difficult trading environment and the "weakening in brand sentiment", but claimed it was now taking the right actions to stabilise its business.

Unveiling its interim results for the six months ending March 31, Thomas Cook said it now expects over three years to deliver a £140m improvement in profitability, up from £110m as previously announced.

But this will come at as estimated cost of around £70m, up from £60m previously thought.

It said the turnaround would be achieved by "optimising yield, reducing retail and tour operator discounts, improving the operational efficiency of the organisation and facilitating faster, more focused decision making".

Thomas Cook said it would change its discounting approach to ensure that distribution channels are not competing against each other.

"Our revised discount policy has led to a substantial reduction in discount levels with retail shops now averaging around 3% compared to 5% previously. There remain opportunities to align our product portfolio so that they complement rather than compete against each other," it said.

The operator has removed over 500 under-performing hotels from the summer 2012 programme, which represents around 22% of properties. It has introduced around 150 new properties focused on differentiation and exclusivity.

For summer, differentiated product sales are up 9%, making up 31% of overall passengers for the season to date.

New properties are being added for summer 2013.

As part of the merger with the Co-operative, nearly 100 stores have closed since October with a further 15 to be closed or sold during the rest of the financial year. This will mean around 850 job losses and savings of £30m, as previously announced.

Costs are also being reduced by the introduction of paperless ticketing and a 20% cut in the number of brochures.

Total Group revenue for the six months was £3,517m, up 3% on 2011 on a constant currency basis.

Seasonal underlying loss from operations was £263m, an increase of £97m on the year before.

"This reflects the inclusion of losses from our acquired businesses in Russia (£10m seasonal loss) and the Co-op in the UK (£15m seasonal loss)," said the statement.

"The difficult trading environment increased losses, in particular the impact of MENA on the French result (£17m increased loss) and the poor trading in the North American business (£25m worse than prior year).

"Seasonal losses in the UK business are flat year on year excluding the acquired Co-op seasonal losses, whilst within Central Europe, our German business performed well with a 58% reduction in the seasonal operating loss at constant currency."

Interim chief executive Sam Weihagen said the company was moving ahead with efforts to "re-energise our business and begin to rebuild profitability, reduce debt, and continue to provide a fantastic holiday experience for our customers".

New chief executive Harriet Green, an industry outsider, will take over in July.

With permission from Travelmole

Hi...this sounds like less bargains to be had in the future ....:( tweetie

Ian Ailes said last year that they had made the mistake of going for volume and deeply discounting, so thankfully it looks like they're stopping it. In the past they've made an awful lot of agents suffer with their undercutting, and selling at less than the agents' nett.

I have been told by thomas cook, they are dropping there flights from glasgow and manchester to lido di jesolo for summer 2013, but they will be flying from birmingham, as yet they dont have the hotels up yet

Looks like Im going diy next year, summer 2013, and while the euro rate is good, going to get it booked at 2012 prices, cost of hotel for 2 weeks 700 Euros, which at todays rate is around £585

Thomas Cook staff could strike warns union

Thomas Cook staff could strike over pay and travel concessions warns union.

Unite said a strike action ballot of more than 900 staff is scheduled to start on 11 June and close on 9 July.

The union has urged Thomas Cook to meet with staff to avoid industrial action and claims the operator has failed to address the workers' concern in talks.

The threatened strike action follows Thomas Cook's decision earlier this year to review its holiday concession scheme and introduce a pay freeze across the whole of the UK business.

Unite national officer for aviation, Oliver Richardson, said: "Staff are working hard in difficult circumstances, but feel let down by the imposition of detrimental changes and a pay freeze. A strike vote is a last resort.

"We would urge management to get back around the table and start to seriously address the concerns of staff over detrimental changes and a pay freeze, allowances and travel concessions."

Thomas Cook said it believes of the 19,000 employees it has in the UK, only half are members of Unite.

A spokesperson for Thomas Cook UK & Ireland said: "We have asked all our staff in the UK for their understanding and support while we effect the necessary changes to return Thomas Cook to a position of strength in the UK.

"We have gained that understanding and support from the vast majority of our people. We believe that the cabin crew in the UK understand the challenges facing the business.

"It's hugely disappointing that Unite is attempting to scupper our UK turnaround plans but we remain available to talk to them."

With permission from Travelmole

More coverage here:
http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2012/06/06/40680/union+warns+of+thomas+cook+strike+ballot.html