Thomas Cook Ceases Trading - What Now?

I’m in resort, what do I do now?

We will have already been in touch with customers who are in resort. The Civil Aviation Authority will be repatriating all customers who were due back in the UK before or on the 6th October. The Civil Aviation Authority is arranging flights to bring customers home as close to their original return date as soon as possible. Please check caa.co.uk for details of your replacement return flight.

For our package holiday customers who are in resort now and return on or after 7th October, Sunshine will be arranging your repatriation. We have already made arrangements for most customers and have made contact with all affected customers.

I’m due to travel on or before 23rd October – what will happen with my booking?

In most cases, bookings for customers due to travel on or before 23rd October (within 31 days of the Thomas Cook collapse), have unfortunately been cancelled.

In the event of a supplier/airline failure, we will always strive to find alternative arrangements for our customers wherever we can. Unfortunately, due to the scale of the failure, the volatility of flight prices, the lack of flight availability, and the unprecedented volume of work for our contact centre in dealing with the immediate aftermath of the failure, it was simply not possible for us to find alternative flights for customers who were travelling so soon after the failure.

Instead, we decided to provide these customers with a speedy refund (these were available to collect within 24 hours of the failure) and to provide a voucher for £75 off their next holiday booking with Sunshine.

These customers were contacted on Monday, and should already have been able to access their refund and voucher.

I’m due to travel between 24th to 31st October (inclusive) – what will happen to my booking?

These customers were given the choice whether to cancel their booking, replace their own flights, or to wait for Sunshine to replace their flights, and will have recently received a further email to confirm the status of their booking.

In summary:

• For customers who have chosen to cancel, refunds are now available to collect via their ‘My Sunshine’ account and they will have also received their £75 voucher off their next holiday with Sunshine.
• For customers who have told us they will book their own flights, and have provided us with details of their replacement flight(s), our customer service team will (if they haven’t already) be adjusting the booking and processing refunds.
• For customers who have told us they will book their own flights and have not yet provided us with details of their replacement flight(s), they need to provide these urgently – via ‘My Sunshine’ – so that our customer service team can adjust the booking and transfer times and process refunds.
• For customers who have not responded, or who have asked Sunshine to provide replacement flights, in most cases, unfortunately, despite our customer service teams working around the clock to support our customers and find alternative flight options, due to a severe lack of seat availability, we have had to cancel these bookings. For these customers, refunds are now available to collect via their ‘My Sunshine’ account and they will have also received their £75 voucher off their next holiday with Sunshine.

I’m due to travel from 1 November 2019 to 30 April 2020 – when will I hear about my booking?

We emailed customers on Monday and these customers were given the choice whether to cancel their booking, replace their own flights, or to wait for Sunshine to replace their flights.

We are currently processing customers’ responses and we will send an email to these customers early next week to update them on the status of their order.

For customers who have told us they will book their own flights and have not yet provided us with details of their replacement flight(s), they need to provide these as soon as possible so that our customer service team can adjust the booking (e.g. amend your transfer) and process refunds.

I’m due to travel from 1 May 2020 onwards – when will I hear about my booking?

We want you to be able to continue with your Sunshine holiday, so we will take all reasonable steps to find you a suitable replacement flight at a reasonable cost at no extra cost to you. If we can't find a replacement flight, we will refund your holiday in full.

As it is currently so soon after the collapse of a major airline there is an extreme lack of flight availability in the market at the moment, which means that we are not yet able to confirm this replacement flight. However, we expect this situation to improve in the coming weeks as more flight capacity will be added, and we are therefore confident that we will be able to replace your flight. It may take us some time to do this as we are working through bookings in date order, but rest assured that we will do all that we can to find a suitable replacement flight for you.

All customers due to travel from 1st May onwards will have received an email from us on 1st October to confirm these steps. We will follow this with a further email update by mid-October. Thank you once again for your patience and understanding during this time.

You’ve told me to wait while you replace my flight – how do I know you’ll be able to replace it and can I cancel?

We are aware that some customers are worried that we won’t be able to find alternative flights given the shortage of flight seats currently available. Please be aware that although flight prices and availability are currently volatile (as they always are immediately after a major airline failure), this will settle down shortly and we expect that more flight capacity will be added and we will be able to replace your flight. We’ll keep you regularly updated.

Because we are confident we will be able to replace your flight, we don’t want you to cancel now as we believe you can still take your holiday. We will keep this policy under review and will keep you updated.

My booking has been cancelled – when will I receive a refund?

If you have received an email from us confirming that your booking has been cancelled, you should log into ‘My Sunshine’ to claim your refund.

Once claimed your refund can take 3-5 days to appear in your account. Please note that due to legislation around money laundering we are only able to process refunds to the same card/account that was used to make the initial payment. If you require payment to a different account you will need to contact [email protected] for further information.

I had a problem claiming my refund

I can see more flights are available, so why has my booking been cancelled?

Due to the unprecedented event of a major airline collapse, flight availability is currently extremely limited. As a result, flights may appear as if they are available, when in fact the booking will not be confirmed by the airlines simply due to the volume of requests being received in a very short period of time. When we are unable to find alternative flight arrangements we have cancelled bookings and processed full refunds.

I can see that flights are available on site at a higher price than they were before – why is this?

As an intermediary travel agent, flight availability and pricing are beyond Sunshine’s control.

The collapse of Thomas Cook is an unprecedented event and has had a significant impact on the travel industry as a whole, bringing about extremely high demand alongside limited availability within a very short period of time.  As a result, availability is currently extremely limited and changing constantly, and this is reflected in pricing which is also volatile at the moment.

I still have a payment due, what happens now?

If we have emailed you to confirm that we have cancelled your booking, or you have responded to our initial email selecting the “cancel” option, no further payments will be taken.

For all other customers, payments will continue to be taken as scheduled. Of course, if your booking ends up being cancelled, you will receive a full refund.

I’m not happy with a flight you have re-booked for me, can I cancel my booking?

You have re-booked me onto a different flight – what will happen with my transfers?

If you booked your transfers through Sunshine as part of your holiday package then we will liaise with the transfer company on your behalf to re-arrange your transfers for you, in line with your new flights. You will be contacted with details of this shortly.

I was trying to telephone the Contact Centre but was unable to get through

Due to the large number of customers affected by the collapse of Thomas Cook, our teams are working around the clock to provide support and address bookings in date order. Whilst our teams worked through those with imminent departures, our phone lines remained closed to allow those teams to work through bookings and customer enquiries as quickly as possible and in the most effective way.

Our in resort emergency line remains open for customers who are in resort and need to speak to us.