Problem Holiday Cancelled by Thomas Cook yesterday we were due to pay balance this weekend.
Booked June 2008 for Kenya 18 May 2009 at a good price when £ was strong.
Thomas Cook's letter states Monarch are not flying for May 2009 so can't offer alternative dates.
But there seem to be many other Tour Companies including Monarch offering the same date at much higher cost.
Have Thomas Cook pulled the plug on Kenya May 2009?
We are annoyed as we looked forward to a grand safari, Thomas Cook have had our money deposit and a few extra payments and are saying no real bargains for other long haul on our dates. Have a refund or buy another Thomas Cook holiday but as your dates cover May Bank holiday don't expect any bargains now.
Any suggestions or advice welcome.
Dariusdave

dariusdave

Welcome to the unfair world of the tour ops, they stitch us up with their unfair T&C, charge large deposits to tie people to a holiday when the real cost to them if somebody cancelled is minimal and when they want to cancel a holiday they pay you a pittance compared to the loss of deposit you suffer. I am sure it would be easy to have their T&C ripped up in court as a unfair contract. I believe the law should be changed to give anybody who books a holiday a 30 day cooling off period to cancel with no loss, unless its a late booking.

In your case they should give you another long haul holiday at their expense to a different destination or compensate you to the same level as the doeposit tour ops take off you. If you are not happy and they won't let go on a different long haul holiday at their expense, if you book and go on a different long haul holiday what is more expensive sue them for the difference in price, they will say its in their T&C but often tour ops T&C are ruled as a unfair contract.

hey guys i just tried to get on thomas cook website all i am getting is a page saying this pages is reserved and like a hosting service for website, any of you's getting this

hey guys i just tried to get on thomas cook website all i am getting is a page saying this pages is reserved and like a hosting service for website, any of you's getting this

It appears that Thomas Cooks website is broken again. It died during last week also.
One would assume that their management aren't really happy with their IT staff when the website breaks on a peak booking weekend.
You can access the Direct Holidays website (part of T Cook) right now - but Airtours also seems to be broken.

thanks for reply i didn't know it went down last week, i thought it was me putting the wrong address in for the website. i am on their site just now for just flights it seems to be ok.

Does anybody know whether Thomas Cook price match.

Yesterday booked a holiday with Thomas Cook - self catering. Hubby in his infinate wisdom had decided he wants to upgrade to half board. I understand an amendment fee of £30 will be charged.

Just checked the same hotel with Thomson's half board and there is a saving of £327.00!!!!

Even losing the deposit of £75.00 per person will still be quids in - just don't really like all the messing about. Flight times are all virtually the same.

Booked in a Thomas Cook shop and will have to wait till morning till I can contact them - just impatient.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi,
No Thomas Cook don`t price match they do better than that in that they have a" lowest price guarentee".So long as the flights are approx the same,free child prices etc arethe same then you have 14 days from when you booked to make a claim.It is in the need to know part of their brochure.I would presume they would only be interested in your original booking for self catering but if you explain the H/B option then I see no reason for them not to honour this also.

Very interesting - have printed off the Thomson quote and will call into Thomas Cook shop tomorrow. If they don't match then I think I will come back, check the Thomson holiday is still same price and have the availability. If so book with Thomsons and then cancel Thomas Cook.

I'm hoping in the current credit crisis they will just match the price. I'm in sales and I know I wouldn't let a sale go anywhere else at the moment.

Will let you know tomorrow how I get on.

Just to let you know that I contacted Thomas Cook this morning and they were doubtful they could price match but told me to call in the shop later.

Popped in and the holiday price for half board had shot up to £2800.00 overnight by Thomas cook - same hols by Thomson was £2303.00 with virtually the same flight times.

TC agreed to reducing the cost to £2520.00 which slightly beat Thomson's if I had cancelled with TC therefore losing our deposits.

So happy bunny now, though wish I had found Thomsons in the first place!!

Still they were very helpful and understanding in the shop.

When I pay the balance is it best to pay by credit card for extra protection does anybody know - just don't fancy the admin fee!

As long as your deposit was paid by credit card and the amount is over £100 i believer it will give you protection.

Why don't you get a Thomas Cook credit card - then you don't pay any extra charges, it's 0% interest for 3 months and you earn cashback to spend in a TC shop ( either travel money or a holiday) I now use my TC card for everything and pay it off when hubby gets paid every month. Earn't a fortune, I won't need any spending money for my holiday in Mexico in September!! Best thing I ever did!!

Denny

Thanks for your answers - that does sound interesting with the TC credit card!! Will find some more info about that - thanks!

Oh for the good old days when I could book through Direct Holidays and have no problems. In the last couple of years since all this consolidation began I seem to be having one problem or another with bookings. My latest is with a booking through Thomas Cook. I received a letter today telling me my flight times had changed for my holiday in November to Tenerife, and asking me to phone to discuss alternatives if the new times were unsuitable. I phoned as the return time was 1.00am which I would prefer if possible to avoid. On phoning I was told by Customer support and Operations that the letter was wrong because the computer shows no change to the flight time.
Who runs that company, computers or people?

Denny, think you may have to save a few pennies for your Mexico spending money! Thomas Cook have sent me a letter today saying that they are no longer offering 0% for 3 months, are decreasing the travel pounds earned to 1% for TC purchases and 0.5% on other purchases, no longer offering travel pounds on foreign currency, etc. etc. It's not looking as attractive as it used to but at least you still don't have to pay the credit card transaction fee when you pay your deposit or balance.

cazzholly, yes I had the letter too during the week. It doesn't look as attractive now does it? Still I guess 1% is better than nothing and like you say it's still free to use credit card to book holidays. (for now!!)

Denny

I have just applied for the card and still get the 3 months interest free for 3 months if i use it before the change date! I only got it really to pay balances and save on the credit card fees on deposits and balances! It is a sign of the times i think because nationwide have made changes to their card and is now not so good!

I've tried ringing Thomas Cook about this, no answer, left my name and number, no phone call

The holiday I want to book is £807 pp on TC site. The same holiday is on Direct Holidays site, it says it's £807 pp but when you go to book it it goes down to £782 pp. Not much of a difference I know but better in my pocket than there's I'm just wondering if anyone knows if they will price match this if I print off the page were the lower price is shown?

Also, has anyone got an email address for TC??

Hi laura, I found our holiday to jamaica on the thomas cook wesite, thought it was a great price, printed the page off and took it down to the thomas cook shop and we got another £162 knocked off ! great result !
Or you could always ask if they are willing to chuck a few extra's in if they can't match it, like seats together ?
good luck anyway,
juby

When I booked at Thomas Cook shop last year they would match (or beat) a TC internet price but not a Direct Hols one that I enquired about. There's no harm in enquiring though. If you want them to match the DH price then why not just book with Direct? As you have said it's the exact same holiday, same flight, same transfers and they use the same reps. Also make sure you do a complete costing with both companies as on many DH holidays they include 20kg baggage and in flight meals free of charge whereas you have to pay for these with TC. Also might be worth giving Direct a call as their internet price isn't always correct, the holiday I booked for this year was £800 cheaper when I booked on the phone than the web price - something to do with the way their system allocates the rooms.