Thomas Cook customers to fly home after firm collapses

[Dashinka 24,750]

There is another thread asking a specific question regarding a person caught up in this mess, but I thought I would start a more general discussion here.  The big question I have is why does the UK government have to expend it’s tax dollars to clean up this fiasco?

 

Thomas Cook customers to fly home after firm collapses

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49796827

[X Factor 1,112]

Very unfortunate. So many stranded people 😡

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

19 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

There is another thread asking a specific question regarding a person caught up in this mess, but I thought I would start a more general discussion here.  The big question I have is why does the UK government have to expend it’s tax dollars to clean up this fiasco?

 

Thomas Cook customers to fly home after firm collapses

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49796827

Their citizens are essentially stranded in many countries.   Gotta get them home somehow.  Not something the US government would do, methinks.

[Dashinka 24,750]

17 minutes ago, ALFKAD said:

Their citizens are essentially stranded in many countries.   Gotta get them home somehow.  Not something the US government would do, methinks.

I don’t remember the government setting up flights for those left stranded when the likes of PanAm went bankrupt.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

Hey, it's the UK.  They do things a tad differently than we do...

[luckytxn 2,265]

1 hour ago, Bill & Katya said:

There is another thread asking a specific question regarding a person caught up in this mess, but I thought I would start a more general discussion here.  The big question I have is why does the UK government have to expend it’s tax dollars to clean up this fiasco?

 

Thomas Cook customers to fly home after firm collapses

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49796827

Socialist patrons expect the babysitter to care for all their needs. Here we expect buyer beware. You know that the Socialist are not going to talk now how future taxes have to be raised to pay for this stuff until after the next elections at least and when they do people will be pissed that they have to pay more. Vicious circle.

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,378]

They be comie socialism 

[Dashinka 24,750]

9 hours ago, luckytxn said:

Socialist patrons expect the babysitter to care for all their needs. Here we expect buyer beware. You know that the Socialist are not going to talk now how future taxes have to be raised to pay for this stuff until after the next elections at least and when they do people will be pissed that they have to pay more. Vicious circle.

That certainly seems to be the case here.  I don’t think it is a big surprise to anyone doing due diligence that Thomas Cook was teetering on the edge, but I suppose in the socialist mentality the expectation is the nanny state will take care of us.  Whatever happened to self reliance?  It is interesting, the other thread asked the question if an ESTA overstay in the US would be forgiven due to this issue.  

 

[yuna628 9,702]

On ‎9‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 5:37 PM, Bill & Katya said:

There is another thread asking a specific question regarding a person caught up in this mess, but I thought I would start a more general discussion here.  The big question I have is why does the UK government have to expend it’s tax dollars to clean up this fiasco?

 

Thomas Cook customers to fly home after firm collapses

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49796827

The UK government has a repatriation scheme. I hope you can understand that for some of these customers, they are currently stuck and in many cases now homeless in some pretty poor areas. Thomas Cook isn't just an airline, but they owned hotels and resorts in countries like Turkey, Cuba, Egypt and many more. It is for this reason there have been now instances of tourists effectively held hostage in Cuba and Turkey for 'ransom' to pay money that Thomas Cook now owes them. Others have been bounced from the hotel on the street in some really unpleasant places. FWIW Thomas Cook hasn't even handled the whole repatriation thing well either, barely providing people with info. I had some moments of panic this week when I heard his parents were abroad, but thankfully his Dad was wise enough to not use them this time around.

 

On ‎9‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 5:08 AM, Bill & Katya said:

That certainly seems to be the case here.  I don’t think it is a big surprise to anyone doing due diligence that Thomas Cook was teetering on the edge, but I suppose in the socialist mentality the expectation is the nanny state will take care of us.  Whatever happened to self reliance?  It is interesting, the other thread asked the question if an ESTA overstay in the US would be forgiven due to this issue.  

 

Honestly it's not a nanny state mentality. The average person just doesn't pay attention to things going on in the world. They often pay large sums well in advance and if they hadn't heard the news by the time they flew out, they're now kind of stuck. Man I remember his parents telling me some crazy tales of their vacations to countries I thought they were crazy to go to.... but they don't really care how dangerous it is or how much of a severe language barrier - they just want a seemingly cheap deal, a patch of blue water, hot sun to burn them, and drinks. I admit I've been concerned about them before, and I'd be concerned if they ever ended up stuck in a situation like this. Its usually always the elderly that get themselves into not the best situations by not paying attention to life outside the bubble.

 

ESTA overstay thread because of this? LOL. Now that is pretty funny.

[Dashinka 24,750]

20 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

The UK government has a repatriation scheme. I hope you can understand that for some of these customers, they are currently stuck and in many cases now homeless in some pretty poor areas. Thomas Cook isn't just an airline, but they owned hotels and resorts in countries like Turkey, Cuba, Egypt and many more. It is for this reason there have been now instances of tourists effectively held hostage in Cuba and Turkey for 'ransom' to pay money that Thomas Cook now owes them. Others have been bounced from the hotel on the street in some really unpleasant places. FWIW Thomas Cook hasn't even handled the whole repatriation thing well either, barely providing people with info. I had some moments of panic this week when I heard his parents were abroad, but thankfully his Dad was wise enough to not use them this time around.

 

Honestly it's not a nanny state mentality. The average person just doesn't pay attention to things going on in the world. They often pay large sums well in advance and if they hadn't heard the news by the time they flew out, they're now kind of stuck. Man I remember his parents telling me some crazy tales of their vacations to countries I thought they were crazy to go to.... but they don't really care how dangerous it is or how much of a severe language barrier - they just want a seemingly cheap deal, a patch of blue water, hot sun to burn them, and drinks. I admit I've been concerned about them before, and I'd be concerned if they ever ended up stuck in a situation like this. Its usually always the elderly that get themselves into not the best situations by not paying attention to life outside the bubble.

 

ESTA overstay thread because of this? LOL. Now that is pretty funny.

I still feel this is buyer beware kind of thing.  I wonder if we will find out how much it costs the UK to conduct the largest repatriation since WWII?  The interesting thing is doesn't this also include citizens from other countries?

[yuna628 9,702]

15 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

I still feel this is buyer beware kind of thing.  I wonder if we will find out how much it costs the UK to conduct the largest repatriation since WWII?  The interesting thing is doesn't this also include citizens from other countries?

If they are UK residents or citizens, I imagine it would include them and it could include anyone who passed through the UK via TC. I'm not sure if we'll find out the cost, maybe. There's a lot going on in that country atm! It may be a buyer beware thing sure. You'd take better care of what was going on, and so would I. I'm not sure but it's possible that TC even offered travel insurance too which may not even be honored now? BA would offer me something like that, but I was always bought my own privately. I know my husband has been too busy working and hadn't even heard about the Thomas Cook thing or remembered his parents were away until I mentioned it. We had to ask someone to ask someone else to get ahold of them and find out *how* they got there and what service they used. I know that they'd have been pretty lost and unsure of what to even do if they were in that situation. Here is a little bit about the Cuba story: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49820686 The ambassador had to get involved, stating Cuban hotels had to honor those under the ATOL scheme but it seems like the Cubans don't care. I remember that the CCA mentioned that not all customers may have ATOL protection. You'd think that all insurance sold would be protected like that... but apparently not.

Edited September 25, 2019 by yuna628

[Steeleballz 7,550]

On 9/23/2019 at 3:58 PM, ALFKAD said:

Their citizens are essentially stranded in many countries.   Gotta get them home somehow.  Not something the US government would do, methinks.

 

  Every country has a different approach. I think we understand in the USA that most social welfare situations tend to leave us on the side of figuring it out on your own.

 

  I think the main thing is to understand what you are getting into before you travel. If you are going to be on your own in a scenario such as this, understand and plan for it. If you are a citizen of a country where the government has a role, also understand that. I assume the people of each country have ultimately had a say in how their social welfare structure has developed. 

[Boiler 45,993]

The industry is different in the UK, boomed in the 1960's when cheap air travel meant you could spend 2 weeks in the sun in the Costa's rather than shelter from the rain in Margate.

 

Anyway a lot of small operators that got into the business and the politics of them going bust and making good stories in the Papers did not sit well, so ATOL. Think of it as similar to the way your Bank deposit is sort of guaranteed. Not a US thing because package holidays are not a big here.

 

Times have changed so no longer as big a deal as before but still significant. Funded by the Industry.

[TBoneTX 46,010]

I always buy travel insurance for myself & Mrs. T-B. for international travel, and for Mrs. T-B.'s family when they visit.  We've used it twice -- one full payback, one case pending.

[Dashinka 24,750]

19 hours ago, Steeleballz said:

 

  Every country has a different approach. I think we understand in the USA that most social welfare situations tend to leave us on the side of figuring it out on your own.

 

  I think the main thing is to understand what you are getting into before you travel. If you are going to be on your own in a scenario such as this, understand and plan for it. If you are a citizen of a country where the government has a role, also understand that. I assume the people of each country have ultimately had a say in how their social welfare structure has developed. 

Yes, some countries are bigger "nanny" states than others.