Good bye Thomas Cook !!

Well, what a sad week for the travel industry with the demise of Thomas cook, and a little bit of my history gone forever, I feel very sad for the thousands of employees affected by this momentous failure, many of whom are still friends.

I started my travel career with MyTravel in Northsheilds and transferred to a retail store in 2005, then known as Going Places, we merged with Thomas Cook and I continued on with them for several more years.

The end of my retail career came abruptly in 2013 when the powers that be decided all of the smaller shops no longer needed managers, looking back I was devastated at the time, but now can see I have most likely dodged a bullet and at least I got a redundancy package back then, we were also still on old contracts, so all that went well for me.

Imagine this time of the year, right before Christmas finding out you have no job, maybe no salary, and even worried about the pension, I have heard since the pension is in a good position and luckily should not be affected.

P&O is now sourcing new flights for all the fly/cruises remaining in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean for this season,  we have not heard anything yet, but I am confident they will arrange new flights for everyone.

Listening to the media (I admit, this needs a pinch of salt) one wonders how a failing company running at a loss can still pay out large bonuses? It’s a public company, who was watching who??

I did not have any flights booked with them for my packages, some did, and they are all now sorted I believe, just goes to show the cheapest is not always the best, and having the ATOL cover is an absolute must in today’s climate

Wishing all my past colleagues and friends the very best for the future, I am proof there is life after Thomas Cook!!