1. YOUR CONTRACT
Your contract is with Hurtigruten Ltd., a company wholly owned by Hurtigruten ASA, on the basis of these conditions and the information contained in the brochure, and shall be 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. When you book an air package holiday or sailing with us the contract between us will exist as soon as you or your travel agent asks us to confirm your booking. We then become responsible to provide you with the voyage arrangements or air package holiday you have booked and you become responsible to pay for them, in each case subject to these terms and conditions. You will also become responsible to pay for any additional arrangements made by us on your behalf including International Flights not included in any air package, optional excursions, travel insurance or other arrangements requested by you and booked.
When you make a booking you guarantee you have the authority to accept and do accept on behalf of your party the terms of these booking conditions and accept responsibility for making all payments to us for all members of the party. We are unable to accept provisional or conditional bookings. We will send all documents and other information to you and you will be responsible for ensuring that all other members of the party are kept fully informed. A confirmation invoice which you should check as soon as you receive it will be sent on receipt of your deposit. If you wish to change or cancel any arrangements later you may have to pay an amendment or cancellation charge and additional costs (see below) which may be as much as the whole of the original price of your arrangements.
Only one invoice and one set of documents will be issued. No verbal amendments may be made by either party to these written booking conditions; any change must be in writing signed by the Chief Executive of Hurtigruten ASA.
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 and a confirmation. Upon receipt, if you believe that any details on the ATOL Certificate or confirmation or any other or any other document are wrong you must advise us immediately.
If you book your holiday through a travel agent all communication must be through that agent. Please quote your booking reference number in all communications.
You are responsible for complying with any Visa or other entry requirements for you or any of your party who are not full European Union Passport Holders.
2. YOUR FINANCIAL PROTECTION
We hold an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence granted by the Civil Aviation Authority under number 3584. When you buy an ATOL protected flight or flight inclusive holiday from us you will receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists the flight, accommodation, car hire and/or other services that are financially protected, where you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong. In the unlikely event of our insolvency the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad if you have booked a package holiday from this brochure and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking. For further information visit the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk.
If you book arrangements other than an air packaged holiday from this brochure your monies are protected by our bond held with the PSA (Passenger Shipping Association). We are also a member of the Association of British Travel Agents, tour operator class ABTA V7545.
3. PAYMENT
Once you have asked us to confirm your booking the total price of the arrangements you have booked is due and is payable as follows:
(i) If you book more than 60 days before your scheduled departure date a non-refundable deposit of 20%.
The balance is due 60 days before your scheduled departure date. No second invoice will be sent. Travel documents will be issued 7 to 14 days prior to departure.
(ii) If you book less than 60 days before your scheduled departure date the full price is payable when you book. Our preferred method of deposit payment is by bank debit card or credit card. Balance payment may be made by cash, bank debit card, credit card or cheque (providing there is time to clear it to meet the payment schedule shown above – you should allow 5 working days for clearance from the time we receive it).
Online Bookings
Bookings made online that cost less than £800 or made within 60 days of departure require full payment at the time of booking and no refund is made if cancelled.
Credit Card Charges
In line with The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012, we will make a charge of 1.50% for deposits and balances paid by credit card. Your booking may be cancelled if we do not receive payment by the due date (we will not normally send reminders) and cancellation charges as set out under “If You Cancel” (see below) will be payable by you.
4.A PRICES
All Voyage prices shown in this brochure are in pounds sterling and are per person based on full occupancy of the cabin accommodation unless otherwise stated. Single/Sole occupancy of cabins with more than one berth is at our discretion as single/sole use of multiple berth cabins will be limited. The price of your voyage or air package holiday arrangements was calculated using exchange rates quoted in the Financial Times Guide to World Currencies on 08.02.2013, Norwegian Kroner (NOK) 8.7236; Euros 1.1783. We reserve the right to change any of the prices quoted in this brochure although there will be no change within 30 days of your departure date. You will be advised of the current price of the voyage or air package holiday you wish to book before your contract is confirmed. We reserve the right to increase or decrease prices in line with any change in VAT, local and UK taxes, embarkation/disembarkation fees, fuel surcharges, exchange rates, security charges or any fees chargeable for the services included in the cost of your holiday.
Should it be necessary to make any surcharges we will notify you of the relevant adjustments by issuing a new invoice. In any event we will absorb all such increases where they form less than 2% of the total cost of your voyage or air package holiday (excluding any cancellation or amendment charges). Only amounts in excess of 2% will be invoiced to you, together with an administration charge of £1.00 per person together with an amount to cover agent’s commission.
In the event that any surcharge means you paying in excess of 10% more on the original cost of your voyage or air package holiday, you will be entitled to cancel your trip with a full refund of all monies paid (except amendment fees). Should you wish to cancel under these circumstances you must exercise your right to do so within 14 days from the date of the invoice we send you showing the increase.
Should the price of your voyage or air package holiday go down due to changes above by more than 2% of your holiday cost then any refund due will be paid to you. 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 or other protection in place.
4.B VOYAGE AND AIR PACKAGE HOLIDAY
PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE
• Travel Insurance
• Luggage Handling
• International Flights except where included in the Air Package Holiday Price
• Optional Excursions
• Gratuities
Optional Excursions booked before you travel or local excursions or other activities that you may choose to book and pay for whilst on holiday are not part of your voyage or air package holiday arrangements provided by us nor are we agents for the provider of the service. For any excursion or other activity you book before departure or with which you are assisted in arranging whilst on holiday, your contract will solely be with the supplier of the excursion or activity and not with Hurtigruten. We are not responsible for the provision of your excursion or activity or for anything that happens during the course of its provision by the supplier.
5. IF YOU CHANGE YOUR BOOKING
If you wish to change your travel arrangements after they have been confirmed we will do our utmost to help but it may not always be possible. Any request for changes to be made must be in writing by the person who made the booking or your travel agent. You will be asked to pay an administration charge of £60 per person and any further cost we incur in making this alteration. NB: most airlines will charge a fee for ticket changes. Costs may increase the closer to the departure date that changes are made. For example, the transfer within 60 days of departure of arrangements involving a scheduled flight will mean the cancellation and re-booking of this flight and a significant additional charge.
If you change the number of people in your party, the price of the arrangements will be recalculated for the new party size e.g. this may mean that accommodation is under-occupied and each member of the party may have to pay an increased price.
Any increase in price caused by changes you have requested is not a cancellation charge even though it may arise because a member of your party has cancelled. Any change by you to your confirmed arrangements after departure is in all cases subject to availability and any relevant costs.
6. IF YOU CANCEL
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 must be received at our offices. We recommend ‘Recorded Delivery’. Cancellation takes effect the day we receive your letter or email. Since we incur costs in relation to your arrangements from the time we confirm your booking you will have to pay the applicable cancellation charges as shown in the table below (which also applies if we cancel because you have failed to make payments on time - see “Payment” section) together with the cost of any air fare for which we have had to pay at the time of the booking and will be payable immediately on cancellation.
When the cancellation letter is received by us before departure // Charges as a % of the total holiday cost (excl. insurance premiums)
60 or more days // Retention of deposit
42–59 days // 30%
28–41 days // 60%
14–27 days // 90%
Less than 14 days // 100%
If you have to cancel for a reason covered by your travel insurance you may be able to reclaim the cancellation charges, less applicable excess. Insurance premiums are not refundable.
7. IF WE CHANGE OR CANCEL YOUR BOOKING
We reserve the right to change any of the details, and correct any errors in this brochure or invoices at any time. If changes are made before you have made your booking we will advise you before we confirm your arrangements. We reserve the right in any circumstances to cancel your travel arrangements (for example if a minimum number of participants for a particular travel arrangement is not reached, we may have to cancel it) and to change airline, aircraft types, vessels and itineraries without liability for any subsequent loss. Even after we have confirmed your booking we may have to make alterations but we will not cancel your travel arrangements less than 60 days before your departure except for reasons of force majeure or failure by you to pay the final balance in full.
Most alterations will be minor and while we will do our best to notify you or your travel agent of any changes as soon as reasonably possible if there is time before your departure, we will have no other liability to you.
Occasionally we may have to make a significant change to your confirmed arrangements.
Significant changes include the following:
• Change of UK departure airport. A change from one London airport to another is not considered a major change. London airports are Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City.
• Change of your time of departure or return by more than 12 hours.
• Change of your flight from a day flight to a night flight if this also includes a change to your departure time of 3 hours or more.†
• Change of resort.
• Change of holiday accommodation to accommodation of a lower official rating.
† For the purposes of the contract night flights are those which depart from the UK between 2200 and 0600 hours or arrive in the UK between 2400 and 0600 hours.
If we have to make a significant change we will notify you as soon as possible and you may either:
(a) accept the change and the contract between us will then be varied to incorporate the change; or
(b) take alternative arrangements altogether (subject to availability). If the alternative arrangements selected are a lower price than those originally confirmed the difference will (if already paid) be refunded to you.
(c) withdraw from the booking completely in which case we will as soon as possible, refund all money paid to us.
Passengers must give notice of their decision as soon as reasonably possible and not later than 7 days of being informed of the alteration.
If you choose (a) or (b) above, you will receive as compensation a credit towards the cost of your arrangements, or any alternative selected, the amount shown in Scale A below. If you choose (c) we will pay you compensation shown in Scale B below. In all cases we will have no liability for any other or greater compensation or for expenses or losses incurred.
Period before departure date notification given by us // Credit/Compensation per fare paying passenger (excluding infants)*
Scale A Scale B
0–7 days £50 £25
8–14 days £40 £20
15–28 days £30 £15
29–42 days £20 £10
43–59 days £10 £5
More than 60 days £5 Nil
*The compensation shown above applies to full fare paying adults only. Children or others travelling at concessionary rates will receive compensation pro rata based on the concessionary price against the full adult price as shown on the confirmation.
The above rates do not apply when we are forced to make changes which cause you to withdraw or cancel your arrangements, by reason of unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control and which we could not have avoided by the exercise of all due care and our only liability will be to refund, as soon as possible, all money paid to us by you. We are unable to accept liability or pay compensation where the performance or prompt performance of our contractual obligation is prevented or affected by reason of circumstances amounting to “force majeure” i.e. any event which we or the supplier(s) of the service(s) could not, even with due care foresee or avoid. Such events may include, but are not limited to, war, threat of war or civil commotions, riots, terrorist activity, industrial dispute, natural or nuclear disaster, adverse weather, fi re, flood, drought, government action, airport and port regulations and closures, technical transportation problems, maintenance to vessels, scheduling of transport and similar events outside our control.
A flight or ship delay does not constitute a change to holiday arrangements.
8. COMPLAINT PROCEDURE
If you have a problem during your holiday concerning any service we have confirmed you must inform the local supplier, e.g. your hotelier, or our local representative or agent immediately to enable them to try to resolve the matter. You are also obliged to act in a way so as to minimise any loss. If the issue is not resolved locally it is essential you notify our head office in writing, quoting the booking reference number, at the earliest opportunity and no later than 28 days after your return, to enable any complaint to be investigated. It is strongly recommended that you communicate any complaint to the supplier of the services in question without delay and obtain a written report. If you fail to follow this procedure we will have been deprived of the opportunity to investigate and rectify your complaint at the time and this may affect your rights under this contract. Any accident resulting in personal injury, loss of, or damage to luggage must be reported to a ship’s officer or airline official immediately and written confirmation obtained. We are unable to accept liability for the contents of literature, DVDs, videos or websites produced by our suppliers/hoteliers. In the unlikely event that any complaint cannot be settled between us you may if you wish be referred to Arbitration. This special scheme, by arrangement with ABTA is administered by CEDR Solve. It applies if your claim is for not more than £5,000 per person or £25,000 per booking and does not involve physical injury or illness. The scheme provides for a simple and inexpensive method of arbitration conducted privately based on written documentation and evidence with limited customer liability on costs. Full details are available on request or from ABTA Ltd, 30 Park Street, London SE1 9EQ, www.abta.com.
9. OUR LIABILITY TO YOU
We accept liability for any damage caused to you or any person in your party by the failure to perform, or the improper performance of, the voyage or air package holiday arrangements when your booking is confirmed (subject to any changes subsequently agreed between us) (but excluding any additional arrangements or extras whether or not purchased at the same time as defined in paragraph 4B) unless:
(a) the failures which occur in the performance of the contract are attributable to you or some other person in your party;
(b) such failures in performance are attributable to a third party unconnected with the provision of the services contracted for and are unforeseeable and unavoidable or;
(c) such failures are due to:
(i) unusual or unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all due care had been exercised; or
(ii) an event which we, or the supplier of the services could not foresee or forestall even with all due care.
Our liability, shall in any event be limited to:
(i) the maximum of twice the cost of your travel arrangements, or
(ii) the minimum amount payable in accordance with and/or in an identical manner to:
(a) the contractual terms of the companies that provide the transportation and accommodation for
your travel arrangements, which are expressly incorporated into the contract and also form the
terms and conditions of separate contracts between you and the carrier.
(b) any relevant international conventions, including the Warsaw Convention 1929, whether as amended by the Hague Protocol 1955 or the Montreal Protocol 1999, or otherwise, or the Montreal Convention 1999. Carriage of passengers and their luggage by sea is governed by the Athens Convention 1974, and in respect of carriage by rail by the Berne Convention and in respect of provision of accommodation by the Paris Convention. Any action arising out of carriage by air or sea must be commenced within the two year time limit prescribed by the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions or the Athens Convention as applicable. Legal proceedings for all claims for which time bars are not stated in international conventions or are stated in the Norwegian Maritime Code must be made within one year from the date on which disembarkation did, or should have, taken place. The transport of passengers, baggage and vehicles is subject to the provisions of the Act. no. 39 of 24 June 1994 Norwegian Maritime Code, as amended, (“Norwegian Maritime Code”) and package tours are subject to the provisions of the Act no. 57 of 25 August 1995 Relating to Package Tours (“The Package Tours Act).
We are to be regarded as having all benefit of any limitation of compensation contained in these, or any other conventions, including claims for death, injury, delay to passengers and loss, damage and delay to luggage. You may ask for copies of the transport companies’ contractual terms or the international conventions from our offices at Bedford House, 69-79 Fulham High Street, London SW6 3JW.
Under EU law (Regulation 261/2004) you have rights in some circumstances to refunds and/or compensation from your airline in cases of denied boarding, cancellation or delay to flights, for which you must pursue the airline. Reimbursement in such cases will not automatically entitle you to a refund of any part of your holiday cost from us. Also, where a delay may result in entitlement to cancel a flight this does not automatically entitle you to cancel or receive a refund for any other arrangements, even though they may have been made in conjunction with your flight. If your airline does not comply with the Regulation you should complain to the CAA Consumer Protection Group on 020 7453 6700, www.caa.co.uk.
10. INDEMNITY
When you book arrangements with us you accept responsibility for the proper conduct of yourself and your party. If your actions or omissions cause damage to any property in the provision of the contracted arrangements, or cause delay or diversion to any flight or other means of transportation, you agree to fully indemnify us against any claim (including professional fees and legal costs) made against us by or on behalf of the owner of such property or the operator of the flight or other means of transportation. The Captain of an aircraft or Master of a ship has authority over the aircraft/ship and passengers at all times when they are boarding or on board. There will be no liability on our part, or that of any supplier, for any refund, compensation, or costs thus incurred. Additionally, we will have the right to recover full costs resulting from the incident from the passenger.
At any port or place we may refuse to embark or may disembark any passenger who, in the opinion of the ship’s authorized personnel, might be excluded from landing at further destinations by local authorities or who may be suffering from any contagious or infectious disease, or whose presence may be detrimental to the wellbeing of passengers or crew. In cases of quarantine of the ship, or individual passengers (passengers may be required to remain in their cabin or as instructed by authorised personnel on board if they or any other occupant of the accommodation presents any symptoms or may be considered to put other passengers at risk) we will not be liable for expenses thus caused and in such cases as above there will be no entitlement to any refund or compensation and we will have no liability for costs incurred as a result.
Each passenger warrants that they are fi t to travel. Hurtigruten reserves the right to require any passenger to produce evidence of the same and cannot accept liability for any situation arising out of a failure to disclose any pre-existing condition or disability. Passengers with physical or mental disabilities or other conditions which may require special assistance, e.g. use of a wheelchair or scooter, or service animal, must advise us in writing before a booking is made. Passengers who use wheelchairs or who may require special assistance must be accompanied by someone who is able to assist them on shore and at sea.
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 responsibility if you cannot travel because you have not complied with the latest requirements. If you have made independent travel arrangements you accept responsibility for joining the ship in good time, regardless of any change to the sailing time or date, or to the itinerary. We are not able to refund monies paid to us, or any third party acting on our or your behalf, or make compensation or other payments where, for whatever reason, you fail to join the ship. Passengers going ashore are responsible for re-boarding the ship prior to departure from port.
11. INSURANCE
It is a condition of the contract with us that every member of the booking has travel insurance in force for the entire duration of the holiday, covering at least the cancellation of the booking and providing medical cover for illness or injury and repatriation while overseas. Please provide us with the name of your insurer, together with their 24-hour emergency number when you book or as soon as possible.
12. BROCHURE VALIDITY
This brochure was published in March 2013 and the details and prices contained in it are valid from October 2013 to March 2014 but may be superseded by subsequent brochures.
13. DATA PROTECTION
In order to process your booking and ensure your travel arrangements run smoothly and meet your requirements we, Hurtigruten Ltd, 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 airlines, ships, 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 pass any information on to 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.) Please note that where information is also held by your travel agent, this is subject to your agent’s own data protection policy.
Hurtigruten is not responsible for the privacy practices of any other companies.
If you wish to obtain a copy of the personal information held about you, please write to the above address. Hurtigruten Ltd may make a small charge for supplying this information as permitted by law.
Hurtigruten Ltd. may wish to contact you by post, e-mail and/or telephone with news, information and offers on its voyages and other holidays we may have available and for market research purposes. If you prefer not to be contacted for the purposes set out above please contact the Customer Data Controller, Marketing Department, Hurtigruten Ltd, Bedford House, 69 – 79 Fulham High Street, London SW6 3JW.