My elderly mother decided to celebrate a milestone birthday alone and abroad, to get some winter sun and avoid any fuss. She booked a Thomas Cook package holiday to Tenerife in February and had a lovely time, until the last day when her Thomas Cook coach to the airport did not turn up. The hotel staff tried to order a taxi for her but none were available. After a lengthy, increasingly panic-stricken wait, a member of staff spotted a taxi dropping off guests and advised her to run and jump in before someone else did. She did this and just made the flight in time.
Unfortunately, she left her locked suitcase and coat in the hotel. When she got home she asked her local Thomas Cook branch to arrange their return. The staff tried but gave up, and nearly six months later the case and coat remained in Tenerife.
My mother wrote to Thomas Cook’s customer services several times in March and April but got nowhere. Much later on she was offered a refund of her taxi fare – which she had paid herself – but she turned this down.
An Abta complaint opened in May ended in deadlock in July. It offered arbitration but it’s never been about financial compensation – we simply wanted mum’s case returned. We eventually found a courier which returned the case in August, for a fee of £122.
Can you help us get our money back – and an apology – from Thomas Cook? KW, Ormskirk, Lancashire
How unfortunate that your mother’s otherwise enjoyable holiday ended this way, and that you have since had a protracted, unsuccessful attempt to reunite her with her suitcase. As she went on a package holiday, she had the protection of the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992, which means that Thomas Cook must accept responsibility for the arrangements it agreed to provide or arrange as an “organiser”.
The company insisted it was unable to arrange for items to be returned to one of its holidaymakers once they have left a resort because of the risk of blame for any items being missing – and could not arrange for luggage to travel unaccompanied due to security reasons.
You argued that if a coach and representative had arrived as promised, and in good time, your mother would not have been separated from her suitcase because she would not have been frightened that she would miss her flight. Her holiday insurance would have covered the cost of replacement of the items, but they were not lost – simply in the wrong place thanks to Thomas Cook’s apparent inefficiency.
After our intervention she was offered a refund of the cost of returning her suitcase (£122) and also the original taxi costs (£19.32) – a total of £141.32.
In a statement Thomas Cook said: “We would like to extend our apologies to JW with regards to her recent experience when seeking to retrieve her suitcase. We have refunded JW the cost of the shipping and as a gesture of goodwill offered her £250. We sincerely hope that this has not tarnished her holiday experience and would like to apologise again for the inconvenience.”
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