Our Booking Conditions

These Booking Conditions only apply to holiday arrangements which you book with us in the UK and which we agree to make, provide or perform (as applicable) as part of our contract with you. All references in these Booking Conditions to “holiday”, “booking”, “contract”, “tour” or “arrangements” mean such holiday arrangements.

In these Booking Conditions, “you” and “your” means all persons named on the booking (including anyone who is added or substituted at a later date).  “We”, “us” and “our” means railselect.com.

1. YOUR CONTRACT
A binding contract between us comes into existence when we despatch our confirmation invoice to the party leader. We both agree that English Law (and no other) will apply to your contract and to any dispute, claim or other matter of any description which arises between us (except as set out below). We both also agree that any dispute, claim or other matter of any description (and whether or not involving any personal injury) which arises between us must be dealt with under the AITO Arbitration Scheme (if the Scheme is available for the claim in question – see clause 14) or by the Courts of England and Wales only unless, in the case of Court proceedings, you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland. In this case, proceedings must either be brought in the Courts of your home country or those of England and Wales. If proceedings are brought in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may choose to have your contract and any dispute, claim or other matter of any description which arises between us governed by the law of Scotland/Northern Ireland as applicable (but if you do not so choose, English law will apply).

2. HOW TO BOOK
The Party Leader must be authorised to make the booking on the basis of these Booking Conditions by all persons named on the booking and their parent or guardian for all party members who are under 18 when the booking is made. By making the booking, the party leader confirms that he/she is so authorised. The party leader is responsible for making all payments due to us. The party leader must be at least 18 when the booking is made.

3. PAYMENT
To confirm the booking the party leader must provide a credit card or debit card payment, in his or her name, for the deposit (10% of the total holiday value, including sightseeing and any extras but excluding insurance) or full payment if booking within 60 days of departure together with insurance premiums if required. For more information about insurance, please click here. The balance of the cost of your holiday must be received by us no less than 60 days before departure. Unless otherwise instructed by the party leader and unless an alternative payment is arranged, the balance will be taken by us on the credit or debit card used for the initial payment of the deposit. There is no extra charge for payment by credit or debit card. However if your credit/debit card is declined for any reason, a charge of £20 will be made to cover administration costs in arranging an alternative payment.
If we do not receive all payments in full and on time, we are entitled to assume that you wish to cancel your booking. In this case, we will be entitled to keep all deposits paid or due at that date. If we do not cancel straight away because you have promised to make payment, you must pay the cancellation charges shown in clause 7 depending on the date we reasonably treat your booking as cancelled.

4. PROVISIONAL BOOKINGS
We will treat your booking as provisional until all the hotel reservations are confirmed. If we are unable to confirm all the hotels you have requested or locate alternatives acceptable to you within 14 days of the booking having been made, we or you shall be entitled to cancel your booking. We shall give you a full refund of all monies paid by you within 14 days of the date of cancellation but we shall have no further liability to you.

5. RESERVATION AND CONFIRMATION
When we receive your booking and all appropriate payments we will, subject to availability, reserve your chosen holiday and send our confirmation/invoice to you. This acts as an acceptance of your booking. If you have not received your confirmation letter/invoice within 21 days please contact us. It is very important that you check your booking confirmation when you receive it in order to ensure it is correct. Contact us immediately if any information which appears on the confirmation or any other document appears to be incorrect or incomplete as it may not be possible to make changes later. We regret we cannot accept any liability if we are not notified of any inaccuracy in any document within 14 days of our sending it out (7 days for final itinerary and 5 days for tickets).  We will do our best to rectify any mistake notified to us outside these time limits but you must meet any costs involved in doing so. The only exception to this requirement to meet costs is where the mistake in question was made by us and there is good reason why you did not tell us about it within these time limits.

6. ALTERATIONS TO YOUR BOOKING
Circumstances may arise whereby you may wish to depart on a different date or make other alterations to your original booking.  Once we have confirmed your original booking and you then wish to change or alter any detail we will do our utmost to make the change provided notification is received, in writing, from the party leader.  Alterations requested more than 42 days prior to departure will be subject to a minimum alteration fee of £30 per person except for Name alterations which can be made up to 14 days prior to departure for an alteration fee of £30 per person.  For all alterations you must also pay all additional costs or charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers in making the change.   Any alteration to your booking requested less than 42 days prior to departure (less than 14 days for name changes) will be regarded as a cancellation. All alterations are subject to availability. 

7. CANCELLATION BY YOU
Should you wish to cancel your holiday, notice must be given in writing by the party leader.  As we incur costs from the date your holiday is confirmed, cancellation charges will be payable as set out below.  Where the cancellation charge is shown as a percentage, this is calculated on the basis of the total cost payable by the person(s) cancelling (excluding insurance premiums and amendment charges). Insurance premiums arranged through us are not normally refundable. Amendment fees are not refundable. The amount of the cancellation fee depends upon when the written notice of cancellation is received.

The scale of cancellation fees is as follows:

Time notice received by us		Cancellation charge
42 days or more prior to departure		(Loss of deposit)
29 to 41 days prior to departure		(40%)
22 to 28 days prior to departure		(60%)
21 to 15 days prior to departure		(80%)
14 days or less prior to departure		(100%)

In addition where any cancellation reduces the number of full paying party members below the number on which the price and/or any concessions agreed for your booking were based, we will recalculate these items and re-invoice you accordingly. 

Depending on the reason for cancellation, you may be able to reclaim these cancellation charges (less any applicable excess) under the terms of your insurance policy.  Claims must be made directly to the insurance company concerned.

Where you are asked to return unused travel documents, including but not exclusively rail tickets, then failure to do so would lead to further charges being made equivalent to any cost which we are thereby unable to recover from our suppliers.

8. CHANGES AND CANCELLATIONS BY US
We start planning the holidays we offer many months in advance. Occasionally, we have to make changes to and correct errors on the website and other details both before and after bookings have been confirmed and cancel confirmed bookings. Whilst we always endeavour to avoid changes and cancellations, we must reserve the right to do so. Most changes are minor. Occasionally, we have to make a “significant change” before departure, such as: a change of accommodation or rail travel to that of a lower official classification or standard for the whole or a major part of the time you are away, a change of accommodation for the whole or a major part of the time you are away or a change of outward departure time or overall length of time you are away of twelve or more hours. If we have to make a significant change or cancel, we will tell you as soon as possible. If there is time to do so before departure, we will offer you the choice of the following options:- 

(a) accepting the changed arrangements or 

(b) purchasing an alternative holiday from us, of a similar standard to that originally booked if available. We will offer you at least one alternative holiday of equivalent or higher standard for which you will not be asked to pay any more than the price of the original holiday. If this holiday is in fact cheaper than the original one, we will refund the price difference. If you do not wish to accept the holiday we specifically offer you, you may choose any of our other then available holidays. You must pay the applicable price of any such holiday. This will mean your paying more if it is more expensive or receiving a refund if it is cheaper 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. 

Please note, the above options are not available where any change made is a minor one. If we have to make a significant change or cancel we will where compensation is due pay you reasonable compensation depending on the circumstances and when the significant change or cancellation is notified to you subject to the following exceptions: 

(a) compensation will not be payable and no liability beyond offering the above mentioned choices can be accepted where we are forced to make a change or cancel as a result of unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which we could not have avoided even with all due care. 

(b) no compensation will be payable and the above options will not be available if we cancel as a result of your failure to comply with any requirement of these booking conditions entitling us to cancel (such as paying on time) or if the change made is a minor one. 

 (A minor change is any change which, taking account of the information you have given us at the time of booking or which we can reasonably be expected to know as a tour operator, we could not reasonably expect to have a significant effect on your confirmed holiday.) 

Except as set out above, we will in addition, where appropriate, pay you any reasonable proven costs and expenses you incur as a result of a cancellation or significant change by us. 

Very rarely, we may be forced by "force majeure" (see clause 9) to change or terminate your holiday after departure but before the scheduled end of your time away. This is extremely unlikely but if this situation does occur, we regret we will be unable to make any refunds (unless we obtain any refunds from our suppliers) pay you any compensation or be responsible for any costs or expenses incurred by you as a result.

9. FORCE MAJEURE
Except where otherwise expressly stated in these booking conditions, we regret we cannot accept liability or pay any compensation where the performance or prompt performance of our obligations under our contract with you is prevented or affected by or you otherwise suffer any damage or loss (as more fully described in clause 11(a) below) as a result of "force majeure".  In these Booking Conditions, "force majeure" means any event which we or the supplier of the service(s) in question could not, even with all due care, foresee or avoid. Such events may include war or threat of war, riot, civil strife, actual or threatened terrorist activity, industrial dispute, natural or nuclear disaster, adverse weather conditions, fire and all similar events outside our control.

10. SURCHARGE GUARANTEE
The price of your holiday, as confirmed on your invoice, is guaranteed and will not be subject to any surcharges whatsoever. 

11. OUR LIABILITY TO YOU
(a) We promise to make sure that the holiday arrangements we have agreed to make, perform or provide, as applicable, as part of our contract with you are made, performed or provided with reasonable skill and care. This means that, subject to these booking conditions, we will accept responsibility if, for example, your contracted holiday arrangements are not provided as promised or prove deficient or you suffer death or personal injury as a result of the failure of ourselves, our employees, agents or suppliers to use reasonable skill and care in making, performing or providing, as applicable, your contracted holiday arrangements. Please note it is your responsibility to show that reasonable skill and care has not been used if you wish to make a claim against us. In addition, we will only 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 (for employees) or carrying out work we had asked them to do (for agents and suppliers). 

(b) We will not be responsible for any injury, illness, death, loss (for example loss of enjoyment), damage, expense, cost or other sum or claim of any description whatsoever which results from any of the following: 

- 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 holiday and which were unforeseeable or unavoidable or
- 'force majeure' as defined in clause 9 above.

(c) Please note, we cannot accept responsibility for any services which do not form part of our contract. This includes, for example, any additional services or facilities which your hotel or any other supplier agrees to provide for you where the services or facilities are not advertised on our website and we have not agreed to arrange them and any excursion you purchase in resort. In addition, regardless of any wording used by us on our website, in any of our printed marketing material or elsewhere, we only promise to use reasonable skill and care as set out above and we do not have any greater or different liability to you.

(d) The promises we make to you about the services we have agreed to provide or arrange as part of our contract – and the laws and regulations of the country in which your claim or complaint occurred – will be used as the basis for deciding whether the services in question had been properly provided.  If the particular services which gave rise to the claim or complaint complied with local laws and regulations applicable to those services at the time, the services will be treated as having been properly provided. This will be the case even if the services did not comply with the laws and regulations of the UK which would have applied had those services been provided in the UK. The exception to this is where the claim or complaint concerns the absence of a safety feature which might lead a reasonable holiday maker to refuse to take the holiday in question.

(e)(i) We limit the amount we may have to pay you for any and all claims or parts of claims which do not involve personal injury, illness or death.  Except where loss of and/or damage to luggage or personal possessions is concerned or a lower limitation of liability applies to your claim under clause e(ii) below, the maximum amount we will have to pay you for such non personal injury claims if we are found liable to you on any basis is twice the price (excluding insurance premiums and amendment charges) paid by or on behalf of the person(s) affected in total.  This maximum amount will only be payable where everything has gone wrong and you have not received any benefit at all from your holiday.  

(ii) 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 Berne Convention in respect of travel by rail and the Paris Convention in respect of the provision of accommodation.)  Please note: 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 similarly are not 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.

(f)  Please note, we cannot accept any liability for any damage, loss, expense or other sum(s) of any description: 

(i) which on the basis of the information given to us by you concerning your booking prior to our accepting it, we could not have foreseen you would suffer or incur if we breached our contract with you or 

(ii) which did not result from any breach of contract or other fault by ourselves or our employees or, where we are responsible for them, our suppliers. 

Additionally we cannot accept liability for any business losses.

(g) You must provide ourselves and our insurers with all assistance that we may reasonably require. You must also tell us and the supplier concerned about your claim or complaint as set out in clause 13 below. If asked to do so, you must transfer to us or our insurers any rights you have against the supplier or whoever else is responsible for your claim or complaint (if the person concerned is under 18, their parent or guardian must do so). You must also agree to cooperate fully with us and our insurers if we or our insurers want to enforce any rights which are transferred.

12. INJURY ILLNESS OR DEATH NOT RESULTING FROM THE HOLIDAY ARRANGEMENTS
If you or any member of your party suffers illness, injury or death, through misadventure, as a result of an activity which does not form part of your contracted holiday arrangements, we will provide you with all reasonable assistance. This assistance may include our making a contribution towards your initial legal costs in taking action against the person(s) responsible providing you request this within 90 days of the incident in question. All assistance (financial or otherwise) is subject to our reasonable discretion and a maximum total cost to us of £5,000 per booking form. If you are entitled to have any costs and expenses arising from such an incident met by or from any insurance policy or if you obtain a costs order against anyone in relation to the incident, you must repay to us the costs and expenses we spend in assisting you.

13. COMPLAINTS AND PROBLEMS
In the unlikely event that you have any reason to complain or experience any problems with your holiday whilst away, you must immediately inform the hotelier, carrier or other supplier in question. Any verbal notification must be put in writing and given to them as soon as possible. If the complaint or problem is not resolved to your satisfaction straight away, you must contact us with full details by telephone, email or fax within 48 hours. Until we know about a problem or complaint, we cannot assist. Most problems can be dealt with quickly. If you remain dissatisfied, however, you must write to us within 28 days of your return to the UK giving your booking reference and full details of your complaint. Only the party leader should write to us. 

14. ARBITRATION
Disputes arising out of, or in connection with this contract which cannot be amicably settled may be referred to arbitration if you so wish under a special scheme arranged by the Association of British Travel Agents and administered independently by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. The scheme provides for a simple and inexpensive method of arbitration on documents alone with restricted liability on the customer in respect of costs.  Full details will be provided on request or can be obtained from the ABTA website (www.abta.com). This 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 £1000 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 Chartered Institute of Arbitrators within 9 months of the date of return from the holiday. Outside this time limit arbitration under the Scheme may still be available if we agree, although the ABTA Code does not require such agreement.  Alternatively, AITO’s Independent Dispute Settlement Service (again, details on request from the Association of Independent Tour Operators 133a St Margaret’s Road, Twickenham TW1 1RG) may be called upon by either side to bring the matter to a speedy and amicable solution.  

15. CONDITIONS OF SUPPLIERS
Many of the services which make up your holiday 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 clause 11(e)(ii)). Copies of the relevant parts of these terms and conditions are available on request from us or the supplier concerned.

16. SPECIAL REQUESTS AND MEDICAL PROBLEMS
If you have any special request, you must advise us by email or in writing at the time of booking. Although we will endeavour to pass any reasonable requests on to the relevant supplier, we regret we cannot guarantee any request will be met unless we have specifically confirmed this. For your own protection, you should obtain confirmation in writing from us that your request will be complied with (where it is possible for us to give this) if your request is important to you. Confirmation that a special request has been noted or passed on to the supplier 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.  

We regret we cannot accept any conditional bookings, i.e. any booking which is specified to be conditional on the fulfilment of a particular request. All such bookings will be treated as “standard” bookings subject to the above provisions on special requests.

If you or any member of your party has any medical problem or disability which may affect your holiday, please tell us before you confirm your booking so that we can advise as to the suitability of the chosen arrangements. In any event, you must give us full details by email or in writing at the time of booking. If we reasonably feel unable to properly accommodate the particular needs of the person concerned, we must reserve the right to decline their reservation or, if full details are not given at the time of booking, cancel when we become aware of these details. 

17. INFORMATION 

The information contained on our website and in our printed marketing material is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time it is published. However, unfortunately there may be errors made from time to time.  We will correct them at the first possible opportunity after we are made aware of such errors.

Any published information on our website or in our printed marketing material is our sole responsibility. It is not issued on behalf of and does not commit any independent organisation/carriers whose services are featured in it.

18. DESTINATION, EXCURSIONS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 

We also provide you with information about your destinations and excursions and activities available in and around those destinations which do not form part of your contract. 

We have no involvement in any such activities or excursions and they are not operated, supervised or controlled, in any way, by us. They are provided by local operators or other third parties who are entirely independent of us. They do not form any part of your contract with us even where we suggest particular operators/other third parties and/or assist you in booking such activities or excursions in any way. We cannot accept any liability on any basis in relation to such activities or excursions and the acceptance of liability contained in clause 11 of our booking conditions will not apply to them. 

We cannot guarantee accuracy at all times of information given in relation to such activities or excursions or about the resorts/area you are visiting generally (except where this concerns the services which will form part of your contract) or that any particular excursion or activity, which does not form part of our contract, will take place, as these services are not under our control. If you feel that any of the activities mentioned by us which are not part of our contract are vital to the enjoyment of your holiday, e mail or write to us immediately and we will tell you the latest known situation. If you do so and we are aware of any material alterations to resort/area information and/or such outside activities which can reasonably be expected to affect your decision to book a holiday with us, we will pass on this information immediately.

19. ACCURACY OF PRICES
Please note, the prices shown in our printed marketing material may have changed by the time you come to book your holiday. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy regrettably changes and errors do occasionally occur. We also reserve the right to increase or decrease the prices of unsold holidays at any time. You must therefore ensure you check all details of your chosen holiday, including the price, on the website or with us at the time of booking.

20. SAFETY STANDARDS
Please note, it is the requirements and standards of the country in which any services which make up your holiday are provided which apply to those services and not those of the UK. As a general rule, these requirements and standards will not be the same as the UK and may sometimes be lower.

21. TRAINS
The train timings provided when booking and detailed on your confirmation invoice are for general guidance only and are subject to change. The final 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.

22. FINANCIAL PROTECTION
We are a member of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA number V2170). In the unlikely event of our insolvency ABTA will ensure that you are not left stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking.

When you buy an ATOL Protected air holiday package from us, you will receive a Confirmation Invoice from us (or via our authorised agent through which you booked) confirming your arrangements and your protection under our Air Travel Organisers' Licence number 3278.

In the unlikely event of our insolvency, the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad, 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.

23. PASSPORTS & VISAS
If you and all your party are British Citizens you simply require a full British passport for the holidays we feature and do not need visas or to comply with any health requirements.
It is the party leader’s responsibility to ensure that all members of the party are in possession of all necessary travel and health documents before departure.  All costs incurred in obtaining such documentation must be paid by you.  We regret we cannot accept any liability if you or any member of your party are refused entry onto any transport or into any country due to failure on your part to carry correct documentation. 
If you or any member of your party is not a British citizen or holds a non British passport, you must check passport and visa requirements with the Embassy or Consulate of the country(ies) to or through which you are intending to travel. If failure to have any necessary travel or other documents results to fines, surcharges or other financial penalty being imposed on us, you will be responsible for reimbursing us accordingly.

24. INSURANCE
We consider adequate travel insurance to be essential. Details of the policy we offer are shown on our website and are available in writing on request. If you decide not to purchase this insurance, you must give details of your alternative policy (insurer and policy number) in writing at the time of booking. We will not be able to confirm your booking unless you provide these details or purchase the insurance we offer.  Please read your policy details carefully and take them with you on holiday. It is your responsibility to ensure that the insurance cover you purchase is adequate for your particular needs. We are not in a position to check alternative insurance policies.

25. DATA PROTECTION

Great Rail Journeys Limited is a data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998. Please be assured that we have measures in place to protect the personal booking information held by us. This information will be passed on to the relevant suppliers of your travel arrangements. The information may also be provided to public authorities such as customs or immigration if required by them, or as required by law. Certain information may also be passed on to security or credit checking companies. If you travel outside the European Economic Area, controls on data protection may not be as strong as the legal requirements in this country. We will only pass your information on to persons responsible for 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 will be unable to provide your booking. In making this booking, you consent to this information being passed on to the relevant persons.) 

We would like to use your details for marketing purposes (e.g. sending you our brochures). We may also pass your details on to other companies within our group who may also contact you for marketing purposes. Please contact us if you do not wish to receive any further information from us or other companies in our group.