Customer Terms and Conditions
Your contract is with Worldwide Travel of East Anglia Limited trading as Virgin Flightstore, a member of ABTA with membership number V8694 and ATOL holder number 4191.
The following terms in this brochure shall have the meanings set out below when used in these Booking Conditions:
'We', 'Our', 'Us', 'Virgin Flightstore' means Worldwide Travel of East Anglia Limited trading as Virgin Flightstore.
'Holiday' means the Holiday booked by you or any person on your behalf.
'Travel Agent' means any Agent through whom your booking with Virgin Flightstore is made.
'Force Majeure' means any circumstances which are unusual and/or unforeseeable which are beyond the control of Virgin Flightstore, the consequence of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised, including (but not limited to) war or threat of war; riot; civil strife; hostilities; political unrest; government action; industrial dispute; natural or other disaster; nuclear incident; terrorist activity; weather conditions; closure of airports; fire; flood; drought; third party supplier failure; re-scheduling or cancellation of flights or alteration of the airline or aircraft type by an airline and technical problems with transportation and all similar events outside our control.
'Major Change' includes the following when made before departure:
(a) A change of resort area for the whole or a major part of your holiday,
(b) A change of accommodation to that of a lower official classification for the whole or a major part of your holiday,
(c) A change of UK departure airport (excluding change of London airports),
(d) A change of outward departure time or overall length of your holiday of twelve or more hours.
'Package' means a package as defined in the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package
Tours Regulations 1992.
These conditions apply to all Holidays and govern your relationship with Virgin Flightstore. Please read them carefully before making a booking.
1. Your holiday contract
When a booking is made, the 'lead name' on the booking guarantees that he or she has the authority to accept and does accept on behalf of all members of your party the terms of these booking conditions. Once your Travel Agent has confirmed all booking details with you and the amount due has been paid by you to your Travel Agent your Travel Agent will issue you with a confirmation receipt and a legally binding agreement will come into existence between you and us. A confirmation invoice will then also be despatched by us to your Travel Agent and the travel agent will forward a copy to you. This contract is governed by English Law, and the jurisdiction of the English Courts. You may however, choose the law and jurisdiction of Scotland or Northern Ireland if you wish to do so.
It is important to check the details on your invoice when you get it, or if booking late at the time of booking, that all the details are exactly as you requested. In the event of any discrepancy, please contact your Travel Agent immediately as it may not be possible to make changes later.
2. Prices
We will confirm the price of your arrangements to your travel agent at the time of booking. The booking of attraction tickets and some other holiday arrangements may not form part of the package and your travel agent will inform you of any different deposits and cancellation terms and conditions which may apply.
You must therefore ensure you check the price and all other details of your chosen arrangements with your travel agent at the time of booking
3. Passports, visas, health requirements and travel documents
The passport, visa and health requirements applicable at the time of printing to British citizens for the arrangements we offer will be advised by you travel agent at the time of booking. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are in possession of all necessary travel and health documents before departure. We regret we cannot accept any liability if you are refused entry onto any transport or into any country due to failure on your part to carry correct documentation. If failure to have any necessary travel or other documents results in fines, surcharges or other financial penalty being imposed on us, you will be responsible for reimbursing us accordingly. In the event we are asked to reissue tickets that have been lost, destroyed or stolen and we agree to do so, any charges incurred as a result of this will be payable by you.
4. Insurance
We consider adequate travel insurance to be essential. Please read your policy and take it with you on holiday. It is your responsibility to ensure that the insurance cover you purchase is suitable and adequate for your particular needs.
For those who participate in sports, water sports and winter sports whilst on holiday it is your responsibility to ensure that you obtain the relevant insurance cover.
5. Your financial protection
When you buy an ATOL protected flight/air package from us you will receive a Virgin Flightstore confirmation invoice from your travel agent confirming your arrangements and your protection under our Air Travel Organiser's Licence number 4191. In the unlikely event of our insolvency, the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad or will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking, except where your contracted arrangements with us do not include transport to and from the UK. In this case, if already abroad, you will be returned to the point where your contracted arrangements with us commenced. For further information, visit the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk. The price of your holiday includes £2.50 per person as part of the ATOL Protection Contribution (APC). This charge is included in the quoted price, taken in addition to your deposit at the time of booking and shown on your confirmation invoice. If you book arrangements other than a package holiday/flight only where we act as principle, the financial protection referred to above does not apply.
6. Paying for your holiday
In order to confirm your chosen arrangements, a minimum deposit of £100 per person must be paid at the time of booking if booking more than 8 weeks in advance. A higher deposit may be payable depending on the particular arrangements booked. Depending on the fare booked, full payment for flights may be required at the time of booking. If booking 8 weeks (56 days) or less before departure, full payment must be made at the time of booking.
If not paid in full at the time of booking, the balance of the cost of your arrangements must collected by your travel agent and be received by us no later than 8 weeks before departure. This date will be shown on the confirmation invoice. Reminders are not sent. If we do not receive all payments due (including any surcharge where applicable) in full and on time, your booking will be cancelled. In this case the cancellation charges set out in clause 9 "Cancellation by you" below will be payable.
7. Your holiday price
The price of your travel arrangements will be provided to you by your travel agent at the time of booking. In order to guarantee the price of such arrangements or any individual element of them (for example, any flight(s)) , you may have to make full payment for the arrangements / element(s) concerned at the time of booking prior to balance due date. If you fail to meet any such request, any increase(s) in the price from the time of booking to the time of full payment will be passed on to you. However, it may not always be possible to guarantee the price by making full payment in which case any increase(s) will be passed on as set out below.
In respect of Packages, changes in fees (including transportation costs, fuel costs, dues, taxes, fees such as landing taxes or embarkation/ disembarkation fees at ports/airports and exchange rates) and services mean that the price of your travel arrangements may change after you have booked your holiday. However, there will be no change to the cost of your holiday within 30 days of departure. In relation to package holidays, we will absorb and you will not be charged for any increase equivalent to up to 2% of the price of your travel arrangements, which excludes any amendment charges. You will be charged for the amount over and above that. If this means that you have to pay an increase of more than 10% of the price of your travel arrangements (excluding amendments charges), you will have the option of accepting a change to another holiday if we are able to offer one (if this is of equivalent or higher quality, you will not have to pay more but if it is of lower quality you will be refunded the difference in price), or cancelling and receiving a full refund of monies paid, except for any amendment charges and cancellation charges already incurred. Should you decide to cancel for this reason, you must exercise your right to do so within 14 days from the issue date printed on your final invoice. Should the price of your holiday go down due to the changes mentioned above, by more than 2% of your holiday cost, then any refund due will be paid to you. However, please note that travel arrangements are not always purchased in local currency and some apparent changes have no impact on the price of your travel due to contractual and other protection in place.
8. Changes by you
If, after our confirmation invoice has been issued, you wish to change your travel arrangements in any way, 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 'lead name' on the booking or your Travel Agent. You will be asked to pay an administration charge of £25 per person 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. Only one change of departure date, per booking may be permitted. Further changes may be treated as a cancellation by you and result in cancellation charges being applied. Note: Certain arrangements may not be amended after they have been confirmed and any alteration could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100% of that part of the arrangements. In some cases, any changes made may mean you having to pay for the cancelled arrangements and purchasing new ones at full cost.
9. Cancellation by you
You, or any member of your party, may cancel your travel arrangements at any time. We must receive Written notification from your travel agent by mail, fax or e-mail confirming cancellation from the 'lead name' on the booking. Since we incur costs in cancelling your travel arrangements, you will have to pay the applicable cancellation charges shown in the grid below.
Note: if the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges from your insurance company.
| Holiday cancellation charges | |
| Period before departure within which notice of cancellation is received by us in writing | % of total booking price* |
| More than 57 days | Loss of Deposit |
| 29-56 days | 50% |
| 15-28 days | 80% |
| 7-14 days | 90% |
| Less than 7 days | 100% |
| *Where the standard deposit is increased to secure specific facilities or extras, which are non-refundable in whole or part, then the scale of cancellation charges will be calculated based on the % of the cost of all other arrangements, or loss of deposit, as applicable, and the non-refundable charges will be added to that cancellation charge to give the total charge. | |
Our cancellation charges are a percentage of the total holiday cost. These charges are based on how many days before your departure we receive the cancellation notice from your agent and not when your correspondence was sent to them. Please note that any amendment charges are non-refundable.
Any amendments or cancellations made between 0-28 days before departure will be subject to the applicable administration charges or cancellation charges stated in clause 8 and 9. Please note that, in the case of cancellation after receipt of documents, no refund will be given unless unused tickets are returned to us.
Please note, if only some members of your party cancel, in addition to incurring the applicable cancellation charges, we will recalculate the holiday cost for the remaining travellers. You may have to pay the extra room charges such as single room supplements.
In cases where cancellation charges made by our suppliers are higher than the cost of the deposit, we may pass the charge on to you. Please ask for full details and we will notify you of the specific charges applicable to your booking.
Note: Certain arrangements may not be cancelled after they have been confirmed and any cancellation could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100% of that part of the arrangements.
10. If we change or cancel your holiday
We begin planning the arrangements we offer many months in advance and so we reserve the right to make changes to and correct errors in holiday details both before and after bookings have been confirmed. We must also reserve the right to cancel confirmed bookings at any time. For example, if the minimum number of clients required for a particular travel arrangement is not reached we may have to cancel it.
Most changes are minor but occasionally, we may have to make a Major Change. If we have to make a Major Change or cancel, we will tell you as soon as possible and if there is time to do so before departure, we will offer you the choice of the following options:
(a) (for Major Changes) accepting the changed arrangements or
(b) Purchasing alternative arrangements from us, of a similar standard to those originally booked if available (if the chosen alternative is less expensive than your original one, we will refund the difference but if it is more expensive, we will ask you to pay the difference) or
(c) Cancelling or accepting the cancellation in which case you will receive a full and quick refund of all monies you have paid to us.
However, we will not cancel your confirmed booking 10 weeks or less before departure except for reasons of "Force Majeure" (as explained above) or failure by you to make full payment on time.
Due to the unpredictability of Force Majeure events we shall not be liable for any changes either before departure or during the holiday, which in our opinion are necessary to protect your safety. In this event, we will offer you suitable alternative arrangements, or, if you do not travel, return the monies you have paid us but we will not pay you compensation.
In all cases, except where the Major Change arises due to reasons of Force Majeure and subject to the exceptions below, we will pay you the following compensation as detailed below:
| Compensation | |
| These scales are based on how many days before your booked holiday departure date, we notify you of a major change | |
| Period before departure when a major change is notified | Compensation payable per adult (for children see below) |
| More than 70 days | £0.00 |
| 29-69 days | £25.00 |
| 15-28 days | £35.00 |
| 7-14 days | £40.00 |
| Less than 7 days | £50.00 |
| *Where the standard deposit is increased to secure specific facilities or extras, which are non-refundable in whole or part, then the scale of cancellation charges will be calculated based on the % of the cost of all other arrangements, or loss of deposit, as applicable, and the non-refundable charges will be added to that cancellation charge to give the total charge. | |
Please note that the above payments are per full fare-paying passenger (excluding infants). For children invoiced at reduced rates, compensation will be paid on a pro-rata basis of the adult rate. We will not pay you compensation and the above options will not be available if we make a minor change or cancel as a result of your failure to make full payment on time. We regret we cannot pay any expenses, costs or losses incurred by you as a result of any change or cancellation. We will not pay you compensation where we make a Major Change or cancel more than 10 weeks before departure or in the event of Force Majeure. Very rarely, we may be forced by Force Majeure to change or terminate your arrangements after departure. If this situation does occur, we regret we will be unable to make any refunds (unless we obtain any from our suppliers), pay you compensation or meet any costs or expenses you incur as a result.
11. Flight
Under EU Law, you have rights in some circumstances to refunds and/or compensation from the 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. Reimbursement in such cases is the responsibility of the airline and will not automatically entitle you to a refund of your holiday price from us. Your rights to a refund and/or compensation from us are set out in clause 10. Unfortunately, delays sometimes occur. Depending on the length of the delay and surrounding circumstances, the airline concerned should provide refreshments when and where appropriate. Virgin Flightstore is not in a position to provide any assistance in the event of flight delay and cannot accept any liability except where expressly stated in these Booking Conditions. The carrier(s), flight timings and types of aircraft detailed on your confirmation invoice are for guidance only and are subject to alteration and confirmation. The latest timings will be shown on your tickets which will be despatched to you approximately two weeks before departure. You must accordingly check your tickets very carefully immediately on receipt to ensure you have the correct flight times. It is possible that flight times may be changed even after tickets have been despatched - we will contact you as soon as possible if this occurs. Any change in flight timings, and/or aircraft type will not entitle you to cancel or change to other arrangements without paying our normal charges. Please note that, in accordance with Air Navigation Orders, in order to qualify for infant status, a child must be under 2 years of age on the day of its return flight. Please note the existence of a 'community list' (available for inspection at http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/air/safety/flywell_en.htm) detailing air carriers that are subject to an operating ban with the EU Community.
12. Behaviour
When you book a Holiday with Virgin Flightstore you accept responsibility for the proper conduct for yourself and your party whilst on Holiday. If we or any other person in authority is of the reasonable opinion that you or any member of your party is behaving in such a way as to cause or be likely to cause danger or upset to any other person or damage to property, we will be entitled to terminate the holiday of the person(s) concerned. The person(s) concerned will be required to leave the accommodation or other service and we will have no further responsibility to them including any return travel arrangements. No refunds will be made and we will not pay any expenses or costs incurred as a result of the termination. You will be responsible for making full payment for any damage or loss caused by you or any member of your party during your time away. Payment must be paid direct at the time to the service supplier concerned failing which, you will be responsible for meeting any claims subsequently made against us (together with our own and the other party's full legal costs) as a result of your actions.
13. If you have a complaint
In the unlikely event that you have any reason to complain about any arrangements whilst away, you must immediately inform the airline or supplier of the service(s) in question. Any verbal notification must be confirmed in writing to the airline / supplier as soon as possible.
If you remain dissatisfied, you must write to your travel agent within 28 days of the end of your arrangements giving your booking reference and full details of your complaint, they will then pass the details on to us for us to investigate. For all complaints and claims which do not involve death, personal injury or illness, we regret we cannot accept liability if you fail to notify the complaint or claim entirely in accordance with this clause.
14. What happens to complaints
We are a member of ABTA, membership number V8694. 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 at 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 the 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 we agree, 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
15. Our liability to you
(1) In respect of Packages
We promise that your Holiday arrangements will be made, performed or provided with reasonable skill and care. This means that we will accept responsibility if, for example, you suffer death or personal injury or your contracted arrangements are not provided as promised or prove deficient as a result of the failure of ourselves, our employees, agents or suppliers to use reasonable skill and care in making, performing or providing your arrangements. Further, we will be responsible for what our employees, agents and suppliers do or do not do if they were at the time acting within the course of their employment or carrying out work we had asked them to do.
(2) In respect of other arrangements
We promise to use reasonable skill and care in the performance of our contractual obligations, subject to and in accordance with these Booking Conditions. Our contractual obligations consist of using our reasonable skill and care in making your booking and arranging your accommodation/car hire/ flight, as well as using our reasonable skill and care in choosing our suppliers.
(3) In respect of Packages and other arrangements
We will not be responsible for any injury, illness, death, loss, damage, expense, cost or other claim of any description whatsoever which results from:
- The act(s) and/or omission(s) of the person(s) affected or any member(s) of their party or
- The act(s) and/or omission(s) of a third party not connected with the provision of your arrangements and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable or
- 'Force Majeure' as defined above.
(5) We limit the maximum amount we may have to pay you for any claims you may make against us.The maximum amount we will have to pay you where we are found liable for loss of and/or damage to any luggage or personal possessions (including money) is £50 per person affected unless a lower limitation applies to your claim under this clause.
For all other claims which do not involve death or personal injury, the maximum amount we will have to pay you if we are found liable to you on any basis is three times the price (excluding insurance premiums and amendment charges) paid by or on behalf of the person(s) affected in total unless a lower limitation applies to your claim. This maximum amount will only be payable where everything has gone wrong and you have not received any benefit at all from your holiday.
(6) Where any claim or part of a claim (including those involving death or personal injury) concerns or is based on any travel arrangements (including the process of getting on and/or off the transport concerned) provided by any air, sea, rail or road carrier or any stay in a hotel, the maximum amount of compensation we will have to pay you will be limited. The most we will have to pay you for that claim or that part of a claim if we are found liable to you on any basis is the most the carrier or hotel keeper concerned would have to pay under the international convention or regulation which applies to the travel arrangements or hotel stay in question (for example, the Warsaw Convention as amended for international travel by air and/or for airlines with an operating licence granted by an EU country, the EU Regulation on Air Carrier Liability for national and international travel by air, the Athens convention for international travel by sea). Where a carrier or hotel would not be obliged to make any payment to you under the applicable International Convention or Regulation in respect of a claim or part of a claim, we will not be obliged to make a payment to you for that claim or part of the claim. When making any payment, we are entitled to deduct any money which you have received or are entitled to receive from the transport provider or hotelier for the complaint or claim in question. Copies of the applicable international conventions and regulations are available from us on request. In any circumstances in which the carrier is liable to you by virtue of the Denied Boarding Regulation 2004, any liability we may have to you under our contract with you, arising out of the same facts, is limited to the remedies provided under the Regulation as if (for this purpose only) we were a carrier; any sums you receive from the carrier will be deducted from any amount due from ourselves.
(7) We will not accept responsibility for services or facilities which do not form part of our agreement. For example any excursion you book whilst away, or any service or facility which your hotel or any other supplier agrees to provide for you.
(8) The services and facilities included in your holiday will be deemed to be provided with reasonable skill and care if they comply with any local regulations which apply, or, if there are no applicable local regulations, if they are reasonable when compared to the local standards in practice.
16. Conditions of suppliers
The services which make up your arrangements are provided by independent suppliers. Those suppliers provide these services in accordance with their own terms and conditions. Some of these terms and conditions may limit or exclude the supplier's liability to you, usually in accordance with applicable International Conventions (see above). Copies of the relevant parts of these terms and conditions are available on request from ourselves or the supplier concerned.
17. Data protection/privacy
In order to process your booking and meet your requirements, we must pass your personal details on to the relevant suppliers of your travel arrangements. We would also like to hold your information (including any email address), where collected by us, for our own future marketing purposes (for example, to inform you of promotional/competition offers or to send you our brochure). If you do not wish to receive such approaches in future, please inform us as soon as possible. For full details of our data protection and privacy policy, and an explanation of how your personal details will be used by us, please refer to our website at virginflightstore.com
18. Special requests, disabilities and medical conditions
If you have any special request, including seat and meal requests, you must advise your travel agent at the time of booking. Although we will endeavour to pass any reasonable requests on to the airline or relevant supplier as applicable, we regret we cannot guarantee any request will be met unless we have specifically confirmed it in writing. Failure to meet any special request will not otherwise be a breach of contract. Confirmation that a special request has been noted or passed on or the inclusion of the special request on your confirmation invoice or any other documentation is not confirmation that the request will be met. Unless and until specifically confirmed, all special requests are subject to availability. If you or any member of your party has any disability or medical condition which may affect your arrangements, please provide your travel agent with full details so that we can advise as to the suitability of the chosen arrangements. In any event, we must be given full details in writing at the time of booking. If we / the airline / other supplier reasonably feel unable to properly accommodate the particular needs of the person concerned, we reserve the right to decline the booking or, if full details are not given at the time of booking, cancel when we become aware of these details.
Virgin Flightstore is a trading name of Worldwide Travel of East Anglia Limited.
Registered company No: 2580372, VAT No: 595050237. Registered office: Company Secretariat, The Office, Manor Royal, Crawley, West Sussex. RH10 9NU.
