A Peacetime Dunkirk? Travel Company Thomas Cook Collapses, Strands Over 150,000 Travelers

Hotair ^ | 09/23/2019 | Ed Morrissey

[sphinx]

I’m surprised in this day and age that a company would have taken peoples’ money for airfares and accommodations and not immediately paid the airlines and hotels. That part of the business should be a straight passthrough.

[Buckeye McFrog]

So I guess the old AAA travelers cheques you have stuffed in some drawer are no longer good.

[left that other site]

Didn’t the travelers have round-trip tickets already paid for in advance? That is weird that 150,000 travelers had not made any return arrangements.

[GOPJ]

Like Washington and the press - was it run by the inadequate offspring of former ‘elites’?

[Buckeye McFrog]

I’m surprised in this day and age that a company would have taken peoples’ money for airfares and accommodations and not immediately paid the airlines and hotels. That part of the business should be a straight passthrough

Nah. You negotiate Net 45 or 60 day terms with those folks and then float the money in the highest returning investment you can find.

Another chapter in my book about how MBA's are destroying the world.

[ctdonath2]

Why the drama? Swipe a credit card, get a room and get a flight. How many of these 150,000 really need gov’t assistance to travel home?

[sevlex]

So, a large company fails due an unsupportable debt load?

Folks this is just the beginning of a bloodbath. Every ceo & boardmember involved in this financial fraud should go to jail.

[Chode]

i think they had their own planes which are now grounded...

[elcid1970]

Travel is so overrated. I like where I live.

So why should I travel? I’m already here!

Just for giggles, go to duckduckgo and look up “travel is so broadening” or “why I like to travel”. In addition to highlighting the tomfoolery of most travellers & their favorite destinations, the cites also help to explain to a T why all those dreamy eyed couples went to known dangerous places & ended up murdered.

[Vigilanteman]

Depends on whether they were issued by American Express or Thomas Cook. Amex is still doing very well.

I remember a time when Thomas Cook had a slightly lower commission of around 10 cents per $1000. If you were going abroad, banks also paid a slightly better exchange rate for traveler's checks versus cash.

This was still true in my 2016 trip to Tokyo, not sure now. The number of banks which would exchange t/c was limited in 2016, so I didn't even bother to get them in my trip this year.

[fproy2222]

If you can hang on to someone else’s money for a day you get to keep the interest generated from that money.

[Leaning Right]

> So why should I travel? I’m already here! <

Ha! To each his own, but I’m with you on that. Whenever I get the itch to travel, I go from my front porch to my back porch. And if I want to see, say, the pyramids, I’ll check out a YouTube video on the subject.

[Responsibility2nd]

Yeah. This must be a European thing. 150,000 people???

I’m having a hard time understanding this. Of course we Americans haven’t used travel agencies since - well since the internet was invented.

[Truthoverpower]

Why the hell does anybody even need a travel company in the world of the Internet?

When me and the wife travel we get a place to stay and get airline flights there - done!

What else is there?

I mean come on if you’re so depending on somebody else that their company fails or whatever and you’re stranded in Botswana you’re an idiot

[sheana]

Just got back from a trip to Scotland that we booked 5 months ago. Went thru a travel company and that’s exactly what they did. As soon as I got the confirmation number from the travel company you could go on Delta’s website and get their confirmation number. I wouldn’t do it any other way.

[elcid1970]

You can find any destination on youtube. In 1970 my Dad was assigned to a NATO HQ in Naples. One day we drove up to Mt. Vesuvius but could get no further than the edge of the 1943 lava flow; the summit was off limits.

Now, youtube gives a drone’s eye view of not only the volcano but a hovering view of the crater down to the bottom. Disappointed that you can’t see through to China (heh).

A vid of the Naples waterfront is OK but I wouldn’t fly there just to see it.

Going to an oceanfront resort next week. It’s three hours away & that’s enough travel for me. I even take country roads & avoid Interstate completely.

[mewzilla]

If the people stranded get the taxpayers to pick of the tab for their repatriation, I’d argue the freeloaders are smarter than the taxpayers.

[Engedi]

On our bucket list, Scotland and Ireland. We always go through local travel agent usually Apple or Delta vacation agents for international vacations. If we are staying in the US, I book it online, etc. Never had a problem with international booking/travel.

[left that other site]

I went with a Tour group in 1984 to Israel, but my husband and I stayed an extra week in Jerusalem. The Tour Group had taken our boarding passes for the return trip.

And there I was, in Ben Gurion Airport, with receipts but no boarding pass.

And guess what.

WE STILL WERE GIVEN PERMISSION TO BOARD THE PLANE.

El Al had already profiled us and knew we were just a couple of goofy American Christian kids.

Either that, or it was a MIRACLE! :-)