“From the minute I pressed the button to confirm my booking with Thomas Cook, I knew I had a made a mistake. This is the first and last time I will use this company. Unbeknown to us, the holiday was through a third party who charged £500 more than other operators. I attempted to follow the price match guarantee, I supplied the requested information, they refused. Customer service was appalling. We had to check in 3 times for standard holiday to Greece which included 2 flights and with Thomas Cook themselves. To summarise. A very poor service, never to be used again.”
“Very disappointing experience with Thomas Cook! Poor customer service, repeated follow-ups, and no proper response regarding my cancellation and refund request. I regret choosing Thomas Cook for my family trip. The lack of communication and accountability has completely damaged my trust. Would not recommend based on my experience.”
“All I want to do is confirm transfer from hotel to airport. Its proving impossible to get this done. I have telephoned and called on whats app and never get a positive answer.”
“Geting transfer from hotel to airport is proving impossible.All we are trying to is get a confirmation for the transfer but we are not geting a positive response from you.”
“Rating - 0 with 0 (Low) to 10 (High)
Recommendation -
Don't ever travel using Thomas & Cook.
Instead, use a local operator, he is contactable in person, he will provide personalised service.
What I availed through Thomas Cook: I engaged Thomas & Cook for a holiday tour to Sikkim 6N 7D in May26
What they promised?
Cook will accompany, he will feed us with our preferred cuisines
Kannada speaking Tour guide
Flight to depart at 9am Bangalore (I am from Chennai)
What they offered?
Cook did not accompany. No one travelled with us, we had to rely on food served at each hotels of stay. Idli's will bounce to the floor if we drop it.
Tour guide was not provided.
Flight was changed by Thomas Cook from 9am to 6am. This was a Thomas cook confusion, and not an airline change.
Since I am from Chennai, which was planned and they knew. I repeatedly asked them to confirm flight details and I told them I will book tickets as per the Bangalore schedule. Despite such due-diligence, after I booked my tickets, thomas cook changed the flights.
I had to change my air tickets from Chennai to Bangalore at my cost and had to stay overnight, cancel my previous evening work. All this costed me Rs. 12,000 extra directly and another Rs.30,000 extra as my wife had to shut down her previous evening business due to schedule change.
Thomas cook did not bother to even say "Sorry". We made a mistake, we caused you trouble. They kept saying it was airlines schedule change. I have been asking them evidence for this, which they could not provide.
I followed up multiple times, they went in circles, but never reverted with analysis and solution.
Their bureaucracy is very deep, have layers of managers, no body takes ownership
Too many schedule changes, we had to call back and fight our case from Sikkim
Too many confusion, the driver will not know who to pick, and where to drop.
What is bothering customer is, the "I dont care attitude" they carry. This one trait is enough for customers to move away.”
“We visited Vietnam through Thomas cook for 8days and booked 5 star hotels we were provided dinner in third class restaurants with same menu all days we had to pay extra money for water what a shame for Thomas Cook.The booking of hotels was done not as a group by Thomas Cook but individuals so hotels provided us rooms on different floors There was no guide for two days the driver of bus did not know English we were helpless due to language problem we could not see any thing for two days just wastage of time and money.It seems the only aim of Thomas Cook was to save money at the cost of service They spoiled our tour and does not deserve any star”
“Worst experience with thomas cook. Booked our tour to Vietnam. All senior citizens. Poor coordination and services. First two days worst. Did not arrange any local conveyance to see the show kiss of the sea. We booked five star hotels and they provided us yellow dal and mixed vegetables every day. Same menu for eight days. So We had to spent lot of money on dinner inspite of our dinner were booked with thomas cook. I frequently visit foreign countries and this is my first experience with thomas cook. As first impression is last impression, I will never book my tour through thomas cook.”
“All senior citizens .opted for 5 star hotels.Paid handsome.First 2 days no guide had to suffer for dinner and failed to reach kiss the see show.Again I wonder word. Dinners and restaurants were of v poor quality and always moong dal and mixed veg”
“Thomas cook have no responsibility or care over there customers I took a package holiday from them they’re had been a fire on arrival early hours they let all there guest return to there rooms early hours of the morning without electricity or running water
No English spoken representation available to speak to on site ???? They offered me £33 refund forced me into a room until the next day will never book with this company again”
“worst experience ever , so stressful couldn’t enjoy holiday at all
firstly are driver organised by thomas cook did not wait to pick us up from the passport control being delayed then had the car organised to go to the wrong hotel 30 minutes away from are actual hotel
meaning we had to pay 130 for a taxi
then on the day to go back to the airport driver was not only late but again thomas cook had put the wrong hotel on the transfer from again !!!!!!
this lead to no transfer and we had to pay another 120 so over all 250 on taxis to and from the airport leaving us with no money !!!!
then instead of calling driver to collect us we have to fill out two forms to review a refund that can take up to one month !
worst experience ever
do not recommend what so ever even id the flight was one quid id avoid as much as physically possible nearly missed are flight home because of thomas cook.”
“Good evening, we have taken services from you in the past as well and we had a good experience but unfortunately this time our experience was below average. The experience we had did not justify the amount we had paid for this trip. The hotels were very average. We only liked one hotel in Srinagar. Rest all the the other hotels were not at all worth the money we had paid. The locations of the hotels were extremely far from the main areas and the travel to the hotels was very scary because the roads were very steep and poorly constructed around the hotels. We felt very unsafe while traveling to the hotel locations. The driver also was not very cooperative and did not listen to us. the houseboat experience was the worst because the food was extremely bad for both breakfast and dinner and we did not eat anything properly and were not satisfied at all. Basis this experience, I would not recommend your services to anyone now. Thanks.”
“Writing a negative review got me a response within 24 hours last time, so let’s see if it works again - because it has now been TWO WEEKS since I responded to Thomas Cook’s poor attempt to resolve this situation, and I am still waiting for a proper resolution.
Thomas Cook cancelled my holiday after I had made multiple payments towards it. I accept that some payments were late, but I had previously contacted them to ask for my payment dates to be changed to align with my payday and was refused. I continued making the payments regardless.
After the cancellation, I spent weeks trying to resolve the situation. I escalated my complaint to ABTA, only for Thomas Cook to tell ABTA that they would NOT reinstate my booking and that no reimbursement or reinstatement could be offered.
Then, within 24 hours of receiving ABTA’s response, Thomas Cook suddenly contacted me offering to reinstate the holiday - but only with a different hotel and requiring me to find over £1,000 in less than a month.
At that point, I no longer wanted to travel with Thomas Cook. I had lost all confidence in the company after the way this situation had been handled.
What is particularly frustrating is that Thomas Cook's responses continue to repeat that the booking was cancelled because of the missed payment, but there is very little accountability for how the situation was actually handled or the impact it has had.
I had been looking forward to this holiday all year. Apart from a two-night trip for my brother’s wedding, I haven't had a proper holiday since 2019. I had also spent £689 on non-refundable tickets for two events taking place during the week of the holiday.
I have now been waiting two weeks for Thomas Cook to respond to my last email requesting the £331.48 they still hold from my booking to be refunded. I have even offered an alternative of placing the £331.48 onto a Thomas Cook gift card so I can use it towards another trip - but still nothing.
It should NOT take a 1-star review for a company to respond to a customer, and it certainly shouldn't take another one to get an answer.
Thomas Cook: I am simply asking for the £331.48 to be returned to me, or credited to a gift card so I can use it for another trip. Please respond.”
“Upgrade request.
Completely ignored, emails received from multiple people that had no idea what's going on.
I will not book my holiday with Thomas Cook ever again”
“I am extremely disappointed with my experience with Thomas Cook Holidays.
I booked a package holiday and made every payment towards the booking, although some instalments were paid late after my request to change the payment dates to align with my payday was refused. Despite accepting my previous late payments, Thomas Cook cancelled my booking before I could make my next instalment.
I only discovered the cancellation when I logged into my account intending to make my payment. I had been looking forward to this holiday for months and had already spent £689 on non-refundable event tickets specifically for the trip.
When I contacted customer services, I repeatedly asked whether my booking could be reinstated. Instead of discussing a solution, I was repeatedly told that the booking had been cancelled. I was then left on hold for around 30 minutes waiting for the complaints team before having to end the call because I needed to go to work.
The communication throughout the process felt impersonal and heavily automated, with little consideration given to my circumstances or previous payment history. Although ABTA concluded that Thomas Cook had acted within its terms and conditions, the overall customer experience left me feeling ignored and undervalued.
I appreciate that companies have payment policies, but I expected much better communication, empathy and customer service. Sadly, this experience has completely eroded my confidence in Thomas Cook, and I would not choose to book with them again.”
“As a recent customer of Thomas Cook we realized that it was the worst ever decision to go with thomas cook through Riya travels.
We were given cards for usage in UK, with complete knowledge of the usage being specific for local commute, metro's and buses, with assurance of they being the ones we needed.
We were issued three separate cards as we needed for commuting, we were issued two visa cards and one master card.
Though shokingly only the master card would work and the visa cards were not even recognised by the readers in the buses and the metro stations, they never worked.
We tried calling and writing, with family, the time difference, foreign land, however no response. zero empathy no care whatsoever.
Fortunately we had local bank cards and we had to use them to manage after the helpless and frustrating call for help failed.
Not to forget the frightful rude, selfish behavior of the local staff of Riya Travels.
One thing was clear, that this would need addressing and we deserved better, so post our return I have been trying to seek answers to just three questions.
- Why were we issued these Visa cards when they would not work, I am sure we would not be the first ones having this issue, besides you specifically knew the usage was for commuting.
- Why was no help or response provided during those harrowing, anxious days we had to go through
- Why were the staff at Riya so rude, just because they realized that they just pushed sales without any emotion regarding the problems it would cause us.
Post our multiple escalation we still get a response that its not the concern of Thomas Cook that the cards never worked at the merchants end, mind you the local buses and tube. So its not Thomas Cooks concern at all.
It is disappointing and also sad that today companies have no moral compass, empathy or even the basic ethical tilt towards unsuspecting, trusting customers”
“Very disappointing experience with Thomas Cook Thailand holiday package. Most commitments made by the marketing team were not fulfilled . Poor coordination, no proper backup, and missed activities were not carried forward as promised e.g dinner voucher etc. Overall, mismanagement and poor service. Not what we expected from Thomas Cook.”
“I would give a 0 star rating but it wasn’t an option. Most terrible, stressful and awful experience with booking and resolving an outstanding query. My query is still not resolved despite me phoning every day and my holiday is 2 weeks away.”
“We had taken a 15 day tour to Europe which was bad with Thomas cook from the word go. First they took initial Rs2lakhs and then there was no correspondence from them for a month. We had to call them again and again to go ahead with the visa formalities. After that they increased the euro rate exorbitantly. And they threatened us that if we do not pay the rates will keep on increasing. In the morning there was a different rate and evening it was increased.
Anyway, finally we reached Europe. The hotels were very average, too far away from the main points So we had to travel a lot in the buses. In fact 80% of our tour was spent in buses. Some days we used to travel 10-12 hours in buses
And to add to it , the tour manager Aldrin was snobbish, full of malice and very inefficient. He used to announce in the bus which only he could hear. He gave us wrong information about the trains which cost us extra money and time. Upon confronting him he started taking sort of revenge from us. Not talking in the tour, giving us rooms which lacked a few basic amenities which others used to get and once he took off the bus without us, even when we were near the bus. When the fellow passengers shouted, he had to stop the bus. He used to even tell the other passengers that let them complain, nothing will happen to him. Our tour was totally spoilt with poor lodging ( even when we paid for 4 star accommodation), poor food, bad tour manager and spending 3/4 time in Europe in buses.
After coming back we made a written complaint about the behaviour of the tour manager and demanded for action to be taken, which they assured they will. In fact all the travellers in our group recorded their bad experience about the tour and we shared the same with the company, but it’s more than two months and we have not heard from them.
In fact we read very poor reviews about Thomas cook on having a bad experience while still in tour. I only wish, we had read it before taking the tour.”
“Absolutely appalling company do not book, we were flown to an airport miles away only to find when we did reach the hotel there was no booking, the hotel were amazing and Thomas cook have tried to blame the hotel! Stick to Jet 2 and TUI you know what to expect not this kind of stress at the beginning of your holiday!”
