Package Holiday

PACKAGE HOLIDAY BOOKING CONDITIONS

Your contract is with TRAVELPLANNERS, a trading name of USAIRTOURS HOLIDAYS (UK) LTD, a Member of ABTA and ATOL Holder
 
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.
 
2.     Your financial protection
We provide full financial protection for our package holidays.
a)         We, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL Certificate, will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate (or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where neither we nor the supplier are able to do so for reasons of insolvency, an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought or a suitable alternative (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder. However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable).Many of the flights and flight-inclusive holidays in both this brochure and our website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. But ATOL protection does not apply to all holiday and travel services listed in this brochure or our website. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking. If you do not receive an ATOL Certificate then the booking will not be ATOL protected. If you do receive an ATOL Certificate but all the parts of your trip are not listed on it, those parts will not be ATOL protected. Please see our booking conditions for information, or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: www.atol.org.uk/ATOLCertificate
 
b)         When you buy a package holiday that doesn’t include a flight, protection is provided by way of a bond held by ABTA.
 
3.     ABTA
We are a Member of ABTA, membership number Y1468 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 this contract. The scheme is arranged by ABTA and administered independently. It is a simple and inexpensive method of arbitration on documents alone with restricted liability on you for costs. The upper limit on claims is £5,000 per person and £25,000 per booking form. The scheme doesn’t apply to claims which are solely in respect of physical injury or illness or their consequences. It can however deal with claims which include an element of minor injury or illness subject to a limit of £1,500 on the amount the arbitrator can award per person in respect of this element. Your request for arbitration must be received by ABTA within eighteen months of the date of return from holiday. For injury and illness claims, you can request the ABTA Mediation Procedure and we have the option to agree to mediation. Further information on the Code and ABTA’s assistance in resolving disputes can be found on www.abta.com.
 
4.     Your Holiday Price
a)         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.
 
b)         When you make your booking, you must pay a deposit of at least £150 per person unless you are booking a Special Offer or Promotion when full payment may be required immediately which will advise at the time of booking. The balance of the price of your travel arrangements must be paid in cleared funds to your Travel Agent at least 15 weeks before your departure date. Occasionally an airline will impose a requirement that obligates us to issue air tickets early and specifically in those circumstances you will be required to pay your balance within 7 days of our written notification. If the deposit and/or balance is not paid in time, we shall cancel your travel arrangements and we shall retain your deposit. The price of your travel arrangements was calculated using exchange rates quoted in the Financial Times Guide to World Currencies on 1st April 2016 in relation to the following currencies: US Dollars and Canadian Dollars
 
c)         The price we have charged you for your travel package holiday booked with us will not be increased unless it is solely to allow for a price increase which is a direct consequence of changes in the cost fuel or other power sources; the level of taxes or fees on the travel services included in the contract imposed by third parties not directly involved in the performance of the package, including tourist taxes, landing taxes or embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports and airports; and or the exchange rates relevant to the package that may increase the purchase cost by the Company. Before passing on any price increase the company would always absorb an amount equal to 2% of the holiday cost before passing on any surcharge and customers would be informed at least 20 days before the departure date of their package holiday with an explanation. Should the increase exceed 8% of the total package price, the options for the customer will include the right to cancel and receive a full refund. In the event of a price reduction in any of the items referred to, such savings will be passed on to the customer less any reasonable administrative expenses incurred by the company. Please note that the company may purchase foreign currency at pre-agreed rates which may not reflect the currency rate at the time of booking and or the date of package holiday departure.
 
d)         When you buy a flight-based holiday, all monies you pay to the travel agent are held by him on behalf and for the benefit of the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust at all times. This is subject to the agent’s obligation to pay it to us for so long as we do not fail. If we fail, any money held at that time by the agent, or subsequently accepted from you by him, is and continues to be held on behalf of and for the benefit of the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust without any obligation to pay that money to us. When you buy a holiday not including a flight, all monies you pay to the travel agent are held by him on our behalf at all times.
 
e)         The company reserves the right to pass on the cost of processing credit or debit card payments as a separate fee when you pay either the deposit or the balance on all booking contracts created on or before 12th January 2018. Customers do have the option of avoiding this fee if they pay by bank transfer. All customer monies paid to the company are financially protected by either our CAA ATOL license 3085 or ABTA membership Y1468.
 
5.     If You Change Your Booking
If, after our confirmation invoice has been issued, you wish to change our 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 will be asked to pay an administration charge of £50 per person, 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. 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. If you change, amend or fail to take the travel services booked without getting prior acceptance and written confirmation from us, the remainder of your itinerary will be cancelled and you will not be entitled to any refund or compensation. Please note that as your contract is with USAirtours, our terms and conditions take precedent over that of our suppliers with reference to the cost of any amendments or cancellations that you make.
 
6.     If You Cancel Your Holiday
You, or any member of your party, may cancel your travel arrangements at any time. Written notification or the completion of our online cancellation form from the person who made the booking or your travel agent must be received at our offices. As we negotiate the best possible prices with our suppliers on your behalf, the associated terms are usually very restrictive so all our bookings are sold on the basis that will be no refund of any monies paid to us up to the date of cancellation. However wherever possible we will always to our best to either obtain a partial refund or to transfer funds on to a future booking but this cannot be guaranteed.

Note: If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges. You can cancel your booking without paying cancellation charges if the performance of your package, or the carriage of passengers to your destination, is significantly affected by unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances that result in your outbound departure time being delayed by a minimum of twelve hours. In such circumstances, we will arrange for your booking to be terminated and for you to receive a full refund. In all other cases, bookings are made with this Company on the basis that they are non-refundable unless the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office formally advises against all but essential travel to a destination specified on our booking confirmation.

 
7.     If We Change or Cancel Your Holiday
As we plan your holiday arrangements many months in advance we may occasionally have to make changes or cancel your booking and we reserve the right to do so at any time.
 
Changes
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 standard from us if available (we will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value), or cancelling your holiday and receiving a full refund of all monies paid. In some cases, we will also pay compensation (see below). These options don’t apply for minor changes. Examples of minor changes include alteration of your outward/return flights by less than 12 hours, changes to aircraft type, change of departure airport between London Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted or overseas airports providing they are changed to an airport no more than 90 miles or 90 minute drive than the original, change of accommodation to another of the same or higher standard within 30 miles or 30 minutes than the original, changes of airline or routing (including from non-stop to indirect flights) and the cancellation of a theatre or sporting event.
 
Group Bookings
To enable us to quote our customers the most competitive prices, we may book you on to a group departure date where we have negotiated special rates with our airline, hotel and cruise suppliers. If we do not sell the minimum number of flight seats, rooms or cabins required on certain dates, we are obliged to cancel the group. Should this affect your travel arrangements, you will be offered a comparable alternative but if this be considered to be a Major Change, you will also be entitled to cancel the booking and receive either a full refund or compensation as shown in the table below.
 
Cancellation
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 by the balance due date. If we have to cancel your holiday for operational reasons, you may either have a full refund of all monies paid or accept an offer of alternative travel arrangements of comparable standard from us. Unless the reason for the cancellation would be classed as force majeure, you would be entitled to compensation as shown in the table below.
 
Insurance
If we cancel or make a major change and you accept a refund, we will consider an appropriate refund of your travel insurance premiums if you can show that you are unable to transfer or reuse your policy. 
 
Airline Schedule Changes
Can occur at any time after booking confirmation and the flight departure time for airline operational reasons that can include a change of to a smaller aircraft type, repositioning of aircraft or the re-routing of an itinerary to the final destination. Such changes are outside of our control and will be considered as Force Majeure. Consequently, we cannot be held responsible for consequential losses of a schedule change but advise that a suitable travel insurance policy is taken out by the customer to cover such eventualities.
 
Compensation
If we make a major change we will pay compensation as detailed below except where the major change or cancellation arises due to reasons of force majeure. The compensation that we offer does not exclude you from claiming more if you are entitled to do so.

MAJOR CHANGE TO YOUR HOLIDAY

Force Majeure
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, epidemics and pandemics, unavoidable technical problems with transport and or computer systems.
 
8.     If You Have A Complaint
If you have a problem with your holiday and cannot get a prompt resolution from the onsite manager, it is essential that you report this immediately to us directly (and not other third party) by calling our 24 hours Customer Care number on +44 20 8418 8202. You must follow this procedure or you will be depriving us of the opportunity of resolving the matter promptly and this may affect both your rights and claims for compensation under this contract. As your contract is with USAirtours (even if you have booked through a travel agency), please report any complaint directly to us either through our website www.travelplanners.co.uk/customer-relations or by post to the address below. We will always try and resolve complaints to your satisfaction but if that is not possible, we recommend that you take advantage of ABTA’s Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme that is approved by the Trading Standards Institute – see Clause 3. We should advise customers who elect to bypass an ADR scheme that they may have any Application directly to a Court rejected. It is a specific term of this contract that you accept that the point of sale is at the companies address shown below and that any legal dispute is dealt with by the nearest Court to: USAirtours Holidays (UK) Ltd, Trading Address: Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA. USAirtours Holidays (UK) Ltd, Registered Address: Fifth Floor Watson House, 54-60 Baker Street, London United Kingdom W1U 7BU.
 
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 three 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 contractual terms, or the international conventions by writing to Operations Manager, USAirtours Holidays Ltd, Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA. Under EU law (Regulation 261/2004) 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 will be publicised at EU airports and 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 7. If any payments to you are due from us, any payment made to you by the airline will be deducted.

Please note this clause does not apply to any separate contracts that you may enter into for excursions or activities whilst on holiday.
 
10.  Prompt assistance in resort
If the contract we have with you is not performed or is improperly performed as a result of failures attributable to a third party unconnected with the provision of the services, or as a result of failures due to 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, and you suffer an injury or other material loss, we will offer you such prompt assistance as is reasonable in the circumstances.
 
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.  Excursions
Excursions or other tours 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 us. We are not responsible for the provision of the excursion or tour or for anything that happens during the course of its provision by the operator.
 
13.  Your responsibility to check documentation
While we take every care to ensure that all passenger and travel details are booked as requested there may be occasions where a misunderstanding has occurred and consequently we always send a written confirmation immediately after your booking. It is a specific condition of this contract that you agree to carefully check all of the details including but not limited to the passenger titles, the spelling of their names (ensuring they match exactly those names shown in their passport), the travel dates, flight times, hotel names and their address to ensure they are correct and to inform us immediately if there any errors or errors. Failure to inform within one working day may incur fees and cost to correct any amendments for which you accept will be your responsibility to pay. 
 
14.  Additional Supplier Conditions
In addition to our own bookings conditions you are also bound by the conditions of carriage and terms of use issued by product and service suppliers that we contract on your behalf including but not limited to airlines, car rental companies, cruise lines, hotels and tour companies, details of which will be supplied to you on request.

15.  Important Information
We include both useful and specific information relating to your holiday booked with us within our Important Information section in our brochure and on our website www.travelplanners.co.uk/important-information and this should be read in conjunction with these booking conditions. These booking conditions are valid for all new bookings made on or after 7th August 2022 and replace any previous conditions. As we reserve the right to amend these conditions at any time without notice please be sure to check the latest version by visiting www.travelplanners.co.uk/booking-conditions before you book with us.

16.  Telephone Call Recording
Our telephone calls are randomly recorded for training purposes and may be used where available for dispute resolution purposes.