Martin Lewis spoke to Good Morning Britain about the collapse of Thomas Cook this morning. Thomas Cook ceased trading today and announced all its flights and holidays have been axed. Around 150,000 British holidaymakers are currently stranded abroad while many others have future travels booked with the failed tour operator. MoneySavingExpert Martin Lewis explained his travel advice for what those affected should do next.
Martin Lewis revealed what step Britons who are currently abroad should take in order to get home.
“If you go to the Thomas Cook website it will link you through to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) website”, Lewis told ITV.
“On there, when you click through to your destination, it will tell you information about flights home.”
Only holidaymakers with flights today will currently be able to access updates, Lewis said.
“When I’ve clicked through a few, they only at the moment have information about flights today and they said the others will be updated tomorrow,” he explained.
“This is a full-scale CAA repatriation,” the expert added.
The CAA has announced today that, together with the government, they will do “everything [they] can to support passengers due to fly back to the UK with Thomas Cook between 23 September 2019 and 6 October 2019.”
It will depend on your location whether the flights will be CAA-operated on existing flights with other airlines.
The aim is for the flights to be as close as possible to travellers’ original return time and date.
The CAA advised: “We’ll make details of your return flight available as soon as possible in advance of your original departure time.
“This will be up to 72 hours in advance of your original flight time. Please continue to check the website regularly.”
Customers are being advised to check whether they are protected by ATOL. You will know if you are protected if you received an ATOL Certificate as soon as you made any payment towards the booking, either by e-mail or by post.
Fortunately, travellers will still be able to get home whether they have the protection or not, “Interestingly only those who have ATOL protection should ‘technically’ be flown home but the government seems to be flying everybody home who is flight-only,” Lewis said on GMB.
“There will be a few people in a few destinations who will not have flights back and they’re being asked to book by themselves and reclaim the costs. So flying home should work for everybody.”
Lewis concluded: “This is the biggest ever repatriation and refund operation we’ve seen and everything will hopefully go smoothly and the CAA has a helpline if out doesn’t.”
As for those with future Thomas Cook trips booked, If your holiday was ATOL protected, you are able to claim a full refund via the scheme.
A service to manage refunds will be launched on Monday 30 September, once the flying operation has progressed.
“This refund service will seek to process all refunds within two months of receipt of a fully completed claims form,” said the CAA.
Mark Tanzer, ABTA CEO said: “Along with many others in the industry, I am extremely saddened by today’s news about the demise of Thomas Cook.
“It is one of the UK’s most iconic travel companies and today thousands of staff are facing losing their jobs. For customers and other travel businesses working with the Group, this will be an extremely worrying time. “
