She wrote "Apocalypse Now", which I believe was about the TC collapse, if I am not mistaken...

Thomas Cook Insolvency Impacts at US airports
 

Just saw this on the evening news. Live shots from JFK and EWR; the airports looked an absolute mess. I'd never heard of this travel agency but the news said they were the oldest (& largest?) Travel Agency in the world. They ceased operations immediately cancelling all future flights and holidays. Said as many as 150,000 - 200,000 customers are stranded around the world.


Did any flyers today notice larger than normal numbers of folks stranded at other U.S. airports today?


Feel horrible for these folks. NY times link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/t...-collapse.html

The "Byzantine Empire" of travel has finally collapsed. I expect that the causes will provide much fodder for debate.

The 150000 stranded figure is for UK residents only as I understand it. The global figure stranded is 600000 people. And Condor, the German airline, is (was) owned by Thomas Cook too and so they may go down as well (they are hoping for a German government investment). Condor probably has a larger US presence.

However, i don't think there is any AA relevance to this thread, so it probably should be moved to Omni.

Cost of realisations £79 million? How can this be so high?

This article looks pertinent in this thread. It looks like Citibank is decreasing benefits for cardholders. I wouldn't be surprised to see other credit card issuers in the US to follow suit.
https://awardwallet.com/blog/citi-cu...tent=learnmore

As I noted, UK DC's do have some protections. Nonetheless, the use of DC's to pay for future good or services is a poor idea because one is using one's own funds and then fighting to get them back.

The only reason to use a DC is if one must travel and one lacks the credit worthiness for a CC.

I was asking from the perspective of major crowds stranded at any other US airports. (Flying DCA - DFW - HNL tomorrow).

Don't know anything about the company or their places of operations. The videos from JFK and EWR looked at a sea of misery. If it's not really relevant / an impact outside of the NY airports or to those traveling on AA through them or others, I'm fine with the thread going bye-bye. :-)

This is the sub forum/thread to be moved to --->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/othe...quidation.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cook_Group
A big market for TC was selling packaged holidays (flights & accommodation). Popular with UK people

How could they continue to fly people out on departures with the risk of imminent bankruptcy looming? And now UK taxpayers are holding the (very large) bill, with Brexit looming as well? This seems reckless at best on the part of management, and criminally negligent at worst. Why haven't I heard more from the torch-and-pitchfork crowd looking to see heads roll? I would be incensed.

That's how they do it apparently, one moment they act as if it is all fine, next moment the end. Interestingly they timed the cease operations announcements in early am UK time, when most planes will be grounded, to minimize drama I presume.

If they were to stop carrying passengers on (only) the outbound portions of trips, they would be out of business almost instantly.

But that happened anyway. :)

It's like a band aid doc, there is no slow removing, you rip it off...:p

That's pretty much the way almost all airlines go insolvent. One rarely sees an orderly wind-down of operations.