Thomas Cook. (Thomas Cook)

Member Name: stokx

Product:	Thomas Cook
Date:	13/07/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of branches

Disadvantages: The service offered at these branches.

I have never seen any point in paying a third party to book hotels and flights as I would have to endure far more repetitive work to earn the money. However my mum insists on booking her holidays though the murky veil of Thomas Cook even when she had access to the same flights £60 cheaper from credit card freebies she had already earned. Unfortunately £60 is only the start of what she has paid for her loyalty.
Arguments is favour of travel companies revolve around convenience and peace of mind, neither of which feature in the Thomas Cook offering..
First lets look at convenience; you can book the exact break you want online in under an hour from your sitting room, or if you prefer you could spend an hour and a half booking the holiday that suits TC in an overheated office maybe an hour from your house.
Of course TC do have a website but if you're going to put in the details yourself why not just book direct?
The second criteria, peace of mind are where TC in particular falls down. On one trip they promised a car which never arrived and on another their brochure had a map claiming the hotel was miles from where it turned out to be. This resulted in travel expenses which they refused to refund because the text was accurate in saying that the location was "a few stops from..." so TC expects their customers to check all information they receive against tube maps for foreign cities.
The first time we complained we got five replies, presumably from different departments, all saying the same thing. Subsequent complaints have been ignored completely.
Other TC slip ups include:

1.) Double charging for extra luggage (eventually refunded)

2.) Booking the wrong size rooms (sorted by the hotel)

3.) Loosing a cheque, twice.

But these are really only very petty issues by TC's normal disastrous standards.

This tragedy of a service earns TC a return on capital employed of 162.6%

Summary: Useless.