Thompson flight?

[minesapint]

A friend of mine flew out to Rhodes last week from the UK on holiday. The flight number was THOM followed by four digits I think. I assume this means that it was a Thompson holidays flight?
The reason I ask is that I'm concerned about the collapse of the Goldtrail travel company over the last few days. Could my friend have flown out to Greece on a Thompson flight via this agency? Sorry, but as you've guessed, i'm not a seasoned traveller!

Thanks.

[boxtops]

It's hard to say. sometimes airlines will combine flights to make sure that it is as full as possible - we flew to Menorca last year on an Iberia booking which was actually a BA flight. However, Thomsons are chartered flights in general so they pack them in, mostly with theri own clients. Arrangement are being made to get Goldrail people home but as I understand it, they were package holidays but I don't know whose planes they flew on.

[spudqueen]

Even if your friend had booked their holiday through Goldtrail then they will be brought home as it is covered by ABTA. There's no need to worry.

[Buenchico]

Goldtrail frequently used aircraft chartered from Saga Airlines (which is a Turkish company, unconnected with the British 'Saga' group). Flight codes for Saga commence with '2J'.

They also chartered aircraft from Onur (with flight numbers starting '8Q'), Turkuax ('TRK') and Viking ('VK'). To the best of my knowledge they never chartered any aircraft within the UK. (Companies such as Thomson generally have no spare capacity at this time of the year).

Chris

[Buenchico]

Just a note regarding Spudqueen's post:
While there may be certain advantages to booking holidays through a member of ABTA, it's completely unrelated to the scheme for getting stranded holidaymakers home. That comes under the ATOL scheme, which is operated by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, and applies irrespective of whether the flight bookings were made through an ABTA-bonded member.

Chris

[northboy]

no>goldtrail holidays use viking airways to greece

[mosesg]

Might have been a Thomas Cook flight