Terms and Conditions
Spear
Travels is a registered trading name of Jetclub Ltd.
Registered
and accredited office 75 Corbets Tey Road, Upminster, Essex, RM14
2AJ.
Registered in
England No 1711255
RETAIL
AGENTS FOR ATOL HOLDERS
Spear
Travels (Jetclub Ltd) acts as an agent on behalf of the suppliers of
any travel arrangements you make and your contract is with those
suppliers.
We
act as agents for scheduled airlines and ATOL holders. When we
receive your payment we will immediately issue to you your airline
tickets or an ATOL receipt confirming which ATOL travel firm you are
booked with. ATOL is a travel protection scheme operated by the
Civil Aviation Authority that extends primarily to customers who book
and pay in the UK.
Bookings
are accepted in accordance with individual supplier's booking
conditions. These conditions vary considerably but in general terms,
for leisure bookings, deposits are non-refundable and fully paid
bookings or outstanding balances relating to travel dates from 6 to
12 weeks hence, may/may not be partly/fully refundable or due.
In
respect of scheduled flights, full payment must be received prior to
ticket issue, unless other arrangements have been agreed previously
in writing. If paying by credit card, the details must be given
before the tickets are issued. If supplied afterwards, credit card
fees will be applied.
IMPORTANT
INFORMATION CONCERNING YOUR BOOKING
ADMINISTRATION
FEES & BOOKING CONDITIONS:
We reserve the right to charge a fee (between £15.00 and £75.00
per person) for any amendments or cancellations brought about by the
client after the booking is agreed, or through misinformation
supplied to us at time of booking. This is in addition to the
supplier's contractual costs for such matters. All deposits are
generally non-refundable. Depending on the time of cancellation or
amendment up to 100% of the actual cost of a booking can be lost,
plus our administration fees. Please be aware that many flight
tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable and that even a wrong
initial can invalidate a ticket, so it is vital that you give us
accurate passport information with full first forename as it appears
on the passport. If you have not seen the supplier's booking
conditions at the time of booking, please ask for written details.
Wherever practical, you will be asked to sign a booking form
confirming acceptance of these conditions. If this is not practical,
i.e it is a telephone sale, payment or acceptance of the supplier's
copy of the invoice, or the actual tickets themselves will constitute
acceptance of those conditions. However, we always post out a booking
form for you to sign and return as well if you are not present when
the booking is made.
CREDIT
CARD CHARGES:
We
charge 1.5% per transaction for all payments by credit card (Visa /
Mastercard)
We charge 2.0% per transaction for all payments by
American Express
We do not charge for any payments made by
debit cards.
PASSPORTS:
These notes refer to holders of United Kingdom passports and British
Citizens; holders of other passports or travel documents should make
further inquiries prior to making any booking. It is your
responsibility to ensure that you have a valid passport. In many
countries passports must be valid for at least 6 months after the
booked date of return, sometimes longer. Any child or infant not
already on an existing passport must have their own passport. For
many countries children already on parent's
passports are acceptable until that passport expires or the child
becomes 16, at which age they need to apply for their own passport.
In general terms it is the aim for every individual, however young,
to have their own passport. For travelling to the USA this is already
a requirement and it must be a machine-readable one. All travellers
to the USA who wish to take advantage of the visa waiver programme
must have machine-readable passports and any passports issued after
26
October 2006 must be biometric ones. (It is the aim of the United
Kingdom Passport Office to commence issuing these from the beginning
of 2006 but if they do not meet the deadline visas will be required
for holders of passports issued after this date) USA visas are only
available by personal application. We can advise you on an individual
country's requirements, but you may need to check again yourself at a
later date, as the regulations can change overnight.
HEALTH
& INOCULATIONS:
It is your responsibility to ensure that you have the correct
inoculations in place at the time of booking your holiday or flight
and that you have taken adequate medical precautions. We can only
advise you on present medical requirements using the current
guidelines, these can change unexpectedly. Medical advice should be
sought from your G.P. or medical centre, which have access to up to
date information and are aware of your personal medical history,
before you book your holiday or business trip. We cannot be held
responsible if you are unable to travel due to improper medical
advice, however obtained. Be aware that in some countries medical
requirements can change overnight, in the event of an epidemic etc,
so be sure that you regularly check the situation if your trip is
several weeks or months in the future. Please be aware that some
inoculations or certificates e.g. Yellow Fever, can take several days
or weeks to obtain or to provide acceptable cover to allow entry.
Please be aware that you can be refused entry to, or transit via, a
country even though you may have been allowed to fly there.
VISAS:
We will offer Visa advice at time of booking, although it is always
advisable to check requirements in advance especially when making a
late booking. If you have not received Visa advice at the time of, or
prior to, making the booking, please contact us immediately. Once we
have given you the Visa advice, it is then your responsibility to
ensure that the requisite Visas are obtained and are in order at the
time of travel. Although we are usually able to obtain visas for you
these services can be expensive. Regarding entry to the USA, as from
4
October 2005, the full address of your first nights accommodation in
the USA, including Zip Code, has to be supplied at check in.
TRAVEL
INSURANCE:
Whilst you do not have to take out our travel insurance, it is often
mandatory that you are properly covered abroad and many suppliers
require proof that you have insurance in place before accepting a
booking. Form E111, the cross-guarantee EC form to provide reciprocal
NHS style cover within full EC member states, is not accepted, as it
does not provide for repatriation in the event of accident or
illness. Form E111 is not travel insurance and is to be superseded in
January 2006
by
the EHIC (European Health Insurance Card). Costs for health
facilities and repatriation in many countries can be extremely high.
If you believe you are covered by your debit or credit card, please
double check and ask for full written details of the cover provided
from the supplier. In our experience, we have found that only 'Gold'
or 'Platinum' debit or charge cards have adequate cover; many cards
only provide basic cover whilst you are travelling, not whilst you
are in the destination. Minimum cover should be £2,000,000
medical cover per person, air ambulance repatriation cover, adequate
cancellation and curtailment insurance to cover the total cost of
your trip or holiday, as well as general damage or loss of personal
possessions cover. Ensure you have helicopter ambulance piste cover
for ski-ing holidays, as some resorts will not even let you ski
otherwise. Finally, always ensure that you know the 24 hour emergency
telephone number, the policy number and that your family and/or
friends have a copy of the policy at home. Keep the actual policy, or
policy details, with you at all times whilst you are abroad.
DATA
PROTECTION
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, any special
needs/dietary requirements etc. We take full responsibility for
ensuring that proper security measures are in place to protect your
information. We must pass the information on to the relevant
suppliers of your travel arrangements such as your tour operator,
airlines, hotels, transport companies etc. The information may also
be provided to security or credit checking companies, public
authorities such as customs/immigration if required by them, or as
required by law. Additionally, where your holiday is outside the
European Economic Area (EEA), controls on data protection in your
destination may not be as strong as the legal requirements in this
country. We will not however, pass any information onto any person
not responsible for part of your travel arrangements. This applies to
any sensitive information that you give to us such as details of any
disabilities, or dietary/religious requirements. (If we cannot pass
this information to the relevant suppliers, whether in the EEA or
not, we cannot provide your booking. In making this booking, you
consent to this information being passed on to the relevant persons.)
Usually your tour operator or other principal will pass this
information onto their suppliers once we have provided it to them.
The tour operator or other principal's
use of your information is subject to their policy, both in respect
of your booking and any future marketing, and is their
responsibility. Please ask either us or them for a copy of this if
you would like to see it. Your data controller is Jetclub Ltd. You
are entitled to a copy of your information held by us. If you would
like to see this please ask us. We may make a small charge for
providing this to you.
ALTERATIONS
TO BOOKINGS:
It is regrettable that sometimes changes have to be made to your
booking following confirmation, sometimes after several months. These
can consist of flight time changes, airline changes, accommodation
changes, date changes etc. These are, without exception, made by the
suppliers and not by Spear Travels and we cannot be held responsible
for such changes, but we will assist you in reaching an agreeable
conclusion.
RECONFIRMATION
OF FLIGHTS:
We always advise clients if they need to reconfirm flights either
prior to departure or before they return. If passengers do not follow
our advice, and miss their flight as a consequence, we cannot be held
liable. Our advice to all passengers is to err on the side of
caution, particularly where tickets have been issued several months
previously.
JURISDICTION:
All
agreements between the traveller and Spear Travels shall be governed
by UK Law and within the exclusive jurisdiction of UK Courts.