Thomas Cook’s rivals are accused of cashing in as holiday prices double within hours 

Thomas Cook’s rivals including Jet 2 and TUI are accused of cashing in as holiday prices double within hours

Rival holiday firms have been accused of cashing in on the collapse of Thomas Cook after the price of package holidays jumped overnight.

Around 160,000 British citizens are stranded overseas and thousands of others face cancelled holidays after the holiday giant went bust early this morning.

But those looking to book breaks with rival firms say the prices have jumped massively in the last 24 hours. 

Some reported that the cost of their package trip had almost doubled after Thomas Cook collapsed. 

Holiday customers saw a huge surge in prices with rival firms after Thomas Cook's collapse

Holiday customers saw a huge surge in prices with rival firms after Thomas Cook’s collapse

Customer Lara Anne Harper said a holiday to Greece she shortlisted on the Tui website jumped by £168 per person just during the time she was on the website.

She tweeted: ‘Lost our holiday with Thomas Cook. Decided to see what we can get from @TUIUK instead and in the time it took me to run through a few holidays and shortlist 10, I open up the shortlist to find almost every holiday price has increased over the last 20 minutes.’

Lesley Gillis claimed her planned holiday had more than doubled in price from £600 to £1,700. 

Lyndsay McDonald tweeted Jet2 saying: ‘We had flights on screen at £375 to replace our Thomas Cook ones, get to payment page and within seconds had gone up to £570 each. Making money from this misfortune #jet2 #thomascook’

Olivia Howat tweeted: ‘Absolutely disgusting from @jet2tweets @Jet2Holiday within the space of an HOUR they’ve doubled the price of flights following the news of #ThomasCook collapsing. Yet another Typical greedy airline. #jet2’  

Scores took to Twitter this afternoon to complain about soaring prices

Scores took to Twitter this afternoon to complain about soaring prices

Simon Kenworthy reported that flights he was looking at the Cancun in Mexico had increased from £299 to £319 in 12 hours.

A Jet2 spokesman said: ‘Our pricing, as is common practice in the travel industry, is based on the principle of supply and demand. 

‘As supply reduces, an inevitable consequence is that prices increase. However, we are looking at adding more supply (flights and seats) to help customers at this time.’ 

Tui have been contacted for comment.  They said they have been inundated with bookings and are struggling to field the high volume of calls.

Shares in Tui soared to above £9.00 this morning – its best price since February – after Thomas Cook confirmed it had ceased operations, with the loss of around 21,000 jobs.

Likewise, shares in Jet2 owner Dart Group jumped to £9.28, as investors assumed the competitors will pick up a large portion of Thomas Cook’s holiday traffic in the future.

 

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