Thomas Cook collapses: Newlyweds due to fly to Maldives on honeymoon among passengers 'devastated' by firm's collapse

Passengers have been left "devastated" as they queue at Gatwick Airport.
PA
Rebecca Speare-Cole23 September 2019

A couple due to fly to the Maldives on their honeymoon are among thousands who have been left "devastated" following Thomas Cook's collapse.

The tourism giant announced early on Monday that it had ceased trading after failing to secure a last-ditch rescue deal, leaving an estimated 150,000 Brits abroad awaiting repatriation.

Holidaymakers abroad and in the UK have been hit by the chaos as they awaited return flights or trips they had booked with the company.

Lewis and Amy Bromiley from Manchester, were looking forward to their Maldives honeymoon after getting married in August.

Mr Bromiley, a 25-year-old insurance worker from Manchester, said: “We’ve got our honeymoon package booked which was the last one available in January, and now it’s cancelled.

“It appears we won’t be able to go to the same place now, and will have to wait a while to get our £7,000 refunded.

“We’ll have to wait for the refund which could takes months, due to the amount of people claiming. We won’t be able to rebook now, we’ll have to change destination as this was the last availability."

Mr Bromiley said they had booked the holiday over a year ok to be well prepared with the best deal.

"Me and my wife are devastated," he said. “We wanted to go to Maldives as it’s paradise and we’re looking to plan for children soon, so we wanted to tick it off out bucket list, before we couldn’t.”

Criticising the way the situation had been handled, he said: “It was poorly communicated, and their closing statement is poor also.

“They should still manage the Twitter account for the next 48 hours, to give people the peace of mind they deserve.”

Meanwhile, another bride and groom, whose wedding party paid £40,000 for flights and hotels through Thomas Cook, are nervously waiting to find out if their marriage can go ahead following the collapse of the travel giant.

“Heartbroken” Amy Wright, 27, and a wedding party of around 40 people were due to travel on October 3 to the island of Kos in Greece.

Her sister Katie Langley, 23, said the group had paid between £35,000 and £40,000 for the two-week trip through Thomas Cook, including flights and hotels.

“My sister got a phone call from the travel agent at 7 o’clock this morning. She’s been helpful and said she’ll put us at the top of the list,” she said.

“Thomas Cook staff have been really helpful but it’s the people from above who aren’t telling people what to do.”

The full cost of the wedding – including extras like translations for the ceremony – looks to be around £43,000, Ms Langley added.

After booking through a freelance travel agent who uses Thomas Cook, the group are waiting to find out what their options are before contacting the hotel who have been arranging the ceremony.

The wedding party has looked at alternative flights but prices have “shot up” since the news of the collapse, Ms Langley said.

“We’re ATOL protected but we’ve found out that if your hotel hasn’t been paid yet that you might not get your money back,” she added.

“We paid by credit card but some people in the group didn’t. We’ve got a six-month period to wait to get the money back.”

Jim Hatton began pursuing emergency steps to get critical medical supplies over fears he would be stuck in Menorca due to the collapse of Thomas Cook.

The 61-year-old from Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, suffered a “sleepless” night over speculation of the closure, as he only had heart medication for a couple more days.

The retired chartered engineer is now waiting among huge queues in the airport for his replacement flight to Glasgow.

He said: “My wife and I have mobility problems and take a lot of meds for pain relief and other conditions. We made provision for a couple of days extra but if we had been delayed longer some vital heart medication I take for an arrhythmia would have run out.

“We had plans to visit a doctor locally to try to get a prescription but we were told it would be OK.

“Last night was sleepless, I was watching news feeds constantly. I think I fell asleep for an hour or so, but I was watching all the Thomas Cook aircraft heading for the UK on the FlightRadar app knowing that an announcement would only be made once most of the aircraft were home.

“Thomas Cook staff are highly visible and helping with the repatriation process. One lovely lady said she has been working for Thomas Cook for 43 years. Now she doesn’t know what she’s going to do.”

Lucy Jessop from Hull has been holidaying in Mexico for two weeks and said she had been set to fly to Manchester with Thomas Cook on Tuesday.

She said she was “initially worried” after hearing about the company’s closure but the Government had been “amazing” in organising an alternative flight.

Ms Jessop said: “It’s the employees of Thomas Cook and all those due to go on holiday I feel for. We were the lucky ones, I suppose.”

One of those considering herself unlucky was an 18-year-old English woman whose single mother worked for Thomas Cook for almost 20 years.

Passengers at Gatwick this morning
PA

The teenager, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said her mother had “known her job was vulnerable for the past few days but only found out she is unemployed when the news came out that Thomas Cook is over”.

She added that she was the eldest of three daughters, the youngest of whom is 10 years old, and the now the only person in her home with a job.

“I have a part-time job with around 15 hours a week so the next few months will be a huge struggle for us. Especially since it’s Christmas soon.”

Danielle, who was due to fly from Manchester to Menorca at 6.40am, said she found out about the company’s shuttering online.

“We heard our holiday was cancelled from Twitter and then the news 20 minutes before we left for the airport,” she said.

“We only booked the holiday on the 19th August. We are absolutely gutted.”

Thomas Cook collapse - In pictures

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