The share price doesn't have to be a worry, if it dropped enough it might encourage investment/take over by someone with money (anyone know of any Chinese Tour Ops ???).

I want to book a holiday with Thomas Cook for August to go to Greece, they are the only tour op that do the hotel I want and they are cheaper, should I be cautious booking with them?

No reason at all to be cautious. They are quite safe, for the immediate future. The company may make considerable changes over the years, but nothing will change between now and August.

Thomas Cook refuses to comment on failed 'bid' reports

Thomas Cook has refused to comment on reports that the group rejected an offer of a £400 million cash injection two weeks ago.

According to the Financial Times, Cook's chairman Frank Meysman rejected the proposal from a group of individuals, supported by the group's second largest investor Invesco.

It is understood the idea was thrown out in the very early stages of discussions.

The 'bid' is said to have been led by Terry Fisher, former managing director of Thomas Cook's scheduled businesses, who left in December 2010.

Fisher joined Gold Medal in May 2005 and moved to Thomas Cook when the business was acquired by the group in 2008.

Alongside him in the failed offer was Clive Jacobs, founder of Holiday Autos and now owner and chairman of Travel Weekly Group.

The FT said the proposed bid would have seen Fisher and Jacobs become joint chief executives of the group.

Thomas Cook is expecting to announce a new chief executive in late March or early April and a spokeswoman said the search was progressing well.

"Someone is not going to join at that time, but we do hope to have an appointment," she said.

With permission from Travelmole

Thomas Cook announces surge in bookings

Mainstream bookings at Thomas Cook have picked up 19% in the past four weeks, the group said today, but it admitted the year will remain challenging.

Overall, Thomas Cook's summer bookings are down 2% over last year and mainstream bookings are down 10%, but it has 17% fewer holidays left to sell compared with summer 2011.

Independent and specialist bookings are up 14% year on year, and the average selling price overall is up 4%.

Group chief executive Sam Weihagen said: "Trading across the group has been stable since we last reported and in line with expectations.

"In the last few weeks we have seen an improvement in UK booking trends, helped by our recently launched advertising campaign and upgrades to our thomascook.com website."

Winter bookings have also improved, said Cook, but it said the season overall remained subdued. The UK programme is currently 91% booked, which is in line with last year. Mainstream bookings have improved since Cook last reported and are now down 9% down, which is broadly in line with planned capacity cuts, it said.

"As we stated in our first quarter results, we continue to expect 2011/12 to be a challenging year given the economic backdrop and difficult trading environment, particularly for winter," the company added in a statement.

"The trends which we saw in the first quarter have continued through the second quarter, but summer trading is more encouraging."

With permission from Travelmole

Couldn't take the chance and have booked with Jet 2 Com. I heard from a contact in the holiday industry that there is a degree of uncertainty over TC and it's future. Last thing I want is a collapse and then a mad scramble to book over priced seats on other airlines

I would have thought there was much more chance of Jet2 going bust than TC?

Marchmont Par wrote:

Couldn't take the chance and have booked with Jet 2 Com. I heard from a contact in the holiday industry that there is a degree of uncertainty over TC and it's future. Last thing I want is a collapse and then a mad scramble to book over priced seats on other airlines

Hearsay and speculation really does annoy me. There's no reason to trust jet2 anymore in fact I would trust them less

Hearsay it may be but after being staranded by Goldtrail three years ago, eventually flown home by SAGA holidays and before that having the sales assistant from a well known Scottish holiday firm encourage me to pay £2K for flights and accomodation as they were announcing going out of business on teletext, thankfully my card didn't work and we didn't chuck £2K to the wind, I have a right to be cautious.
I hope TC stay in business, you don't work for them by any chance

No dont work for them but they have bigger financial backers than dart group who own jet2 so there is actually more chance of you coming home with saga this year

Hearsay and speculation really does annoy me. There's no reason to trust jet2 anymore in fact I would trust them less

I completely agree! What really annoys me are the people that listen to gossip, or so called 'contacts' and then avoid TC, which makes the situation worse. If people keep avoiding them, of course their troubles will worsen. Then all the people that have been listening and spreading speculation, turn round and say, I told you so

Couldn't take the chance and have booked with Jet 2 Com. I heard from a contact in the holiday industry that there is a degree of uncertainty over TC and it's future. Last thing I want is a collapse and then a mad scramble to book over priced seats on other airlines

I think that there's a degree of uncertainty about the travel industry as whole at the moment. Having used Jet2 in the past for flight only bookings with no problems I've not booked with them this year on exactly the same grounds as you haven't booked with TC. I think that Jet2's business model leaves them susceptible in the current economic climate in the same way that Excel and Goldtrail were. Jet2 has gone after largely the same market as they did and I'm not sure just how sustainable that market is at the moment.

Whoever we book with I think that we are all taking a gamble this year - I don't think that any of the TOs are goldplated and recession-proof at the moment. As far as I'm concerned the best we can do is try and make sure that we have decent insurance in place and pay with a credit card or Visa debit card in order to maximise our chances of getting our money back in the event that the airlione or TO collapses before we go. Once I'm there I don't really care! The ATOL guarantee means that someone has to get me back one way or the other - even if it is with SAGA. And who knows, if there's another ash cloud incident by the time the summer comes around, the chances are that nobody will be going anywhere. Who knows what the morrow brings?

I think that there's a degree of uncertainty about the travel industry as whole at the moment. Having used Jet2 in the past for flight only bookings with no problems I've not booked with them this year on exactly the same grounds as you haven't booked with TC. I think that Jet2's business model leaves them susceptible in the current economic climate in the same way that Excel and Goldtrail were. Jet2 has gone after largely the same market as they did and I'm not sure just how sustainable that market is at the moment.

Agree with that - the fact that there has been such a diversification in their business model tells me they are scrambling to get all the bookings they can to keep going.

Its also worth noting that as with excel, Jet 2 are snapping up lots and lots of aircraft leases at the moment, i personally do not know how they plan on paying for all of these leases, take a look at some of their 'peak' summer flights to turkey and cyprus, and at the moment there around 5-10 places booked on each flight.

hi....TC are offering better prices than jet2 at the moment....atleast for pefkos....Ive just booked with them for second week in july...so hope all stays OK....

Reason Im posting is this...

Thought for once everything was ok ....booked on the net and all seemed honky dory.....but decided to read my invoice end to end....

My invoice says .... The destination you are travelling to does not require API to be submitted.

.....surely I dont need spend on a phonecall to sort it out....

There is one messed up route on thomascooks site...which doesnt let you message them direct...used it...but not confident.....has anyone else been told this on thier invoice....

Could try doing the API in a few days....but waiting for sons passport to come back....tweetie

Tweetie, with Thomas Cook for Greece you only need to submit API in advance if you want to prebook seats. If you're not paying to do this, then the API will be taken from your passport at check in.

hi....thanks sunaddict... Im not prebooking seats...atleaste didnt opt to do so when I booked it....might do nearer the time as want to do online check in...one of lads just started new job and not sure if he can get time off now...might have to do a name change...so hanging on.

I know on line check in works well going out...as have done it for gran caneria...but what benefit will it have coming back from rhodes ....didnt seem to make any difference from gran caneria...we were all in a big long queue...the reps didnt tell those with check in on-line to go else where....tweetie pie

Hi tweetie, online check in is only applicable to flights leaving the UK. You can't check in online for your inbound flight.

thanks sunaddict....went coach last year due to ear ops....and a bit hazy when it comes to remembering this stuff....making better sense now....am tuning in...its just seats you can prebook both ways...and you get on line check in because youve booked them....

I just booked a basic deal as didnt want to loose the holiday Id decided on....but couldnt decide what extras I wanted or needed...

Like the meals...Im not that keen on them...and its better taking your own butties ect going out...but would be handy coming home....but you have to book meals for both ways...or not book them...would be handy if had as seperate options....tweetie

HI...have already booked...decided to prebook my seats and maybe meals....but cant figure out how to do it now ....no way when I'm logged in on my on line booking to add them on...just option to view ...pay ...API ...or ckeck in....

Tried my "account" option where directed off there email to book holiday essentials...but wants a password ...and I dont have one just a booking reference number

Does it cost me more to add these on after already booking.... and if I book seats ect will I have a problem if I need do a name change...final payment due next week...tweetie