| Booking Policy |
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YOUR CONTRACT IS WITH The Swiss Holidays AG, a company incorporated in Switzerland, whose registered office is at the Airport Operation Center, 8058 Zürich-Airport, Switzerland. The travels of The Luxury Trains are operated by The Swiss Holidays AG, Airport Operation Center, 8058 Zürich-Airport, Switzerland. 1. Your Holiday Contract 1.1 Booking Policy When you make a booking with us, you guarantee that you have the authority to accept, and do accept for yourself and on behalf of your party, the terms of this Booking Policy. A contract will exist as soon as we issue a ’ Confirmation Invoice’ to you. This contract is made on the terms of these Booking Policies, which are governed by Swiss Law, and the jurisdiction of the Swiss Courts. 1.2 Contract Partners This Booking Policy rules the privity of contract between you and The Luxury Trains for the travels or other services which are organised by The Luxury Trains. This booking policy applies for all travel parties. 1.3 Where this Booking Policy is not applicable 1.3.1 This Booking Policy does not apply on all the following travels and services: For all the only flight bookings, which have been put across by The Luxury Trains (i.e. APEX and PEX-flight tickets), and individual performances the conditions of the responsible airline or of the company providing a service do apply. The same applies for travels, organised by other companies, which have been put across by The Luxury Trains. 1.3.2 If your booking partner provides you travels and individual performances from other tour operators or other companies, you close a contract with them and their booking policy applies. In this case The Luxury Trains is not your contract partner. 2. Your Financial Protection 2.1. Regulations The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 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. 2.2 Definition package holidays ‘Package Holidays’ in these conditions comprise of at least 2 of the following 3 components when sold at an inclusive price covering a period of more than 24 hours or an overnight stay. The components are transport (a flight), accommodation, or other tourist services not ancillary to the above (eg, car hire, transfers, excursions, tours, theatre tickets, attractions) accounting for a significant proportion of the package services. 2.3. Client’s monetary safeguard We are member of the R & V client’s monetary safeguard in Germany to provide this security. 3. Your Holiday Price 3.1 Payment 3.1.1 On booking a 20% prepayment of the entire costs falls due (different conditions apply for travels on the Palace on Wheels: 50% prepayment). International flights have to be paid completely. 3.1.2 The balance will fall due 5 weeks prior to the start of the trip (different conditions apply for travels on the Palace on Wheels: 10 weeks prior to departure). After receipt of the full payment you will receive the vouchers. 3.1.3 Any amounts required to be paid by way of deposits will be considered as non-refundable deposits. The person making the booking guarantees payment to us of the total cost of the holiday (and also does so for all others for whom the booking is made). 3.1.4 If the deposit and/or balance are/is not paid in time, we reserve the right to cancel your travel arrangements. If the balance is not paid in time we shall retain your deposits. All monies you pay to travel agents are held by them on our behalf at all times. 3.2 Mode of payment We accept payments by bank transfer or by credit card (Visa or Mastercard). For payments by credit cards we charge a surcharge of 2.5 % and we need an authorization (with signature) to charge the amount. 3.3 Short term bookings For bookings below 22 days prior to departure: queries to hotels may be necessary. You will be charged for possible phone and fax bills. For short term bookings the whole amount falls due at the time of booking. 3.4 Handling fees 3.4.1 For only services (no train booking) we impose a handling fee of CHF 60.00 per person, maximal CHF 140.00 per booking. The same handling fee applies to only-hotel bookings up to 3 nights. On international flight bookings, a handling fee of CHF 60.00 per person will be charged. 3.4.2 Your booking place may impose further handling fees for advices and reservations. 3.5 Price increase 3.5.1 We keep the right to do price increases until 3 weeks prior to the start of the tour if they are associated with increases of carriage costs, an increase of dues for the booked services or changes in currency exchange rates. 3.5.2 Following the issue of our Confirmation Invoice, any increase in your holiday price until 30 days before your departure date will be as due to a result of changes in our costs of providing your holiday deriving from: a) transportation charges such as fuel, airport charges, scheduled airfares and other transport charges which form part of our contract with the transport provider; b) government action such as increases in VAT or any other Government imposed increases; c) currency fluctuations; And within 3 weeks of your departure date the price of your holiday will not be subject to any surcharges. 3.5.3 If the increase is more than 10% of the price of your travel arrangements, you may cancel your travel arrangements and receive a full refund of all monies paid, except for any amendment charges. 4. If you change your booking 4.1 Rules 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 per fax or letter from the person who made the booking or your travel agent. The documents which have been sent to you need to be returned to us. 4.2. Charges You will be asked to pay an administration charge of CHF 60.00 per person, maximal CHF 140.00 per booking. These charges are not covered by insurance. 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. Scheduled airlines normally regard name changes as a cancellation and rebooking, and any alteration may incur a 100% cancellation charge in respect of the airfare. These charges may not be 100% covered by insurance. 5. If You Cancel Your Holiday 5.1 Instructions If you wish to cancel or transfer your booking for any reason other than for there being additional charges or alterations to the arrangements you may do so providing that you give us written notice of cancellation which must be signed by the person who made the booking or the travel agent as appropriate. 5.2. When the cancellation applies Cancellation is effective from the date upon which we receive your written notice. We will only accept requests for changes or cancellations from the person who made the booking. 5.3 Cancellation fees 5.3.1 Since we incur costs in cancelling your travel arrangements, after the date we receive notice of cancellation you will additionally be liable for the following cancellation or transfer charges based on the time we receive your written notice: a) More than 60 days before departure date: 5% of the total price of the holiday. b) Less than 59 days but more than 30 days before departure date: 20% of the total price of the holiday. c) Less than 29 days but more than 15 days before departure date: 50% of the total price of the holiday. d) Less than 15 days before departure date and for No-Show: 100% of the total price of the holiday. 5.3.2 The receipt of your written cancellation is decisive for the cancellation fees. For cancellations on Saturdays, Sundays and on Public Holidays the next weekday is decisive. 6. If we change or cancel your holiday 6.1. Changes 6.1.1 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 make changes that are not significant and to correct minor or obvious errors in your booking details at any time without liability to you. Most of these changes will be minor and we will advise you or your travel agent of them at the earliest possible date. 6.1.2 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. A major change are for example, changes to your destination area, your booked accommodation to a lower rating, your departure times or accommodation occupancy periods by more than 12 hours. 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. You must tell us which one of the choices you make within 7 days of being informed of the significant change we are making, or as soon as reasonably practical if your departure is less than 7 days from the date you receive notification. If we do not receive notification from you about your choice you are deemed to have accepted the significant change. 6.1.3 If after departure we are unable to provide a significant proportion of the services we had agreed to provide as part of our contract with you, we will do our very best to make suitable alternative arrangements. If we cannot do so, or you refuse to accept these for good reasons, we will arrange to fly you back to the departure airport (if the arrangements we agreed to provide you included flights) or to transport you to the point our contracted services commenced (if elsewhere than your hotel) as soon as we reasonably can. 6.2 Cancellation If we have to cancel a departure you will be offered an alternative holiday or a full refund of the holiday price. However, we will not cancel your travel arrangements after the date when the balance of the price becomes due, unless you are otherwise advised at the time of booking, 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 compensation. Force Majeure: This means 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, pandemic illness, fire, adverse weather conditions. 7. If you have a complaint If you have a problem during your holiday, please immediately inform your tour manager or our agent who will endeavour to put things right. Should a problem not be resolved satisfactorily, you may call our Emergency Telephone number which will be given to you with your documentation. If your complaint is not resolved locally, please follow this up within 28 days of your return home by writing to us at The Luxury Trains, Airport Operation Center, 8058 Zürich-Airport, Switzerland, giving your booking reference and all other relevant information. This will assist us to quickly identify your concerns and speed up our response to you. It is strongly suggested that you communicate any complaint to the supplier of the services in question as well as to our agent without delay, and not await your return home before reporting. 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 on tour and this may affect your rights under this contract. 8. Our liability to you If the contract we have with you is not performed or is improperly performed by our suppliers or us, we will pay you appropriate compensation if this has affected the enjoyment of your travel arrangements. Subject to the below Clauses (i)-(iv) and any force majeure event, we accept liability to you if any of the holidays you have booked with us are not provided or not provided as advertised or are not provided to a reasonable standard. However, we will not be liable where any failure in the performance of the contract is due to: (i) you, or a third party unconnected with the provision of the travel arrangements, and where the failure is unforeseeable or unavoidable; or (ii) 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 (iii) an event which we or its suppliers, even with all due care, could not foresee or forestall; or (iv) Any additional services that you pay our suppliers separately to the holiday package we provide. Our liability, except in cases involving death, injury or illness, or fraud, 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 those 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. These terms and conditions shall not limit our liability to you for death injury or illness. 9. Additional assistance for packages If the contract we have with you for your package holiday is not performed or is improperly performed as a result of failures attributable to a third party unconnected with the provision of the services that make up the package, 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 its 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 assistance as is reasonable in the circumstances. 10. Passport, Visa and Immigration Requirements 10.1 You must ensure that you have a valid passport and the necessary visas. We are not responsible to you if you fail to carry out the correct procedures. Holders of passports which are not Swiss should take particular care as visa requirements may differ and it is most important that your passport contains the correct visa for your journey. 10.2 You shall reimburse any penalties or expenses that we or the relevant carrier incurs as a result of your failure to travel with appropriate travel documents. Further information can be found on our website. If you have to cancel your travel due to the absence of a visa, the above mentioned cancellation policies apply. 10.3 For denied entry you are held as responsible for the return charges. – Further The Luxury Trains informs you about the custom regulations. 11. 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. We act as agent for the operator of the excursion or tour and your contract will be with that operator. 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. 12. Adequate insurance protection If you do not have holiday insurance cover at the time of booking, you may personally be liable for cancellation charges. It is imperative that you familiarise yourself with the details and conditions of your policy and that you notify your insurance company of any pre-existing medical condition. Failure to do so can invalidate the insurance cover. 13. Reconfirmation of flights You are responsible to reconfirm your flight. The necessary contacts you can see on your documents which you will receive. Missed reconfirmations can cause the loss of the right of transport, extra costs for your account. 14. General information General information, set out on our Website, regarding holidays offered should be read in conjunction with this Booking Policy, as well as our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use Policy. 15. Applicable law and jurisdiction 15.1 Swiss law For the contract between you and The Luxury Trains, the Swiss law is applicable. 15.2 Ineffectiveness of some restrictions The ineffectiveness of single restrictions of the contract does not mean the ineffectiveness of the whole contract. 15.3 Suits For suits against The Luxury Trains the jurisdiction of Zürich-Airport, Switzerland is valid. |