Cookes, who has since joined the Advantage Travel Partnership in the newly created role of leisure director, described her sadness at watching agents “many who I know on a personal level” dealing with the fallout.
She joined Freedom as relationship manager in 2013, then general manager in 2014, a role she held for five years until being named head of commercial at Thomas Cook shortly before its failure.
“There’s not one group at Cook worse off than the other, but I’ve never seen anything like it [what happened to Freedom agents],” she told TTG. “The uncertainty and the impact on them. There’s still an untold story there.”
In her new role, which she took up on 14 October, Cookes is tasked with driving Advantage’s leisure strategy, and leading its commercial, marketing and business development teams in the sector.
Cookes said she wanted to apply her experience at another membership-centred organisation and, after meeting with Advantage chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said, said she knew the position was “100% the perfect role for her”.
She explained how she had already “had a few conversations” with former Freedom members about joining Advantage since coming onboard at the consortium, adding she believed the whole industry would use the shockwaves of Cook’s collapse to assess their own business strategies.
After getting to know the team at Advantage’s London headquarters, Cookes said she will embark on a tour of members across the country to better understand the needs of their individual businesses.
Cookes is also organising a working group of representatives, including suppliers and Advantage members, to discuss how partners can share client data in the event of a crisis. “We need to get to a place where agents are comfortable sharing data in certain situations, knowing this will only be used as promised,” she said.
