Your agreement with us

Thomson Lakes & Mountains Booking Contract

Thomson Lakes & Mountains is a trading division of TUI UK Limited and Our Agreement with you sets out what you are legally entitled to expect from us when you buy our travel services. Those travel services are as advertised by us but may also have restrictions set out in All You Need to Know which should also be read carefully. Because we sell a wide variety of travel products, you should read All You Need to Know and these terms and conditions carefully, before you book, to see how they affect your specific travel arrangements made by us.

Your agreement with us

1. Your holiday contract

   By asking us or your travel agent to confirm your booking, you are accepting on behalf of all persons travelling on this booking that the terms of this Agreement, which incorporate the information, restrictions and obligations set out in our All You Need To Know Guide, and the conditions of any terms and conditions of carriage – see Conditions of Your Ticket – constitute the entire agreement between us with regard to your booking and your travel arrangements. You also consent to our processing personal information about you and other members of your party. Where the context permits, reference to “you” and “your” will include you and all persons travelling on this booking.

   If you booked your holiday in any jurisdiction other than in Scotland or Northern Ireland (including any booking via the Internet), this Agreement, and any claim or dispute arising from or related to this Agreement, will be governed by English law and the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising out of it. If you booked your holiday in Scotland, this Agreement, and any claim or dispute arising from or related to this Agreement, will be governed by Scottish law and the courts of Scotland shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising out of it. If you booked your holiday in Northern Ireland, this Agreement, and any claim or dispute arising from or related to this Agreement, will be governed by Northern Irish law and the courts of Northern Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising out of it.

2. Paying for your travel arrangements

   You will be required to pay a deposit to us for each person when you book unless this is within ten weeks of departure when the full amount for the booking is payable. The deposit amount will be specified by us or your travel agent when your booking is made. If it is not specified then it will be the amount that we ask you to pay when you book, even if this is 100% of the holiday price. If you pay less than the deposit under a low deposit booking scheme, then this is only part of the deposit referred to in this paragraph. The remaining deposit will be due on cancellation or date specified at time of booking or on your confirmation invoice Please note your booking deposit may be increased or there may be a charge payable for some accommodation, holidays or flight bookings where it is necessary to secure specific facilities with full payment at the time of booking e.g. weddings, coach touring and specific types of airline tickets. Once confirmed, the booking deposit, additional charges paid and insurance premiums will not be refunded in the event of cancellation except in the circumstances specified in Sections 2, 3 or 4 or as otherwise required by law.

   Within two weeks of booking, we will send you a Confirmation Invoice showing how much you owe us. You must pay the amount on the last Invoice issued by us, at least ten weeks before you go on holiday. If you don’t, we reserve the right to treat your booking as cancelled and to charge you a cancellation charge up to 100% of the total on that last Invoice, in accordance with the scale in section 12.

   If you pay money for your booking to a travel agent appointed by us, they will hold that money as our agent from the time they receive it until they pay the money to us. Telephone bookings may incur an additional charge, check at time of booking. If payment for your booking is made by credit card or some debit cards a handling fee will apply, check fee at the time of booking.

   Please note:We no longer accept payments by cheque. Banker’s drafts are acceptable and should be sent to TUI UK Ltd, Revenue Department, Wigmore House, Wigmore Place, Wigmore Lane, Luton LU2 9TN. Please ensure that you write your Booking Reference number on the reverse of your Banker's draft.

3. Interest and legal costs

   1. In the event of any sum due by you not being paid on due date, such sum shall attract interest from the date the payment was due to the date the payment was actually received either at 3% per annum above the base lending rate of the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc or, at our sole discretion, at the rate of 8% per annum.
   2. In the event of us instructing a solicitor to recover any unpaid sum due by you to us, you shall be liable to pay all costs and expenses incurred by us, including but not limited to all fees and expenses charges by our solicitor on an indemnity scale basis.

4. If you change your booking

   1. If you want to change any details of your booking (such as changing to a different hotel or cruise or changing a name in your booking) or to cancel an optional extra you have booked, we will do our best to help but please note that changes that more major changes, such as those that would lower the basic price of your holiday or that would otherwise result in your holiday ceasing to be a Package Holiday will be treated by us as a different holiday (see 11.4(i) ) and changes to the hotel or flight within 70 days of departure will also be treated by us as a different holiday (see 11.4(ii) ). We charge an ‘Amendment Fee’ for each detail of the booking which we allow you to change without a cancellation.
      If you make the allowed change more than 70 days before departure, the fee will be £35 per change per person. If you make the allowed change within 70 days of departure, the amendment fee will be £50 per change per person.
   2. The price of your new travel arrangements will be based on the prices that apply on the day you ask for the change. These prices may not be the same as when you first booked your travel arrangements.
   3. Name change, and or departure details such as date and time changes are not always allowed by airlines and other transport providers whenever they are made. Whilst we will do our best to change the details of the booking, please bear in mind that most airlines and other transport providers treat name and departure detail changes as a cancellation and charge accordingly. These charges will be passed on to you. Once tickets have been issued, and sometimes even before they have been issued, any changes made to the ticket, including names or initials, will result in you having to pay for the cancelled ticket and buy a new ticket at full cost.
   4. If:
      (i) at any time after you have booked your holiday, you want either to change to a different holiday or change your hotel or flight and as a result your holiday ceases to be a package Holiday; or
      (ii) within 70 days of departure, you want either to change to a different holiday or change your hotel or flight; then you will have to pay cancellation charges (see section 12). If the change means we must send you new tickets, we cannot give you any refund until we have received all your old travel documents, including tickets.
      
   5. Some types of accommodation (such as apartments, or hotel rooms with reductions for three adults) are priced according to the number of people staying there. If your booking changes because someone in your party cancels, we will recalculate your booking cost based on the new number of people going. If fewer people share the accommodation, then the cost for them may go up. This extra cost is not a cancellation charge, and it is not covered by travel Insurance.
   6. Subject always to clause 11.3, if you are prevented from taking the holiday you have booked, you may transfer your booking to another person, provided you meet the following conditions:
      • You must authorise us to make the transfer;
      • The person to whom you transfer your holiday booking must comply with all the terms of the existing booking;
      • That person must accept the transfer and the terms of Our Agreement;
      • That person must show us new evidence of their holiday insurance, as your policy cannot be transferred to another person (and the premium cannot be refunded);
      • We will also charge amendment fees in accordance with section 11.1. This will be added to the new Invoice issued to that person;
      • You cannot transfer a holiday booking within 14 days of departure; and
      • You will remain responsible for the payment of any balance on that new Invoice should that person fail to pay it.

5. If you cancel your booking

   If you want to cancel your booking or part of it, you or your travel agent must advise us in writing. Once we receive your notice of cancellation you should expect to receive a Cancellation Invoice within 14 days. If you do not then please contact us. To cover the cost of processing your cancellation and to compensate us for the risk that we may not be able to resell your travel arrangements, we make a cancellation charge on the scale shown below. The person who made the booking is responsible for paying this charge. The size of the charge depends on when we receive your notification– the more notice you give, the less we will charge.

   Please note that for certain travel arrangements e.g. coach tours and scheduled transport providers the cancellation charge may be higher than those shown. In certain cases a 100% cancellation fee applies as soon as the booking is made and the ticket is issued. Please ask for full details of cancellation charges at time of booking. You may be able to claim for the cancellation charge from your travel insurance, please check your policy.

   Please note: All scheduled flights are non-refundable.

Cancellation charges

These charges are based on how many days before your booked departure we receive your cancellation notice. These charges are a percentage of the total cost of your booking, not including your insurance premium.

Period before departure within which written notice of cancellation is received	% of total booking price
70 days or more	Loss of deposit*
56-69 days	30%
36-55 days	50%
22-35 days	70%
11-21 days	90%
0-10 days	100%

*Where the standard deposit is increased to secure specific facilities or an additional payment has been made for transport airline tickets (see Section 9 and 11.3) and these are non-refundable in whole or in part, then the scale of charges shown will be calculated based on a % of the cost of all other arrangements and the non-refundable charges will be added to that cancellation charge to give the total charge. If a low deposit scheme was used for your booking, the full deposit as advised at time of booking or as stated on the confirmation invoice will need to be paid in full upon cancellation, if you have not already paid the full percentage of deposit due (see All You Need to Know for deposit details).

6. If you have a complaint

   If you have a complaint about your arrangements whilst away, you must immediately notify the supplier of the service in question locally. If they are unable to resolve the problem immediately, and a member of our staff is not available, you should contact us straight away by telephone/fax/email and we will endeavour to assist. If you are still not satisfied on your return home, you must write to our Customer Services at the address given in our All You Need To Know Guide, within 28 days of returning from your holiday to allow your complaint to be investigated properly. Please write your holiday reference number on your letter, and include your daytime and evening telephone numbers. If you do not give us the opportunity to resolve any problem locally by reporting it to the supplier, or calling and informing us, then we may not be able to deal positively with any complaint on your return.

7. What happens to holiday complaints

   We can usually sort out any complaints you may have. But if we cannot agree, you can take the matter to an arbitrator through an arbitration scheme administered by IDRS part of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Details and application forms are available from ABTA, 30 Park Street, London SE1 9EQ.

   The arbitrator will only deal with your complaint if it relates to a holiday and:

   • you are claiming up to £5,000 for each person or £25,000 for each booking;
   • you contact them within 9 months of the end of your holiday; and
   • your complaint does not involve major physical injury or illness in excess of £1000.

   This is a cheap and simple way of sorting out complaints and there are limits on the costs you might have to pay. You do not have to appear in person, but can send documents to explain your complaint. If you would like more details, please ask our Customer Service Department. If you prefer, you can take your complaint to the County Court or another suitable court.

8. Conduct while travelling

   We reserve the right to refuse to accept you as a customer or continue dealing with you if your behaviour is disruptive or affects other travellers or is threatening or abusive towards our staff or agents in the UK or resort, on the telephone, in writing or in person. If the Captain of your flight or cruise ship or any of our resort staff believes that you could be disruptive or that you are suffering from a contagious disease, they can also refuse to let you proceed with your travel arrangements or restrict your movements on board or disembark you from a ship or aircraft. If you are disruptive and this means you are not allowed to board the flight outbound from the UK, we will treat your booking as cancelled by you from that moment, and you will have to pay full cancellation charges (see section 12). If this occurs overseas then you will become responsible for your own return home and any other members of your group who cannot or will not travel without you. If you are refused carriage because of your disruptive behaviour, or that you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, your airline may pass on your details and date of the refusal of carriage to other airlines for their information. This in turn may make it difficult for you to book other airline tickets. In any of these circumstances no refunds or compensation will be paid to you and we may make a claim against you for any costs and expenses incurred as a result of your behaviour e.g. the cost of diverting an aircraft or ship to remove you. Criminal proceedings may also be instigated.

9. Your accommodation

   Any accommodation we arrange for you must only be used by those people named on your Confirmation Invoice (or on latest Amendment Invoice issued). You are not allowed to share the accommodation or let anyone else stay there. You are responsible for the cost of any damage caused to your accommodation or its contents during your stay,. These charges must be met by you and may have to be paid locally.

10. The conditions of your ticket

    When you travel by air or by sea, your journey may be subject to certain international conventions such as the Warsaw Convention, Montreal Convention or Athens Convention. You agree that the transport company’s own ‘Conditions of Carriage’ will apply to you on that journey. When arranging this transportation for you, we rely on the terms and conditions contained within these international conventions and those ‘Conditions of Carriage'. You acknowledge that all of these terms and conditions form part of your contract with us as well as with the transport company. You can ask us or the travel agent booking your holiday to provide you with a copy of any of the conditions applicable to your journey. The airlines terms and conditions are available on request. We will tell you the identity of the air carrier when you book with us and if it is not known at that time or subsequently changes we will inform you as soon as possible and no later than at check-in for your flight.

11. Contacting you

    If you book via our website or have opted in other circumstances for us to contact you via e-mail, we will communicate with you using the e-mail address you have provided. For example, to provide your e-confirmation, e-ticket, e-cancellation, etc. We will assume that your e-mail address is correct and that you understand the risks associated with using this form of communication. Please note that you may still have to contact us via our call centre or in writing as required in our terms and conditions.