Have you read the travel advice from the Foreign Office?

I think unless they advise against travel to the area you are visiting, you'll not get anywhere with Thomas Cook.

I don't really understand this comment:

How can this be supplying the service originally purchased?

You booked a holiday, Thomas Cook are still supplying the holiday.

Msny countries where we holiday have "human rights issues" - I don't see the problems in Egypt as any different. If the FCO advise not travelling then the TOs are required to abide by their ruling. To build into the contract you enter in a clause enabling you to change/cancel because of how you feel would be totally unworkable.

fwh

I'd agree with that. Egypt has always had human rights issues and they didn't stop you handing your money over to Thomson.

Current FCO advice is only to avoid the big cities like Cairo (transit through airport OK), Alexandria and Suez. Luxor was mentioned yesterday. There was also trouble in Ismailia which is not a touristy place but my father will bore you to death with stories of how he was stuck there in the army in the 50s!! Sharm is classed as safe.

I agree with you all contractually I don't have a leg to stand on but as a gesture of good will they should offer alternatives. Its a fluid situation and potentially might get a lot worse. It seems odd to send your customers to a country where the capital has no police on the streets and citizens are having to police looters and arsonists themselves. Great PR op for Thomson to be flexible rather than insisting you fly to a unstable situation with limited internet/phone access and a national curfew in place.

Seems like some people on the Egypt thread share my feelings.

Thanks for replys though.

Thomson current travel information:

http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/alerts/thomsonfly-travel-alert.html

Sharm el Sheik is a very long way from the big urban centres where the riots are taking place - and it only exists because of the tourists, having been developed by the Israelis when they occupied the whole of the Sinai area. Until the FCO changes their advice, there is little you can do and expecting a TO to write off holidays in advance of this as a 'goodwill' gesture is unrealistic.

I know that this will sound blunt but booking a holiday anywhere under the boot of a repressive, authoritiarian regime always carry these sort of risks - one can never predict when trouble might kick off. The Egyptian people have been suffering in their cities for decades and have been 'risking their lives for freedom' for many years - the fact that many of them are fairly fundamentalist Islamists has meant that they've tended not to get a good press over here but is it any more respectful of their plight to want to cancel your booking now than it would have been never to have made it in the first place?

I can appreciate that you and your family are really worried but the risks to you have been assessed as very small by the FCO and in my experience they are very cautious about these matters - if I took at face value what they say about Cuba I'd never have gone but I've always felt perfectly safe there. And even though tourists were largely unaffected by the recent disturbances in Tunisia and many didn't want to have their holidays curtailed, the FCO uprated their guidance the moment the riots started to get close to the main tourist resorts and the TOs started immediately to bring back those who were out there and cancel for those due to go.

SM

Out of respect for the people of Egypt many of whom are risking their lives for freedom

If you were worried about the above why would you book a holiday to Egypt in the first place ?
It doesn't sound like it bothered you pre trouble yet its been going on for years.
Unless Foreign Office changes and says not to fly there they are within their rights to keep your money.

No offence ment.

Thomson have now cancelled flights to Aswan and Luxor.

Thomson have now cancelled flights to Aswan and Luxor.

I thought it was the excursions they cancelled?

I agree with everyone else. You can't expect a tour operator to cancel holidays as a goodwill gesture.
They would cancel holidays if the Foreign Office advise it, but at the moment they are only advising against all but essential travel to Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and Suez. Sharm is a long way from any of those.
Thomsons are supplying exactly the service originally purchased.

Sunaddict wrote:

thought it was the excursions they cancelled?

No, it was breaking news on the BBC.It definately said all flights were cancelled.

It is true but I wouldn't just rely on the BBC, they ahve been known to talk nonsense (see the travel news about Fridays possible train strike in Cardiff!!). The updated news direct from Thomson is http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/alerts/thomsonfly-travel-alert.html

steve8482 wrote:

It is true but I wouldn't just rely on the BBC, they ahve been known to talk nonsense l

It was actually Simon Calder the travel writer, who confirmed the flights to Aswan situation, I have found him reliable in the past.

I stand corrected. Their websites hadn't been updated the last time I checked.
I agree about the BBC, and their website is quite often days behind I hope their travel people are better informed than their sports people!!!!

Holiday companies such as Thompson & Longwood have to maintain their contractual obligations - to both providers in Egypt and to holidaymakers, until advised otherwise by the FCO.
Sinai (resorts of Sharm, Nuweiba, Taba) is a bit different from mainland Egypt - both in population (mainly bedouin), and politically). Yes, there are a lot of 'police' for tourism security but the army is not allowed to be in Sinai by treaty with the Israelis (the few tanks in Sharm are there with UN and Israeli permission because Mubarak has a residence there). If there is sympathy for the people of Cairo, good, but don't cancel out of sympathy. Remember, the thousands of hotel staff in Sinai come from the mainland, mostly from Cairo, where they have families to support. If the troubles last long, the possible downside for the holiday industry in Sinai may be porblems both with the the rotation of staff and shortages in the supply of comestibles for the 20-30k or so holidaymakers.

We are going to makadi bay in march, we booked this holiday purposely to do excursions to pyramids and luxor, we are gutted with all thats gone on, we are hoping the excursions will be back on by the time we get there, or I feel it will be a wasted holiday and money.

Shamus,
If you wanted to see Luxor and Cairo, why did you book a holiday in Makadi Bay? To see the main sights of Luxor will take you at least two full days (and you will still miss a heck of a lot!) and Cairo is at least one full day just to see the pyramids, museum and citadel at a fairly superficial level. In my opinion you would have been far better off booking a holiday in Luxor and doing a trip to Cairo from there or, if the restrictions were still in place, enjoying more of what Luxor has to offer.

Cheers,
Ralph