Mercury Holidays Booking Conditions
These Booking Conditions, are supplemented with our privacy policy, the general information contained in the ‘For you to know’ and ‘Holiday Insurance’ sections, where your holiday is booked via our website, our Website Terms of Use and any other written information we brought to your attention before we confirmed your booking form the basis of your contract with us, Sunspot Tours Ltd of St John’s House, Suffolk Way, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 1YL trading as Mercury Holidays (ATOL number 1631, ABTA membership number VO211, Company number 01470134) (‘We’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ ‘Mercury Holidays’).
- Services provided by other parties.
We will not accept responsibility for services or facilities which do not form part of our agreement, are not detailed on your confirmation or where they are not advertised in our brochure or on our website. For example if an airline cancels a flight, we are not responsible for any pre-departure car parking, hotel, taxis or airport lounge facility except where they have been booked through us and form part of your contracted arrangements with us (in which case they will be detailed on your booking confirmation). In resort we are not responsible for any excursion, service or facility which your hotel or any other supplier agrees to provide for you while you are away. All queries and claims in relation to such services should be directed to the provider of that service.
2. Bookings & Payments
Subject to availability, our holidays can be booked by telephoning our reservations department, using the appropriate telephone number in our brochure, or by visiting our website www.mercuryholidays.co.uk. The first named person making the booking must be over 18 and resident in the United Kingdom and where placing an order for services with age restrictions declares that he/she and all members of the party are of the appropriate age to purchase those services. The first named person making the booking agrees on behalf of all persons detailed on the booking that (a) he/she consents to our use of personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy and our Privacy Statement (see clause 23 below) and is authorised on behalf of all persons named on the booking to disclose their personal details to us, including where applicable special categories of data (such as information on health conditions or disabilities and dietary requirements) (see clause 23 below); (b) guarantees that they have authority to accept and does accept on behalf of all persons named on the booking, these Booking Conditions and agrees to be bound by them including the financial responsibility for payment of the booking. The first named person making the booking guarantees payment to us of the total cost of the holiday booked. A deposit from £250pp for a beach holiday or from £295pp for an Escorted Tour, River Cruise, Fly-Drive or Multi-Centre Holidays, or full payment if booking within twelve weeks of departure, is payable at the time of booking. Please note the deposit may be increased depending on the airline and/or country you are travelling to. You will be advised of the amount of the deposit payable at the time of booking, however those who have made bookings on the website may be contacted up to 72 hours after the booking has been made and advised of any increases. The balance of the cost of your arrangements (including any applicable surcharge) is due by the balance due date notified to you. This will normally be twelve weeks before departure but may be sooner for a River Cruise or Escorted Tour booking, please check your confirmation. If the deposit or balance is not received by us in full by the applicable due date, we reserve the right to treat the booking as cancelled by you in which case we shall retain your deposit. We do not send reminders of monies owing. Your booking is confirmed and a binding contract between us and you comes into existence when we have received payment of the deposit or the full cost of your booking (where applicable) and we issue you with a booking confirmation confirming the details of your booking (which will be sent to you or your travel agent). If your confirmed arrangements include a flight, we (or if you booked via an authorised agent of ours, that agent) will issue you with an ATOL Certificate in addition to the booking confirmation. Contact us immediately (and no later than ten days of receipt) if any information which appears on the booking confirmation or ATOL certificate or any other document is incorrect or incomplete so that the error can be investigated. It may harm your rights if we are not notified of any inaccuracies in any document within ten days of our sending it out (five days for tickets). We will do our best to rectify any mistake or omission notified to us within the time limits specified above if the error was our fault, but you must meet any costs involved in our doing so if the error was as a result of your fault. If we are notified of inaccuracies or errors more than 10 days after you have received your confirmation, any costs to amend the booking will be your responsibility. We reserve the right to return your deposit and decline to issue a booking confirmation at our absolute discretion. Any money paid to an authorised agent of ours in respect of a booking covered by our ATOL is held by that agent on behalf of and for the benefit of the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust at all times, but subject to the agent’s obligation to pay it to us for so long as we do not fail financially. If we do fail financially, any money held at that time by the agent or subsequently accepted from the consumer by the agent, is and continues to be held by that agent on behalf of and for the benefit of the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust without any obligation to pay that money to us. Credit and Debit Cards: You may make payment by debit or credit card.
3. Pricing
We start planning the holidays many months in advance. Whilst it is unlikely that we will have to cancel your holiday or make changes to it, occasionally we may have to do so, and we reserve the right to do so at any time. We also reserve the right to make changes to or correct errors in our brochure, and on our website. Further, your flight details may change, or a hotel may close down. If we make a minor change to your holiday, we will make reasonable efforts to inform you or your travel agent as soon as reasonably possible if there is time before your departure but we will have no liability to you. 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 or higher standard, changes of carriers.
Please note that carriers such as airlines used in the brochure or on our website may be subject to change. We promise not to make any significant changes (as described below) to or cancel your confirmed holiday arrangements less than 28 days before departure, unless we are forced to do so as a result of force majeure (see clause 11) or (in the event that we cancel) because you have failed to pay for your holiday in accordance with these Booking Conditions. If we have to cancel or make a significant change to your arrangements, we will tell you as soon as possible and we will give you the following choices:
a) Accepting the changed arrangements as notified to you; or b) Accepting an offer of alternative travel arrangements of a similar or higher standard to that originally booked if available with you paying an additional fee or receiving a refund in respect of any price difference c) Accepting an offer of alternative travel arrangements of a lower standard to that originally booked if available (with a refund in respect of any price difference) d) Cancelling or accepting the cancellation and 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 when made before departure:
- A reduction in the number of nights of your holiday
- A significant change to your itinerary, missing out one or more destination entirely
- A change of your outward departure time or overall length of your arrangements by more than 12 hours
- A change of UK departure airport except between
i) The London airports: Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Stansted, London City and Southend ii) The South Coast airports: Southampton, Bournemouth and Exeter iii) The South Western airports: Cardiff and Bristol iv) The Midlands airports: Birmingham, East Midlands and Doncaster Sheffield v) The Northern airports: Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds Bradford vi) The North Eastern airports: Newcastle and Teesside vii) The Scottish airports: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick and Aberdeen
- A change from a day flight to night flight (providing time of departure is changed by more than 8 hours for shorthaul and 12 hours for longhaul). A night flight which is changed to depart after or before midnight is not a change of date. A change of overseas airport, return UK airport or return flight time of less than 12 hours will not be a significant change. Where your airport is changed we promise to transport you from your overseas accommodation to your alternative overseas airport or from your UK airport of arrival to your UK departure airport (except for changes made from/to: Gatwick / Heathrow / Stansted / Luton or Glasgow / Prestwick or Birmingham / East Midlands).
The above sets out the maximum extent of our liability for changes and cancellations and we regret we cannot meet any expenses or losses you may incur as a result of change or cancellation. In no case will we pay compensation if accommodation is offered by us and accepted by you with a higher price than that originally booked in the same location where no additional payment is made by you.
You must notify us of your choice within 7 days of our offer. If we do not hear from you within 7 days, we will contact you again to request notification of your choice. If you fail to respond again we will assume that you have chosen to accept the alternative booking arrangements. We will not cancel your travel arrangements less than 84 days before departure, except for reasons of force majeure or failure by you to pay the final balance. In addition to a full refund of all monies paid by you, we will pay you compensation as detailed below, in the following circumstances:
(i) if, where we make a significant change, you do not accept the changed arrangements and cancel your booking; (ii) If we cancel your booking and no alternative arrangements are available and/or we do not offer one. If we make a significant change and you do not accept the alternative arrangements or if we cancel less than 84 days before departure, we will also pay compensation as detailed:
Period before departure | Compensation per person |
---|---|
84 – 15 days | £10 |
14 days or less | £20 |
The compensation that we offer does not exclude you from claiming more if you are entitled to do so.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We will not pay you compensation and the above options will not be available where:
(i) we are forced to make a change or cancel as a result of force majeure (see clause 11); (ii) we make a minor change; (iii) we cancel as a result of your failure to make full payment on time; (iv) where the change(s) or cancellation by us arises out of alterations to the confirmed booking requested by you. (vi) where we make a significant change or cancel your arrangements more than 84 days before departure;
Compensation will not be paid in respect of children staying at hotels for free and, where payable, will be paid on a pro-rata basis of the adult rate where children have received a reduced rate. Very rarely, we may be forced by force majeure (see clause 11) to change or terminate your arrangements after departure. If this situation does occur, we regret we will be unable to pay you compensation or meet any costs or expenses you incur as a result. If we become unable to provide a significant proportion of the services that you have booked with us after you have departed, we will, if possible, make alternative arrangements for you at no extra charge and where those alternative arrangements are of a lower standard, provide you with an appropriate price reduction.
17. Flight information