Booking ConditionsThe Great Game Travel Company Ltd. ('the Company') accepts bookings subject to these conditions: Your contractWhen you make a booking with us you agree to accept all these conditions. When you sign the booking form or credit card authorisation form you affirm that you have full authority to sign on behalf of everyone whose name is listed, and you confirm that they are all fully aware of and accept these conditions. When we accept your booking we agree to carry out our obligations to you as defined in our tour factsheets and other information provided to you. These booking conditions may only be varied or waived by a Director of the Company in writing. This contract, including all matters arising from it, is subject to English law and the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts. Making your bookingTo make your booking, you should complete and sign the Booking Form and send it to us with a non-refundable deposit of 10% of your selected travel arrangements (minimum 100 GBP per person), or full payment for travel within 56 days, plus insurance premium if required. Paying for your holidayYou must pay the balance of the price of your holiday at least 56 days before departure. If you book less than 56 days before departure, you must make the full payment on booking. If you do not pay the balance in time, we reserve the right to cancel your booking, and you will have to pay cancellation charges. You may pay by sterling cheque, sterling bank draft or bank transfer to our account. In the latter case, you pay the cost of the transfer. You may also pay by credit card, in which case a 1.5% surcharge applies. If you book less than 28 days before departure, you may not have enough time to obtain your visa. If you book and are then unable to travel you will have to pay cancellation charges (see below). When you pay, we will ask you if you wish to make a voluntary donation to one of the charitable projects which we support in Afghanistan. Any donation that you make will be sent entirely to the charity. Financial ProtectionWe are licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority and hold ATOL Number T7167. Any booking made with us which includes air transport to Central Asia is covered by this ATOL license. This ensures that in the event of our failure your money will be protected; if you are on holiday at the time, arrangements will be made for you to complete your holiday and return home. The flights we provide are supplied by other ATOL holders and are protected by their bonds. For further information, please visit the ATOL website. We are also members of the Travel Trust Association (membership no. R9990). If your booking does not include air transport, your payment is protected by the Travel Trust Association. This ensures that in the event of our failure your money will be protected and you will receive a full refund. For further information, please visit the Travel Trust Association website. Payment for your flightThe payments you make for your flight are held by us [in our trust account] on behalf of the ATOL holder who is supplying your flight, until the date we pass the money to that ATOL holder. The ATOL holder supplying the flight will issue an ATOL confirmation invoice to confirm its contract with you. We will forward it to you no later than the day after it has been received. Booking acceptanceAfter we receive your booking form we will send you confirmation by e-mail or in writing. At this point your booking becomes definite, and a contract exists between you and us. Before we confirm your booking, we reserve the right to increase or decrease advertised prices. We also reserve the right to decline any booking at our discretion. Travel documents and informationYou must be in possession of a valid passport and all visas, permits and certificates including vaccination certificates, required for the whole of the journey and you accept responsibility for obtaining them. Any information or advice that we give you on visas, vaccinations, climate, clothing, baggage, special equipment. etc. is given in good faith but without responsibility on our part. InsuranceYou must have travel insurance. This travel insurance must cover personal accident, medical expenses and repatriation expenses (including helicopter rescue and air ambulance), and cancellation. We strongly recommend that the cover also includes loss of personal belongings and all other expenses which might arise as a result of loss, damage, injury, delay or inconvenience occurring to you. You should also ensure that there are no exclusion clauses limiting protection for the type of activities (such as trekking or rafting) included in your holiday. If you do not have this level of cover then we may refuse to carry you unless and until you purchase sufficient insurance. In such circumstances you have no claim against the Company or its agents. Any claims concerning matters for which you are insured must be directed to your insurers. If we change your holidayPrice changesWe reserve the right to change prices or impose surcharges up to 31 days before departure due to changes in transport costs, fuel costs, taxes (such as airport taxes), exchange rates, or if government action should require us to do so. Price increases and surcharges will be calculated according to the full extra cost compared to the costs and exchange rates obtained at 31 December of the previous year. We will be responsible for the first 2% of the additional costs and you will be responsible for the balance. If any surcharge results in an increase of more than 10% of the holiday cost excluding insurance premiums and government taxes you may cancel the booking within 7 days of notification of the surcharge. We will then refund any monies paid to us in respect of the holiday and travel insurance, but not visas or any other incidental costs. If any surcharge is anticipated, you will be advised at the time of booking of the likely amount. Holiday changesWhile we will do our best to operate all holidays as advertised, by entering into this contract you accept that it may prove necessary or advisable to vary a holiday itinerary or its contents due to prevailing local conditions. We reserve the right at any time to cancel or change any of the facilities, services or prices described in our holiday factsheets and we accept no liability for loss of enjoyment as a result of these changes. If we make a significant change we will inform you as soon as reasonably possible (if there is time before departure). A significant change does not apply to a change of carrier, transport or named accommodation, but is normally considered to be a major itinerary re-routing, a significant change in the duration of your holiday, a change of flight times of more than 12 hours for connecting group flights to/from London (not applicable to flights within a holiday itinerary), or a change of departure airport (except between London airports). If you do not want to accept the change you may transfer to another holiday (with an appropriate price adjustment where applicable) or cancel without penalty. The compensation rates in the 'If we cancel your holiday' section apply. If we cancel your holidayWhen we send you the confirmation invoice, we make every effort to provide you with the holiday booked. But we must reserve the right to cancel the holiday if the following situations occur: a) insufficient numbers to make a booking viable. We may cancel a booking up to 42 days before the departure date. b) unforeseen or uncontrollable circumstances, such as war, civil or political unrest, adverse weather conditions ('force majeure'). c) your failure to pay the final balance. This is treated as if you had cancelled the holiday, and you will have to pay the cancellation charges detailed in the 'If you cancel your booking' section. If we cancel your holiday due to a) or b), we will if possible offer you an alternative holiday. If this is not acceptable to you we will refund all payments made to us in respect of the holiday cost and insurance, but we will not be liable to refund you for any incidental expenses that you may have incurred as a result of your booking, such as visas, vaccinations, non-refundable connecting flights, etc. If you change your bookingIf you change your original booking, you must request the changes in writing. If you are unable to travel, we may be able to transfer your booking to another suitable person. While we will make every reasonable effort to accommodate changes and additional requests, we cannot guarantee their availability. For any change up to 56 days before departure you must pay an administration fee of 25 GBP per booking plus the cost of any extra services required and any charges levied by suppliers. We reserve the right not to accept requests to change or transfer received less than 56 days before departure. If you cancel your bookingIf you cancel your booking, we will impose the cancellation charges below. These are calculated from the day we receive written notification. They are a percentage of the total holiday price, including surcharges:
In addition to the above cancellation fees you must also pay the full insurance premium for any insurance arranged through us. You are strongly advised to take out cancellation insurance at the time of making the booking as this will cover cancellation charges in certain circumstances. (Note such insurance will not cover a change of mind.) Acceptance of riskAdventure travel involves risks, including injury, disease, loss or damage to property, inconvenience and discomfort. The itineraries given for each holiday must be taken as an indication of what the tour will cover, and not as a contractual obligation on the part of the Company. Changes in itinerary may be caused by local political conditions, flight cancellations, mechanical breakdown, weather, border restrictions, sickness, or other unforeseeable circumstances. No refunds will be given for unused services. It is a condition of booking any of our holidays that you accept this flexibility, and acknowledge that delays and alterations and their results, such as inconvenience, discomfort, or disappointment, are possible. Please don't expect Western standards of accommodation or travel. Afghanistan is a developing country. Local conditions of health, safety and efficiency may not be up to Western standards. Some facilities will be basic, although we will do our best to offer you the best there is. Authority on holidayOn an adventurous holiday it is necessary that you abide by the authority of the leader, who represents the Company. Signing our booking form indicates your agreement to this. If you commit any illegal act when on the holiday, or if in the opinion of the leader your health or behaviour appears likely to endanger the safe, comfortable or happy progress of a holiday we may terminate your travel arrangements without any liability on our part. In the case of ill-health we may make such arrangements as we see fit and recover the costs from you. If you are affected by any condition, medical or otherwise, that might affect your or other people's enjoyment of the holiday, you must advise us of this at the time of booking. Our responsibility for your holidayWe will accept liability for the negligence of our staff or agents causing death or physical injury to persons or loss or damage to personal property only to the extent that we are obliged to under English law. We cannot be held responsible for any other mishap to yourself or your property, and in particular for the consequences or effects of flight cancellations, strikes, wars, riots, robbery, sickness, quarantine, government intervention or other such happenings. We shall not be liable for any damage or loss if the failure to carry out the contract is:
Any liability is limited to the price paid. In the case of damaged property the liability is limited to a maximum amount equal to the amount paid by or on behalf of the owner of the property. In all cases we specifically exclude all liability for indirect or consequential loss or expense including loss of profits. The Company's acceptance of liability is limited, in the case of air travel, rail travel, sea travel or hotel accommodation, to the amount set out in the provisions of the Carriers Liability Limited, the 1961 Berne Convention, the 1974 Athens Convention and the 1962 Paris Convention. Any independent arrangements that you make which are not part of the holiday are entirely at your own risk. The holiday starts in Afghanistan, and our responsibility does not start until the appointed time at the designated meeting point. If you fail to arrive there at the appointed time, we shall not be responsible for any additional expenses incurred by you to meet up with the group. ComplaintsIf you have any complaint about the holiday, you should make it known at the earliest opportunity to the leader and/or our local representative, who will normally be able to take appropriate action. If you are not satisfied with their response and you feel your enjoyment of the holiday is likely to be significantly affected, you should notify our head office in England and we will do our best to resolve the problem. If at the end of the holiday, you feel your complaint has not been properly dealt with, we shall try and agree a settlement with you, but you must first notify us of your complaint in writing within 30 days of your scheduled date of return. PhotosWe may use any likeness or image of you secured or taken on any of our holidays without charge in all media for promotional purposes, such as in brochures, slides, the internet and video shows. 
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