My German wife works with a lady who has this neighbor, who you'd consider at the bottom of the working-class. This family for four years skimped and saved....to have a vacation. We aren't talking about a big-four-star deal....but just something that you could marginally call a week-long trip to a cheap Spanish resort.
So they went and booked it via Neckermann....taking off around two weeks ago. They were among the tens of thousands of Germans who got stuck because of the bankruptcy business of Thomas Cook/Neckermann travel and tour operations.
They had gotten through three days apparently, before the bankruptcy hit, and this long-sought vacation abruptly came to a crashing end. The hotel? They wouldn't let them leave unless they paid for the hotel (which they'd already weeks before had paid the tour company for everything.....hotel, flight, etc). This extra money? They didn't really have it.
Then the next reality came with the return trip. That ticket no longer existed. So they had to pull out the credit card and pay again, for a ticket that would get them back.
Disgruntled really doesn't say the amount of anger that they have about the system, and how it failed.
Talk on the insurance business, and if these screwed people will ever get any of their money back? Well, the experts all say that roughly 100-million Euro is in some pot. But the experts also hint, it'll take at least six months to sort through everything, and you might only get 50-percent of your money back.
The travel insurance 'pot' being limited? That's another element that probably will get dragged into court.
Permanently affecting the travel industry in Germany? I would suggest that a quarter of all travel shop operations will be shut down by March of 2020, and another quarter shutting down by late fall of 2020.
Last night, I was walking through a street in Wiesbaden and stopped at a large window display of a travel shop. Cruise pictures and package deals listed. Resort hotels in the Caribbean listed. Thai beach hotels listed. Then in big letters near the billboard....'Thomas Cook'. I felt sorry for the agents....they have an occupation that is about to become worthless. This bankruptcy business destroyed a great business model.
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