A Cancelled Holiday, Uncertainty And A Frantic Panic To Rebook

You’ve probably guessed from the title that our much-awaited, planned and even fully paid for all-inclusive holiday to Turkey was with Thomas Cook.

I’ve not shared my thoughts on this before now as although frustrating for us as a family, it wasn’t the end of the world. We knew we would get our money back as we were ATOL protected having booked a full package holiday last October, paying off monthly to go this month.

Spreading the cost of the holiday and not having to pay a deposit upfront was what drew me to the Thomas Cook site. Being self-employed, it was easier to pay off a little at a time than put aside huge chunks of my income. It made it easier to budget.

I spent a good 3 weeks researching where I wanted our 1st abroad holiday to be. I wanted it to be a relaxing break for us adults, both of whom hit 40 this year (Paul back in April and myself this coming December), therefore wanted a 2 bedroom apartment/suite so once the children were asleep we could relax and unwind without having to whisper, turn down the TV or as usually happens when we are all in one room – me go to bed at the same time as the kids so they will fall asleep. That said, I’m usually exhausted by that point and ready for bed but the option to stay up to watch a movie, have a bottle of wine or even a cuddle is a nice option to have.

I found everything I was looking for and booked to spend 7 nights in Antalya, Turkey. The holiday was booked, the visa’s purchased, I had finally gotten the kids passports, finished paying off the direct debits and we even all had our holiday vaccinations.

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It wasn’t to be though and 4 weeks ago I clearly remember spending the entire night glued to the news and to Twitter to see if Thomas Cook would go into administration as feared. I think I finally fell asleep in the early hours, waking to my morning school alarm and heading straight to twitter to see the announcement that our holiday had been cancelled.

Breaking the news to the children was hard but they are amazing children and took it well. They were disappointed but I assured them that we would be getting our money back and I would rebook a holiday somewhere.

Now just when I would get that money back was hazy, and wasn’t clear until well over a week later. No-one really knew what was going on.

Disappointed but it certainly wasn’t the end of the world. It was the staff I really felt for, they were uncertain if they would be paid for the work they had already done and found out they had no jobs just as us holidaymakers had found out the news of our holidays – via the news and social media. What an awful way to find out you are now unemployed. With mortgages and bills to pay they were in a far worse situation than us which really does put the whole situation into perspective.

That afternoon I started searching for another holiday, however so did all others who had lost holidays, and while I found a similar holiday to an area close to where we had booked, the price had jumped up by over £500 and later that evening when I was in a position to rebook was completely out of my budget jumping up by another £400.

Supply and demand hit, a lack of flights and panic buying for many so I stopped looking for a few weeks.

A week later and I found out I would be within the first group of holidaymakers to receive a refund as I’d paid for the entire holiday via direct debit. Refunds would start being made on the 7th and everyone who paid via DD was promised to have their money by the 14th. It was just a case of waiting.

I was very lucky and all my DD refunds (all repaid separately so 12 payments) hit my bank account late on the 8th.

With the money back in the bank it was time to start the search again, using incognito browsing of course so my cookies weren’t stored and the Duck Duck Go browser for good measure.

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Turkey was now out of the budget but I found a wonderful 7-night all-inclusive deal to Corfu so booked that up. It wasn’t to be, however, and I received a phone call later that evening to say they had over-booked so had refunded my money.

With a very limited amount of time left before we were supposed to head off (and with paul having time booked off of work), I found an OK-ish hotel deal in Salou so booked this, after a few glasses of wine.

Buyers regret hit in the morning and it wasn’t the type of hotel/holiday I had hoped for – with no kids clubs and a 20-minute walk to the beach it wasn’t what I really wanted so managed to call in time before they had finalised the booking.

4th time lucky and Majorca was booked.

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It’s not set to be as hot as Turkey BUT it’s a holiday after all and the hotel looks amazing, and let’s face it – I don’t do well with the heat anyway and was beginning to doubt Turkey as the ideal family location.

There’s a kids club, 3 different pools, a 2-minute walk to the beach and again all-inclusive. We can’t wait to head in half term now.

The kids are literally bouncing with excitement counting down the days.

Sometimes, things are set to try us but there is always a workaround and sometimes they work out even better than before.