Booking with thomascook.com

Usjes

Hi,

I booked some flights recently with on thomascook.com to fly from Leeds to Turkey, the tickets are fine but their website mangled my name (probably due to the accented vowels) on the API form, so I have been trying without success to contact them to rectify it. I ultimately ended up posting a request for their international phone number on one of their message boards and I got this very odd reply from a user listed as a Thomas Cook employee:

Our site is intended for use only by users who access it from the United Kingdom. The information and prices on this site only apply to users who make a booking from the United Kingdom. We are a company incorporated in England and Wales and our business and the services we offer are governed by English Law. We are not licensed to trade as a travel agent or tour operator outside of the United Kingdom therefore we are unable to accept bookings from users who are not based in the United Kingdom.

Can this be correct? I mean they have already sold me the flight tickets and I can't find anywhere on their site any stipulation that they will only deal with UK residents. Or is this someone who just doesn't know what he is talking about, or does he just not realize that I have only booked a flight rather than a tour or a package? This is very disconcerting given that I am to fly this week.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Pythia

I believe you are supposed to be a UK resident to book with them. I would ring them and they will sort it though. Officially though, I think they are correct.

I booked a holiday with Thomson from the UK before. They didn't let non UK people book but I just forced my address into their form with Ireland as my city and a non existant postcode and it was fine. I even made changes to the booking and nothing was said.

They say it here btw! http://thomascooknew.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/thomascooknew.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=163&p_created=1120062828&p_sid=FcMDlAEk&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MywzJnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9cmVzaWRlbnQ*&p_li=&p_topview=1

Can I book if I am not a UK resident?
Can I still book with you if I live outside the UK?


No, Thomascook.com can only accept bookings from UK-based customers who hold a credit or debit card with a UK billing address.

If you do not meet the above requirements, we can only advise you to contact your local travel agent.

Usjes

Pythia wrote: »

I believe you are supposed to be a UK resident to book with them. I would ring them and they will sort it though. Officially though, I think they are correct.

I booked a holiday with Thomson from the UK before. They didn't let non UK people book but I just forced my address into their form with Ireland as my city and a non existant postcode and it was fine. I even made changes to the booking and nothing was said.

They say it here btw! http://thomascooknew.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/thomascooknew.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=163&p_created=1120062828&p_sid=FcMDlAEk&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MywzJnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9cmVzaWRlbnQ*&p_li=&p_topview=1

Interesting, but even from the text of the link you have posted it is clear that this is an obscure link. As far as I am concerned if a website is available to everyone but only licensed to sell to people in a particular geography it is up to them to make this clear and not to go ahead and take money from people they are not licensed to trade with. There was no massaging of my details involved in the transaction. I simply entered my credit card details as I would when buying online from any site and at no point was it suggested that only UK residents could purchase. Specifically the 'Terms and Conditions' link on their main page makes no mention of this requirement.

As for ringing them? This is my problem, all my emails have gone ignored and I only got the 'UK only' message when I posted on a forum looking for their international phone number. The phone number on their website works only from the UK. So I have no way of contacting them, which is in itself remarkably poor customer service, I mean how do they know that I am not a UK resident who happens to be traveling in Ireland at the moment and needs to amend my booking.m Its unbelievable really.

Daisy M

Did you try the number I pmed you?

Pythia

Usjes wrote: »

As for ringing them? This is my problem, all my emails have gone ignored and I only got the 'UK only' message when I posted on a forum looking for their international phone number. The phone number on their website works only from the UK. So I have no way of contacting them, which is in itself remarkably poor customer service, I mean how do they know that I am not a UK resident who happens to be traveling in Ireland at the moment and needs to amend my booking.m Its unbelievable really.

Buy Skype credit and ring them for there. That should work

I think the UK residents thing probably is to do with the ATOL licensing, about how you get your money back if the firm goes bust, etc. It probably only covers UK residents so they can only offer to UK residents. It's just a guess but it could be that.

I just tried to book a random package holiday and the following came up

Are you a UK or Northern Ireland Resident? * Yes No

We are very sorry, we can not accept your booking
Unfortunately Thomas Cook UK is unable to accept bookings from customers based outside of the United Kingdom or in the Republic Of Ireland as we are not licensed to sell travel services in other countries.
If you are a Republic Of Ireland resident, please view our sister sites at www.directholidays.ie, www.sunworld.ie and www.panoramaholidays.ie for more great holiday deals.
Or use the links at the foot of our home page to access the web sites of Thomas Cook companies based in France, Belgium, Germany, Poland or the Netherlands. Thomas Cook also has travel businesses based in Ireland, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Egypt & India.

Now if I try to book a flight only, I am allowed to select Ireland. I presume this is as it's not ATOL protected. It redirects me to Flythomascook.com as I book.

I think you need to contact flythomascook directly if you did not book a hotel at the same time. If you did, you must have clicked the link to say you are a UK resident. I think thomascook and flythomascook have different rules and thomascook are not aware that flythomascook are different. I think you are entitled to fly with flythomascook as a non UK resident.

Here is their contact details.

http://flythomascook.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/357

Sometimes I just replace the 0 with an 0044 and I can get through to UK numbers, maybe that might work.

Hope this helps!

mikedragon32

There have been threads about this issue in the past. The workaround offered then was to take a spin up to Newry where the travel agents will happily separate you from your hard earned in exchange for a holiday. You won't get the web price initially, however some will honour online prices to get the business.

Hope that helps, OP.

mikedragon32

Found thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=55239915

Most useful posts are 17 and 23, which include contact details for the Thomas Cook shop in Newry and the OPs result at post 23.

You may want to check the phone number for the shop as the thread is over three years old.