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Canceled Wedding, Angry Tweets as Thomas Cook Panics Travelers

Holiday makers took to Twitter and social media platforms to vent their anger and seek help over nixed holidays and flights.

Canceled Wedding, Angry Tweets as Thomas Cook Panics Travelers
A married couple holds a bouquet during a marriage party organized by the Taipei City government and Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan in Taipei, Taiwan. (Photographer: Ashley Pon/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The collapse of iconic British travel operator Thomas Cook Group Plc has thrown the travel plans of tens of thousands of customers into chaos.

Minutes after the tour operator filed for liquidation early Monday, holiday makers took to Twitter and social media platforms to vent their anger and seek help over nixed holidays and flights.

Layton Roche, of Bolton, U.K., tweeted he and his bride-to-be were packed and ready to get on a plane to the Greek island of Kos to celebrate their wedding. He implored Thomas Cook to keep it together for the “next 24 hours” to make it happen.

Four hours later, the bad news hit.

The bankruptcy filing of the 178-year-old travel company in London effectively canceled all holidays and flights booked through the company’s units as of Monday, leaving the U.K. to mount what it said will be the largest peacetime repatriation of 150,000 travelers. This will be staggered over the next two weeks depending on when their return flights were scheduled.

As the company seeks protection to work through its mounting debt problems, tourists and holiday makers are inundating the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority for help to make their way home, leaving some who have paid for but not yet started their trips out of luck.

Jack Cousens, a 27-year-old menswear buyer from Essex, England, was getting ready to check out of his Cancun hotel in Mexico after a week-long vacation to fly to Gatwick when he read on social media that Thomas Cook flights were canceled.

He had trouble getting into the aviation regulator’s website initially. A few hours later, Cousens managed to get through and is scheduled for a flight in the morning to Manchester instead of his original Gatwick destination. He’s still anxious about what awaits him.

“My biggest concern is that there will be chaos at the airport,” he said. “They’ve combined two fully booked Thomas Cook flights into one. I don’t see how there will realistically be space.”

James Peck, 28, was scheduled to travel Friday from Manchester to the Canary Islands for his honeymoon. “We’ve been lucky enough to just re-book on the credit card,” he tweeted, adding that he has only ever used Thomas Cook as a travel operator. “Thank you for the memories and good luck.”

The U.K. government and the CAA kicked off “Operation Matterhorn” to bring back vacationers due to fly back to the U.K. with Thomas Cook between Sept. 23 and October 6, according to the authority’s website. Depending on the location of the tourists, the new flight arrangements will be on either CAA-operated flights or existing flights with other airlines, it said.

“The repatriation is hugely complex and we are working around the clock to support passengers,” CAA said.

After Oct. 6, travelers will need to make their own arrangements, according to the CAA. The repatriation flights are only for passengers whose trips started in the U.K. It urged travelers with booked vacations -- who have not departed -- not to commence travel.

Many tourists expressed frustration with the lack of details on social media. While others who had booked paid-up Thomas Cook holidays were mulling any recourse.

Tourists who have booked holiday packages with travel firms licensed in the U.K. are eligible for a full refund under the U.K.’s aviation travel protection regulation, according to the CAA.

The conversation on social media also turned to the tour operator’s employees whose jobs are at risk. Thomas Cook had an average of 21,263 employees last year, down by about a third from six years ago.

“Our phone lines are extremely busy this morning and we are doing our best to answer all of your queries,” travel insurer Holidaysafe said in a tweet. It offered advice on its website outlining recourse for Thomas Cook customers.

--With assistance from Kristine Servando.

To contact the reporters on this story: K. Oanh Ha in Hong Kong at oha3@bloomberg.net;Ania Nussbaum in Paris at anussbaum5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Nagarajan at samnagarajan@bloomberg.net, ;Tara Patel at tpatel2@bloomberg.net, Bruce Einhorn

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.