Airtours redirecting to Thomas Cook and Thomas Cook closing on May 16th

[retrolink]

Tweet

Hi,

I think AF are trying to confuse me today.

I received 2 emails, 90 minutes apart. The first is about a temporary redirection from Airtours to Thomas Cook, and the second about the Thomas Cook programme closing down:

Email 1: 10:41
-----------------

"Due to conversion issues with the Airtours.co.uk, the site will be removed for 2 weeks. During this time all traffic to the site will be redirected across to the homepage of the Thomas Cook website. The change will happen tomorrow morning 14th May 2008. Any traffic you send will track and appear under the 'Thomas Cook/Airtours' merchant in your logins. "

Then I received this second email, 90 minutes later, about the Thomas Cook programme closing down in 3 days:

Email 2: 12:23
----------------

"The ThomasCook.com programme will be closing on AffiliateFuture.co.uk on Friday 16th May 2008. Please remove your links as soon as possible as the links will deactive on this date. Your commissions will be honoured as normal and any cookies will be still be valid for their full lifetime."

A 3 day notice period is pretty short for Thomas Cook, but I think they may still be on CJ anyway (for now?) so that is not much of an issue. But Airtours are effectively being removed temporarily as well with the redirection being put in place.

Cheers,

Nick

[retrolink]

AF have said that the Airtours programme will continue to track via Thomas Cook temporarily, despite the Thomas Cook programme closing on Friday.

[dappleton]

Thomas Cook are just one of a number of travel brands that are part of TUI Group and on AF. Does anybody know what the reason for the Thomas Cook program closing is, and are any of the other TUI brands e.g. First Choice closing their programs too? I am a long suffering shareholder in AF's parent company and would be pretty concerned if they started losing core travel merchants

[SimonA]

Thomas Cook are just one of a number of travel brands that are part of TUI Group and on AF. Does anybody know what the reason for the Thomas Cook program closing is, and are any of the other TUI brands e.g. First Choice closing their programs too? I am a long suffering shareholder in AF's parent company and would be pretty concerned if they started losing core travel merchants

Sorry about the confusion;

To clarify so that people are clear;

The changes that have been made to Airtours are unrelated to the closure of TC on Affiliate Future. We are trialling linking from Airtours into TC for two weeks to measure if this improves conversion. This is part of a wider examination of conversion and performance that is ongoing across the Thomas Cook Group. If you are affiliated to Airtours you do not need to change anything as there are site redirects in place and we will still be tracking click through and paying commission on sales.

And so you are aware, Thomas Cook, Airtours, MyTravel, Direct Holidays, Going Places and Manos are all part of the Thomas Cook Group and not related to TUI in anyway. Therefore, First Choice will not be impacted by this decision at all.

Anymore questions, please email Alex or I and we will be happy to help.

Simon
Affiliate and Partner Executive
Thomas Cook Group
simon.applebaum@thomascook.com

[dappleton]

thanks for clarifying Simon, i must have taken stupid pills today and forgot who owned what in the holiday sector

[Travel Pixel]

i didnt even know first choice had a program...if they do someone tell me where it is!

:tup

[Pete Taylor]

i didnt even know first choice had a program...if they do someone tell me where it is!

:tup

The don't have a program on the main First Choice site, but Jo Geary runs their special brands of Sovereign, Hayes & Jarvis , Citalia & Meon Villas on Afiliate Future

[Travel Pixel]

Im seeing airtours being redirected to mytravel atm...is that right?

Do we have any details on when airtours will be back on?

Dave

[retrolink]

Im seeing airtours being redirected to mytravel atm...is that right?

I see the same, maybe it's just another part of their "trial" redirections? Would be nice to know the reasons behind the switch...

[3wdl]

Hi guys,

I'll find this out for you tomorrow and let you know,

Cheers
James

[3wdl]

Just to confirm; the re-direct to MyTravel (rather than TC) will be staying for the immediate future until the issues with the Airtours site are resolved. Will be sure to keep you updated but if you have any further questions feel free to drop me an email to jamesl@affiliatefuture.co.uk

Cheers
James

[Entrepreneur]

Airtours still redirects to Mytravel - rather than improve conversions I think it just confuses visitors who will think they have clicked the wrong link.

Surely if it is advertised as Airtours it should go to an Airtours website. Failing that a dedicated Airtours landing page on the Mytravel site.

Any update on this?