Booking conditions

Your contract is with Petchey (Management & Finance) Ltd:T/A Petchey Travel Shop, a member of ABTA & ATOL.

1.  Your holiday contract

Your contract is with Petchey Travel Shop, the “Company”. When you book through an agent and only part of your arrangements are booked through Petchey Travel Shop, your contract might be with the supplier concerned. All agents are duty bound to inform you with whom you have contracted - please do not forget to ask. A contract will exist when we have accepted a deposit and issued our confirmation invoice.

2. Booking confirmation & your responsibility

As the majority of bookings are made over the phone, there is a possibility that either the booking agent or you could misinterpret what was said. Consequently we will send confirmation directly to you, by post, fax or email. The confirmation will contain the names of the passengers that MUST be correctly spelt and identical to the names shown in the passport (including the initial or first name), the dates and time of travel, departure and arrival cities and other relevant information. As a condition of your contract, you are required to carefully check your written confirmation to ensure that it is correct and exactly matches what you have booked. If it is not, you are required to contact us within 24 hours of receiving your confirmation to inform us of any inaccuracy. If you do not follow this procedure you have deprived us the opportunity of taking prompt corrective action and any consequential loss shall be your sole responsibility and not Petchey Travel Shop’s.

3. Deposit & payment

A non-refundable deposit of £100 per person or up to 25% of the full balance is required at the time of booking. Full payment must be received at least 8 weeks before departure. If the balance is not paid in time, we reserve the right to cancel the booking and retain the deposit. All reservations made less than 8 weeks prior to departure, require full payment at the time of booking.

4. Prices and surcharges

Whilst we make every effort to avoid amending prices, we reserve the right to do so at any time. Once a deposit has been paid the price of your travel arrangements are subject to surcharges on transportation costs such as fuel, scheduled airfares and any other airline surcharges, plus any UK or foreign government action such as increases in VAT or other government imposed increases. 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.

5. 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 will be asked to pay an administration charge of £40 or £50 per change, 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 (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.

6. Changes made by the company

With the exception of “force majeure” the company may need to amend certain details of your arrangements, which we reserve the right to do at any time. Minor changes, if they occur, may not necessarily be advised and will not qualify for compensation. In the case of a major change we will inform you as soon as possible, if there is time before your departure. A major change is one that we make to your arrangements before departure such as changing your departure airport (except between e.g. Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) dependent upon particular circumstances, or a difference of more than 12 hours in departure times, or a change in your resort area or an offer of a lower classification. In these cases you have the choice of:

a) Accepting the changed arrangements as notified to you

b) Purchasing another available arrangement from the company

c) Cancelling your arrangements and receiving a refund.

In such circumstances, we will pay you compensation on the following scale:

1) 21 days or more - deposit paid

2) 21-0 days a sum equal to the total amount paid to the company

Once a change has been confirmed and accepted by you, no further claims for compensation or additional expenses will be allowed. In no case will we pay compensation or accept any liability if the change is due to force majeure.

7. Cancellations made by you

Notice of cancellation must be made in writing directly to the company. The cancellation charge is dependent on the following factors. If the travel service that you have booked is through a third party supplier, their standard terms and conditions will apply. Since we incur costs in cancelling your travel arrangements, you will have to pay the applicable cancellation charges plus a £50 administration charge from us. The final cancellation charge will also take into consideration the notice period given. Please note that any booking cancelled within 42 days of the departure date will strictly be non refundable. All Transfers are booked on a non-refundable basis. In some circumstances it may be possible to claim on your travel insurance. We will advise you at our discretion if this is possible.

8. Cancellations made by the company due to force majeure

Occasionally the company is forced to cancel travel arrangements for reasons of force majeure which for contracted clarity is defined as “Unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which we could not avoid even the exercise of all due care, including (by way of example only) war or threat of war, riots, civil strife, industrial dispute, terrorist activity, natural or nuclear disaster, fire or adverse weather conditions, computer reservation system malfunction or airline rescheduling.”

In all cases of force majeure the company’s liability shall be limited to:

a) Providing a refund or a credit note (decided by the company)

b) Supplying an alternative equivalent holiday

In no circumstances will any compensation be payable where the company has had to cancel travel arrangements due to “force majeure”. 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.

9. Flight (when applicable)

a) Details of the relevant aircraft operator and destination will be given to you before your booking is confirmed. Please note however, that it is sometimes necessary to change the airline, air type, routing (e.g. from direct nonstop to indirect with stops) after you book and if this happens, you will not be entitled to cancel without penalty nor will compensation be paid.

b) Delays sometimes occur. Refreshments or meals may be provided when appropriate. We will not do these ourselves as such arrangements will normally be the responsibility of the airline. If you have taken out our recommended holiday insurance or a comparable policy you should have cover against delays.

10. Website accuracy and special offers

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of description, information and prices, however it is possible that an advertised facility may be withdrawn or changed.

11. Complaints procedure

If you have a problem during your holiday, please inform the relevant supplier (e.g. your hotelier) 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 our Customer Services Department at Exchange House, 13-14 Clements Court, Clements Lane, Ilford, Essex, IG1 2QY 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 without delay and complete a report form whilst in the 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.

12. 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 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

13. Our liability to you

If the contract we have with you is not performed or is improperly performed by us or our suppliers, depending on the circumstance we may offer 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 shall be limited to a maximum of 2 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/accommodation/holiday service 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 offices: Exchange House, 13-14 Clements Court, Clements Lane, Ilford, Essex. IGI 2QY. Telephone Number 0208 252 8000.

Under EU law you have rights in some circumstances to refunds and/or compensation from your airline in cases of 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. 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

14. 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 and 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.

15. 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.

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. Please note that in accordance with Air Navigation Orders in order to qualify for infant status, a child must be less than 2 years of age on the date of its return flight.

16. Financial protection

The company holds an ATOL Licence No. 6879 issued by the civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and is an ABTA member number J9676 for your financial protection in the unlikely event that Petchey Travel Shop became insolvent.

Please note that these terms and conditions replace any previous conditions dates printed before July 2006.