Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

[80sChav]

I can not believe (or guess I can) that such a mega mega company and one as well known in the British Isles from 141 years a-go has gone bust! I am too astonished for words that it'll never be part/a fabric of British High street's again - no matter how big a City or small a Town!

My abiding memory/all time memory of Thomas Cook - is the extremley famous dvert from the early 1980s with the Diana Ross Song - Do You Know Where Your Going To (forming part of the advert/advert back-drop/sound-track)

I apologies in advance if I have placed it in the wrong catergory as I was a tad unsure

80sChav

[Richard1978]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

Sad news.

My family used them to go on holiday a few times.

I remember all of us going to their Manchester office to discuss a re-booking due to them suddenly dropping a resort we were going to in Portugal because someone received an electric shock from a faulty fridge.

[George 1978]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

I suppose this thread is more suited to Holidays rather than Gone But Not Forgotten. I have to say that I do feel so sorry for all their customers who have their work cut out trying to get back home when they should have enjoyed a wonderful holiday - I also feel sorry for the staff who have lost their jobs, and even their Chief Executive is out of a job.

I am someone who has never really travelled overseas and have preferred to stay in areas such as Bournemouth or Eastbourne for holidays (cheap and cheerful of course) - no passport needed for obvious reasons, and no "don't drink the water" warnings either! But in Great Britain, Thomas Cook has always been synonymous with travel and holidays - if one did a Family Fortunes-alike poll of "name a well-known travel agent", the probability would be the fact that Thomas Cook would more likely to be the top answer.

There was also that Thomas Cook advert from around 1984 (on YouTube last time I looked) with a young girl and her Teddy Bear walking into a branch of TC and asking an assistant about holidays - cue Assistant looking on her computer, while her parents are just behind her. I often wished that my family were like that - going off half-way around the world for a holiday, as long as you know the lingo and the currency, everything will be alright - now we know, it isn't.

It seems that Thomas Cook is now what Woolworths and MFI was ten years ago, and Texas Homecare was 20 years ago - a well-known firm that won't survive with us into the next decade.

[Mulletino]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

"Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it!" was a TV line I always remember. I think the last holiday I went on with them was to Morocco in the early 2000s, we had a massive drinking night with the rep on what was supposed to be a bingo night!

I guess the package holiday thing just wasn't the right fit for today's world, plus people being able to book their own trips online and via travel sites won't have helped. The days of going into a travel Agents and getting brochures then booking seems long gone. Even more so the super cheap last minute deals when airlines used to sell the travel companies blocks of unsold seats for cheap, had some super cheap holidays thanks to booking the next two weeks off then going into the travel agent on the friday to book a last minute "allocation on arrival" job for those weeks. Sometimes it did end up like the Inbetweeners movie but always were enjoyable.

I also feel sorry for the folks stuck overseas, the ones who lost their holidays and the staff, such a shame when these places go.

[zabadak]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

I can not believe (or guess I can) that such a mega mega company and one as well known in the British Isles from 141 years a-go has gone bust!

Yes, see also Woolies, MFI...

[zabadak]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

I also feel sorry for the staff who have lost their jobs, and even their Chief Executive is out of a job.

Staff, yes. CEO, no.

[tex]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

Bad news, my wife and i have a Thomas cook booking for Cyprus next may where we are attending my nieces wedding, yes we will get the deposit returned but re-booking with TUI has cost me £200 extra for the same hotel...Bah! , commiserations to all the staff who have now lost their jobs and of course the unfortunate holiday makers who have had there plans ruined. I saw one couple on the news who were on their way to the Carribean to get married....Heartbreaking

[George 1978]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

"Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it!" was a TV line I always remember.

That is one example as to how well-known brands like to refer to their own names as if they are verbs - other examples are "you can do it when you B&Q it" and "don't shop for it - Argos it!" Needless to say that Hoover and Sellotape need not do that.

Indeed, when I was younger, I used to take the slogan too literally - I thought that it was about someone called Thomas who was going to cook something for their customers, in the same way that I thought that The Cook Report was a programme about reporting cooks.

[George 1978]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

Staff, yes. CEO, no.

Well, he cannot be Chief Executive of a company that no longer exists, can he?

[80sChav]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

That is one example as to how well-known brands like to refer to their own names as if they are verbs - other examples are "you can do it when you B&Q it" and "don't shop for it - Argos it!" Needless to say that Hoover and Sellotape need not do that.

Indeed, when I was younger, I used to take the slogan too literally - I thought that it was about someone called Thomas who was going to cook something for their customers, in the same way that I thought that The Cook Report was a programme about reporting cooks.

You could inspire somebody here George with The Cook Report an - say "The lawnmower Report" about Dodgy Gardners - like the Hotel Inspector but crossed with Come Fly With Me (keeping the Holiday theme going) and it could be like a fake "Fly On The Wall"!!

80sChav

[Mulletino]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

Indeed, when I was younger, I used to take the slogan too literally - I thought that it was about someone called Thomas who was going to cook something for their customers, in the same way that I thought that The Cook Report was a programme about reporting cooks.

On our Morocco drunken night, we'd convinced one of the locals (a friend of the rep) to march ahead of us all waving the rep's clipboard shouting "I am Thomas the ****!"

[zabadak]

Re: Thomas Cook - 1841-2019

Well, he cannot be Chief Executive of a company that no longer exists, can he?

True...