Booking Conditions
YOUR CONTRACT is with R T Furlong & D Furlong, a partnership trading as Furlongs Travel, a member of ABTA.
1. Your Holiday Contract - When you make a booking you guarantee that you have the authority to accept and do accept on behalf of your party the terms of these booking conditions. A contract will exist as soon as we issue our confirmation invoice. This contract is made on the terms of these booking conditions, which are governed by English Law, and the jurisdiction of the English Courts. You may however, choose the law and jurisdiction of Scotland or Northern Island if you wish to do so. If you had not seen these terms and conditions when you made your booking and you are not happy to proceed with the booking now that you have seen them please return all documentation to us within 10 days of our confirmation date. Your booking will be cancelled and your monies will be returned in full, provided you have not commenced your travel. This clause does not apply if your booking was made within 10 weeks of travel.
2. Your Financial Protection - 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 this brochure and for your repatriation in the event of our insolvency if you are abroad. All the flights and flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. When you pay you will be supplied with a Booking Confirmation and an ATOL Certificate. Please check to ensure that everything you booked is listed on these documents. 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. For further information visit the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk/ATOLCertificate. The price of our air holiday packages includes the amount of £2.50 per person as part of the ATOL Protection Contribution (APC) we pay to the CAA. This charge is included in our advertised prices. For any holidays excluding a flight we provide security by way of a bond held by the Association of British Travel Agents under our ABTA membership, number V0086. For more details visit www.abta.com.
3. ABTA - We are a member of ABTA, membership number V0086. 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. The arbitration scheme is arranged by ABTA and administered independently by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. It provides for a simple and inexpensive method of arbitration on documents alone with restricted liability on you in respect of costs. Full details will be provided on request or can be obtained from the ABTA website. The Scheme does not apply to claims for an amount greater than £5,000 per person. There is also a limit of £25,000 per booking form. Neither does it apply to claims which are solely in respect of physical injury or illness or their consequences. The Scheme can however deal with compensation claims which include an element of minor injury or illness subject to a limit of £1,000 on the amount the arbitrator can award per person in respect of this element. The application for arbitration and Statement of Claim must be received by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators within nine months of the date of return from the holiday. Outside this time limit arbitration under the Scheme may still be available if the company agrees, but the ABTA Code does not require such agreement. For injury and illness claims, you may like to use the ABTA / Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Mediation Procedure. This is a voluntary scheme and requires us to agree for mediation to go ahead. The aim is to help you resolve your dispute in a quick and cost effective way. Details on request or from www.abta.com.
4. Your Holiday Price - (a) We reserve the right to alter the prices of any of the holidays shown in our brochures. You will be advised of the current price of the holiday that you wish to book before your contract is confirmed. (b) When you make your booking you must pay the deposits shown in the applicable brochure. The balance of the price of your travel arrangements must be paid at least 90 days before your departure date. If the deposits and/or balance are not paid in time, we may cancel your travel arrangements. If the balance is not paid in time we shall retain your deposits. The price of your travel arrangements was calculated using exchange rates quoted in the Financial Times Markets Data on 6th August 2012 in relation to the Euro, USA dollar, Namibian dollar, and Norwegian Kroner. (c) Changes in exchange rates, the cost of fuel, dues, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as landing taxes or embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports and airports mean that the price of your travel arrangements may change after you have booked. However there will be no change within 30 days of your departure. We will also absorb and you will not be charged for any increase equivalent to 2% of the price of your travel arrangements, which excludes any amendment charges. You will be charged for the amount over and above that. If this means that you have to pay an increase of more than 10% of the price of your travel arrangements, you will have the option of accepting a change to another holiday if we are able to offer one (if this is of equivalent or higher quality you will not have to pay more but if it is of lower quality you will be refunded the difference in price), or cancelling and receiving a full refund of all monies paid, except for 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.
5. If You Change Your Booking - If, after our confirmation invoice has been issued, you wish to change your travel arrangements in any way, we will do our utmost to make these changes but it may not always be possible. Any request for changes to be made must be in writing from the person who made the booking. You will be asked to pay any further cost we incur in making this alteration and 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. Note: 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.
6. If You Cancel Your Holiday - You, or any member of your party, may cancel your travel arrangements at any time. Written notification from the person who made the booking on your behalf must be received at our offices. Since we incur costs in cancelling your travel arrangements, you will have to pay the applicable cancellation charges up to the maximum shown in clause 7. Note: If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges.
7. If We Change or Cancel Your Holiday - It is unlikely that we will have to make any changes to your travel arrangements, but we do plan the arrangements many months in advance. Occasionally, we may have to make changes and we reserve the right to do so at any time. Most of these changes will be minor and we will advise you of them at the earliest possible date. We also reserve the right in any circumstances to cancel your travel arrangements. For example, if the minimum number of clients required for a particular travel arrangement is not reached, we may have to cancel it. However, we will not cancel your travel arrangements less than 10 weeks before your departure date, except for reasons of force majeure 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 available (we will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value). If it is necessary to cancel your travel arrangements, we will pay to you compensation as set out in this clause. In accordance with EU regulations we are required to advise you of the actual carrier operating your flight/connecting flight/transfer. We do this by listing carriers to be used or likely to be used as follows: Galápagos: Iberia/ LAN/Aerogal. Northern Lights: BA/BMI. Antarctica: BA/LAN. Peru: Iberia/BA/LAN. Any changes to the actual airline after you have received your tickets will be notified to you as soon as possible and in all cases at check-in or at the boarding gate. Such a change is deemed to be a minor change. Other examples of minor changes include alteration of your outward/return flights by less than 12 hours, changes to aircraft type, change of accommodation to another of the same standard. If we make a major change to your holiday, we will inform you as soon as reasonably possible if there is time before your departure. You will have the choice of either accepting the change of arrangements, accepting an offer of alternative travel arrangements of comparable standard from us if available (we will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value), or cancelling your booked holiday and receiving a full refund of all monies paid. In all cases, except where the major change arises due to reasons of force majeure, we will pay compensation as detailed below:
IF WE MAKE A MAJOR CHANGE: Amount of compensation paid to you depends on how far in advance of departure we notify you:-
- More than 90 days: No compensation.
- 90 to 61 days: £10.00.
- 60 to 31 days: £20.00.
- 30 to 0 days: £40.00.
IF WE CANCEL YOUR HOLIDAY: Amount of compensation paid to you depends on how far in advance of departure we notify you:-
- More than 90 days: Amount you have paid.
- 90 to 61 days: Amount you have paid + £10.00.
- 60 to 31 days: Amount you have paid + £20.00.
- 30 to 0 days: Amount you have paid + £40.00.
IF YOU CANCEL YOUR HOLIDAY: The amount of cancellation charge depends on how far in advance of departure you notify us:-
- More than 90 days: You lose deposit only.
- 90 to 61 days: 50% of the holiday costs.
- 60 to 31 days: 75% of the holiday costs.
- 30 to 0 days: 100% of the holiday costs.
The compensation that we offer does not exclude you from claiming more if you are entitled to do so. Force Majeure: This means that we will not pay you compensation if we have to cancel or change your travel arrangements in any way because of unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control. These can include, for example, war, riot, industrial dispute, terrorist activity and consequences, natural/nuclear disaster, fire, adverse weather conditions. NB: Please note, in the event our tour is cancelled, curtailed or amended, whatever the cause, we are regretfully not able to compensate you for any expenses that you have incurred independently in addition to our invoiced tour cost, for instance travel insurance premiums, additional accommodations, connecting flights, and other travel costs.
8. If You Have A Complaint - If you have a problem during your holiday, please inform the relevant supplier (e.g. your hotelier) and our resort representative immediately who will endeavour to put things right. If your complaint is not resolved locally, please follow this up within 28 days of your return home by writing to Richard Furlong at Furlongs Travel, PO Box 44, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 4TQ, giving your booking reference and all other relevant information. Please keep your letter concise and to the point. This will assist us to quickly identify your concerns and speed up our response to you. It is strongly recommended that you communicate any complaint to the supplier of the services in question as well as to our representative without delay and complete a report form whilst in resort. If you fail to follow this simple procedure we will have been deprived of the opportunity to investigate and rectify your complaint whilst you were in resort and this may affect your rights under this contract.
9. Our Liability to You - If the contract we have with you is not performed or is improperly performed by us or our suppliers we will pay you appropriate compensation if this has affected the enjoyment of your travel arrangements. However we will not be liable where any failure in the performance of the contract is due to: you; or a third party unconnected with the provision of the travel arrangements and where the failure is unforeseeable or unavoidable; or unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised; or an event which we or our suppliers, even with all due care, could not foresee or forestall. Our liability, except in cases involving death, injury or illness, shall be limited to a maximum of two times the cost of your travel arrangements. Our liability will also be limited in accordance with and/or in an identical manner to (a) The contractual terms of the companies that provide the transportation for your travel arrangements. These terms are incorporated into this contract; and (b) Any relevant international convention, for example 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 ask for copies of the transport companies' contractual terms, or the international conventions, from our office. Under EU law you have rights in some circumstances to refunds and/or compensation from your airline in cases of denied boarding, cancellation or delay to flights. Full details of these rights will be publicised at EU airports and will also be available from airlines. However reimbursement in such cases will not automatically entitle you to a refund of your holiday cost from us. Your right to a refund and/or compensation from us is set out in clause 6 and 7. If any payments to you are due from us, any payment made to you by the airline will be deducted from this amount. If your airline does not comply with these rules you should complain to the Air Transport Users' Council on 020 7240 6061 or via www.auc.org.uk.
10. Personal Injury Unconnected With Your Booked Travel Arrangements - If you, or any member of your party, suffer death, illness or injury whilst overseas arising out of an activity which does not form part of your package travel arrangements or an excursion arranged through us, we shall at our discretion, offer advice, guidance and assistance. Where legal action is contemplated and you want our assistance, you must obtain our written consent prior to commencement of proceedings. Our consent will be given subject to you undertaking to assign any costs, benefits received under any relevant insurance policy to ourselves. We limit the cost of our assistance to you or any member of your party to £5,000.
11. Passport, Visa and Immigration Requirements - Your specific passport and visa requirements, and other immigration requirements are your responsibility and you should confirm these with the relevant Embassies and/or Consulates. We do not accept any responsibility if you cannot travel because you have not complied with any passport, visa or immigration requirements.
12. We reserve the right at our absolute discretion to terminate without notice the holiday arrangements of any customer whose behaviour is such that it does or is likely, in our opinion, or the opinion of any airline pilot, accommodation owner or manager, their servants or agents or any other person in authority, to cause distress, damage, danger or annoyance to any of our other customers, employees or to any other person or to cause damage to property. In these circumstances, all our obligations to you under this contract cease forthwith, full cancellation charges apply and we shall not be liable for any refund, compensation or costs incurred by you whatsoever. These rules also apply if you are prevented from travelling because in the opinion of any person in authority you appear to be unfit for travel or likely to cause discomfort or disturbance to other passengers.
