Thomas Cook

Dis86 · 22 Sep 2019 at 13:40

rubberduck said:
Reduced margin on package holidays because of trying to stay competitve with online competition. High overheads because of large amounts of stores to keep open and staff to pay.

Makes sense to an extent I suppose! I always saw them as offering a somewhat different product but suppose it would still impact them.

robj20 · 22 Sep 2019 at 14:00

How are Tui managing and Thomas Cook are coming to an end.

malachi · 22 Sep 2019 at 14:07

robj20 said:
How are Tui managing and Thomas Cook are coming to an end.

Same can be said for Ryanair.

413x · 22 Sep 2019 at 15:46

rubberduck said:
Reduced margin on package holidays because of trying to stay competitve with online competition. High overheads because of large amounts of stores to keep open and staff to pay.

This is why i personally see those jobs going anyway. The business model. Obviously isn't profitable.

Em3bbs · 22 Sep 2019 at 16:20

String said:
How would I know what an acceptable figure would be, I don't work in the industry and have no idea how that figure is calculated.

Yet you can categorically say it's a race to the bottom and use that exact strike as example. Interesting.

Droolinggimp · 22 Sep 2019 at 16:28

Why are some hotels keeping holiday makers from leaving? Surely they have paid for their holiday already through TC or do TC hold back the money and pay later?

Dirk Diggler · 22 Sep 2019 at 16:32

Em3bbs said:
Yet you can categorically say it's a race to the bottom and use that exact strike as example. Interesting.

It's not that complicated.

In my industry, we've came very close to strike action over the past few years but we've never actually hit the cobbles. The process to get to an actual walkout is quite complex these days; it's notoriously difficult. When a work force makes it all the way to an actual strike then you know that there's something far wrong.

We've also recently secured a 9.5% rise over 2 years, so I know from personal experience that figures like that can be merited.

robj20 · 22 Sep 2019 at 16:43

Droolinggimp said:
Why are some hotels keeping holiday makers from leaving? Surely they have paid for their holiday already through TC or do TC hold back the money and pay later?

That's what I was thinking.
Besides their contract is with TC not the holiday maker.

glenimp617 · 22 Sep 2019 at 16:52

We went with Thomas Cook this year. Thought the price and service was excellent.

Real shame if they go under.

chaparral · 22 Sep 2019 at 17:49

Droolinggimp said:
Why are some hotels keeping holiday makers from leaving? Surely they have paid for their holiday already through TC or do TC hold back the money and pay later?

robj20 said:
That's what I was thinking.
Besides their contract is with TC not the holiday maker.

Taken From the BBC news Website

It's low season at the moment, the time of year when Thomas Cook has to pay its suppliers for the busy summer season just gone.
Hoteliers are paid on 60 to 90-day terms, once travellers have already taken their holidays.
The nightmare scenario is that hoteliers who don't think they will get paid might turn out the people staying with them.

weringo · 22 Sep 2019 at 18:34

Droolinggimp said:
Why are some hotels keeping holiday makers from leaving? Surely they have paid for their holiday already through TC or do TC hold back the money and pay later?

Simple, because they are scummy hotels. Hopefully their Tripadvisor pages are ruined. Very silly to ruin your reputation because your business is too reliant on one customer / you don't have contingency plans in place.

Scania · 22 Sep 2019 at 19:14

Raymond Lin · 22 Sep 2019 at 19:16

chaparral said:
Taken From the BBC news Website

I really don’t know how companies can’t or don’t plan for that, it’s not like they don’t know a low season is coming, it’s not like this never happened before. They are basically spent their earnings and profits from the peak season and not saved it up for the low season.

iamtheoneneo · 22 Sep 2019 at 19:18

robj20 said:
How are Tui managing and Thomas Cook are coming to an end.

Good exec's vs bad exec's.
TUI aren't just managing they are destroying the competition, seems a bit too literally now.

Mr Badger · 22 Sep 2019 at 19:23

weringo said:
Simple, because they are scummy hotels. Hopefully their Tripadvisor pages are ruined. Very silly to ruin your reputation because your business is too reliant on one customer / you don't have contingency plans in place.

Rather than focusing on the short term cash flow it's a chance for the hotel to shine and reassure the guests, earning thanks and repeat customers. Locking them in (or threatening to kick them out) if they don't pay twice for the same holiday is going to cause long term reputational damage and I certainly wouldn't want to book a place that had pulled such a stunt.

peterwalkley · 22 Sep 2019 at 19:28

Given that most of us have to have paid the full balance 6-8 weeks before the holiday, people like TC making hotels wait for 60-90 days AFTER the holiday is just taking the wee. I know its good business to manage your cash flow and TC (had) a strong negotiating position, but the Hotels have only themselves to blame for accepting such awful terms. They could have factored the debt off instead of screwing new customers over.

Mr Badger · 22 Sep 2019 at 19:29

iamtheoneneo said:
Good exec's vs bad exec's.
TUI aren't just managing they are destroying the competition, seems a bit too literally now.

I wonder what will happen to the capacity if they do go under. To take Bristol Airport (which always seems to be pushing to expand) as an example, Tui and Thomas Cook seem to provide pretty much all of the package holidays between them. Will Tui massively increase their offering, will another company (e.g. Jet2) move in, or could there actually be a significant reduction in flight/holiday availability?

NVP · 22 Sep 2019 at 19:34

Scania said:
I’m currently in Ios, Greece having booked - and paid a little more - to go via Tui rather than Thomas Cook, whilst I hadn’t realised at the time things were as dire as they now seem for TC, I’m glad something in the back of my mind made me rethink my initial plan of going with TC.

Shame, a long standing business of good repute, brought down by it appears events relatively beyond their control.

I hope there’s some 11th hour rescue plan but I doubt it tbh.

I thought you went santorini?

esmozz · 22 Sep 2019 at 19:51

Em3bbs said:
You really think a pay rise offer of 11.5% over three years by BA is a 'race to the bottom'?

The B.A. figure comes from the fact that back in around 2008 when B.A. were in danger of going under they asked for and got significant saving from staff in terms of a reduction of their terms and conditions. Fast forward today and B.A. has made over a billion in profit. The 11.5% is signifcantly less than if they had not surrendered their T+C's earlier. Meanwhile the senior management are getting ever bigger bonuses. So yes, the 11.5% offer is a race to the bottom in terms of two steps forward, three steps back.

Em3bbs · 22 Sep 2019 at 21:01

esmozz said:
The B.A. figure comes from the fact that back in around 2008 when B.A. were in danger of going under they asked for and got significant saving from staff in terms of a reduction of their terms and conditions. Fast forward today and B.A. has made over a billion in profit. The 11.5% is signifcantly less than if they had not surrendered their T+C's earlier. Meanwhile the senior management are getting ever bigger bonuses. So yes, the 11.5% offer is a race to the bottom in terms of two steps forward, three steps back.

2008 was eleven, nearly twelve years ago.... We're talking about the present not a time when the iPhone had only just been released. I assume many of the people striking joined in that long interim and were happy with the pay.