FAMILY LOSE £4,000 AS HONEYMOON WRECKED BY COLLAPSE OF THOMAS COOK
A CARDIFF couple fear they have lost thousands of pounds on flights to Disney World Orlando for a family honeymoon following the collapse of Thomas Cook.
They were among the estimated one million customers affected by yesterday’s collapse of the travel industry giant.
The company ceased trading in the early hours of the morning after failing to secure a last-ditch rescue deal.
It was unable to secure the extra £200m needed to keep the business afloat following a full day of crucial talks with its major shareholder and creditors on Sunday.
Rhia Presley, 35, and Jason Forsythe, 40, are getting married at Cardiff’s Register Office next July – having opted for a cheap wedding ceremony and no reception in order to save money for their dream family holiday.
They booked the £4,041.90 flights for themselves and their three children, aged 11, nine and six, with Thomas Cook for July 24 the day after their planned wedding ceremony.
As they have booked their accommodation with Disney directly, their flights were not Atol protected, meaning they are unable to get a refund following the collapse of the British travel firm.
“It took a lot for us to get this money, and now it is gone, we are devastated,” said Rhia, who works in a supermarket.
The couple, who live in Old St Mellons, had not yet got around to buying travel insurance as they said they had no reason to believe something like this would ever happen to Thomas Cook, a firm which has been operating since 1841.
“I thought there was no way we would have to panic about covering ourselves nine months in advance,” added Rhia.
“I was on the phone to them [Thomas Cook] a couple of days ago and I was told that I had nothing to worry about.
“They said it was the packages that were going bust, they said the flights would not be affected.
“I asked them again and again if our flights would be okay. I said I can’t afford to have this happen to us.”
The couple first met when Rhia was
17, but spent a few years apart before reconnecting – and have now been together for nine years.
Jason, a senior engineer, proposed last year, and as the couple rarely spend time away from their children, they decided they would go to Disneyworld in Florida for their honeymoon as a family.
To keep costs as low as possible in order to fund the dream holiday, they opted for a small wedding in a registry office, and were not even planning on having a reception.
Rhia said: “We booked the wedding for the Thursday and were planning on flying to Orlando on the Friday. We were not even planning on having a reception.
“We were going to go to the Slug and Lettuce, in Cardiff, where we met again a few years ago, to just have some food and drinks with our family.”
Rhia had even bought her wedding dress secondhand from eBay, and her partner has bought a suit from Matalan for £60.
“We took the children to Disneyland in Paris before and they said they would love to see what Disney World was like.
“They have been saving their money, saying ‘this is for Florida.’ “I don’t want to tell them we may not go. I can’t do that to them.” Rhia has since been advised that the only way the couple would be successful in getting their money back for the flights is through any credit card they were purchased on, however they made the purchase with a debit card, even taking a loan out to cover the cost.
“Now we are going to be paying for this loan without getting our flights. We can’t afford to do this.”
The couple have raised a dispute with the bank they made the purchase with, claiming they have purchased goods that have not been received. As they authorised the payment for the flights, they are not confident this will be successful.
Rhia has set up a GoFundMe page in the hope of raising the money to pay for replacement flights to Orlando, Florida, with a different airline.
One of the world’s oldest and largest travel companies, Thomas Cook had been trading for 178 years – having been established in 1841 by a cabinet maker who organised a day trip for temperance movement supporters.
As of this year, the group employed 21,000 people in 16 countries, operated 105 aircraft and 200 own-brand hotels and resorts.
Just hours after the firm’s collapse, the first flights began landing in the UK’s largest peacetime repatriation.
Some 150,000 tourists are being brought home over the next two weeks in a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) flight programme costing £100m.
The first rescue flight touched down at Gatwick from Split, Croatia, shortly before noon.
Around 15,000 passengers were expected to travel on 61 flights yesterday.
Forty-five aircraft from as far away as Malaysia have been chartered to operate approximately 1,000 flights from 53 airports in 18 countries over the next two weeks.
Holidaymakers already abroad are being flown home at no extra cost as close as possible to their original return time and date.
All future Thomas Cook bookings have been cancelled, affecting around one million people.
A carer and his wife from Risca, Caerphilly, who scrimped and saved for a year to go on a much needed break abroad were left totally gutted after seeing their holiday plans go up in smoke for the second time.
Phillip Coleman, 54 and his wife Neiko, 46, paid £1,600 for flights and hotel to the Greek island of Zante.
Just days before they were due to jet off from Bristol Airport the couple were told that there were serious wildfires near their accommodation - and they would not be allowed to stay at the hotel they had chosen.
Thomas Cook vowed to fix the problem - and the firm phoned the couple on the weekend to say a replacement hotel had been found.
However, Phil - whose wife has epilepsy and a brain disorder - stayed awake through the early hours of the morning only to see Thomas Cook had ceased all trading.
“We’d saved up £1,600 and it was a struggle as I’m my wife’s carer so we have limited income, he added.”
The married couple had been saving hard for the holiday and booked it over a year ago.
Until Sunday, the couple had no idea where they would be staying before a travel agent called them to say a new hotel had been found.
However, their celebrations were short lived as just hours later they saw the news that Thomas Cook had collapsed.
“I stayed up until 3am this morning watching the news to hear the news and then heard that they went insolvent so my wife and I went to McDonald’s to console ourselves. The suitcases were already in the boot of the car.”
The couple attempted to book a lastminute trip - but were left disappointed after seeing other holiday company increase their prices suddenly.
“So now we have cases and Euros, but nowhere to go,” added Phil.
Richard Moriarty, chief executive of the CAA, said the UK Government had asked his organisation to launch “the UK’s largest ever peacetime repatriation”.
Most of the flights are from European airports, but customers are also being brought home from Thomas Cook’s long-haul destinations such as those in the US, the Caribbean and Cuba.
I was on the phone to them [Thomas Cook] a couple of days ago and I was told that I had nothing to worry about Rhia Presley, whose honeymoon has been cancelled
The £100m bill will be met by the Atol scheme and the Government.
Atol provides protection to customers on package holidays when travel firms collapse, although passengers who made flight-only bookings with Thomas Cook are also being brought home at no extra charge.
Thomas Cook package holiday customers will also see the cost of their accommodation covered by Atol.
Those who have not yet started their package holiday will be given a refund, while those on flight-only bookings are advised to seek reimbursement from their credit or debit card provider, or make a claim through their travel insurer.
Thomas Cook customers are being advised to visit the CAA’s dedicated website, thomascook.caa.co.uk, for more information about what they should do next.
Unions representing the company’s staff, of which there are 9,000 across the group in the UK, had previously urged the Government to intervene financially.
Thomas Cook chief executive Peter Fankhauser said his company had “worked exhaustively” to salvage a rescue package.
He said: “I know that this outcome will be devastating to many people and will cause a lot of anxiety, stress and disruption.
“I would like to apologise to our millions of customers, and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years.”