Thomas Cook

[Mizza40]

Hi there has anyone booked with the relaunched Thomas Cook? Thinking of booking for July as their flight/Hotel deal is a really good price. This is for tui flights to mlb but its cheaper than booking through Tui.

[grumpybri]

Well spotted. Did not know Thomas Cook was back in the game.
Will keep an eye on prices with them.

[123]

Originally Posted by grumpybri

Well spotted. Did not know Thomas Cook was back in the game.
Will keep an eye on prices with them.

See more...

They aren't really back in the game.

FOSUN - a Chinese investment company - was one of the major investors in TC (and everyone's hopes for a bailout).

When they refused to put in any extra money the company went pop, but not before they had transferred the ownership of the brand name out of the TC company and into their holding company. (As the name has value as seen by your post).

So by booking with TC you aren't being patriotic or being loyal to that company that gave you lots of holidays in the past, you are instead giving your cash to the company that ultimately ran them into the ground and walked away allowing them to fold.

Spend your money how you want, but I won't be giving them a penny!

[Mizza40]

Ah ok! To be honest just looking for a decent price for the family whoever it is with

[Egon]

Originally Posted by 123

They aren't really back in the game.

FOSUN - a Chinese investment company - was one of the major investors in TC (and everyone's hopes for a bailout).

When they refused to put in any extra money the company went pop, but not before they had transferred the ownership of the brand name out of the TC company and into their holding company. (As the name has value as seen by your post).

So by booking with TC you aren't being patriotic or being loyal to that company that gave you lots of holidays in the past, you are instead giving your cash to the company that ultimately ran them into the ground and walked away allowing them to fold.

Spend your money how you want, but I won't be giving them a penny!

See more...

Exactly this, its unfortunate that most people wont realise this and use them purely because of the name.

[PPM]

Remember our Government also refused to bail them out too, so why should Fosun have done it if the gov wouldn’t

Read this for more info and analysis

bbc/news/business-49761464

They are ABTA and ATOL protected

Would I book with them? Possibly, if the price was right. But I wouldn’t be buying because of the Thomas Cook name, as it now means nothing.

[Mizza40]

Basically I'm only interested as the price is good for the times I'm looking. I would have booked with tui but they are coming out pretty expensive

[Tinkerbell]

Originally Posted by Mizza40

Basically I'm only interested as the price is good for the times I'm looking. I would have booked with tui but they are coming out pretty expensive

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As do most people. I really don't like virgin but if they were cheaper I'd book, unfortunately my wallet and my principles are two separate entities 😁

[Peko]

Originally Posted by 123

They aren't really back in the game.

FOSUN - a Chinese investment company - was one of the major investors in TC (and everyone's hopes for a bailout).

When they refused to put in any extra money the company went pop, but not before they had transferred the ownership of the brand name out of the TC company and into their holding company. (As the name has value as seen by your post).

So by booking with TC you aren't being patriotic or being loyal to that company that gave you lots of holidays in the past, you are instead giving your cash to the company that ultimately ran them into the ground and walked away allowing them to fold.

Spend your money how you want, but I won't be giving them a penny!

See more...

Just to correct some factual inaccuracies here, Fosun did not transfer the brand name out of the company before TC went under. Fosun agreed to acquire various brand assets of TC about 6 weeks after it collapsed, for around £11m.

Neither did Fosun refuse to put any extra money in. When TC was trying to put together rescue funds in the last days, Fosun had committed a large amount to that. What they were not prepared to do was put in yet more when the company found itself caught between banks, hedge funds and insurers, resulting in the demand for an additional £200m on top of the original rescue package at the last minute, and which the UK government refused help with.

It’s a bit much to suggest Fosun ran TC into the ground, it was a big shareholder but not the management. The reasons for TC’s collapse are varied and complex, and many of them predate Fosun’s investment (which went up in smoke when the company collapsed).

People are free to dislike the new TC based on its ownership if they wish, but best to have the facts straight. FWIW, the new TC in the UK has a number of ex-old TC people among its staff, and regardless of ownership it is creating jobs in the UK, albeit far fewer than the old company had. It’s an asset-light (doesn’t own airline or hotels) online tour operator now, air packages bought from them will be ATOL-protected. And no, I do not have any vested interest in Fosun or TC.

[123]

Originally Posted by PPM

Remember our Government also refused to bail them out too, so why should Fosun have done it if the gov wouldn’t

Read this for more info and analysis

bbc/news/business-49761464

They are ABTA and ATOL protected

Would I book with them? Possibly, if the price was right. But I wouldn’t be buying because of the Thomas Cook name, as it now means nothing.

See more...

Well to put it simply, the UK government owned 0% of TC, and FOSUN owned 29.9%.

So if the UK gov had put 1bn in (which is what was needed at least) FOSUN would have benefited by 300m.

TC wasn't profitable, and due to some stupid mergers in the past, never would be. The UK gov did exactly the right thing by refusing to give a Chinese mega-corp £300m for nothing