Saga and Titan agree to transfer Freedom bookings to new consortia

Saga and sister company Titan Travel have confirmed they will transfer bookings of former Freedom Travel members to their new consortia.

It comes after ongoing negotiations with key individual consortia.

Titan said its agency sales team will contact all affected agents directly over the coming weeks to discuss the transfer of their bookings.

Agents will be required to confirm their new ABTA number to reclaim the booking.

Edwina Coppock, head of trade sales at Titan Travel, said: "Titan is very proud of the close relationship it holds with the trade and wants to reassure Freedom Travel Group members that we are here to support them. We wish to work with all agents going forward and help them reclaim their bookings, as per their new consortium’s agreement, as quickly as possible.

"We greatly appreciate all the hard work independent agents do and wish to honour those affected by the collapse of the Thomas Cook Group as fairly as possible. We look forward to continue trading with all ex-Thomas Cook Group members and homeworkers under their new consortiums."

Saga Travel said agents will be able to reclaim the booking and full commission on all ‘qualifying’ bookings.

A qualifying booking is one where the money paid to Thomas Cook, via the agent in question, has also been paid to Saga.

If a booking does not qualify to be transferred back to the agent, Saga said it will work with the agent to ‘ensure suitable alternatives are offered and a mutually agreeable solution is reached’.

A spokeswoman said Saga was narturally hopeful that most bookings would be qualifying ones. "We are now working with agents to complete the information that has been provided by KPMG. All agents will be contacted by the Saga team by the end of October."

Iain Powell, head of trade sales Saga Travel, said: "All of us at Saga are deeply saddened by the collapse of Thomas Cook. We have worked extremely hard in the last few weeks to minimise the impact on our mutual customers. At the same time, we have been working closely with all our trade partners to ensure the continuation of the fantastic relationships we have built in recent years".

"Those trade relationships are vital to the long-term growth and success of Saga Travel and we are therefore committed to managing this very complex process as fairly and quickly as possible.~"

Saga will directly manage all holidays booked by the Thomas Cook Group departing before 01 January 2020 to provide ‘minimal disruption to clients departing in the near future’.