I wish I can give zero rating.
I am writing this after 2 trips with Thomas Cook. First trip was in the year 2018 to Kashmir with my nieces. I made this very clear at the start itself that I would like to travel in a group tour only. Thomas Cook promised that my tour is a group tour of 20 people. After a lot of follow-ups, a day before travel, the team shared group details, and to my surprise overnight 20 people vanished. Me and nieces were only part of the group. For the entire tour they left me and my nieces in the hand of a local driver. There was no tour operator. They will also share a contact person in case of any issue but you will never be able to reach that person in your whole tour.
Second tour was Char Dham yatra in 2021. Again big promises at the start of tour and nothing delivered at the end. Again my request was as simple that I want to be part of a group tour which Thomas Cook promised. Their team gave a date of 12th October, I booked my flight tickets accordingly. Just 5 days prior to the yatra date, I got a call saying that my tour is canceled as the group is not forming. They formed a group with just 3 people out of which 2 people belong to the same family and the 2 people backed out at the end moment. In their voucher details, it is clearly mentioned that the group will be formed when at least 4 people are part of it, yet they formed a group of 3 people.
They just gave me 3 options,
1) Reschedule for next dates - rescheduling will cost me flight charges which is around 9000rs
2) Cancel the tour - this will cost me around 40% of the tour cost
3) Go solo on 12th October- for that, I have to pay 15000 rs plus GST
For all these options, I have to bear the loss. I went with option 1 as that was the least amount to be at loss.
While on tour, absolutely no information to where to go whom to meet. Their contact person was super rude and will not share any details with you. Out of 6 hotels mentioned in the itinerary, only one matched, on the fly 5 hotels were changed which were not upto the mark.
At Badrinath, it was -3 temperature, the only ask was to at least arrange a heater for the room, that too they were not able to provide. When you question them, in a very super rude tone I got a reply that you are on yatra then don't expect good facilities. For Char Dham yatra, they will leave you in the hands of driver. No tour operator is part of the tour.
Thomas cook charges enormous with false promises. I would not recommend anybody to go to Thomas Cook.
Customer care service is another challenge, it's one-sided communication... you can't connect to them when you want...you will have to wait.
