Customer loyalty scheme specialist Affinion International Travel has recruited Thomas Cook regional sales head for the north James Coughlan.
Neither Cook nor Affinion were able to confirm when Coughlan is due to make the switch, but the appointment is understood to have been announced internally at Affinion last week.
Coughlan is understood to have been recruited in a vice-president role overseeing Affinion’s business interests in Europe.
Advantage Travel Centres member Affinion Travel provides travel products to closed user groups and has a customer database of one million.
The leisure travel agency, which was sold by RCI to financial services group Affinion International in November 2008, works with financial institutions including banks to offer travel as part of a raft of financial benefits to customers and employees. It currently employs 90 agents in a call centre in Kettering.
It currently works with more than 500 trade partners including Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, Kuoni, Tui, Thomas Cook, Superbreak, Avis and Royal Caribbean International.
It comes under two weeks after managing director of mainstream tour operations Richard Calvert announced he was quitting and a month after e-commerce private labels director Andy Washington’s switch to Expedia.
Recent weeks have also seen the announcement of Chris Harrison’s move to independent agent Dawson and Sanderson from Cook’s scheduled business division.