TERMS & CONDITIONS
YOUR HOLIDAY CONTRACT
The contract is between The Freedom Travel Group
Limited a member of ABTA and the Client being
any person travelling or intending to travel on
a a tour operated by the Company. The contract,
including all matters arising from it, is
subject to English law and the exclusive
jurisdiction of the English Courts. You may
however choose the law and jurisdiction of
Scotland and Northern Ireland if you wish to do
so. No variation of these terms will be valid
unless confirmed in writing by us. A contract
will exist as soon as we issue our confirmation
invoice.
YOUR FINANCIAL PROTECTION
The Freedom Travel Group Limited are established
travel agents and our air holidays and flights
are ATOL protected, since we hold an Air Travel
Organiser's Licence granted by the Civil
Aviation Authority. Our ATOL number is ATOL
6042. 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
OUR PRICE POLICY
The price of your holiday will be confirmed at
the time of making the booking. When you make
your booking you must pay a minimum deposit of
£130 per person (excluding infants under two
years of age at the date of return). Should your
booking include scheduled flights, cruises or
other special arrangements the deposit required
may vary up to the full ticket price. You will
be advised of the required amount at the time
booking. The balance of the price of your travel
arrangements must be paid at least 12 weeks
before your departure date. Balance due dates
may vary where scheduled flights are included
and where ticketing deadlines are unexpectedly
brought forward this may result in a request for
earlier payment. If the deposit and/or balance
are not paid on time, we reserve the right to
cancel your travel arrangements and retain your
deposit. All monies you pay to the travel agent
are held by him on our behalf at all times.
The price of your holiday may change after you
have booked due to 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. 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 (excluding name
changes)
If, after our confirmation invoice has been
issued, you wish to change your holiday in any
way, for example your chosen date or
accommodation, we will do our utmost to make
these changes but it may not always be possible.
Any request for changes must be made in writing
from the person who made the booking or your
travel agent. We will charge for any additional
services facilities, or other items changed, at
the price, which applies on the day the change
is made. In addition we will also charge an
administration fee of £25 per person. You should
be aware that these costs could increase the
closer to departure date that changes are made
and you should contact us as soon as possible.
Please note certain travel arrangements (e.g.
apex 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.
NAME CHANGES BEFORE TRAVEL
Except for holidays including scheduled flights
if we receive notification of a change within 8
weeks of departure the charge will be £40 per
name change. Any changes outside of 8 weeks will
incur a charge of £30 per name change. For
holidays including scheduled flights, please
note that some scheduled airlines do not permit
name changes for any reason. Such charges are
likely to include the full costs of the flight
and may be subject to space being available for
a new reservation.
IF YOU CANCEL YOUR BOOKING
You, or any member of your party, may cancel
your booking at any time. Written notification
from the person who made the booking 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 the table below:
Period before departure within which written
cancellation is received by The Freedom Travel
Group Limited. Amount of cancellation charges
shown as a percentage of the booking price.*
| More than 84 days |
Deposit |
| 57-84 days |
30% or deposit if greater |
| 29-56 days |
50% |
| 22-28 days |
75% |
| 8 - 21 days of departure |
90% |
| 7 Days or less |
100% |
Note:
if the reason for cancellation is covered under
the terms of an insurance policy, you may be
able to reclaim these charges. The full
insurance premium is retained in the event of
cancellation
* Bookings that include Scheduled Flights and/or
cruise may incur different cancellation charges.
Please enquire at the time of booking.
IF WE CHANGE OR CANCEL YOUR BOOKING
It is unlikely that we will have to make any
changes to your travel arrangements, as we do
plan the arrangements many months in advance.
Occasionally we have to make changes and we
reserve the right to do so at any time. Most of
these changes are 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 12
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
the table below.
Please note that carriers such as Airlines used
may be subject to change. Such 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.
When a major change occurs, we will inform you
as soon as reasonably possible, if there is time
before 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:
Period before departure within which a major
change or cancellation is notified to you or
your travel agent.
Credit/compensation per full fare paying
passengers (excluding infants).*
| More than 84 days |
Nil |
| 43-84 days |
£10 |
| 29-42 days |
£20 |
| 8-28 days |
£30 |
| 0-7 days |
£40 |
*For
children invoiced at reduced rates,
credit/compensation will be paid on a pro rota
basis of the adult rate.
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 its consequences, natural or
nuclear disaster, fire, adverse weather
conditions.
IF YOU HAVE A COMPLAINT
If you have a problem during your holiday it is
of the utmost importance that you immediately
bring it to the attention of the relevant person
(for example the resort representative) who will
do their best to put things right. If your
complaint is not resolved locally, you should
contact us on 0800 983 9000 to advise us of the
problem so that we may endeavour to resolve it.
However, should a problem remain unresolved, a
complaint should be made in writing within 28
days of your return home to: Customer Relations
Department, The Freedom Travel Group Limited ,
Hamil Road, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 1AJ.
Please give your booking reference and all
relevant information keeping 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 our resort 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.
WHAT HAPPENS TO COMPLAINTS
We aim to resolve all complaints amicably, but
if this is not possible your complaint can be
considered under a scheme arranged by the
Association of British Travel Agents and
administered by the Chartered Institute of
Arbitrators. Full details will be provided on
request or obtained from the ABTA website
www.abta.com
The scheme does not apply to claims over £25,000
in total or more than £5,000 per person, or to
claims mainly about illness or physical injury
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.
To take advantage of the scheme the Chartered
Institute of Arbitrators must receive your
application for arbitration and Statement of
Claim within 9 months of returning from your
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 an 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 an 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 3 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 in to
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 offices: The
Freedom Travel Group Limited , Hamil Road,
Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 1AJ
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
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 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.
PASSPORT, VISA, IMMIGRATION AND VACCINATION
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 or if
you are not in possession of the relevant
vaccination certificates.
These booking conditions are our responsibility,
as your tour operator. They are not issued on
behalf of and do not commit 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.
FLIGHT CARRIER
In accordance with EU regulations we are
required to advise you of the actual carrier
operating your flight/connecting
flight/transfer. 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