Advantage Travel Partnership is pursuing Freedom Travel Group members following the Co-operative Travel’s decision to end its joint venture with Thomas Cook last week.
Freedom and The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors will come under the full ownership of Cook, along with 200 shops, now that the five-year deal has ended.
A number of Freedom members received letters and sales materials last week from Advantage.
The letter stated now that the joint venture is coming to an end “you might want to consider your options”. It goes on to promote the group’s technology and commercial terms.
One Freedom member, who wished to remain anonymous, said it is only the second time another consortium had approached him.
He confirmed his business would be staying with Freedom and had thrown the Advantage letter away.
Other Freedom members on the group’s Facebook page confirmed they had received letters and some had also been called by Advantage.
A press release sent out by Advantage last week stated a number of Freedom members had “re-engaged” with Advantage following the joint venture announcement.
Advantage’s business development director Colin O’Neill said: “We have been in discussions with a number of potential new members for some time. The recent JV announcement prompted some of the Freedom members we were in dialogue with to push on with the discussions.
“Given that reaction, we thought it a reasonable move to contact all Freedom members to see if they felt the same way, offering them the choice of Advantage Managed Services.”
Freedom’s biggest member, World Travellers UK, said it had yet to receive a letter but would be staying put.
Founder and managing director Tom Dunkley said: “It’s business as usual for us. I’m very happy where we are. Freedom is very supportive of us and we are very supportive of them.”