Thomas Cook Flights Question

[Dave&Sharon]

Quick question regarding our first cruise next January with Fred Olsen to the Eastern Caribbean.

My wife and I are both booked on the above cruise with Fred Olsen 😎

 

We have paid the deposit for this cruise.

We are due to pay the balance before 18th October 2019.

 

A few months ago before the collapse of Thomas Cook we noted that the flights were due to leave Gatwick Airport about 10am on 16th January 2020.

We was going to book overnight hotel and parking…..

 

When navigating the web site to 'Manage My Cruises’ on the Flights tab the information has changed.

It’s showing no useful information - eg 12:00am departure from Gatwick to Bridgetown and 0kg bag allowance!

 

An email to Fred Olsen guest services yesterday prompted a telephone call back.

I explained that how can they expect us to pay the balance for the cruise when we don't even know our departure flight details etc.

We live in North Essex and getting to Gatwick for a morning flight can be a problem.

We usually book a hotel with parking to make sure we can check n for a morning flight.

Again this was all explained to the operative who simply stated that a flight would be available 🙄

Anyone else experience this or having similar problems.

Any advice most welcome 

 

[tring]

We are not directly affected by this, but to be honest a lot of people will be caught up in this sort of situation after the collapse of TC.  What you may not be aware of though is that flights to the Caribbean usually go out fairly early in the morning, especially those intended for cruises so they arrive at the right time to embark the ship.  We are a 45 mins drive to Manchester airport and have always booked a hotel before a flight to the Caribbean as it makes for a much more relaxed start to the holiday.  All Our Caribbean flights (for holidays and cruises) have departed between perhaps 8am and 10.30am.

 

You could easily book parking at a later time if you really need the flight details, but again return time tends to be very early morning (about 6-9am).  We usually have our airport hotels booked fairly early as prices can go up.  I think it would be possible to book the hotel/park at the hotel deals without flight details.  There is no doubt a flight will be provided - Fred is not going to cancel the cruise, but may be a bit difficult just yet.  The current fly cruises (for all companies) are still going ahead though with different flights as far as I know.

Edited October 9, 2019 by tring

[tring]

Just picked up a thread about this for P&O cruises, which may make you feel a little less alone.  We have had Fred's flight details given to us well after final payment date in the past, so would not expect details too soon.  Not many people use the Fred Olsen forum, so you may not get much response here.

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by tring

[ovccruiser]

Yes, we are in a similar position next March when we fly to Greece, that was originally with TC, but my understanding is that Fred charters the flights and will obviously recharter with another airline maybe TUI with a very similar time slot. After all, the ship must sail on time and the passengers need to arrive.

[tring]

I have seen comments about departure airports being changed, so that could be a possibility if the only thing Fred has promised is 'a London airport' for instance.  If there is a variation to what has been promised in writing, I would expect that to be considered change though.  It is probably more likely that a dedicated charter flight would leave from Gatwick.  The comments I have seen regard schedule flights for various other long haul destinations.

Edited October 30, 2019 by tring