Terms & Conditions

TERMS & CONDITIONS
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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 £200 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 100%
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