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Post by kevb on Oct 2, 2017 8:42:03 GMT
I can barely remember a time when they didn't seem to be in financial trouble though. Don't recall ever using them though friends of mine used them a few times in the 80's and said they always seemed a bit of a shambles then. Hope no one on here has booked with them already for next year (did they ever fly to Skiathos?) and will have to sort out a new package.
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Post by balddave on Oct 2, 2017 9:35:52 GMT
Yes kev, Monarch did use to fly to Skiathos.
Think it's about 5 years or so when they decided ,without explanation, to pull out. I'm sure somebody will post exact timings
I remember it causing a lot of inconvenience to many owners of accommodation, who had already signed up with them for the following season.
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Post by kevb on Oct 2, 2017 10:06:47 GMT
My first Skiathos trip was as recently as 2012 but I couldnt be sure if there were any coming in from Monarch then or not.
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Post by Tre on Oct 2, 2017 11:07:17 GMT
We always booked through Monarch up to & including 2015. Then we couldn’t get flights to suit for 2016 so booked with TC. Our wedding guests booked packages through Monarch(Cosmos) and around Oct/Nov 2015 they were contacted by Monarch to advise; “no longer flying to Skiathos but we can transfer your booking, we have some great deals for Corfu” No, we’ve booked Skiathos as we’re attending a wedding. “Kos”? No! 🤔
They eventually got a refund. However, even the accommodation owners didn’t know what was happening with their contracts. TC did well that year!
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Post by dennisn on Oct 2, 2017 13:24:36 GMT
I dunno when they stopped, but I have a photo uploaded of one of their planes landing at Skiathos in 2014. skiathosboomerang.freeforums.net/thread/315/fond-memoriesWe were in Corfu the day Kosmar folded, leaving not just holidaymakers in the lurch, but also all their staff in resort and all their accommodation unpaid - it was their practice to pay for the accommodation only after the season ended. Disgraceful - they took holidaymakers' money up front, long in advance of providing the holidays, so they should have paid owners in advance too. Fortunately, our accommodation had withdrawn from Kosmar the year before so we were flight only with Easyjet. But some due in were on Excel flights which didn't happen of course. I don't think much of Ryanair situation now either. |
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Post by kathos on Oct 2, 2017 13:48:56 GMT
I think the last Monarch flight out of Skiathos was early October 2015. I have used them a lot both to Skiathos and the Canaries they were really good for flight only seats also I liked the extra leg room seats in the front six or seven rows as they made for comfortable flying.
We started to use Jet2 a couple of years back because we preferred their flying times but I,m still sad to see the end of Monarch.
My brother was due to fly with them this month to Gibraltar to take my nephew to Jerez where he is attending a flying academy fortunately said nephew had his ear to the ground and also booked seats with Ryanair as insurance ... luckily not on one of the many cancelled routes. It is a lottery.
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Post by dennisn on Oct 2, 2017 13:51:21 GMT
Ryanair Lottery - Now that sounds like a new idea.
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Post by katet on Oct 2, 2017 14:53:39 GMT
You might win big on that one, Dennis!!
We flew to Skiathos a couple of times with Monarch & found their planes comfortable. I seem to remember that the last time we used them (2013) they flew us home with Icelandic Air, or similar, no explanation but a very good flight.
We've booked with TC again for next June ..... Not the best, but (hopefully) won't go bump!
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Post by balddave on Oct 2, 2017 16:43:07 GMT
We are flying to Tenerife on Wednesday, looked at both TC and monarch, fortunately chose TC due to better flight times.
Strange how flights today double that we paid a couple of weeks ago, supply and demand I guess.
Feel for those ,either in resorts wondering how they're getting home, or those whose upcoming holiday plans have been ruined
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Post by dennisn on Oct 3, 2017 14:09:30 GMT
Just think about the disgraceful situation this has become.
110,000 people stranded abroad. Every one of those has paid their holiday in full and I'm pretty sure Monarch hasn't paid any accommodation owners a penny. What would the average price for a holiday be? Let's say £500. Unless my maths are doing their usual fail, that's £55 million in the Monarch kitty. Less fuel and wages for aircrew.
850,000 disappointed customers been let down. How many had already paid in full? Let's say 300,000, that's another £150 million. Then 550,000 who have paid say £100 deposit, another £55 million.
Total kitty in excess of £200 million. Excluding previous business profits.
For Monarch to go under, their accounts must have been run by somebody worse at sums than me!!
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Post by philipt22 on Oct 3, 2017 14:25:52 GMT
I dunno when they stopped, but I have a photo uploaded of one of their planes landing at Skiathos in 2014. skiathosboomerang.freeforums.net/thread/315/fond-memoriesWe were in Corfu the day Kosmar folded, leaving not just holidaymakers in the lurch, but also all their staff in resort and all their accommodation unpaid - it was their practice to pay for the accommodation only after the season ended. Disgraceful - they took holidaymakers' money up front, long in advance of providing the holidays, so they should have paid owners in advance too. Fortunately, our accommodation had withdrawn from Kosmar the year before so we were flight only with Easyjet. But some due in were on Excel flights which didn't happen of course. I don't think much of Ryanair situation now either. We got caught-up in the Kosmar/Excel disaster when we was on Santorini. It was an experience I wouldn't wish my worse enemy. Guests having to pay for their accommodation twice because Excel had taken their money and obviously used it to fund other things rather than pay the Greek Hoteliers. I suppose we got off lightly as we were on a flight-only with Excel but staying in private rooms of a Kosmar used property. Other guests had to find quite a large sum of money just so they could remain in their chosen accommodation.
The Kosmar reps however did a fantastic job in an extremely difficult situation. We even received help getting home even though we weren't official Kosmar customers. I couldn't of blamed them if they had told us to do-one but we were treated with the same empathy as everyone else. It's always the hard working; faces on-the-ground that lose the most in situations such as these. As soon as the realization that the company was about to fold set-in, I bet the Monarch big-wigs started stashing money in trusted family/friends bank accounts all around the world. Well that's my theory; maybe my imagination is just running wild; as per usual lol
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Post by cariad23 on Oct 4, 2017 5:44:08 GMT
WE were in kefalonia when kosmar went broke, we always went with kosmar but luckily that time had got a good deal with thomson. In scala nearly all studios kosmar the reps hadnt been paid for weeks and basically said Youre on your own, owners devastated.
The next year went to thassos where we had lots holidays with kosmar and went to see our old accommodation, as we were good friends with the owner,often ate with them, went out together.She had put her place with a swedish company and said would never trust an English company again, and the swedes paid far better rate.
WE often book flights and accommodation ourselves now that way if anything happens again we would get another flight or ferry to somehere in mainland europe and hire a car and drive home, i certainly wouldnt sit around waiting for a rescue.
I would have hoped by now all the weak firms had gone. For those of us of a certain age do you remember the clarkson fiasco we had just got married and it went broke 2 days before our holiday and being young had no spare money to rebook. Horizon went broke too luckily we had booked with horizon midland and were ok. It was after that the fund was set up to get people home.
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