{"id":492,"date":"2019-09-25T09:05:11","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T09:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vookbook.com\/blog\/?p=492"},"modified":"2019-09-25T09:06:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T09:06:17","slug":"what-happens-when-a-travel-provider-like-thomas-cook-shuts-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vookbook.com\/blog\/what-happens-when-a-travel-provider-like-thomas-cook-shuts-down\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens When a Travel Provider Like Thomas Cook Shuts Down?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What happens to customers when a tour operator they paid shuts down; are there any legal guarantees of reimbursement? The short answer: only for some<\/em>\u00a0people.By now, you\u2019ve undoubtedly heard that Thomas Cook Group, the British travel operator\u2014which encapsulates retail travel agencies, wholesale tour packagers, and even airlines\u2014has shuttered under bankruptcy. This is the largest tour operator failure in not-so-recent memory; it\u2019s left some 600,000 travelers stranded at their foreign destinations, and many tour buyers who haven\u2019t started their trips yet are unlikely to see the tours they bought or any money they prepaid.<\/p>\n

The Thomas Cook Shutdown<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As of September 23, all Thomas Cook retail agencies have closed and all tour operations are down. Two affiliated airlines, Condor and Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia, are\u00a0still operating<\/a>. Condor has told travelers with Condor tickets that it will accommodate them on flights to return home, but will not accommodate travelers who haven\u2019t started Thomas Cook package trips yet.<\/p>\n

According to stranded Thomas Cook travelers and multiple media reports, many hotels are owed money\u2014and will probably not be paid\u2014for accommodations they have provided or are now providing. Some hotels reportedly tried to collect replacement payment from travelers, but the general advice from the British government and other authorities has been that travelers shouldn\u2019t be held responsible for the missing payments. The tourism ministry of\u00a0Turkey ordered hotels not to charge Thomas Cook travelers<\/a>\u00a0the missing fees, saying the Turkish government will pay them instead.<\/p>\n

About three-quarters of the stranded travelers started their trips from either the U.K. or Germany. The U.K. and German governments have mounted massive efforts to get the hundreds of thousands of travelers home via chartered airplanes, which are being called the \u201clargest peacetime repatriation<\/a>\u00a0in U.K. history.\u201d<\/p>\n

ATOL: Who\u2019s Likely to Get Reimbursed<\/strong><\/h2>\n

British travelers are about the only ones in luck when this sort of situation occurs: Many U.K. travelers booking with a tour company are covered financially by the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority\u2019s\u00a0ATOL (Air Travel Organizer\u2019s License)<\/a>, a trust fund established to cover travelers involved in tour-operator failures. The tour operator has to be covered under the ATOL program by paying fees to it (and Thomas Cook was).<\/p>\n

There doesn\u2019t seem to be any such existing effort for travelers from other countries, meaning that only Britons who were customers of an ATOL-licensed operator are likely to receive payout. Said customers can\u00a0file an ATOL claim through the British government, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If You\u2019re Stranded at Your Destination<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Absent any formal recovery programs, North American travelers booked on any of Thomas Cook airlines\u2019 now-non-existent return flights should check with other airlines for possible reduced emergency one-way return fares, which are typically offered when a tour operator or airline fails. Travelers with returns booked on other airlines should expect to use those flights as ticketed, but check with the airline to make sure your reservation still stands.<\/p>\n

Insurance loophole:<\/strong>\u00a0If you bought trip-interruption insurance that includes \u201csupplier bankruptcy\u201d or \u201csupplier default\u201d in the fine print as a \u201ccovered reason,\u201d that insurance should cover the cost of a new return ticket home. Contact your insurance provider before buying.<\/p>\n

If You\u2019ve Paid for (But Not Started) a Thomas Cook Trip<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you booked a package tour that included Thomas Cook Airlines, your reservation is probably now invalid\u2014and you should receive notice saying so. You aren\u2019t likely to get any refund from Thomas Cook, but have two back-up options to recover your payment:<\/p>\n