Booking Conditions 2007 – 2008 Season

YOUR CONTRACT IS WITH HIGHDAYS HOLIDAYS LTD, a member of ABTA (MEMBERSHIP NO V8942).

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. You may however, choose the law and jurisdiction of Scotland or Northern Ireland if you wish to do so.
[If you had not seen these terms and conditions when you made your booking and you are not happy to proceed with the booking now that you have seen them please return all documentation to us or to your travel agent, within 7 days of receiving these booking conditions. Your booking will be cancelled and your monies will be returned in full, provided you have not commenced your travel. This clause does not apply if your booking was made within 8 weeks of travel.]

2.Your Financial Protection
We are a member of ABTA, No V8942, (Holding ATOL No 5739 issued by the Civil Aviation Authority), which provides for your protection in the event of our insolvency.

3. Your Holiday Price
When you make your booking you must pay deposits according to the schedule below:
COACH TRAVEL - £75.00 per paying person (or departures where you arrange your own travel),
FLIGHT TRAVEL - £150.00 per paying person for flight inclusive departures.
RAIL TRAVEL - £150.00 per paying person for rail travel inclusive departures.
The balance of the price of your travel arrangements must be paid at least eight weeks before your departure date. If the deposits and/or balance is / are not paid in time, we reserve the right to cancel your travel arrangements and retain your deposit. Where we do not cancel your travel arrangements, we may – at our discretion – revise the balance due date and agree a new deadline with you. Any monies you pay to a travel agent are held by the agent on your behalf until we issue our confirmation invoice. After this the travel agent holds the monies on our behalf.
The price of your travel arrangements is fully guaranteed and will not be subject to any surcharges

4. 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 may be asked to pay an administration charge of £ 30.00, as well as any further costs 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.

5. 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 or your travel agent on your behalf 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 clause 6.
Note: If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges.

6. 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 or your travel agent 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 8 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.
Please note that carriers such as airlines used in the brochure 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.
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 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:

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.

7. If You Have A Complaint
If you have a problem during your holiday, please inform the relevant supplier (e.g. your hotelier) and our resort representative immediately 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 Highdays Holidays Ltd, Fireclay House, Netham Road, Bristol. BS5 9PJ 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 suggested that you communicate any complaint to the supplier of the services in question as well as to our 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.

8. 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 for 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).
The Scheme does not apply to claims for an amount greater than £5,000 per person. There is also a limit of £25,000 per booking form. Neither does it apply to claims which are solely in respect of physical injury or illness 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.
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 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.

9.Our Liability to You
(i) We accept responsibility for ensuring that your travel arrangements, which you book with us, are supplied as described in this brochure. If any part of your travel arrangements are not provided as promised, due to the fault of our employees, agents or suppliers we will pay you appropriate compensation if this has affected the enjoyment of your travel arrangements. Subject to paragraphs (ii) and (iii) below our liability in all cases shall be limited to a maximum of 200% of the costs of your travel arrangements.
(ii) We accept responsibility for death, injury or illness caused by the negligent acts and/or omissions of our employees or agents, our suppliers and sub-contractors, whilst acting within the scope of, or in the course of their employment in the provision of your travel arrangements. We will accordingly pay to you such damages as might have been awarded in such circumstances under English Law or the law you have chosen under clause 1 above and subject to clause (iii) below.
(iii) The amount of compensation to which you are entitled will be limited by
(a) The contractual terms of the companies that provide the transportation for your travel arrangements. These terms are incorporated into this contract; and
(b) 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 or loss of or damage to luggage. We are to be regarded as having all benefit of any limitation of compensation contained in these conventions.
You can ask for copies of the transport companies' contractual terms, or the international conventions, from our offices at Highdays Holidays Ltd, Fireclay House, Netham Road, Bristol. BS5 9PJ. Tel 0117 955 1814.
     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 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 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

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 provision of the services, or as a result of failures due to unusual or 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 compliedwith any passport, visa or other immigration requirements.

12  Excursions.  Excursions or other tours that you may choose independently to book or pay for whilst you are on holiday are not part of your holiday contract with us. For any excursion or other tour that you book independently, 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. 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 us. We limit the cost of our assistance to you or any member of your party to £5,000.

14. Insurance.  It is a condition of booking that all travellers have adequate specialist insurance (winter sports insurance where relevant). Cover should be at least equal to the policy described in this brochure. You may purchase our policy or you may provide your own. If you provide your own, we require you to complete and return to us an insurance indemnity form which you can obtain from us on request. This is also available on our website. There is a section on our "Insurance" page specifically to assist you with this requirement. In the absence of the insurance indemnity form, we will add the cost of our own insurance policy back on to the cost of your holiday. This condition is in-line with ABTA policy guidelines.

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