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https://travelweekly.co.uk/articles/375966/saga-reveals-44m-refund-payouts
Not forgetting of course the £4m they lost on the Thomas Cook failure, which would be built into the 2020 accounts?? I’m not sure??
Sorry BB just read your last 2 post while I was busy typing away. Both on same page, definitely, and need clarity on how much customers money they’ve spunked. IMO there can’t be much left now??
Thanks BB, good perspective. I think there is some very impressive Accountancy work going on here in my opinion. Purely from how a Tour Operator works, 7m a month, I’m just not having it, unless some form of Cruise is built in and/or clever accountancy. Absolutely no way!?!
Also - 60-70% of the customers who are SAGA loyal, simply changed there holiday dates and booked for next year, without asking for money back etc etc…so there’s another something to question.
P.S. There is a good majority of the over 50’s who book well in advance. But it has now been 15 months since the start of the pandemic. So there is no way I’m taking 7m cash burn on tour unless cruise is included?!
BB - I totally agree. Up until Oct 2020 they have basically spent customers money and deposits they had to give back, but weren’t expecting too. Que the pandemic. This must be still having long term effect.
Secondly - do you think they have put ‘Cruise Cash Burn’ under ‘TOUR’ for accounting reasons?
I think they need to explain all this. Because no ‘Tour Operator’ or large ‘Travel Agent’ in effect has that sort of cash burn. So something is a-miss?
Easiest way to explain it is -
You want to take the Mrs to London for the weekend.
You can’t be arsed putting an itinerary together, so you ask your mate who lives in London to do it for you. Book the transport, theatre tickets, excursions etc etc.
He says cool, all done for you. It cost him £500, but charges you £700 for the privilege. You know none the wiser, but he is then the ‘Tour Operator’ or ‘Ground Handler’. He has to put that £700 money aside, because if anything goes wrong and there is a terrorist bomb in London that weekend and you cannot fulfil the ‘Tour’ he promised. You want your money back. Your mate gets his money back from ATOL. Which is basically an insurance policy. But still has no fixed cost to pay.
Take that example an times by 1 million passengers for example.
ATOL - Everytime some books a TOUR. That money gets put into a ‘Trust Account’ to ring fence that money. So If anything goes wrong, the money is still there to return to the customer. Rather than the operator just squandering it. See article below. Tour shouldn’t cost anything
https://travelweekly.co.uk/articles/388902/saga-holidays-sets-up-caa-trust-account
Titan ‘TOUR’ has no fixed assets. They are not an airline and don’t own hotels.
They probably have 20-30 staff. Product, Marketing, Admin, Customer Service and Sales, like most other tour operators. Probably £1m a year in salaries.
Customer rings for a ‘tour’. Sales person books with a third party airline ‘BA’ for example. Then books the ‘tour’ with our ‘ground handling’ agent in that country, who puts the tour together and looks after the customer ‘in resort’ ‘that country’ We don’t own ground handlers, there just ‘in country tour guides effectively’ that we contract.
I get Tour is s**t…small margins and volatile to world events etc just as BB says and I agree, but this is not a huge cash burn whatsoever. Their essentially just a big travel agent, that is taking liability and putting the tours together yourself. Nothing more or less! This is what I don’t understand. No fixed assets to burn cash, other than maybe the Eicer Cruise boats, which wouldn’t be massive anyway in the grand scheme of things.
Cheers Gordon, I topped up at 4.12 & 4.06. I think it’s being manipulated. Agree…but other travel stock back on the rise.
……?
Up 3000% from what? Nothing?
Reality check. No Summer happening. September onwards yes, build that in and DYOR.
That’s not a massive buy, like spitting in an ocean.
Government have screwed this summers travel.
What most of us knew ages ago which is a bonus.
Spirit of Discovery has just left with its first passengers, and in the Thames estuary :-)
The Government now has zero credibility after the Han**ck saga.
They can no longer delay opening on the 19th, even if they wanted to.
P.S. ‘Travel Agency’ is Farsley Travel, check and like our Facebook page. 90% of what we sell was Jet2. The government is a shambles! Jet2 are a marvellous company in every way. I have no question backing them whatsoever in normal circumstances. It’s the government.
I’m only here to give my opinion. Like I said don’t care what anyone does.
Well done on your research Neill. Glad you had a look. Totally correct. Deperate times, desperate measures but paid off. 70% up. How’s your Jet2?
Exciting!! 3 sleeps to go until we welcome our first guests back onboard
She’s such a beauty!! ??
Spirit of Discovery's sea trials were successfully completed last week! She's now ready to welcome guests back on board and embark on her first post lockdown cruise this Sunday.
Read Captain Darin Bowland's blog here >> https://bit.ly/3j7BPjg
I’m in the industry..have a travel agent. Lost hope now….this will be a lost summer unfortunately. Even if things open up end of July it will be too late and customer confidence is shot!
Too little too late…operators can’t survive on minimal destinations. My thought is a lot of small PI’s have gone straight to the big brand operator’s and these are now over-cooked. Not so long ago Easy Jet were above pre pandemic levels. Absolutely crazy.
I’ve withdrawn any airline stock. Most successful travel related share is SAGA which I hold, and cruise ships set sail next week. DYOR. Take a look, suggestion only. Don’t care what anyone does. GLA.