Page 171 - Worldwide Adventures

terms & conditions
Please read carefully these terms and conditions of contract. In completing and submitting the Booking Form, you agree to be bound by these conditions which constitute the agreement between Australian World Expeditions Pty Ltd ACN 001 424 568 (World Expeditions) and you. No purported variation of these conditions will be effective unless in writing and signed by a person so authorized by World Expeditions.
In these terms & conditions reference to “World Expeditions representatives” means tour leaders and staff of World Expeditions and its officers, employees, agents, licensees, guides and other third parties and representatives and the land management authorities in each country in which the tour is conducted, or any of them.
1. How to Book
To reserve your place on one of the tours, you should complete the Booking Form and send it, along with a non-refundable deposit of $400 per person per trip or; 25% per person for Antarctic, Arctic and Russian Far East tours; 30% per person for Silver Explorer voyages (or USD$2500 on the Polar Pioneer; or USD$1500 on the Ushuaia) to your nearest World Expeditions o ce, or to your travel agent. Some trips require a non refundable additional deposit or instant payment for a permit. In these instances refer to the individual trip notes for details.
2. Prices
The prices quoted on our website (www.worldexpeditions.com) represent the most current prices, are per person and are subject to minimum numbers. Where minimum numbers are not met by the payment date, a small group surcharge will be o ered to ensure the trips operation. Refer to the trip notes for the price validity. For departures past the validity date, an increase is likely due to local in ationary pressures on operational costs. Refer to the trip notes for all tour inclusions and exclusions. Once you have paid a deposit for your trip any subsequent discounts or price reductions that are advertised may not be retrospectively applied. World Expeditions tries its utmost not to increase tour prices, however sometimes increases are outside its control. World Expeditions reserves the right to amend tour prices at any time. Amendments may be necessitated for many reasons including, but not limited to, increases in ground operator services exchange rate uctuations, increased fuel costs, airfares, airport charges, or the need to engage alternative air or ground operators. Any increase in tour prices must be paid prior to the departure date.
3. Payment
The prices quoted in this brochure or on worldexpeditions.com are per person for payment by cash, cheque, money order or credit charge (the latter subject to surcharge). A supplement may apply for trips below minimum numbers. The balance of the tour price is payable to World Expeditions 70 days prior to departure, (90 days for self drive 4WD trips in Africa) or 120 days prior to departure for all Polar and Russian Far East tours. Prices are quoted in New Zealand dollars (unless otherwise speci ed) and all payments must be made in New Zealand dollars. If payment of the balance of the tour price is not received by World Expeditions by the required time you will be taken as having cancelled the tour and cancellation charges in accordance with condition 5 will apply.
4. Amendments/Transfers/Cancellations
AMENDMENTS: If you wish to make amendments to your tour arrangements, you must notify World Expeditions in writing. Each amendment to your tour arrangements will incur a $50 administration fee and you will be liable for any increase in airfares or operational expenses occasioned by the amendment. All administration fees must be paid before departure.
where there is little or no access to normal medical services or hospital facilities for serious problems. Evacuation, where necessary, can be prolonged, di cult and expensive. Medical and evacuation expenses will be your responsibility. While we do not discriminate by age, due to the extreme nature of our mountaineering trips we strongly discourage participants over 60 years of age. World Expeditions reserves the right in its absolute discretion to refuse a participant the right to participate in a tour on medical or tness grounds.
7. Medical Disclosure
You declare and warrant that
• you are in good health and mental and physical tness at the time of booking this tour;
• you have disclosed to World Expeditions every matter concerning your health and mental
and physical tness of which you are aware, or ought reasonably be expected to know,
that is relevant to World Expeditions’ decision to permit you to go on the adventure tour; • immediately upon any adverse change in your health or tness that may be likely to a ect World Expeditions’ decision to permit you to go on the adventure tour, you will
notify World Expeditions in writing of any such change;
• World Expeditions are permitted to disclose medical information to our consultant doctor.
• World Expeditions’ consultant doctor may exclude you from a tour if he/she deems
documentation or failure to provide information. It is recommended that your passport is valid for six months beyond the date of your return home to your home country.
15. Airlines and other transport providers
Any material published by World Expeditions, the Booking Form and these conditions of contract are not issued on behalf of, and do not commit any airline whose services are used or proposed to be used in the course of the tour. In the event that an airline’s proposed travel or fare schedule is amended or cancelled, such amendment or cancellation will not be considered a cancellation of the tour by World Expeditions. Any ights or other transport forming part of the tour arrangements are subject to the conditions of the carrying airline or other transport entity, which in most cases limits the airlines’ or other transport entity’s liability to passengers in accordance with applicable international law and conventions.
16. Tour Prices
Package prices are per person, based on ground costs, fuel prices, airfares, exchange rates and assumptions made at the time of printing the brochure. World Expeditions tries its utmost not to increase tour prices, however sometimes increases are outside its control. The most current prices will be listed at worldexpeditions.com so visit the website before booking. World Expeditions reserves the right to amend tour prices without notice at any time before and including the departure date. Amendments may be necessitated for many reasons including, but not limited to, exchange rate uctuations, increased fuel costs, airfares, airport charges, increases in ground operator service fees, or the need to engage alternative air or ground operators. Any increase in tour prices must be paid prior to the departure date. During tour, should additional expenses arise such as evacuation by helicopter, you will be obliged to sign a payment authority authorising us to charge you for the service.
17. Exclusions from tour price
Without limitation, the following items are excluded from the tour price:
• personal travel insurance;
• any visa, passport and vaccination charges;
• departure, airport and airline taxes and on some tours internal domestic flights; • extra meals, transport costs, accommodation costs, or other expenses not included in the
itinerary; laundry, postage, personal clothing, medical expenses and items of a personal nature;
emergency evacuation and/or emergency search charges;
• additional expenses caused by delay, accidents or disruption of planned itineraries; • tips, beverages and excess baggage charges.
Refer to our tour notes for full details.
18. Force Majeure
If World Expeditions is prevented (directly or indirectly) from performing any of its obligations under this agreement by reason of act of God, strikes, trade disputes, re, breakdowns, interruption of transport, government or political action, acts of war or terrorism, acts or omissions of a third party or for any other cause whatsoever outside World Expeditions’ reasonable control, World Expeditions will be under no liability whatsoever to you and may, at its option, by written notice to you either cancel the tour or take any other action as speci ed in condition 11.
19. Assumption of risk
You acknowledge and agree that:
• by the very nature of adventure travel and trekking holidays, they are more challenging and
demanding with a commensurately higher level of risk compared with conventional
holidays, and involve potential exposure to injury and possibly death;
• in the countries and regions in which adventure travel is undertaken, standards of accommodation, transport, health care, hygiene, safety and service provision generally are often not as high as those standards in your country of residence and may
require exibility and patience on your part;
• operational control of the tour may be in the hands of a third party and that your right
of action in regard to any shortcomings of that third party’s performance is against the
third party and not against World Expeditions;
• the additional dangers and risks associated with adventure travel may include di cult
TRANSFERS: If you wish to transfer from one tour to another, you must notify World Expeditions in writing. Once World Expeditions receives your notice the transfer will take e ect subject to the following. Transfers may only be made to another tour to commence within 12 months of your original departure date and the following transfer charges will apply:
9. Complaints
If during the course of your trip you have a problem, please bring this to the immediate attention of the tour leader or relevant supplier (eg. Transport provider, hotelier). If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, please contact your World Expeditions consultant by email or phone and they will endeavour to assist you. If your complaint cannot be resolved locally, please follow this up in writing within 30 days of your return home by writing to our Operations Department at your local World Expeditions o ce. Please keep your letter concise and to the point in order for us to quickly identify your concerns and liaise with the relevant parties to respond to you as soon as possible.
10. Cancellation due to tour booking numbers
World Expeditions reserves the right to cancel any tour prior to departure in the event that there are too few people booked on a tour in which case you will be given a full refund of the tour price paid by you. You will not be entitled to claim any additional amounts or seek any compensation for any injury, loss, expenses or damage (either direct or consequential) or for any loss of time or inconvenience which may result from such cancellation (including but not limited to visa, passport and vaccination charges, or departure, gear purchases, airport and airline taxes).
11. Route changes, Postponement, Cancellation or Delay
World Expeditions reserves the right to:
• cancel or modify any routes within the tour or objectives set out in the itinerary; or
• substitute di erent or equivalent routes within the tour in place of cancelled or
modi ed routes, or
• postpone, cancel or delay (either in relation to the departure or arrival times or the
duration of the tour) any such aspect of the tour if, in the absolute discretion of World Expeditions, it is necessary to do so due to inclement weather, snow or icy conditions or conditions that are otherwise likely to be hazardous or dangerous or due to any other adverse or threatening conditions whether political or military or terrorist or otherwise or if, in the absolute discretion of World Expeditions, there is a likelihood of any such event occurring which may impact upon the safety of the participants, or if an act or omission of a third party prevents the tour or the aspect of the tour being undertaken in accordance with your booking or for any other reason considered necessary by World Expeditions. In the event of any change, modi cation, cancellation postponement or delay under this condition, you acknowledge that you will have no right of refund of the tour price (whether in whole or in part) and no right to claim compensation for any injury, loss or damage or other additional expenses incurred by virtue of the change, modi cation, cancellation postponement or delay.
World Expeditions also reserves, in its absolute discretion, the right to cancel any tour due to any government travel warning or advice, or any change in such warning or advice. In this event, condition 5 applies as if you had transferred or cancelled the tour at the date that World Expeditions cancelled the tour due to the governmental travel warning or advice. Travel insurance may compensate you depending on the circumstances.
12. Itineraries and brochures
Itineraries and other details are published in good faith as statements of intention only and reasonable changes in the itinerary and related items may be made where deemed necessary or advisable by World Expeditions. The information contained in World Expeditions’ brochures, itineraries, and internet site is, to the best of World Expeditions’ belief, correct at the date of publishing.
13. Insurance
Personal travel insurance is not included in the tour price. It is a condition of booking a tour with World Expeditions, and your responsibility to ensure that you are adequately insured for the full duration of the tour in respect of illness, injury, death, loss of baggage and personal items and cancellation and curtailment. You must provide evidence to World Expeditions that you have obtained personal travel insurance. You must ensure that your personal travel insurance covers all of the activities you expect to participate in.
14. Proof of citizenship or information required to travel
It is your responsibility to obtain proper identi cation or proof of citizenship as required by the authorities of the destination to which you are travelling. You will not be entitled to a refund if you are denied boarding or entry on any basis, including without limitation, improper
• If your notice is received more than 70 days prior to your original departure date (or 90 days for self drive 4wd trips), a $100 transfer fee will apply. In addition, any increase in airfares or operational services will be payable by you: or
and dangerous terrain; high altitude; extremes of weather, including sudden and unexpected changes; political instability; remoteness from normal medical services and from communications; and evacuation di culties in the event of illness or injury;
• If your notice is received within 70 days prior to your original departure date (or within 90 days for self drive 4wd trips), 50% of your original tour price will be forfeited provided your notice is received at least 35 days prior to your original date (or 45 days for self drive 4wd trips), otherwise 100% of your tour price will be forfeited
• the enjoyment and excitement of adventure travel is derived in part from the inherent dangers and risks associated with adventure travel and that those inherent dangers and risks are a reason why you wish to undertake the adventure tour, and
For Antarctic, Arctic and Russian Far East tours transfers will not be allowed unless received in writing by World Expeditions, not less than 120 days prior to the departure date of the original tour. Transfers will only be accepted if you are transferring to another Antarctic, Arctic or Russian Far East tour that departs in the same season. If the transfer is agreed to by World Expeditions, a fee of USD$500 per person will apply to Antarctic, Arctic or Russian Far East tours unless your request for transfer is made within 120 days in which case the cancellation penalties listed below will apply.
Note: Any requested amendment to tour arrangements or transfer from one tour to another is subject to availability and the agreement in writing of World Expeditions, however, the transfer of a trip from one person to another is not permitted.
5. Cancellations
If you wish to cancel your tour, you must notify World Expeditions in writing. Once World Expeditions receives your notice, cancellation will take e ect subject to the following:
• If cancellation takes place more than 70 days prior to your departure date (or more than
90 days for self drive 4wd trips), your full deposit will be forfeited.
• If cancellation takes place between 70 and 35 days prior to your departure date (or between 90 and 45 days for self drive 4wd trips), 50% of the tour price will be forfeited.
• If cancellation takes place less than 35 days prior to your departure date (or less than
45 days for self drive 4wd trips),100% of the tour price will be forfeited.
• you have submitted your booking for the tour after giving due consideration of relevant travel information including, without limitation, any relevant information or advice given by the governments of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the British Foreign O ce and US Department of State and that it is your responsibility to acquaint yourself that information or advice, for the above reasons you therefore accept the inherent and increased dangers and risks associated with the proposed adventure tour and the accompanying risk of injury, death or property damage or loss.
For Antarctic, Arctic and Russian Far East tours:
21. Release and discharge from all claims
To the extent permitted by law, by accepting the additional inherent dangers and risks assoc- iated with the tour, you release, waive and discharge all World Expeditions representatives from all claims, actions or losses for personal injury or death, property damage, loss of services, loss of pro ts, consequential, exemplary, indirect or punitive damages or otherwise which may arise • out of or occur during your travel in connection with the tour or any activities conducted
in conjunction with the tour unless caused by the reckless conduct of World Expeditions
representatives, or
• in connection with any optional activities which you may undertake during the course of
your tour but which do not comprise part of your tour itinerary and you accept that any assistance given to you by World Expeditions representatives in arranging such optional activities will not render the World Expeditions representatives liable to you in any way.
22. Privacy
You permit World Expeditions to collect personal information from you, or from your medical practitioner, regarding your health and medical condition. You acknowledge that this personal information may be disclosed to World Expeditions representatives in order to ensure your safety and well being but will not be used by them for any other purpose.
23. Waiver
A party will not be deemed to have waived any of its rights or remedies under these conditions or at law by allowing any time or indulgence or by not exercising any right or remedy arising out of any default by the other party.
24. Severance of conditions
If any part of a condition is illegal, unenforceable or invalid, it is to be treated as removed from the conditions, however, the remainder of the conditions are not altered.
25. Jurisdiction
This agreement and the rights and obligations of the parties will be construed and take e ect in accordance with and be governed by the laws of New Zealand.
• If cancellation takes place more than 120 days prior to your departure date, you will forfeit the full deposit amount.
• If cancellation takes place less than 120 days prior to your departure date you will be required to pay the full cost of the tour.
Variations to the conditions outlined in clauses 3, 4 and 5 may apply. Please refer to individual trip notes for details.
The tour price is quoted as a package. No partial refunds or credit will be given for services not used. Any amount forfeited, which has not then been paid to World Expeditions by you, may be recovered from you by World Expeditions as a debt due and payable.
6. Health & Fitness Requirements
You must be in good health and physical condition and are strongly advised to follow our pre departure tness training recommendations, where necessary. For many of our tours you will be required to submit a medical questionnaire completed by you or your doctor as proof that you are t enough to participate in the tour. If you have booked a tour graded 1-4 the only time that a medical questionnaire will be required by your doctor is where you have a pre existing medical condition, are over 70 years of age or are participating on a Polar Cruise. This will be sent to you upon booking and you will be required to return the form completed and signed by your doctor 70 days prior to departure or 100 days for Polar Cruises. If you have booked for a tour graded 5-8 you will be sent a medical form upon booking and can complete this yourself and return to us 70 days prior to departure, unless you have a pre existing medical condition or are over 70 years of age in which case you must have your doctor complete and sign before returning it to us. If you have booked a tour graded 9 or 10 you will be required to have your doctor complete and sign your medical questionnaire and return to us 70 days prior to departure. If you su er from severe muscular, chest, heart or bronchial disorders, or if you are a severe asthmatic, or have high blood pressure, you are strongly advised against participating. Tours take place in remote areas
it necessary. You acknowledge that the obligation to disclose under this condition continues from the time of booking the tour through to departure and extends for the duration of the tour.
• You have taken the necessary precautions to immunise/vaccinate for the destination you are travelling to.
• you have taken out a travel insurance policy that adequately covers you for medical eventualities and or pre existing medical conditions
If you fail to comply with the duty of disclosure in this condition and if World Expeditions would not have permitted you to undertake the tour, or continue participation of the tour, had you made full disclosure under this condition, World Expeditions will not be liable, except to the minimum extent required by law, for personal injury, death or property damage or loss incurred by you.
8. Tour Leaders
World Expeditions reserves the right to cancel any tour prior to departure. In this condition, ‘tour leader’ includes both the nominated tour leader and any other nominated person given at any time the task of leading or supervising any aspect of the tour.
• World Expeditions’ tour leaders take their responsibilities seriously and if for any reason
a tour leader believes, in his or her absolute discretion, that you should not participate in the tour, before your departure, even if you pass your medical, he/she may exclude you from the tour. In this event, but subject to condition 6, you will be o ered the option of taking another tour considered suitable for you or a full refund. If for any reason during a tour the nominated tour leader considers you should not participate further due to you committing an illegal act, or in the opinion of the nominated tour leader, your behaviour is causing or is likely to cause danger, distress or annoyance to others, or your tness or health is inadequate, he or she may direct you not to continue and you must follow the nominated tour leader’s instructions. In this case you will not be entitled to any refund. Travel insurance may compensate you depending on the circumstances.
• World Expeditions reserves the right to change, at any time, the tour leader of any tour. If that happens, World Expeditions will try to ensure that the alternative tour leader has expertise commensurate with that of the tour leader. Any such change by World Expeditions will not give rise to any right on your part to cancel the tour or claim any expenses, loss or damage which may be su ered.
20. No Liability
You acknowledge and agree that:
• Where World Expeditions acts as a booking agent for third-party tour operators and
accepts no liability for the acts, insolvencies or omissions of those third-party tour operators and WE does not authorise any suppliers including hotel management to promise refunds on our behalf; and; and
• World Expeditions will not be liable for any breach of any law by any person with whom you travel on the tour; and
• you may not rely on any representations concerning the tour made by World Expeditions which are not contained in these conditions.
| 171