BOOKING CONDITIONS

Please read the following terms and conditions carefully as they give details of the contract between us and may be of future assistance.
Your contract is with Wirral Schools Travel Ltd, a member of ABTA (bonded member V6133) and the School Travel Forum and holder of an ATOL licence (ATOL 9233) and Quality Badge.  The registered office for the company is: Wirral Schools Travel Ltd, 9 Meadway, Lower Heswall, Wirral, ENGLAND, CH60 8PH.

Your Holiday Contract

When you make a booking you must complete a Booking Form, and 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 letter following receipt of the required deposit, (payment of which accepts the following conditions).  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 if you wish to do so.

Your Financial Protection

We provide security for the monies that you pay for the package holidays booked from WST and for your repatriation in the event of our insolvency, as required by the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992. We provide this security by way of a bond held by the Civil Aviation Authority under ATOL number 9233 and an ABTA bond held by Lloyds Bank.
If you book arrangements other than a package holiday from WST, the financial protection referred to above does not apply.

ABTA

As a member of member of ABTA, membership number V6133, we have committed ourselves to maintain a high standard of service to you in line with 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. See www.abta.com. 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.  The Scheme applies to claims less than £5,000 per person or £25,000 per booking form and excludes claims solely in respect of physical injury or illness or their consequences.   It includes compensation claims which include an element of minor injury or illness up to £1,000 on the amount the arbitrator can award per person.  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.

ATOL

The air holidays and flights in our brochure and others arranged by our company are ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority.  Our ATOL number is ATOL 9233.  In the unlikely event of insolvency, the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid us for an advance booking.  www.atol.org.uk

Your Holiday Price

We reserve the right to alter the prices of any of the holidays shown in our brochure or offered by WST.  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 a deposit per person (see chart below).  The balance of the price of your travel arrangements must be paid at least 7 weeks before your departure date.  If the deposit and/or balance is not paid in time, we retain the right to cancel your travel arrangements.  If the balance is not paid in time we retain your deposit.       

	Ist Deposit	2nd Deposit
Total holiday cost per person under £80	£20	nil
Total holiday cost per person £81 - £120	£40	nil
Total holiday cost per person £121 - £200	£40	£40
Total holiday cost per person £201 - £300	£50	£70
Total holiday cost per person over £301	£70	£85
If your package includes flights	£50 - £100 additional per person (depending on airline)	As above

The price of your travel arrangements was calculated using exchange rates quoted in the “Financial Times Guide to World Currencies” on 7 March 2009 in relation to the following currencies: Euros, Dollars, Zlotys.

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.  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 (if this is of equivalent or higher quality you will not have to pay more but if it is of lower quality you will be refunded the difference in price), 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.  You will be asked to pay an administration charge of £20 per amendment, 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

Please note, for tours with air travel, it is the responsibility of the party leader to ensure all names and details are correct and as shown on relevant passports.  These details are often required by airlines at an early stage in the booking process and some airlines may not allow changes in details.

Note:      Certain travel arrangements (e.g. flight tickets, see above) 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 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 below.
Note:  If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges.

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 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 6 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 this clause.

In accordance with EU regulations governing air travel we are required to advise you of the airline operating your flight.

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. 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.

If we make a major change to your holiday, we will inform you 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 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: The compensation that we offer does not exclude you from claiming more if you are entitled to do so.  In case of travel delay, stay with your coach if you have one, and contact the WST office.

	if we make a major change to your holiday	if we cancel your holiday
Period before departure within which notice of Cancellation or major change is received by us or notified to you	Amount you will receive from us	Amount you will receive from us
More than 42 days	£0	Deposit Only
More than 29 days	£5	100% of holiday cost (+£.)
More than 15 days	£7	100% of holiday cost (+£.)
Less than one day	£10	100% of holiday cost (+£.)

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, please inform the relevant supplier (e.g. your hotelier) immediately who will endeavour to put things right.  If your complaint is not resolved locally, you should notify us by ‘phone from the resort, then in writing within 28 days of your return home.

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.

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 offices, 9 Meadway, Lower Heswall, Wirral CH60 8PH, UK.

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 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.

Health Matters

The Party Leader accepts responsibility for sharing any information relating to health requirement to other party members.  The Department of Health leaflet T5 ‘Health Advice for Travellers’ offers health information for all destinations and can be found in UK Post Offices.  We recommend that all party members travelling within the EU have a valid European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), replacing the E111.  This is easily available by calling 0845 606 2030 or online at www.ehic.uk.com.

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.  Information on these matters may be available from the Home Office Identity and Passport Service website, http://www.ips.gov.uk/passport

Personal Property

Your personal property, including baggage, is your own responsibility at all times, unless any loss or damage is due to our negligence or failure to carry out our responsibility.

Data Protection

Information gathered from you will be used to plan your tour and promote the welfare and safety of your party.  It will not be passed for marketing purposes to any third party.  We will regularly inform you of educational visits; you may access your information or remove your details by contacting us.

Marketing

WST may use your written feedback in promotional materials.  If you do not wish to be quoted, please inform a member of staff on written feedback information.   The WST brochure is our responsibility, as your tour operator.   It is not issued on behalf of, and does 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 old on the return flight date. 

Issued: February 2010   HVC