Escorted Tours 2020 & 2021 - 2nd Edition - Mercury Holidays

claim, you are committing a criminal offence which may result in a criminal record and/or fine. In addition to committing an offence in Ireland, it is also illegal to pursue a fraudulent claim in many countries overseas. As such, you may find that you are faced with criminal charges in more than one jurisdiction. Should there be a reasonable belief that your claim is not genuine, it may be the case that the accommodation provider will commence legal proceedings against you. In which case, we reserve the right to assist the accommodation provider in said proceedings. It may also be the case that, should you be found to have made a false or exaggerated claim of sickness, we will forward our own concerns to the relevant authorities and may commence legal proceedings against you. Should you have legitimately suffered an illness as a result of your stay with one of our suppliers, we encourage you to follow the complaints procedure above so that we may assist you as soon as practicable. 11. ABTA We are a Member of ABTA, membership number V0211. We are obliged to maintain a high standard of service to you by ABTA’s Code of Conduct. We can also offer you ABTA’s arbitration scheme (which is approved by the Chartered Trading Standards) for the resolution of disputes arising out of this contract. If we can’t resolve your complaint, go to www.abta.com to use ABTA’s simple procedure. Further information on the Code and ABTA’s assistance in resolving disputes can be found on www.abta.com . You can access the European Commission Online Dispute (ODR) Resolution platform at http:// ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. 12. Insolvency Protection The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 require us to provide security for the monies that you pay for the package holidays booked from this brochure and for your repatriation in the event of our insolvency. We provide this security by way of a bond held by the Civil Aviation Authority of CAA House, 45-59 Kingsway, London WC2B 6TE, claims@caa.co.uk under ATOL number 1631. When you buy an ATOL protected flight or flight inclusive holiday from us you will receive an ATOL Certificate from us (or via our authorised agent through which you booked). This lists what is financially protected, where you can get in-formation on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong. For further information, visit the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk . 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 (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). If we, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suit-able alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme. You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against us, the travel agent (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims may be re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme. The price of our flight inclusive arrangements includes the amount of £2.50 per person as part of the ATOL Protection Contribution (APC) we pay to the CAA. This charge is included in our advertised prices. Not all holiday or travel services offered and sold by us will be protected by the ATOL Scheme. ATOL protection extends primarily to customers who book and pay in the United Kingdom. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking. We provide financial security for holidays not including flights by way of a bond held with ABTA of 30 Park Street, London, SE1 9EQ, No. V0211. If your pack-age holiday does not include flights, ABTA will financially protect your holiday in the same way. If you book arrangements other than a package holiday from this brochure, the financial protection referred to above does not apply so your monies will not be financially protected. Please ask us for further details. A package holiday is defined as more than one of the following when they are booked and paid for at an inclusive price: flights, accommodation plus any other tourist services that are not ancillary to transport or accommodation. 13. Website and Brochure Disclaimer Information posted on our website and detailed in our brochure is published in good faith and is updated regularly. However, we cannot guarantee the completeness and accuracy of this information. Please see our full Booking Conditions for further information. 14. Guest Behaviour If in our opinion or in the opinion of any hotel manager or any other person in authority, your behaviour or that of any member of your party is causing or is likely to cause distress, danger or annoyance to any of our other guests or any third party or damage to property, or to cause a delay or diversion to transportation, we reserve the right to terminate your booking arrangements with us immediately. 15. Special Requests and Medical Problems If you wish to make a special request, you must advise us in writing at the time of booking e.g. diet, room location, a particular facility at a hotel etc. We cannot guarantee that requests will be met and failure to meet any special request will not be a breach of contract on our part unless the request has been specifically confirmed. We do not accept bookings that are conditional upon any special request being met. We are not a specialist disabled holiday company, but we will do our utmost to cater for any special requirements you may have. If you or any member of your party has any medical problem or disability which may affect your chosen tour arrangements give us full details in writing before you make the booking so that we can try to advise you as to the suitability of your chosen arrangements. Please note: If special arrangements need to be made for you an extra charge may be levied, this may include transfers. We cannot be held responsible if you fail to tell us about special needs/requirements that will affect your holiday experience. Please see our full Booking Conditions. 16. Jurisdiction and applicable law These Booking Conditions and any agreement to which they apply are governed in all respects by English law. We both agree that any dispute, claim or other matter which arises between us out of or in connection with your contract or booking will be dealt with by the Courts of England and Wales only. You may however, choose the law and jurisdiction of Scotland or Northern Ireland if you live in those places and if you wish to do so. 17. Cutting your holiday short If you are forced to return home early, we cannot refund the cost of any travel arrangements you have not used. If you cut short your holiday and return home early in circumstances where you have no reasonable cause for complaint about the standard of accommodation and services provided, we will not offer you any refund for that part of your holiday not completed, or be liable for any associated costs you may incur. Depending on the circumstances, your travel insurance may offer cover for curtailment and we suggest that any claim is made directly with them. 18. Locally Booked Excursions/Activities Whilst you are on your tour you may be offered the opportunity to buy optional excursions and activities. These are provided by independent local companies, which are neither owned nor controlled by Mercury Holidays, and for whom Mercury Holidays acts only as an agent. If you decide to buy an excursion or activity, your contract will be made with the local company which provides it and it will not form part of your package with Mercury Holidays. The contract may be subject to the excursion/activity provider’s terms and conditions, some of which may exclude or limit its liability to you, and will be governed by local law and jurisdiction. Mercury Holidays accepts no liability for any breach of contract or negligent act or omission of any excursion/activity provider. See our full Booking Conditions. 19. Passport, visa and health requirements We can give you general information about passport, visa and health requirements for the holiday you book. However it is your responsibility to check and fulfil the passport, visa, health and immigration requirements applicable to your itinerary. Requirements may change and you must check the up to date position in good time before departure. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are in possession of all necessary travel and health documents before departure. Most countries now require passports to be valid for at least 6 months after your return date. If your passport is in its final year, you should check with the Embassy of the country you are visiting. Please contact the passport office for full details on 0870 5210410 or visit https://www.gov.uk/browse/citizenship/passports. Special conditions apply for travel to the USA, you will need to obtain an ESTA visa for entry into the USA. All UK passport holders must have individual Bio-metric ePassports. Important note: if you do not have a Bio- metric ePassport, you will be refused entry into the USA. Please check https://.uk.usembassy.gov. For European holidays you should obtain a completed and issued form EHIC prior to departure. Up to date travel advice can be obtained from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, visit www.gov.uk/travelaware. Non British passport holders, including other EU nationals, should obtain up to date advice on passport and visa requirements from the Embassy, High Commission or Consulate of your destination or country(ies) through which you are travelling. We do not accept any responsibility if you cannot travel, or incur any other loss because you have not complied with any passport, visa, immigration requirements or health formalities. You agree to reimburse us in relation to any fines or other losses which we incur as a result of your failure to comply with any passport, visa, immigration requirements or health formalities. The cost of a visa will be confirmed on application. It is your responsibility to check any health and vaccination requirements applicable to your booked arrangements. We can only provide general information about this. Health and hygiene facilities and disease risks vary from country to country. You should take health advice about your own needs as early as possible and in good time before your departure. Sources of information include; www.fco.gov.uk, www.travelhealthpro.org.uk, www.hpa.org.uk , your General Practitioner or a specialist clinic. 20. Low Holiday Deposit Offers From time to time we may make offers available where you can take advantage of a lower initial deposit payment (‘Low Holiday Deposit’). Where this is the case, the following terms will apply: i. The Low Holiday Deposit offer will be available from £99 per person but will only apply to selected package holidays and hotel only bookings, including escorted tours, river cruise and fly drive holidays that are booked more than 10 weeks prior to the departure date. ii. The Low Holiday Deposit offer does not apply to and will not be offered for flight only bookings. iii. Where you make a booking that takes advantage of the Low Holiday Deposit, you may be required to pay a further deposit of £200 per person, no later than 28 days from the date your booking was made. iv. Please Note: If the balance due date applicable to your booking (normally 10 weeks prior to departure) falls within the 28 day period mentioned above, then the full balance for your booking will still fall due on the normal balance due date and not at the end of the 28 day period. v. The amount of the Low Holiday Deposit required at the time of booking plus details of any further deposit and the value of the final balance, together with the applicable payment due dates will be detailed to you on the payment page or advised to you by your agent before you confirm your booking. vi. Where you make a booking under a Low Holiday Deposit offer, all of the standard booking and cancellation terms set out on this page will apply to your booking, as normal. vii. All deposits (including both the initial Low Holiday Deposit and the further deposits you are required to pay, where applicable) are non- refundable and therefore would not be reimbursed should you decide to cancel your booking. If you wish to cancel your booking, you may also be required to pay any additional cancellation charges imposed by the applicable supplier and our administration charges, please see section 4 for further details. viii. If you would like to make changes or add extras to your booking, you will be required to pay the additional associated charges (i.e. amendment charges) when the amendments are applied. ix. Please note that any Low Holiday Deposit offers that we promoted are subject to availability and are offered entirely at our discretion. 21. Escorted Tours Where you book an Escorted Tour with us, the following terms apply in addition to our general Booking Conditions: Changes and Cancellations by Mercury Holidays If we have to cancel or make a significant change to your arrangements, we will give you the following choices: a) accepting the changed arrangements as notified to you; b) purchasing another tour from us, of a similar or higher standard to that originally booked if available (at no extra cost); c) purchasing another tour from us, of a lower standard to that originally booked if available (with a refund in respect of any price difference) or d) cancelling your booking or accepting the cancellation & receiving a full & prompt refund of all monies paid to us. A significant change is a change made before departure which, on the basis of the information given to us by you at the time of making your booking, we can reasonably expect will have a major effect on your holiday. The following changes are examples of significant changes: • A reduction in the number of nights of your tour • A change of outward departure time or overall length of your arrangements of 12 or more hours. • A change from a day flight to night flight (providing time of departure is changed by more than 8 hours for short haul and 12 hours for long haul). A night flight which is changed to depart after or before midnight is not a change of date. • A change of UK departure airport, as long as that change is not from one London airport to another London airport. London airports are Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City. You must notify us of your choice within 7 days of our offer. If you fail to do so we will assume that you have chosen to accept the alternative booking arrangements. If we make a significant change or cancellation less than 70 days before departure, we will also pay compensation as detailed in our Booking Conditions. Please note that the above options and/or compensation (including any reimbursement of independent travel arrangements) shall not be payable in the following circumstances: • where the change we make is a ‘minor change’; • in the event that we are forced to make a change or cancel as a result of Force Majeure (as defined in clause 8); • where we cancel as a result of your failure to make full payment on time; • where the change(s) or cancellation by us arises out of alterations to the confirmed booking requested by you; • we cancel your arrangements because the minimum number of participants to run the tour has not been reached. (We will tell you if we have to cancel for this reason not less than 28 days before departure). Flights: If you or any member of your party misses your flight or other transport arrangement, it is cancelled or you are subject to a delay of over 3 hours for any reason, you must contact the airline or other transport supplier concerned immediately who may be able to assist with the provision of refreshments, depending on availability of suitable facilities at the airport. If your flight is delayed due to reasons of force majeure we regret that neither we nor the airline will be liable to provide meals, refreshments or overnight accommodation. You should ensure that your own travel insurance policy provides a reasonable level of cover for such eventualities. Under EU Law (EC261/2004), you have rights in some circumstances to refunds and/or compensation from the airline in cases of denied boarding, cancellation or delay to flights. You should approach the airline concerned not Mercury Holidays, as these regulations apply to the airline not the tour operator. Reimbursement in such cases is the responsibility of the airline and will not automatically entitle you to a refund of your holiday price from us. A delay or cancellation to your flight does not automatically entitle you to cancel any other arrangements even where those arrangements have been made in conjunction with your flight. We will not offer compensation for inconvenience or loss of holiday time caused by flight delays, flight diversions or curtailment regardless of how caused. Similarly it is not possible to obtain refunds for any unused accommodation or facilities or for losses, costs and expenses of other travel/accommodation arrangements outside of the package resulting from flight changes, delays or diversions, which should be claimed on your own insurance policy. Please note that flight details given at time of booking may be subject to change. We aim to make this as accurate as possible from the start. We will monitor all changes which affect your departure by a considerable time or significantly affects the tour itinerary. Final timings will be sent approximately 10 days before you travel. Standard information for travellers when booking a Package Holiday for telephone and offline sales Part 1: General The combination of travel services offered to you is a package within the meaning of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018. Therefore you will benefit from all EU rights applying to the packages. We, Sunspot Tours Ltd trading as Mercury Holidays with company number 1470134 and registered office St John’s House, Suffolk Way, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 1YL, will be fully responsible for the proper performance of the package as a whole. Additionally, as required by law, we have protection in place to refund your payments and, where transport is included in the package, to ensure your repatriation in the event that it becomes/they become insolvent. PART 2: Key rights under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 • Travellers will receive all essential information about the package before concluding the package travel contract. • There is always at least one trader who is liable for the proper performance of all the travel services included in the contract. • Travellers are given an emergency telephone number or details of a contact point where they can get in touch with the organiser or the travel agent. • Travellers may transfer the package to another person, on reasonable notice and possibly subject to additional costs. • The price of the package may only be increased if specific costs rise (for instance fuel prices), and if expressly provided for in the contract, and in any event not later than 20 days before the start of the package. If the price increase exceeds 8% of the price of the package, the traveller may terminate the contract. If the organiser reserves the right to a price increase, the traveller has a right to a price reduction if there is a decrease in the relevant costs. • Travellers may terminate the contract without paying any termination fee and get a full refund of any payments if any of the essential elements of the package, other than the price, has changed significantly. If before the start of the package the trader responsible for the package cancels the package, travellers are entitled to a refund and compensation where appropriate. • Travellers may terminate the contract without paying any termination fee before the start of the package in the event of exceptional circumstances, for instance if there are serious security problems at the destination which are likely to affect the package. • Additionally, travellers may at any time before the start of the package terminate the contract in return for an appropriate and justifiable termination fee. • If, after the start of the package, significant elements of the package cannot be provided as agreed, suitable alternative arrangements will have to be offered to the traveller at no extra cost. Travellers may terminate the contract without paying any termination fee, where services are not performed in accordance with the contract and this substantially affects the performance of the package and the organiser fails to remedy the problem. • Travellers are also entitled to a price reduction or compensation for damages or both where the travel services are not performed or are improperly performed. • The organiser has to provide assistance if the traveller is in difficulty. • If the organiser or the retailer becomes insolvent, payments will be refunded. If the organiser becomes insolvent after the start of the package and if transport is included in the package, repatriation of the travellers is secured. Sunspot Tours Ltd has taken out insolvency protection with Civil Aviation Authority of CAA House, 45-59 Kingsway, London WC2B 6TE under ATOL number 1631 for flight inclusive packages, and ABTA of 30 Park Street, London, SE1 9EQ, Membership No. V0211 for non-flight packages. Travellers may contact either the CAA (where the package includes a flight) or ABTA (if it does not include a flight) if services are denied because of Sunspot Tours Ltd’s insolvency. Part 3: The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/634/contents/made For a large print copy of our Booking Conditions please call 0800 781 4893. This brochure was published in July 2020. Sunspot Tours Ltd trading as Mercury Holidays Reg No. 1470134. Registered office: St John’s House, Suffolk Way, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 1YL. The air holidays and flights in this brochure are ATOL Protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. Our ATOL number is ATOL 1631. Our ABTA number is VO211. Book with confidence, we are members of ABTA and ATOL 123