Thomas Cook was an airline and tour operator based in the UK that recently went into compulsory liquidation. This news came as a very sudden shock to many holiday makers that had booked holidays through the company.
These unfortunate people were told that they would either have to pay more money for their holiday to go ahead or they could apply for a refund. Sometimes the amount that people would have to pay to keep their original holiday was as much as the holiday in the first place, so most sensible people opted for the refund.
At the time when Thomas Cook ceased trading, around 21,000 worldwide employees were left without a job, and more than half a million people were stranded abroad. This triggered the UK’s largest ever peacetime repatriation efforts to date.
Now Thomas Cook’s website is just lines of text explaining what to do it you are stuck over seas or trying to get a refund.
But these refunds have not been going smoothly across the board. Since Thomas Cook dealt with flights, holiday packages and individual holiday services such as hotels and transfers, it is a difficult process to find out how to get refunded.
Customers have been getting in touch with media outlets all over the country to voice their concerns that the refunds are taking too long, and in some cases not showing up at all.
Most of these customers have been waiting on refunds for months, and as Christmas can be a time when many families feel financial strain, people are getting increasingly frustrated.
The original report was that everyone would be refunded by Friday 6th December. But now the refunds will only be two thirds complete, with possible completion being extended past Christmas.
It has been a turbulent time for customers of the airline, but hopefully everyone who is due a refund will get what they are due.
