About two months ago, I essayed a good bit over the Thomas Cook travel agency, and their sudden bankruptcy.....causing thousands of Germans and Brits to be stuck in holiday locations and getting upsetting bills by the hotels and airlines. At that time, it was noted that the insurance fund to cover the losses by customers....was limited 110 million Euro, and figured to only cover maybe 20-to-25 percent of personal losses. This loss group included as well....people who had yet to start their trip (some were expecting to leave here in December), and zero chance of getting their money back.
Well, yesterday....the German government stood up and said that they would fund (from the tax revenue pocket) around 200 million Euro on top of the 110 million Euro from the insurance company.
Based on their calculations.....just about every single German customer will get 100-percent of their money back. How quick this occurs....is another matter, and I suspect that some won't see the money until mid-spring 2020.
Criticism? Well, this gets to an interesting point. A fair number of Germans are openly angry at the Merkel coalition for doing this because it comes out of the government pocket. These are the people who weren't on the Thomas Cook trips and didn't suffer through the travel mess. They are mostly mad because it's money that could have funded bridge renovation, housing for the homeless, or repaired schools.
I can understand that logic, but here's the one 'ace' in this deck....as Thomas Cook sold vacation packages....here in the middle was the German government collecting tax revenue. For decades, the government has collected a couple hundred million per year from the various sales tax events, and prospered because of Thomas Cook.
A last note....if you are Dutch or British....the deal doesn't extend to you....only only to German customers. It's going to put more pressure on the other governments to do the same thing.
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