Reply With Quoteeaglem (24-09-19)
Thomas Cook Travel Agent - Entered Compulsory Liquidation
Thomas Cook has collapsed after last-minute negotiations aimed at saving the 178-year-old holiday firm failed.
People around the world left strandard
Last edited by ol' boy; 23-09-19 at 07:32 PM.
If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!
eaglem (24-09-19)
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bunch of idiots anyway totally stuffed up my work travel to Denmark once.
there were also rumours about Flight Centre taking a hit as well , dunno what is the truth there , you never learn the truth until the company demise anyway
Nephew went for a job with flight centre recently and is waiting to see where he will working.
I pointed out there are 2 Flight centres in our small town. He said that's nothing, there are 4 of them in the shopping centre in the main town.
Given there is only 2 Maccas in that entire suburb and only one in the shopping centre, how there can be 4 travel agents all under the same flag raises some suspicions in my mind.
Of course they aren't the only travel agents either so i'd tend to think someone is sailing pretty close to the wind... or the waterfall.
eaglem (24-09-19)
same where we are George - regional QLD town , 3 flight centres , 1 Cruiseabout , 1 Escape Travel , all associated with each other and share the same travel booking system? very sus to me.
600,000 people displaced according to reports (seems excessive)
150,000 people currently on a holiday from other reports, with 1,000,000 whom have booked and not gone yet.
Thomas Cook also run their own airline, so no return flights from them.
UK Gov has pledged to get everyone home
Travel Agents struggle to get it right, can you imagine when the Gov is trying to get these people home.
It will be a long and slow return home for many.
Thomas Cook themselves, 22,000 employees, 9000 in the UK
Aircraft have been grounded and impounded by the UK Gov to make sure they cant be moved and sold by the liquidators (just yet)
The "Slots" will no doubt be sold off to the highest bidder
Motels and Offices look like they will be sold
Not the first Airline/Travel company to go down this year
4 others have folded this year
Then, there is Brexit, probably had an effect here too.
Plus last weeks oil price hike
Maybe the 737 MAX being out of the air didn't help matters
Thomas Cook, 1.5 billion in debt..... That sure is some money to be owing.
I just can't see how todays price savvy customers could ever pay that back.
I wonder if a Suadi or Chines business person will just snap it up with his ashtray change ?
No doubt more bankruptcies to come
Last edited by ol' boy; 24-09-19 at 11:15 AM.
If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!
My Daughter has been on a couple of many countries trips and organised the lot for herself. Yes, there seemed to be a good many hours in organising and researching it all, but that was part of the fun for her. Far as I'm aware, And I'm sure I would have been, she had zero problems.Originally Posted by VroomVroom
I know young people these days never seem to have their arses out of an aeroplane, certainly it would be rare now for all her friends to be in the country at the one time but I'm sure a lot now just book it all online themselves rather than go through agents.
I don't know how much money is in travel agencies but I tend to think it's not a lot.
Friend of mine a few years back got sick of travelling round the world Modelling and living out of a suitcase so was just waitressing for a while. She thought seeing she had traveled so much she might become a travel agent. Put herself through a course, did really well and got a job no trouble. 6 months later shes back waitressing because she said the money in travel was so shit and she could make loads more waiting tables.
I think the modern age has probably hurt agents. Once not so long ago, travel was a big thing. Now you get on the net and book your tickets yourself. I know people that go to NZ for a long weekend. Get online, Find your Flights, Book and show up at the airport. Done it myself a few times and if they make it easy enough for a dilettante like me to manage, anyone could do it.
I'd tend to think, just guessing, that the proportion of people that actually go through an agent these days would be only a fraction of the total number of travellers. I'll bet even 10 years ago the numbers were very much different and 20 years ago it would have been less people not using an agent than using one.
Businesses in an over saturated market are always a big red flag. I'd bet the majority are doing it lean. Doesen't mean the Franchising companies are as they always get their cut but it's a tell tale for them just the same.
VroomVroom (25-09-19)
travel agents are dinosaurs from a different age, much like video hire shops.......
Pretty much. Once upon a time, international phone calls were expensive and difficult to make. Now, everyone is connected all the time. If you're overseas and something goes wrong, you can just whip out your smartphone and fix it all online.
I used to go through travel agents, but stopped after attempting to attend a family wedding in Thailand. I had no interest in visiting Thailand, but when one of the younger relos decided to get married there, we were all expected to pay up and take several days out of our busy lives to attend. I was not impressed. I couldn't be f....d with any of it, so I foolishly went to a travel agent and let them organise it all.
They booked my flights with Air Australia after travel insurers had stated publicly that they would no longer cover Air Australia... as I found out when Air Australia went broke and I tried to claim. As I said to the travel agent: "if I had sold you a computer and a printer and the printer's maker said that the printer would not work with that model computer, you would be quite justified in demanding your money back. You've sold me insurance that won't work with that airline, so I hold you partly responsible for my loss".
Now here's the thing: the product disclosure statement given to me when I booked said nothing about Air Australia. The insurance company said "Ahah: but we emailed you an updated PDS with an extra page at the end". I never received the email and could prove that I didn't receive it, because whoever entered my email address into the insurance company's system had made a typo in the email address (contrary to what my high school teachers said: having messy handwriting can be good). I could also show that the insurance company would have received a "bounce" message when they attempted to email the PDS to a non-existent email address.
It took a bit of a fight and a threat to take them to the financial ombudsman, but the insurance company had to pay out. Air Australia went broke only a few days before the wedding. So sad... I couldn't make it and had a great excuse. I'll never use a travel agent again though. I just don't see the value, especially when they give you really bad advice and you have no recourse.
Last edited by shred; 24-09-19 at 08:56 PM.
Thomas Cook group were a bit more than just a booking agent.
They operated multiple airlines with a total of 117 aircraft.
Personally I see that worldwide, not just here, weak economies paired with general high cost of living versus relatively low wages means less money to spend on holidays, which again weakens the economy, etc, etc.
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 24-09-19 at 11:12 PM.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
Brexit has yet to happen.
Oil price has been way higher in the past without airlines collapsing.
Thomas Cook does not operate any 737.
More bankruptcies are indeed highly likely with the doom and gloom state of the world economies.
One thing I find strange, we would all agree that the population is growing, but where is the associated economical growth?
Where is all the money flowing?
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 24-09-19 at 11:25 PM.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
Welfare.
Seems there was a Chinese company about to buy 75% of Thomas Cooks tour business and 25% of its Airline for $450M just last month
For those thinking Thomas Cook is an old school bricks and mortor travel agent, they also owned a number of online booking platforms, hotels4u etc
Last edited by ol' boy; 25-09-19 at 02:44 AM.
If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!
VroomVroom (25-09-19)
No one can whinge like a Pommie.... FFS
Don't just book it, Thomas Fook it.
3 and 4 months of peoples advanced payments for holidays, goneski.
Operation Matterhorn - 600,000 people to get home!
Last edited by ol' boy; 25-09-19 at 03:54 PM.
If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!
Ah the brilliance of Companies, this guy walks scott free with all his wage and all his bonuses
If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!
Wasn't talking about government revenue.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
Ah the brilliance of Companies, this guy walks scott free with all his wage and all his bonuses
These are the guys we need to ask where all the money is flowing !
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
Look at him, he had to act like he was sorry
Poor fella
Last edited by ol' boy; 25-09-19 at 10:56 PM.
If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!
This is what I don’t understand. All these CEOs think they should be paid 20x, 30x more than the average person (sometimes much more than that).
They reason that they are worth it, partly because of all the responsibility they bear. But when things go horribly wrong, they don’t suffer any real consequences. Meanwhile all the regular hard working employees are the ones who really suffer... because of bad decisions made by Mr CEO on his $5 million (or much more) per year.
And employee's have to pay their tax
The big company doesn't... Then it folds, wipes its hands and walks away
If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!
shred (26-09-19)
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