Booking Conditions
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Booking ConditionS
1 CONTRACT
The booking conditions and booking form will constitute the contract between If Only… (a trading name of If Only Holidays Limited, ATOL 4269 and ABTA W3086) and all those listed on the booking on whose behalf the party leader is acting. When you make your booking you must complete a booking form. In signing the booking form you warrant that you have the authority to accept and are accepting on behalf of all your party, the terms of our booking conditions and associated essential information. A contract will exist as soon as we have issued a confirmation number. This contract is made on the terms of these booking conditions, which are governed by Scottish Law, and the jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts. You may however, choose the law and jurisdiction of England or Northern Ireland if you wish to do so. We reserve the right to alter the prices of any of the holidays shown in our brochure. You will be advised of the current prices of the holiday that you wish to book before your contract is confirmed.
2 PAYMENT TERMS
When you make your booking, you must pay a non refundable deposit of 10% of your total holiday cost or £150.00 per person (whichever is the greater). Additionally, weddings will incur a further deposit of £100. On occasion, higher deposits and early balance payments may be required and you will be advised of this at time of booking. This may limit rights of cancellation. Otherwise, the balance of the price of your travel arrangements should be received by us at least 8 weeks before your departure date. If the deposit and/or balance is not paid in time we have the right to cancel your travel arrangements. If the balance is not paid in time we shall retain your deposit. If the booking is made within10 weeks of departure then full payment will be required at time of booking. In the event of your booking being made through a travel agent, all monies paid to your agent are held by the agent on our behalf at all times. We reserve the right to amend our prices at any time prior to you booking your holiday. For Silversea cruise bookings higher deposits are required at time of booking and balances are due 120 days prior to departure.
3 EXCHANGE RATES
Prices shown have been calculated using current exchange rates as at 1 July 2011. USD 1.58. EUR 1.10. AED 5.80. THB 48.00. OMR 0.61. MYR 4.25. HKD 12.25. SGD 1.95.
4 PRICE PLEDGE / SURCHARGES
Changes in transportation costs, including the cost of fuel; dues, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as landing taxes or fees at airports; and exchange rates mean that the price of your travel arrangements may change after booking. However there will be no price change within 30 days of your departure. Should your holiday price increase, you will not be charged for any amount equivalent to 2% of the price of your holiday. You will only have to pay the amount over and above the 2% of your holiday cost, up to a maximum of 10%. Added to this will be an administration charge of £1 per person together with an amount to cover agents’ commission. If there is an increase of more than 10% of the holiday cost, you will have the option of accepting a change to another holiday, if we are able to offer one, or cancelling and receiving a full refund of all monies paid excluding any amendment charges. Should you decide to cancel for this reason, you must exercise your right to do so within 14 days from the issue date printed on your final invoice. Should the price of your holiday go down due to the changes mentioned above, by more than 2% of your holiday cost, then any refund due will be paid to you. However, please note that travel arrangements are not always purchased in local currency and some apparent changes have no impact on the price of your travel due to contractual and other protection in place. Some governments are known to unilaterally increase the rate of Goods and Service Tax with very little notice. In the event that this should occur after your booking has been made but prior to departure, we reserve the right to levy this charge against you.
5 CANCELLATION (BY YOU)
Should you choose to cancel your booking then intimation by you or your travel agent must be made to us in writing and the cancellation will be effective from the date of receipt. The cancellation charges are as follows:
No. of days before departure
that notification is received
by us Amount payable
- More than 56 days deposit + insurance premiums
- 55 to 43 days 50% + insurance premiums
- 42 to 22 days 70% + insurance premiums
- 21 to 14 days 90% + insurance premiums
- 13 to 0 days 100%
We regret that no refund can be made until all travel documentation has been returned to us. Note: If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges. Silversea cancellation charges differ to the above and will be shown on your confirmation.
6 CANCELLATION (BY US)
We reserve the right in any circumstances to cancel your travel arrangements. However we will not cancel your travel arrangements less than eight weeks before your departure date, except for reasons of force majeure (see below) or failure by you to pay the final balance. If we are unable to provide the booked travel arrangements, you can either have a refund of all monies paid or accept an offer of alternative travel arrangements of comparable standard from us. If it is necessary to cancel your travel arrangements, compensation will be payable in accordance with the table contained in clause 8 below, except where the cancellation is caused by circumstances amounting to force majeure (see below).
7 AMENDMENTS (BY YOU)
If after a confirmation number has been issued you choose to amend your booking at any time we will endeavour to be of assistance but amendments will not always be possible. A request to amend must be made in writing by the person who signed the booking form or your travel agent. If we are able to accept the change, an amendment fee of £35 per passenger, per change plus any further cost we incur in making this alteration will be charged and payable at time of change. You should be aware that these costs could increase the closer to the departure date that changes are made and you should contact us as soon as possible. Certain travel arrangements may not be changeable after a reservation has been made and any alteration request could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100% of that part of the arrangements. Major amendments such as changing the dates of travel or number of passengers travelling may be treated as a cancellation and re-booking or may involve a re-calculation of the holiday cost.
8 AMENDMENTS (BY US)
As arrangements are made many months in advance, we have to reserve the right to make changes to brochure and holiday details both before and after you have booked your holiday. Any such changes are likely to be minor and we will advise you or your travel agent at the earliest possible moment. The change may be deemed to be a major one: eg. A change to a lower class of accommodation than that booked or a departure time alteration of more than twelve hours. In this event you will have three options: (a) accept the changes as notified (b) purchase another If Only… holiday (c) cancel your holiday and receive a full refund of monies paid. In the event of (a), (b), or (c) above, except where change arises due to reason of force majeure, we will pay compensation per paying passenger as follows:
No. of days before departure that notification is given to your compensation per travel agent paying passenger
- More than 56 days nil
- 43 to 56 days £10
- 29 to 42 days £20
- 15 to 28 days £30
- 0 to 14 days £35
9 INSURANCE
It is a condition of booking your holiday that you take out suitable insurance cover at the time of making your reservation and details of your insurance are stated on the If Only… Booking Form. Your insurance must include cover for cancellation or curtailment of your holiday as well as the cost of repatriation in the event of accident or illness. It is your responsibility to arrange suitable and adequate travel insurance.
10 SCHEDULED AIRLINES
Air transportation is by scheduled services. We reserve the right to substitute alternative airlines or aircraft types. Such alterations do not constitute a significant change to your holiday arrangements and you will not therefore be entitled to cancel or change to another holiday, as a result. In the event of a delay to your flight, your airline is obliged, under the EU Regulations on Denied Boarding, Cancellation and Delay, to offer you appropriate refreshments. Further assistance may be available from your insurance policy. Compensation is not due from us in the event of delay caused by circumstances beyond anyone’s control such as strikes, weather and unavoidable breakdown. In accordance with EU Regulation 2111/2005 we are required to advise you of the actual carrier operating your flights. We do this by listing the carriers used by us. This brochure is not issued on behalf of, and does not commit the airlines mentioned herein or any airline whose services are used in the course of your travel arrangements. Please note that in accordance with Air Navigation Orders in order to qualify for infant status, a child must be under 2 years of age on the date of its return flight.
11 BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE
Baggage allowance will be shown on your flight tickets and if this is exceeded the airline may levy excess baggage charges.
12 FORCE MAJEURE
Except where otherwise expressly stated in these booking conditions we will not be liable or pay you compensation if our contractual obligations (or prompt performance of our contractual obligations) to you are affected by any event which we or the supplier(s) of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. These events can include, but are not limited to war, threat of war, civil strife, terrorist activity and its consequences or the threat of such activity, riot, the act of any government or other national or local authority including port or river authorities, industrial dispute, lock closure, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, chemical or biological disaster and adverse weather, sea, ice and river conditions and all similar events outside our or the supplier(s) control. Advice from the Foreign Office to avoid or leave a particular country may constitute Force Majeure. We will follow the advice given by the Foreign Office. For the avoidance of doubt, in the event of any travel delays, either prior to your flight departure or otherwise, If Only… will not be held responsible for any extra costs you may have incurred, e.g. hotel bills, meals, refreshments, telephone bills, etc. This is irrespective of whether the problems causing the delay were foreseen or unforeseen. Also, no credit or refund can be given for any unused services. (e.g. transfers, hotel accommodation, excursions) which may have been included in the holiday price, or any lost, mislaid or destroyed travel documents.
13 YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
Any passports, visas, health certificates, International Driving Licences, entry requirements and other travel documents required for your holiday must be obtained by you, whose responsibility it remains to ensure that these are all in order and to meet any additional costs incurred (whether by you or by us on your behalf) as a result of failure to comply with such requirements. You are responsible to arrive at stated departure times and places and any loss or damage which you suffer through failure to do so lies with you. We have no liability whatsoever to you through your failure to do so. The Foreign & Commonwealth Advice Unit may have issued information about your holiday destination. You are advised to check this information on the Internet under the address http://www.fco.gov.uk/. All guests staying with us are expected to conduct themselves in an orderly and acceptable manner and not to disrupt the enjoyment of other guests. We reserve the right at our absolute discretion to terminate without notice and liability the holiday arrangements of any person whose behaviour is such that it is likely, in our opinion, or that of any accommodation owner or manager, airline pilot, or other person in authority, to cause distress, danger, damage or annoyance to other customers, employees, property or to any third party. If any person or persons are prevented from travelling because in the opinion of any person in authority they appear unfit to travel, or are likely to cause discomfort or disturbance to the customers or passengers, our responsibility for the holiday will cease. In all cases full cancellation charges apply and we will be under no obligation whatsoever for any costs incurred. We cannot be held responsible for the actions or behaviour of any other guests or individuals who have no connection with your booking arrangements with us.
14 COMPLAINTS AND ARBITRATION
At If Only… we will do everything possible to ensure that you have an enjoyable and trouble-free holiday. However, as you will appreciate, there are certain aspects of your holiday which are not within our direct control. In the unlikely event that you have a problem or complaint during your holiday, then please bring it to the attention of the relevant person e.g. airline, representative or hotelier, in order that it may be remedied at the time. Should you not receive satisfaction then please contact our office which is open Monday to Saturday 9.00am – 5.00pm. Should the problem not be resolved, then please bring it to our attention upon your return. Any such complaint must be received by us in writing within 28 days of your return home. If you fail to follow these simple procedures we will have been deprived of the opportunity to investigate and rectify your complaint whilst you were at the destination and this may affect your rights under this contract.
It is unlikely that you will have a complaint that cannot be settled amicably between us. However, disputes arising out of, or in connection with the contract, which cannot be resolved, may (if you wish) be referred to Arbitration under a special scheme arranged by ABTA and administered independently by CEDR Solve. The scheme provides for a simple and inexpensive method of arbitration on documents, with restricted liability on you in respect of cost. The scheme does not apply to claims for an amount greater than £5,000 per person or £25,000 per booking. Nor does it apply to claims which are solely or mainly in respect of physical injury or illness or the consequences of such injury or illness. Where a claim includes in part a claim for personal injury or illness a limit of £1,500 per person applies to this part of the claim. If you elect to seek redress under this scheme, written notice of the request for Arbitration must be received by ABTA within eighteen months after your scheduled date of return. Full details of the scheme are available from ABTA at 30 Park Street, London SE1 9EQ or www.abta.com.
15 OUR RESPONSIBILITIES AND LIABILITY TO YOU
(1) Subject to these booking conditions, your holiday arrangements will be made using reasonable skill and care. If any part of your travel arrangements is not provided as promised, and we have not been able to provide an alternative of a comparable standard, we will pay you appropriate compensation if this has affected the enjoyment of your travel arrangements. As long as they were acting within the course of their employment or carrying out work we had asked them to do, we will be responsible if our employees or agents fail to make your holiday arrangements using reasonable skill and care. It is your responsibility to show that reasonable skill and care has not been used, in the event of making a claim against us. If we, or our employees or agents fail to make your holiday arrangements using reasonable skill and care, taking into account all relevant factors (e.g. following the complaints procedure as described in these conditions and the extent to which the our acts or omissions (or those of our employees or agents) affected the overall enjoyment of your holiday), we will pay you reasonable compensation.
Our liability, except in cases involving death, injury or illness, shall be limited to a maximum of twice the cost of your travel arrangements.
(2) We will not be responsible or pay you any compensation for any injury, illness, death, loss, damage, expense, cost or other claim of any description which results from:
a) the act(s) and/or omission(s) of the person(s) affected;
b) the act(s) and /or omission(s) of any third party not connected with the provision of the services contracted for and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable; or
c) unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised; or
d) an event which either ourselves, our employees, agents, suppliers or subcontractors could not, even with all due care, have foreseen or forestalled.
(3) The services and facilities included in your holiday will be deemed to be provided with reasonable skill and care if they comply with any local regulations which apply, or, if there are no applicable regulations, if they are reasonable when compared to the local standards in practice. The fact that services of facilities fail to comply with local or UK guidance or advice shall not of itself mean that that the services or facilities in question have not been provided with reasonable skill and care.
(4) Our liability will also be limited in accordance with and/or in an identical manner to:
a) Loss of and/or damage to any luggage or personal possessions and money. The maximum amount we will have to pay you in respect of these claims is £25 per person in total because you are assumed to have adequate insurance in place to cover any losses of this kind.
b) The contractual terms of the companies that provides the transportation for your travel arrangements. These terms are incorporated into this contract.
c) Any relevant international convention e.g. The Montreal Convention in respect of travel by air, the Athens Convention in respect of travel by sea, the Berne Convention in respect of travel by rail and the Paris Convention in respect of the provision of accommodation, which limit the amount of compensation that you can claim for death, injury, delay to passengers and loss, damage and delay to luggage.
We are to be regarded as having all benefit of any limitation of compensation contained in these or any conventions. You can obtain copies of the Conventions and the transport conditions of carriage from us.
This liability clause does not apply to any separate contracts that you may enter into for excursions or activities in resort. Excursions, activities and hazardous pursuits that you may choose to book or pay for whilst you are on holiday are not part of your package holiday provided by us. For any excursion or other tour that you book, your contract will be with the operator of the excursion or tour and not with If Only…. We are not responsible for the provision of the excursion or tour, nor for anything that happens during the course of its provision by the operator.
16 FINANCIAL SECURITY
Your holiday contract is with If Only Holidays Limited, a company registered in Scotland (no.268032). The air holidays and flights in this brochure are ATOL protected, since we hold an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence granted by the Civil Aviation Authority no. 4269. In the unlikely event of our insolvency, the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking. The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 require us to provide security for the monies that you pay for the package holidays booked from our brochure and for your repatriation in the event of our insolvency. For further information, please visit the ATOL website at www.caa.co.uk. If you book arrangements other than a package holiday from this brochure, the financial protection referred to above does not apply.
17 ABTA
We are a member of ABTA, membership number W3086. We are obliged to maintain a high standard of service to you by ABTA’s Code of Conduct. We can also offer you an arbitration scheme for the resolution of disputes arising out of, or in connection with this contract. Further information on the Code and arbitration can be found at www.abta.com
18 DATA PROTECTION STATEMENT
Please be assured that we have measures in place to protect any personal booking information that you have given us. This information will be passed on to the principal and to the relevant suppliers of your travel arrangements. The information may also be provided to public authorities such as customs or immigration if required by them, or as required by law. Certain information may also be passed on to security or credit checking companies. Please note that if you travel outside of the European Economic Area, controls on data protection may not be as strong as the legal requirements in the United Kingdom. Any sensitive information such as details of any disabilities or dietary/religious requirements will only be passed on to persons or companies responsible for your travel arrangements. If we are unable to pass this information to relevant suppliers, whether in the EEA or not, we will not be able to implement your booking request. In making this booking, you consent to this information being passed on to the relevant persons. Full details of the data protection policy are available on request.
19 BROCHURE ACCURACY
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this brochure is accurate. However, as you will appreciate, we have to contend with: (a) conditions outwith our control; (b) The fact that the brochure has been compiled many months before the departure date; (c) the possibility of human error.
20 HOTEL IMAGES
Due to ongoing renovations some hotels or their surroundings may have changed, sometimes quite dramatically since the latest update of this brochure. For the most part the images featured are those provided by the hotels and tourist boards. Please note that they need not necessarily truly reflect the current appearance of the hotel and its surroundings as further developments may have taken place since the images were produced.
21 GROUP BOOKINGS
Different booking conditions and prices may apply for Group reservations. Please contact us for relevant details. The above information is believed to be accurate at the time of publication (September 2011)
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