Thomas Cook customers at Gatwick and Manchester airports rushed to board their flights on Sunday amid growing anxiety ahead of crunch talks between the tour operator and its creditors that could lead to bankruptcy.

On Saturday night, the travel company had reassured customers that flights would continue to operate as normal and although people steadily checked in their bags at Thomas Cook desks, some uncertain holidaymakers said they had bought extra return flights home with another airline in case Thomas Cook went bust.

“We haven’t stopped reading the news, we’re very concerned,” said Nil Aygin, who was flying from Gatwick to Cyprus with the company, which has 94 planes. “We needed this holiday, so we’ve had to book another flight back with easyJet two days earlier just in case. We’re out of pocket nearly £300 and we’re cutting our holiday short if they do go bust.”

She and her friend said they hoped to be reimbursed for the extra outlay, after three stressful days led them to make the contingency plan.

Tina Burgess, flying to Antalya in Turkey from Manchester airport said she did not sleep for 24 hours because of the uncertainty. “It’s your summer vacation, time we’ve booked off work together and who knew if we were going to fly or not?”

She added: “You think Thomas Cook, you think British. They’re actually global ... they’re a big group. You hope someone’s going to come bail them out, but are they?”

Her husband, Steve Burgess, said the uncertainty was the most worrying part of the situation. “We’re going for two weeks – a lot can happen in two weeks.”

Dayne Curwen from Manchester was also due to fly to Antalya. “I’m more worried about coming home,” he said. “I’m not happy about [the situation]. I’ve just found out a couple of days ago. It’s bang out of order. I thought Thomas Cook would have told us about this a couple of weeks ago, so I could have sorted other arrangements but they haven’t done anything at all.”

A woman who was travelling to Lanzarote from Gatwick on a Thomas Cook group package holiday said they had not spoken about Thomas Cook’s potential plight as they did not want to worry their friend.

“It’s quite an important holiday for her, so we didn’t want to worry her unless we needed to,” she said, without providing her name. “As long as they can hang on another three hours and get us on this flight so we can get away then whatever happens on the other side will happen.”

Others wished they had simply booked their holiday themselves rather than booking through the operator, referencing the company’s slogan: “Don’t just book it, Thomas Cook it.”

But travellers were primarily concerned with getting on their flight, and some said they would happily stay in Lanzarote if there were no flights back.

“As long as we can get out there we can get back, even if we have to book another flight. It doesn’t matter. It’s our first holiday with our little girl so we just want to get out of the rain and get some sunshine,” said Sam Longhurst from Surrey, at Gatwick. “It is what it is – shit happens.”

Jane Byron, who lives near Heathrow but had travelled to Gatwick to fly to Lanzarote with her friend Jean Owen, said: “We’ve checked in and hopefully we get back. If we don’t, then we’ve got friends out there.”

Darren and Jo McIver, flying to Tunisia from Manchester, were also sanguine. “C’est la vie,” Darren said.

An employee at the check-in desk at Gatwick said everything was running as normal, while another asked for the latest news from the company’s morning meeting at a City law firm.

Asked about the progress of the talks, a Thomas Cook spokesperson said: “No comment.”