Macs Adventure Ltd Booking Conditions

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 Scottish Law, and the jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts. You may however, choose the law and jurisdiction of England 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 10 weeks of travel.

2.  YOUR FINANCIAL PROTECTION: The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 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 an insurance policy with IGI Insurance. If you book arrangements other than a package holiday from this brochure, your monies are protected by way of an insurance policy with IGI Insurance.

In order to provide clients with peace of mind Macs Adventure Ltd has effected a policy with IGI Insurance Company Ltd through travel insurance specialists Milsom Howard Limited to ensure that all passengers booking with Macs Adventure Ltd are fully protected for the initial deposit and subsequently the balance of all monies paid to Macs Adventure Ltd, arising from cancellation or curtailment of your travel arrangements due to the insolvency of Macs Adventure Limited. A certificate detailing this cover will be given to each passenger as evidence of cover. Please ensure that you have been given the appropriate certificate(s) at the time of booking. This Insurance has been arranged under the Failsafe Package Travel Regulations Scheme which is underwritten by IGI Insurance Company Ltd who is a member of the Association of British Insurers. IGI Insurance Company Ltd and Milsom Howard Limited are Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

3.  ABTA: We are a Member of ABTA, membership number Y2210. We are obliged to maintain a high standard of service to you by 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. Further information on the Code and arbitration can be found on ABTA’s website www.abta.com. The arbitration scheme is arranged by ABTA and administered independently by IDRS, part of 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. Full details will be provided on request or can be obtained from the ABTA website. 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 IDRS 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. Details on request or from www.abta.com.

4.  YOUR HOLIDAY PRICE

(a)  We reserve the right to alter the prices of any of the holidays shown in our brochure or website. You will be advised of the current price of the holiday that you wish to book before your contract is confirmed.

(b)  When you make your booking you must pay a deposit of 20% of the holiday cost per person. The balance of the price of your travel arrangements must be paid at least 6 weeks before your departure date. If the deposit and/or balance is not paid in time, we shall cancel your travel arrangements. If the balance is not paid in time we shall 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 travel arrangements was calculated using exchange rates quoted in the Financial Times Guide to World Currencies on 12 Apr 2010 in relation to the following currencies: Euros, Swiss Francs & US Dollars.

(c)   The price of your travel arrangements is fully guaranteed and will not be subject to any surcharges.

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 up to £35 per person per element, 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. A change of holiday dates will normally be treated as a cancellation of the original booking. Should a member of your party be prevented from travelling you may transfer the booking to another person(s), provided it is not less than14 days prior to departure and you pay an amendment fee of £35, as well as any additional costs we may incur. Note: Certain travel arrangements (e.g. Hotel or Transportation Bookings) 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.  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 7. Note: If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges.

7.  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 six 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 Regulation 2111/2005 we are required to advise you of the actual carrier operating your flight/connecting flight/transfer. We do this by listing carriers to be used or likely to be used in your pre-departure information pack. 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 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:

The compensation that we offer does not exclude you from claiming more if you are entitled to do so. Force Majeure:  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, epidemics and pandemics, unavoidable technical problems with transport.

8.  IF YOU HAVE A COMPLAINT: If you have a problem during your holiday, please inform the relevant supplier (e.g. your hotelier), our local representative or the Macs Adventure office or Out of Hours manager 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 Macs Adventure Holidays, Unit 24a, 1103 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8ND 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 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. If your complaint is not resolved by Macs Adventure you may refer the complaint to the AITO Independent Dispute Settlement Service, which is an independent and low cost service. Full details are available from us or Aito. The maximum sum which a Mediator may award under this arrangement is limited to £2,500.00 per individual, but subject to a maximum sum of £10,000.00 for any one booking.   This service is not considered suitable for claims which are solely or mainly in respect of physical injury or illness or the consequences thereof. Alternatively, we are members of ABTA and you may make use of the dispute resolution scheme mentioned in clause 3.

9.  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 two 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 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 (Unit 24a, 1103 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8ND). 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 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

10.   PROMPT ASSISTANCE DURING YOUR HOLIDAY: 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 the provision of the services, or as a result of failures due to 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, 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 complied with any passport, visa or immigration requirements.

12.   INSURANCE: We strongly recommend that you have suitable travel insurance to cover yourself for cancellation, curtailment, injury or illness during your holiday with Macs Adventure. It is a condition of travel for certain holidays that you have taken out suitable travel insurance.

13.   SUITABILITY & BEHAVIOUR: All our holidays, tours and courses are graded and it is your responsibility to ensure that you are physically fit, adequately experienced and suitably equipped to compete the holiday. If you have and medical conditions, allergies or special dietary requirements you must inform us and your leader (where appropriate). We will endeavour to pass on any dietary or special requests to our suppliers but cannot guarantee that they will be able to meet your request. Your booking is accepted on the basis that you understand and accept the inherent risks involved in adventure or activity travel and that you undertake the treks, tours and activities of your own free will. If you decide that you are unable to continue the holiday you will be responsible for making your own alternative arrangements at your own expense. If in our reasonable opinion your behavious is likely to cause injury, upset or distress to third party or damage to property we are entitled to terminate the holiday or the person(s) concerned, without prior notice and they will be responsible for making alternative arrangements and no refunds will be given.

14.   EXCURSIONS: Excursions or other tours that you may choose to book or pay for whilst you are on holiday are not part of your package holiday provided by us. For any excursion or other tour that you book, 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.

15.   WEBSITE, BROCHURE & ADVERTISING ACCURACY: We make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the advertising, brochure and website information and prices at the time of printing, regrettably errors do occasionally occur. You must therefore ensure you check the price and all other details of your chosen arrangements with us at the time of booking. The information and prices shown on our website and in our brochures may have changed by the time you come to book your Arrangements.

ISSUE DATE: April 2010