[MartynSinclair]

Ha Ha SimonS1 – apologies, I will rephrase my statement. I choose not to buy investment / insurance products branded by high street retailers, whether they sell clothes, flowers, carpets or ornaments. Look at the trouble SIPP clients face having been marketed funds investing in Cape Verde through unlicensed firms (but that’s another story). The Financial Services side of most retailers ‘sells’, loans, credit cards, life insurance, travel insurance and some investments. I do not believe there is any advice or recommendation involved. Customers picking these products up on ‘price’ is very very different from clients being advised based on ‘benefit’ and paying a fee. The Thomas Cook situation only highlights the need for properly created and regulated travel insurance. I find it astounding that professional flight deck & cabin crew were forced to beg for seats to get home (TC scenario). I hate to say it, but perhaps this is a reason why there are Unions or similar.

Taking ownership of your own needs – when you decorate your house, you either save money and do it your self or find a professional decorator to do it for you. I chose to find a firm to undertake the work. Same with any insurance – I choose to take ownership through delegating to a third party. Problem with travel insurance, there appears no third party able to compare benefits and recommend on a whole of market basis.

Anthony Dunn’s situation on another thread reinforces this issue. He has undertaken a serious amount of own research and still has no solution to enable ‘holiday’ travel.

I will take a look at the BIBA site and review the policy wordings as you suggest.

[rferguson]

An interesting account of one of the MH A380 repatriation flights from PMI-LHR.

A couple points of interest for me –
the flights are operated by a ‘dedicated charter crew’ which have a different uniform.
the premium seats were allocated randomly.
there seems to be quite a few empty seats in the photos.

Inside a Thomas Cook repatriation flight on the world’s largest passenger jet

[SimonS1]

Of course it’s your perogative to delegate to a third party, to use Amex etc. However there are obviously risks as you found out when you were saddled with a bill for an uninsured expense.

All I’m saying is that a couple of hours of personal research go a long way, several people on here evidently have found decent policies that have paid out.

It’s up to you if you buy products sold through a retail organisation, however as I said before automatically writing these off as unsuitable seems to me a weak argument (and let’s face it your Amex policy was hardly stellar when put to the test?).

I don’t understand the link between insurance and SIPPs I’m afraid. On the one hand you comment on buying insurance without advice – yet those that bought dodgy funds in SIPPs were a) in the main advised and b) all customers of regulated trustees who had fiduciary duties.

Maybe BT will run an article but in life there is always an element of buyer beware.

[mkcol74]

[postquote quote=969422][/postquote]

There was also this coverage with video from the flight. I wonder if a bit of a PR spin is being conducted.

[SimonS1]

It has all gone a bit quiet on the repatriation, which suggests it is all going relatively smoothly. To get 94% of people back on the day they were due to fly is quite impressive.

Not sure who would really benefit from the PR….nothing said about BA trying to shaft stranded crew with £10,000 fares and claiming they couldn’t use jump seats as they were no longer crew. Fortunately I understand other airlines offered jump seats for nothing….presumably BA operate under different regulations haha.

[openfly]

BA have quietly brought a lot of TCX crew and staff home for free without shouting their deed from the rooftops….unlike VS who repatriated a few TCX staff but loudly shouted their “good deed” very publicly…!!

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AFlyingDutchman, mkcol74

[rferguson]

BA jointly with AA transported 13 TCX crew home to the UK from LAS. It is true they were originally quoted £10k as the contracted ground staff they first approached had no idea what Thomas Cook even was. The BA direct LAS-LON flight was full with the exception of two seats. Once it was sorted BA liased with AA and flew the 13 crew home via ORD. The TCX crew were given access to the BA lounge at ORD and the arrivals lounge at LHR T5. BA also transported eight TCX crew from LHR home to MAN.

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mkcol74

[mkcol74]

[postquote quote=969748][/postquote]

Hopefully we can now put to bed the strident complaints about BA trying to “shaft stranded crew” and just accept that it was a very unfortunate misunderstanding.

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Johnnyg

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=969802][/postquote]

Where BA is concerned it seems there will always be “unfortunate misunderstandings”.

Like when they let your card details get hacked and then deny responsibility.

Or like the thread running where they promised renewal to a silver member and then tried to deny it.

Funny what being named and shamed in the media can do, isn’t it. Sadly in this case the horse had already bolted before some thought to shut the stable door.

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MartynSinclair

[rferguson]

BA cabin crew have also so far raised £24000 in a collection for the ex TCX crew.

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Montysaurus, AFlyingDutchman, GivingupBA

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=969962][/postquote]

Very good. Has your employer offered to match any monies raised?

[rferguson]

I’d doubt BA would make a financial contribution. As I would also doubt Virgin or TUI would. Likewise if staff from say Flight Centre high street shops made a collection for the Thomson travel agents i’d not expect their employers to contribute. At the end of the day Thomson was a competitor to BA as a company. To us they were colleagues of a sort. Yes Virgin is the king of PR and used their good deeds very much to their advantage and BA could absolutely learn a thing or two from them in that respect. But BA is not alone in the negative publicity. Jet2 the day after the Thomson collapse was called out for increasing airfares on former Thomson routes by up to 200%. They didn’t apologise and probably shouldn’t. They just cited ‘supply and demand’. Business is business i guess.

[mkcol74]

[postquote quote=969858][/postquote]

You’re conflating issues @SimonS1 & are becoming tedious. Your points have been made by many in other threads ad nauseam.
Please move on & let this thread keep the focus.

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AFlyingDutchman

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=970176][/postquote]

Sorry if you think I am ‘conflating issues’ and you find it tedious, however I was responding to another poster who put this down to an ‘unfortunate misunderstanding’ at BA.

I am giving examples of why BA seem to be serial ‘misunderstanders’ or instead how their response to Thomas Cook crew was in fact part of a clear pattern of behaviour. Another ‘unfortunate misunderstanding’ being when BA’s own cancellation of flights on the wrong date and then reinstatement. I therefore suggest to you that BA’s initial treatment of Thomas Cook crew (and yes this is a Thomas Crew thread, so entirely relevant) was in fact down to the usual penny pinching and only changed when the media appeared on the scene.

Feel free to disagree, or even not to read if it doesn’t interest you.

[AFlyingDutchman]

[quote quote=970281]I am giving examples of why BA seem to be serial ‘misunderstanders’ or instead how their response to Thomas Cook crew was in fact part of a clear pattern of behaviour. Another ‘unfortunate misunderstanding’ being when BA’s own cancellation of flights on the wrong date and then reinstatement. I therefore suggest to you that BA’s initial treatment of Thomas Cook crew (and yes this is a Thomas Crew thread, so entirely relevant) was in fact down to the usual penny pinching and only changed when the media appeared on the scene.[/quote]

I think mkcol74’s point might be that it just seems like BA bashing for the sake of it as opposed to any justified reason. BA, unlike Virgin, has helped a far larger number of stranded Thomas Cook crew, and isnt blasting it in the media. Branson being a Media queen will use every opportunity to inflate his ego and the image of his airline. The misunderstanding I believe is an honest one as it was at LAS where BA has mainly outsourced ground staff who probably didnt really know, and hence made the error. In the end, the crew were brought home. The strike confusion emails (one of which I also received) was annoying, but again, when I compare BA’s handling of the industrial action by their extremely well paid pilots, versus the ritualistic and continual strikes that Air France has, I think BA handled it very well. Furthert, BA isnt the only large travel company that has been hacked, numersous companies have. Yes, I agreee, should’nt happen, but again it just seems any chance to bash BA is jumped on. BA is certainly not perfect, but give me one example of an airline the size of BA that is perfect, you wont find one.

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capetonianm, transtraxman, Montysaurus

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