Thomas Cook have an agreement with EasyJet for the Summer 2013 season to provide capacity on certain routes. Saves them having to increase the fleet size, most of which would remain idle during the winter. It also allows them to serve destinations where it would be difficult to fill an aircraft.

All thomas cook holidays we priced up from leeds/bradford- are flying with jet 2! i dont know about increasing their fleet size- ! is it the other way round? have they sold most of their fleet to get em out of financial difficulties!?

If i was going to book a thomas cook holiday and the flights are with jet2/easyjet/ whoever- im going to book the flights direct myself (which would no doubt be cheaper) and my seperate accommodation - because thats all they are doing!!- but charging you extra for the privlige

Belly

But they are also providing you with the security of selling you a proper package which some people do like. I would usually do the same as you Bellybally but lots of people don't like to take the risk or don't even understand the risks that they are taking when booking the different components of a holiday separately as evidenced by the number of complaints that are posted here about the likes of Travel Republic etc.

SM

It's horses for courses really. I was doing some checks and I think the buying power of Thomas Cook seems to mean that some of these holidays where they are using Easjet and one of their contracted hotels, are cheaper than booking the flight and the hotel separately. Not sure if it's because they have economies of scale which one can't achieve booking oneself. It's worth checking all options still, especially if you are on a tight budget.

Doe

I'm sure that you are probably right, Doe, as one of the largest TOs they are going to be able to use theor position in the market to negotiate block bookings at prices that are rarely going to be made available to the ordinary punter.

SM

I have been looking at Thomas Cook holidays over the past week or so and they appear to be using several companies for the flight part. The Thomas Cook price for 2 weeks in Benidorm using Jet2 for flights was considerably more expensive than the same holiday if booked with Jet2 holidays.

the ayrshire tripper wrote:

I have been looking at Thomas Cook holidays over the past week or so and they appear to be using several companies for the flight part. The Thomas Cook price for 2 weeks in Benidorm using Jet2 for flights was considerably more expensive than the same holiday if booked with Jet2 holidays.

In that case for the particular holiday you are looking at you are probably better off going with Jet2. At the end of the day it's a buyers market and you need to go with what you are happy with.