Booking Conditions

These booking conditions were published in March 2010 and apply to all bookings made thereafter.They form the basis of your contract and you should therefore read them carefully. For bookings of packages (please see below) your contract will be with Acromas Holidays Limited , registered address, Enbrook Park, Sandgate, Folkestone, Kent,CT20 3SE. Connections is a trading name of Acromas Holidays Limited. For all other bookings your contract will be with the supplier of the service concerned (e.g. the airline) for whom we act as an agent only.Where your contract is with the supplier of the service(s) concerned,we cannot accept any liability in relation to those services,which rest solely with the supplier concerned.The booking conditions of the supplier(s) concerned will apply to your booking and these will be provided to you. Where we refer to packages we mean a combination of at least two of the following types of services when booked at the same time: (a) Transport (b) Accommodation (c) other tourist services not ancillary to any transport or accommodation and forming a significant part of the arrangements where sold or offered for sale by us at an inclusive price and where the service lasts at least 24 hours or includes overnight accommodation.

1.MAKING YOUR BOOKING
Bookings can be made in person, by phone, letter, fax or email.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. Once your deposit payment has been received by Connections you are deemed to have entered into a booking contract. This contractis made on the terms of these booking conditions, which are governed by English Law and the English Courts will deal with any dispute. If however you have booked your holiday in Scotland or Northern Ireland any disputes may be dealt with by the local courts in Scotland or Northern Ireland and will be subject to the law of those countries.Once you have received your confirmation invoice, it is your responsibility to check that the information and booking details, including the spelling of all passenger names, as stated on your invoice are correct. Should there be any corrections, please notify us within 7 days of receipt of your invoice when no charge will be made for these changes. However, if we are advised of any changes after 7 days, an administration fee of £25 per change will apply. Sometimes we are unable to confirm certain arrangements straight away (e.g. when a hotel is only available on request). In this case, a contract for the services concerned will only come into existence once we have specifically confirmed those services have been booked even if we have issued a receipt in the meantime.

2.YOUR FINANCIAL PROTECTION
Connections is a trading name of Acromas Holidays Limited, which is a member of ABTA with membership numbersY1684 and L5950.ABTA members help holidaymakers to get the most from their travel and assist them when things do not go according to plan.Acromas is obliged to maintain a high standard of service to you by ABTA’s Code of Conduct. For further information about ABTA the Code of Conduct and the arbitration available to you if you have a complaint, contact ABTA, 30 Park Street, London, SE1 9EQ,Tel: 020 3117 0500 or visit ABTA.com.Acromas Holidays Limited also holds an AirTravel Organiser’s Licence issued by the Civil Aviation Authority (ATOL number 0308). Where Acromas acts as the holiday organiser for holidays including air travel ATOL provides protection through the CAA. Holidays not including air travel are protected by ABTA. In the unlikely event of Acromas becoming insolvent you would be refunded any money that you have already paid us. Items not purchased directly through Acromas, such as flights, will not be protected under the Acromas,ABTA or ATOL licenses. Acromas Holidays Limited is also licensed by the Irish Commission for Aviation Regulation (Licence NoT.A.0598) to carry on business in the Republic Of Ireland as a travel agent.

3.OUR GUARANTEE ON PRICE
We guarantee that the price of your holiday will not be subject to any surcharges.This means that you are fully protected, no matter what happens to the price of fuel or variations in the exchange rate for currency. Once a contract exists between us, then the cost of your holiday cannot be increased. Whilst we reserve the right to change prices from time to time, any changes will be confirmed to you before you make your booking. The price of your holiday as shown on your confirmation invoice will not be increased unless you amend your booking.

4. PAYING FOR YOUR HOLIDAY
The lead passenger will be responsible for all payments in respect of the booking.When you make your booking you must pay the deposit amount per person of £175 or 10% of the holiday cost whichever is the greater, or as confirmed by your sales consultant.The balance of the price of your travel arrangements must be paid at least 56 days before your departure date, or as advised at the time of booking and stated on our confirmation invoice. If the deposit and/or balance is not paid in time, we reserve the right to cancel your travel arrangements and retain your deposit. If booking through a travel agent all monies you pay to the travel agent are held by them on your behalf until we issue our confirmation invoice.After this the travel agent holds the monies on our behalf.We accept most major credit and debit cards with the exception of Diners Card and in line with most major operators we make a charge for balances and deposits paid by credit or debit card as this reflects the charges levied on us by card companies. (The charge is currently 2%.Our sales consultant will confirm the rate and amount when taking payment.)

5. PERSONAL INJURY UNCONNECTED WITH YOUR BOOKED TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS
Unless you suffer personal injury or death caused by our negligence we do not accept any liability for any personal injury, death, loss or damage you may suffer from any excursion booked through a third party, or any other arrangements unconnected to your pre booked travel arrangements.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 us. We limit the cost of our assistance to you or to any one booking form to £5,000.

6. IF YOU CHANGE YOUR BOOKING
Once a contract exists between us, you may wish to change your travel arrangements and 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 from the person who made the booking or your travel agent.You will be asked to pay an administration charge of £30 per booking and any further cost we may 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 therefore contact us as soon as possible. Please note that a change of travel dates to a date outside of the original travel dates is classed as a cancellation.
Notes:
(i) Certain travel arrangements cannot be changed after a reservation has been made and any alteration request will incur a 100% cancellation charge of that element of your travel arrangements.
(ii) Transfers to the airport, seaport or any other place of departure within the UK, where included in the price of your holiday, are a free-of-charge service.
(iii) Please note that no credit or refund will be due for any unused services provided in the cost of your holiday. Whilst abroad if you make any alterations to your confirmed holiday arrangements for example due to weather conditions, illness or disinclination to travel, we regret that no credit or refund is possible. If you decide to alter your  travel arrangements whilst abroad this is your own responsibility and Connections or the Company’s Agents are not responsible for any additional charges or difficulties that may arise with onward travel as a result of such alterations.
(iv) Please note our price guarantee does not apply in the case of changes made by you.

7. 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 made and the cancellation will be effective from the date it is received at our offices (in certain circumstances we may accept a verbal cancellation). Since we incur costs in cancelling your travel arrangements, you will have to pay the applicable cancellation charges up to the maximum shown on the next page. It should be noted that any additional deposit paid for confirmation of a holiday addition, flight upgrade, or certain tailor-made packages will be included in the scale of cancellation charges detailed at the foot of the following page. Should cancellation occur more than 56 days from departure, the cancellation charge will, therefore, be loss of deposit plus this additional payment. For certain hotels, flights, cruises and tours etc the cancellation may be higher, please contact us for details. Please note that some airline tickets have a 100% cancellation charge.
Notes:
(i) If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges.
(ii) If one person sharing a twin/double or triple room or cabin should cancel, the remaining participants would then be required to pay the relevant single supplement or forfeit the triple reduction.

8. 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. Routings and itineraries can be affected by adverse weather, road closures or other reasons and may be varied accordingly. Cruise lines may make alterations to itineraries at any time over which we have no control.We shall endeavour to advise you of these changes as soon as we are aware of them.We also reserve the right in any circumstances to cancel your travel arrangements. For example, if the minimum number of clients required to operate a tour is not reached, then we may cancel it.We will not cancel your travel arrangements less than 56 days 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 full refund of all monies paid, or accept an offer of alternative comparable travel arrangements, if available (we will refund any price difference if the alternative is of lower value). If it is necessary to cancel your travel arrangements, we will pay you compensation as set out in the table on the next page.The compensation does not exclude you from claiming more if you are entitled to do so. Please note that we do not have any responsibility or liability for any consequential loss you may incur from arrangements you have made with any other party or parties. 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, closing of hotel facilities for improvement or emptying a swimming pool for cleaning if alternative facilities are available nearby. 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 which shall be of comparable or superior quality, if available, or cancelling your booked holiday and receiving a full refund of all monies paid plus compensation. In all cases, except where the major change arises due to reasons of force majeure, we will also pay compensation as detailed in the table on the next page. Major Change -This means that there has been a significant change of resort, a change of accommodation to that of a lower category, a change of flight time of more than 12 hours, changes to itineraries, a change to destination airport and a change of departure airport (except between London airports). Please note that these are examples only and there may be other changes, which are considered major. Force majeure -This means that we will not pay you compensation if we have to cancel or change your travel arrangements in any way 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 which includes: war, threat of war, riots, civil strife, terrorist activity, industrial disputes, natural or nuclear disasters, fire, adverse weather conditions including hurricanes, epidemics, health risks, unavoidable technical problems with transport, closed or congested airports.

9.COMPLAINTS
If you have a problem during your holiday it is a condition of the contract that you inform the relevant supplier (e.g. your hotelier) or our agent (where there is one) within 24 hours to put things right. If your complaint cannot be completely resolved locally, you must contact Connections 24 hour emergency duty control on +44 1293 450 499 within 24 hours for us to be able to assist in rectifying the matter. It is only if our suppliers and Connections are aware of a problem at the time it occurs that we will have the opportunity to put things right. Failure by you to notify us and our suppliers of any difficulties may seriously affect your legal rights. It may even result in any refunds or compensation to which you may be entitled, being reduced or extinguished. If the problem cannot be resolved in the above manner, please contact us in writing at the registered address within 28 days of your return, quoting your booking reference and all other relevant information and documentation, keeping your letter concise and to the point.This will assist us to quickly identify your concerns and speed up our response to you. Please bear in mind our need to investigate matters raised with suppliers or agents involved. It is unlikely that you will have a complaint that cannot be settled amicably between us. However, disputes to do with this contract that cannot be settled amicably may, if you wish, be referred to arbitration under a special scheme arranged by ABTA but administered quite independently by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.The scheme, details of which are available upon request or obtained from the ABTA website (www.abta.com) provides for a simple and inexpensive method of arbitration on documents alone with restricted liability on you in respect of costs. Customers resident in the Republic of Ireland may, as an alternative, opt for Arbitration available from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators – Irish Branch, which offers a similar dispute resolution scheme. Please contact Connections for further details.Where Connections acts as holiday organiser, for customers resident in the Republic of Ireland, HMP Secretarial Limited at: Riverside One, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, is authorised to accept service of proceedings.

10.OUR LIABILITY TO YOU
Please note sub clauses (a) and (b) below only apply to packages. 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; a third party unconnected with the provision of the travel arrangements and where the failure is unforeseeable or unavoidable; 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: Connections, 20 Port Street, Evesham,Worcestershire,WR11 1AL.Telephone 0800 988 5880 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 is the responsibility of the airline and 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 section 8 and in the table below. 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 AirTransport Users’ Council on 020 7240 6061 www.auc.org.uk In all cases, except where the changes arise due to reasons of force majeure (see section 8), we will pay compensation as detailed below. All other arrangements including where Connections acts as an agent. Service providers generally reserve the right to change arrangements both before and after a booking has been confirmed. We will notify you of any changes as soon as we are notified of them but we cannot accept any liability in relation to any change.

11.YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
(i)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. (ii)You must be responsible for ensuring that any existing medical conditions or disabilities which may require assistance are declared to us before you book your holiday or, if newly diagnosed, before date of departure.We can only accept your booking upon the clear understanding that we cannot be liable if you do not inform us of such a condition and an airline or cruiseline refuses to accept you or any member of your party as a passenger. (iii)You must be responsible for the behaviour of yourself and your party. We reserve reasonable discretion to refuse your booking or to remove you or a member of your party from any tour or holiday, if your demeanour or behaviour, or that of a member of your party, is disruptive, dangerous or annoying to other people.No refund or payment of any costs incurred by you will be made by us under these circumstances.

12. INSURANCE
a)We strongly recommend that you take out full, comprehensive travel insurance both for protection against misfortune that can occasionally occur and for your own peace of mind. Should you while on holiday choose to take part in any activity (e.g. hang gliding, hot air ballooning, white-water rafting, etc.) which can be deemed as being of a hazardous nature, it is essential to ensure that cover is provided under the terms of your travel insurance.The organisers of some adventure activities that you may choose to take part in whilst on holiday may request you to sign a waiver of their liability for risks involved. We must draw your attention to the fact that by signing such a document you
may well lose any rights to claim for damages in respect of death, injury, or loss of or damage to property even if negligence on the part of the activity organiser is proven to have occurred. b) Failure of scheduled airlines insurance(excluding pre -booked tours) Where Scheduled Airline Failure insurance is shown on your itinerary Connections has put into operation a scheme to cover you for an airline failure, which is operated by IPP – International Passenger Protection. Full details of this are available on request. Tour managers and local representatives are instructed not to act as agents in booking any alternative activities other than those approved by us.Any assistance they may offer at your request does not imply they have acted as an agent or that these activities have been approved and are offered for sale by the company.

13.DATA PROTECTION ACT
In order to process your booking and to ensure that your travel arrangements run smoothly and meet your requirements, we need to use the information you provide such as name, address, passport details, any
special needs/dietary requirements etc.We take full responsibility for ensuring that proper security measures are in place to protect your information. However, we must pass the information on to the relevant suppliers of your arrangements such as airlines, hotels, transport companies, etc.This information may also be provided to public authorities by our suppliers for customs/immigration purposes or as required by law. Where such information is required, if we do not receive this in time, your booking may have to be cancelled or an administration fee may be levied by the supplier and we reserve the right to pass this cost on to you. Additionally, where your holiday is outside the European Economic Area (EEA), controls on data protection may not be as strong as the legal requirements in this country.We will not, however, pass any information on to any person not responsible for part of your travel arrangements.This applies to any sensitive information that you give us such as details of disabilities, or dietary/religious requirements. If we cannot pass this information to the relevant suppliers, whether in the EEA or not, we cannot process your booking. In making your booking, you consent to this information being passed on to the relevant persons. Note:We are committed to the on-going training of our staff and this may involve the recording of telephone conversations.