Thomas Cook ceased trading

[NYCruiser 423]

8 hours ago, cdneh said:

I have a friend in the UK who is presently visiting her sister in the USA. Presently she is waiting for a repatriation flight. She is happy of course to stay a bit longer, but what if this ends up in an overstay?

I am assuming your friend has bought Travel Insurance? That would have included Health Insurance AND repatriation and full reimbursement coverage? If she is going to be on an overstay situation, she should leave and go to Canada for a while so as not to lose ESTA benefits?

[trudi 1,317]

9 hours ago, cdneh said:

I have a friend in the UK who is presently visiting her sister in the USA. Presently she is waiting for a repatriation flight. She is happy of course to stay a bit longer, but what if this ends up in an overstay?

Virgin Atlantic have said they will provide assistance to any customers stranded in the US, I can't find the link right now but I'm sure it was the BBC news website

[JFH 12,190]

6 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

 

Also isn’t this what travel insurance is for? 

Many insurance policies (at least those sold in the UK) do not cover financial failure of charter operators. SAFI covers financial failure of full scheduled carriers (BA, Delta, etc) but not chartered or low-cost carriers. That’s why the government (in other words, the tax payer) is organizing flights back to the UK. 

 

Where’s Bruce Dickinson when you need him? When Excel collapsed he flew tourists back to the UK from Egypt. 

[Boiler 45,467]

As far as I can tell Thomas Cook had their own carrier well they contracted it out but had their name on the plane, I did not know they did that to the US, as a share of the transatlantic market it would be minuscule and certainly this time of the year is not peak and I find it hard to believe the other carriers can not pick up the slack.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

News reports make it sound like they're chartering numerous planes (I'm sure other airlines are happy about that!!) and sounds like most people will be ok to get home fairly soon after if not the same time they were originally meant to. 

 

I actually saw a Thomas Cook plane on the tarmac at JFK the other day and remember being kind of surprised - I didn't actually know they had a branded fleet, then again I'm old enough to remember Thomas Cook from the days of travellers' cheques.

[Boiler 45,467]

[ineedadisplayname 496]

14 hours ago, NYCruiser said:

I am assuming your friend has bought Travel Insurance? That would have included Health Insurance AND repatriation and full reimbursement coverage? If she is going to be on an overstay situation, she should leave and go to Canada for a while so as not to lose ESTA benefits?

AFAIK going to Canada and coming back to the US, won't reset her I-94.

[ElDiablo 95]

Just now, ineedadisplayname said:

AFAIK going to Canada and coming back to the US, won't reset her I-94.

Nobody said to do that. US > Canada > UK. No going back to the US.

[ineedadisplayname 496]

1 minute ago, ElDiablo said:

Nobody said to do that. US > Canada > UK. No going back to the US.

I see. Bad assumption. I was operating on the chance that her travel insurance wont cover her flight from Canada since she has an US outbound ticket....