There are still thousands of Thomas Cook customers who have yet to claim a refund for cancelled holidays after the firm's 2019 collapse, according to the Official Receiver. The government service deals with the winding down of businesses.
It says there are still many people who need to submit a claim in relation to the holiday operator. Refunds have been available via a portal since November 2021 and it is still open. It can be found here.
If you’re submitting a claim, you should provide as much information as possible including your booking number, dates you were due to travel and payment details, reports the Mirror. There currently isn't a deadline for submitting new claims to Thomas Cook and you can submit more than one refund.
How much money you’ll get back depends on how much cash is available once the liquidation has been completed. It is possible that you won't get a full refund.
Once you've submitted a claim, you'll be able to log onto to the site to check the progress and status of their refund. Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert has urged all travellers who booked a holiday with the following brands to submit a claim.
- Thomas Cook Airlines Limited
- Thomas Cook Group Treasury Limited
- Thomas Cook Group Tour Operations Limited
- Thomas Cook Money Limited
- Thomas Cook UK Limited
- MyTravel Group Limited
Other Thomas Cook brands may pay out but this isn't guaranteed - again it depends on how much money is leftover once the business has been wound up. The Official Receiver hasn’t given a timeframe for how long refunds could take. If you’re not happy with the outcome of your claim, you’ll have 21 days to appeal it.
Official Receiver David Chapman, appointed by the court as Liquidator of the Thomas Cook group of companies, said: "While we have received many claims already, we believe that there are potentially thousands more customers and creditors who are owed money by Thomas Cook but have not submitted their claims.
"That is why we are urging customers and suppliers to use the online portal to quickly, easily and securely lodge their claims for monies owed to them."
Thomas Cook collapsed in 2019 under £1.7billion of debt. Its demise triggered the biggest ever peacetime repatriation after more than 150,000 British holidaymakers had to be brought home.
Thomas Cook relaunched in September 2020 as a travel website, almost a year after its collapse, and is an online-only firm without aircraft, hotels or shops. The business was founded in 1841 in Leicestershire by cabinet-maker Thomas Cook.
