TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Your contract is with Richard and Dawn Furlong trading as Furlongs Travel, a member of ABTA.

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 or you confirm your booking over the internet. 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 Ireland 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 or to your travel agent, within 10 days of the date of our confirmation invoice. 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.

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 our brochure or website and for your repatriation in the event of our insolvency. For air inclusive packages we provide this security with the Civil Aviation Authority under ATOL number 3710. For packages excluding flights we provide this security with ABTA under membership number V0086. If you book arrangements other than a package holiday from this website or our brochure, your monies are protected by way of a bond held with ABTA.

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/heretohelp.shtml

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

YOUR HOLIDAY PRICE

We reserve the right to alter the prices of any of the holidays shown in our brochure. You will be advised of the current price of the holiday that you wish to book before your contract is confirmed. When you make your booking you must pay the deposit per person as indicated on the booking form. The balance of the price of your travel arrangements must be paid at least 90 days before your departure date. If the deposit and/or balance is not paid in time, we may cancel your travel arrangements. If the balance is not paid in time we shall retain your deposit. All monies you pay to a travel agent are held by them on your behalf until we issue our confirmation invoice. After this the travel agent holds the monies on our behalf.

The price of your travel arrangements was calculated using exchange rates quoted in the "Financial Times Guide to World Currencies" on 23rd October 2007 in relation to the following currencies: Euro, Canadian Dollar, Norwegian Krone and USA Dollar. Changes in transportation costs, including the cost of fuel, dues, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as landing taxes or embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports and airports and exchange rates 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 absorb and you will not be charged for any increase equivalent to 2% of the price of your travel arrangements, which excludes insurance premiums and any amendment charges. You will be charged for the amount over and above that, plus an administration charge of £1.00 per person together with an amount to cover agents' commission. 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, or cancelling and receiving a full refund of all monies paid, except for any amendment charges. We will consider an appropriate refund of insurance premiums paid if you can show that you are unable to transfer or reuse your policy. 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.

IF YOU CHANGE YOUR BOOKING

If, after our confirmation invoice has been issued, you wish to change your travel arrangements in any way, for example your chosen departure date or accommodation, 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 or your travel agent. You may be asked to pay an administration charge of £10, and any further cost we incur in making this alteration. 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. NB: Certain travel arrangements (e.g. Advance Purchase Travel Tickets) 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.

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 or your travel agent 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 6. NB: If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges. If one person participating in a twin or triple share arrangement should cancel and no alternative share can be found, whether arrange by us of by yourselves, the remaining participants would then be required to pay the relevant single supplement or forfeit the triple reduction.

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 or your travel agent of them at the earliest possible date. Routings and itineraries can be affected by bad weather, road closures or other reasons and may be varied accordingly. Cruise lines may make alterations to itineraries at any time over which we have no control. We shall endeavour to advise you of these changes as soon as we are aware of them. 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 holiday is not reached, we may have to cancel it. However, we will not cancel your travel arrangements less than 56 days 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 or superior standard from us if available at no extra cost to you. Alternatively, if you choose to accept a holiday of lower quality, we will refund you the difference in cost. If it is necessary to cancel your travel arrangements, we will pay to you compensation as set out in the table below. The compensation that we offer does not exclude you from claiming more if you are entitled to do so. Please note that carriers such as airlines may be subject to change. 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, closing of hotel facilities for improvement or emptying a swimming pool for cleaning if alternative facilities are available nearby. If we make a major change to your holiday, we will inform you or your travel agent 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 or superior standard from us if available or cancelling your booked holiday and receiving a full refund of all monies paid plus compensation. 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 to your holiday the amount of compensation paid to you depends on how far in advance of departure we notify you:-
More than 70 days before departure, you will receive from us £0.
70 to 61 days before departure, you will receive from us £15.
60 to 31 days before departure, you will receive from us £25.
30 to 0 days before departure, you will receive from us £35.

If we cancel your holiday the amount of compensation paid to you depends on how far in advance of departure we notify you:-
More than 70 days before departure, you will receive from us your deposit only.
70 to 61 days before departure, you will receive from us the costs you have paid plus £15
60 to 31 days before departure, you will receive from us the costs you have paid plus £25
30 to 0 days before departure, you will receive from us the costs you have paid plus £35

If you cancel your holiday the amount of cancellation charge depends on how far in advance of departure you notify us:-
More than 70 days before departure, you will forfeit your deposit only.
70 to 61 days before departure, you will forfeit 50% of your holiday cost.
60 to 31 days before departure, you will forfeit 75% of your holiday cost.
30 to 0 days before departure, you will forfeit 100% of your holiday cost.

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 the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised which includes war, threat of war, riot, civil strife, terrorist activity, industrial disputes, natural or nuclear disasters, fire, adverse weather conditions, epidemics, health risks, technical problems with transport, closed or congested airports.

IF YOU HAVE A COMPLAINT

If you have a problem or cause for dissatisfaction during your holiday, please inform the relevant supplier, for example the hotel, the cruise line, the transportation company AND our tour manager. This allows us the opportunity to put things right on the spot. If you remain dissatisfied you must contact our UK duty office on + 44 1580 242100 in order that we are allowed the opportunity to find a reasonable solution. It is therefore a condition of this contract that you communicate any problem to the supplier of the services in questions AND to our tour manager WHILST IN RESORT and you must confirm your complaint in writing to the persons set out above. If your complaint cannot be 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. 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.

WHAT HAPPENS TO COMPLAINTS

Disputes arising out of, or in connection with, this contract which cannot be amicably settled may be referred to arbitration, if the customer so wishes, under a special Scheme arranged by the Association of British Travel Agents, and administered independently by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. The scheme provides for a simple and inexpensive method of arbitration on documents alone with restricted liability on the customer in respect of costs. Full details will be provided on request or can be obtained from the ABTA website (www.abta.com). 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 your tour operator 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.

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 twice 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, Furlongs Travel, PO Box 44, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 4TQ. Telephone 01580 240240. 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 is the responsibility of the airline and 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. 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 www.auc.org.uk

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.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

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. You must be responsible for ensuring that any existing medical conditions or disabilities which may require assistance are declared to us before you book your holiday or, if newly diagnosed, before the date of departure. We can only accept your booking upon the clear understanding that we cannot be liable if you do not inform us of such a condition and an airline refuses to accept you or any member as a passenger. You must be responsible for the behaviour of yourself and your party. We reserve reasonable discretion to refuse your booking or to remove you or a member of your party from any tour or holiday. If your demeanour or behaviour, or that of a member of your party, is disruptive, dangerous of annoying to other people. No refund or payment of any costs incurred by you will be made by us under these circumstances.

INSURANCE

You must be suitably insured either through us or with another insurer offering at least equivalent cover before we will accept your booking. Should you while on holiday choose to take part in any activity (e.g. hot air ballooning, white-water rafting, etc.) which can be deemed as being of a hazardous nature, it is essential to ensure that cover is provided under the terms of your travel insurance. The organisers of some adventure activities that you may choose to take part in whilst on holiday may request you to sign a waiver of their liability for risks involved. By signing such a document you may well lose any rights to claim for damages in respect of death, injury, or loss of or damage to property even if negligence on the part of the activity organiser is proven to have occurred.

TRAVEL DELAYS

In the event you are delayed at the outward or homeward point of departure, we will do our best to arrange meals plus accommodation on overnight delays.

HEALTH

For details of health advice for travellers please refer to www.doh.gov.uk/traveladvice

FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH OFFICE TRAVEL ADVICE

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office produces up-to-date travel information to help British travellers make informed decisions about travelling abroad. For further information please visit www.fco.gov.uk/knowbeforeyougo or telephone 0870 606 0290. Alternatively you can contact ABTA's Travel Information Line on 0901 201 5050 (calls are charged at 50 pence per minute).

DATA PROTECTION STATEMENT

Please be assured that we have measures in place to protect the personal booking information held by 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. If you travel outside the European Economic Area, controls on data protection may not be as strong as the legal requirements in this country. We will only pass your information on to persons responsible for your travel arrangements. This applies to any sensitive information that you give to us such as details of any disabilities, or dietary/religious requirements. (If we cannot pass this information to the relevant suppliers, whether in the EEA or not, we will be unable to provide your booking. In making this booking, you consent to this information being passed on to the relevant persons).

BROCHURE RESPONSIBILITY

This brochure is our responsibility, as your tour operator. It 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.

FURLONGS TRAVEL

Postal address: PO Box 44, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 4TQ. Full address: Lowden Barn, Lowden Farm, Maytham Road, Rolvenden Layne, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 4PX. Telephone 01580 240240.
Facsimile 01580 240244.
www.furlongs.travel
mail@furlongs.travel

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