Cooperative Travel

Cooperative travel[i] is a travel agency that was formed in 2007. It is part of one of Europe’s largest consumer organisations with the founding company originally established in 1920. They are a travel agency that can offer you many different deals from complete tailor-made package holidays to those holiday extras such as flights, car hire, airport lounges, airport parking, excursions, insurance, and even travel money. They are fully licensed members of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and are also protected by the Air Travel Organisers Licence (ATOL).

In October 2010, Thomas Cook and the cooperative travel group merged to form one of the biggest high-street travel agent chains. 70% of the company is now owned by Thomas Cook and the remaining 30% has been kept by the co-operatives. At the time of merger, the combined workforce of both companies was about 9000 individuals. There is also an operation for business travel, a section specialising in cruise operation, call centres, and they also employ 600 travel homeworkers. The business currently looks after over 2 million passengers a year.

The company has won numerous awards including the Springboard awards for excellence in November 2008 … citing the company as the best employer in travel and tourism.

The website is set out in a very distinct fashion giving you access to deals under the following headings … Holidays, Florida, Ski, Cruise, City breaks, Worldwide, UK, Disney, Hotels, Flights, Extras. There are also drop-down menus for villas, cheap holidays, accessibility, travel partners, membership, holiday news, social media, and sports.

The website also offers a Branch Finder Service. You simply enter your address, town, or postcode, and the tool will show you the nearest co-operatives travel agent. The details supplied include the branch name, the distance from the address that you have given, and the contact details of the cooperative travel branch including the address and phone number. You will also find information about the particular branch website along with the opening hours. If you have satellite navigation system, particularly the Tom Tom or Garmin, you can download the directions directly onto your unit.

Some of the other travel companies that the cooperative travel partner with include Thomson Holidays, Red Sea Holidays, Virgin Holidays, Airtours, Key Camp Holidays, Warner Leisure Holidays, and of course Thomas Cook Holidays.

You can have access to a membership scheme where you can earn loyalty points, or membership points. You can earn your membership points while booking either at one of the branches or online. Each two pounds you spend on travel equals one membership point.

Reviews of cooperative travel on the whole tend to be quite good. There are especially good comments about the helpful staff within the agency. One person commented that they had booked a holiday with cooperative travel, not only did the sales agent remember their faces from a previous occasion, when the commenter found out after they had paid in full for their holiday that they now couldn’t go, the manager of the particular branch rebooked them onto a later trip without losing them any money.

Obviously there are also some negative reviews. Many of these have got to do with using the website. One particular customer complained about removing the 5 kg extra luggage allowance. This reviewer said that he had removed this extra luggage allowance because the “normal 15 kg allowance shows up as part of the package at no cost”. Once this person’s ticket arrived through the post, he discovered that he no longer had a luggage allowance and had to pay additional costs and make several phone calls.[ii]