Terms and conditions for travel and payments
These terms and conditions for travel and payments are part of the travel agreement signed between us. For travel offers some services are offered under special conditions mentioned in the description of the services in the catalogue or in the description of the booking. Please refer to them in the catalogue or in the description of the booking. An important request: Please note your travel order number in each letter or request after you have made your booking.
1. Signing a travel contract
1.1. With your travel order you offer us to sign a travel contract based on online prospectuses or individual description of a particular trip. The contract is executed with the acceptance of your order by Fair Point GmbH. By sending a reservation confirmation/an invoice for the trip we shall inform you about such acceptance which shall not require a specific format.
1.2. If when placing your order by phone you do not have our terms and conditions for travel and payment at your disposal we will send them together with the confirmation/invoice for the trip.
1.3. If the content of the confirmation/invoice for the trip is different from the content of the order we shall be bound by that offer for 5 days. The contract shall be executed on the basis of such new offer in case you confirm that you accept it within that period which can be also made by a payment if we have advised you of that change by sending a confirmation/invoice.
1.4. Please advise us promptly if you have ordered a trip but have not received your documents for the trip from us 5 days prior the beginning of the trip at the latest. In such case we will send you the documents immediately, if you have made a payment or in case of air trips we will deliver them to you at the airport of departure, if there is evidence of payment made at least a day prior the date of the flight.
2. Payment
2.1. The agreed advance payment shall be made within a week from receiving the confirmation/invoice for the trip as specified on the confirmation/invoice for the trip (respectively on the attached payment order, if any). It shall be 20% (rounded up to the nearest €) of the total amount of the invoice unless agreed otherwise upon signing the contract. The insurance premium shall be paid together with the advance payment. The outstanding amount of the payment shall be paid within 40 days prior the beginning of the trip without further notice unless agreed otherwise in advance. If you have given us your written consent for a debit advice procedure or if you have paid by a credit card – as far as this option is available – your account shall be debited in due time according to the payment deadlines. The credit card payments are subject to a 3% processing fee. When paying by bank transfer or direct debit no transaction fee shall be charged.
If you choose method of payment “bank transfer” we expect to receive the payment within the agreed deadlines. In all cases before payment/debit you will be given or sent a security receipt because the payments made by you in connection with the trip are insured in case of insolvency according to § 651 k of the German Civil Code.
2.2. In case the payment cannot be made within the deadlines due to insufficient funds of the debit or credit card provided by you we may charge you with our additional costs of € 16,83 for debit card accounts and respectively € 15.00 for credit card accounts. You may seek evidence that these costs are non-existent or are significantly lower. If you do not make the payments in due time and we have to notify you about that then we shall be entitled to charge you a notification fee of € 25.00 in which case you may seek evidence that the arising costs have been non-existent or are significantly lower.
2.3. In case the agreed advance payment has not been made in full even after notice of default has been given or the full cost of the trip has not been paid before the commencement of the trip this shall entitle us to cancel the contract and to charge you a compensation as a cancellation fee in case there was no justification to reject the trip at that specific time.
2.4. A service fee can be charged according to the Fair Point internal pricing policy for particular suppliers. The service fee gross amount (19% VAT included) is being indicated separately in the invoice.
3. Services, prices
3.1. The descriptions of the services shall be binding with regard to the scope of the contractual services serving as basis of this contract and the confirmation/invoice related thereto. Any additional agreements changing the scope of the agreed services shall become valid only after their explicit confirmation.
3.2. Your trip shall commence and end – according to the stay you have booked – on the date and time of departure and return specified in the online prospectus or in the individual description of the trip.
3.3. Flight tickets or passports for a special trip shall be valid only for the described days of travel. If you wish to make any changes we shall attempt to offer you alternative options against payment.
3.4. In case you are unable to use particular services you have paid for due to reasons not attributable to you we can offer you a partial refund only when the service provider has issued a receipt but never in case of completely irrelevant services.
3.5. Unless agreed otherwise the prices shall be valid for a room, for overnight stay, for accommodation at the booked category of rooms respectively for the booked category of cabins or for accommodation at the booked vacation apartments.
3.6. Child discount: all discounts shall depend on the age at the time of commencement of the trip. Unless agreed otherwise, we shall accommodate one child in a double room with one full paying adult, with two full paying adults in a double room with an extra bed, in an apartment or a studio. No discounts shall be offer for: additional prices listed in the offer table, e.g. additional airport fees, flight date, departure from another place (except for a railway trip) and additional prices for an optional hotel of distant destinations. Further details of discounts can be found in the relevant prospectus.
3.7. When you wish to extend your trip you should refer to our representatives in due time. Such extension shall be possible only when your room is not booked and if you accept the changed prices of the hotels which we shall inform you about. In such case the return flight shall depend on the available capacity. In case the booked airport needs to be changed due to the extension there shall be no grounds to claim transport compensations.
3.8. Any hotel rate for a booking made more than 12 months in advance has to be considered as a preliminary fare that might be adjusted. An increase or decrease up to 10% from the initial price has to be taken into consideration. Unexpected changes in the VAT rate will also affect the final rate.
3.9. The local tourist taxes are not included in the Fair Point rates unless explicitly stated in the hotel accommodation offer and in the reservation confirmation.
4. Changes in services and prices
4.1. Changes of or deviations from particular travel services of the agreed content of the travel contract which shall become necessary after the contract has been signed and which were not caused by us against the good practices shall be reasonable only as far as such changes and deviations are insignificant and do not change the general form of the booked trip. Any possible rights to compensation shall be preserved as far as the provided services involve any damages. Please contact our representatives regarding the exact times of your return flight at least 24 hours but not more than 48 hours before your return.
4.2. In case according to the conditions of the previous item a flight or a trip needs to be performed from or to another airport or destination due to our fault or due to a subcontractor’s fault then we shall pay the cost of such additional trip – at least the cost of the train trip in second class – to the initially confirmed airport/destination.
4.3. We preserve the right to change the price indicated in the travel contract in case of increased travel costs or fees for particular services such as port or airport fees respectively as mentioned below. In case of rise in the transport costs, especially fuel costs, compared to those at the time of the conclusion of the contract we may increase the travel cost according to the following calculations:
a) In case of increase related to seats we may request that you pay the increased amount.
b) In other case the additional costs for each transport means requested by the transport company shall be divided by the number of the seats in the agreed transport vehicle. Thus we may request that you pay the increased cost of the seat. In case our expenses for port or airport fees existing at the time of the conclusion of the contract are increased then the cost of the trip may be increased by the relevant share amount. An increase shall be admissible when there is a period of 4 months between the date of conclusion of the contract and the agreed date of the trip and the conditions leading to an increased have not occurred yet and have been unforeseeable by us at the time of conclusion of the contract. In case of additional changes in the cost we shall advise you immediately. No increases may be performed 20 days prior the commencement of the trip. In case of increase of the price by 5% you shall be entitled to cancel the contract without paying a fee or to request to be included in an equivalent trip if we can offer you such option from our catalogues without a surcharge. You must state whether you will exercise these rights or not immediately after the applied increase.
4.4. The rights mentioned above shall be valid also in case of a significant change of the trip and their exercise shall be claimed immediately after such significant changes have become clear.
5. Withdrawal, change of booking, cancellation, change of the traveller
5.1. You may cancel the trip at any time prior to its commencement. Such cancellation should take place by giving the number of your travel order. It is in your interest and in order to avoid misunderstandings we recommend that you submit your cancellation in written form. In terms of the time of the cancellation it is important that Fair Point GmbH receives the cancellation request.
5.2. If you cancel the travel contract or do not conduct the travel we may request that you pay a compensation for the actions taken for the travel and our costs. The calculation of the compensation shall take into account the saved usual costs and the possible usual use of other services. You have right to prove that these costs did not occur at all or that they have been significantly lower than the indicated total amounts and the described individual amounts.
5.3. The amount depends on the cost of the trip. As a rule, the amount that we shall request from you for each participant, respectively per person or accommodation unit in case of cancellation shall be percentage of the cost of the trip or the rental cost:
5.3.1 In case of “travel” up to 45 days prior the commencement of the trip – 25%, from the 44th to the 30th day prior the commencement of the trip – 50%, from the 29th to the 1st day the commencement of the trip – 90%.
5.3.2 Trips during exhibitions with bookings for time at the exhibition shall be subject to special conditions. Depending on the booked service and the conditions of the booking a cancellation charge of 100% of the trip cost shall apply.
5.3.3 Since the airport charge is subject to various rules (e.g. a special tariff) there shall be various possible cancelation conditions deviating from item 5.7 applying to the booking. The charges for cancellation and change of flight bookings may vary extensively depending on the aviation company and the tariff conditions. A number of special tariffs do not allow for changes in the booking or cancellation which you shall be informed about at the time of booking.
5.4. Please inform us of any desire for changes only after you have received your confirmation/invoice by mentioning the number of your travel order to your tourist agency or to Fair Point GmbH. In case changes are made in a trip booking with regard to the date of travel, type of accommodation, airport of departure or transfer, in trips by airplane, car, train or by bus within 30 days prior the commencement of the travel, we shall charge you € 33 per person while changes from a fixed booking to a prebooking or changes of the booked transport means or type of travel or destination shall be impossible.
5.5. The period of stay or partial cancellations of the individual travel plans are possible if no minimum stay has been set for the booked period of time. The booking of additional rooms and/or overnight stays shall depend on the current terms and conditions of booking and the availability. All changes and cancellations after the expiry of the period for free-of-charge cancellation shall be charted by a 100% cancellation fee.
5.6. In case the place of a person for whom a booking has been made is to be replaced by another person we shall be entitled to request additional payments resulting from such replacement. The participants and the replacing person shall be jointly liable to pay the cost of the trip. We may refuse to perform the replacement in case the person does not meet some specific requirements of the trip or if this contradicts legal provisions or institutional rules.
5.7. In case of cancellation any provided flight tickets, railway tickets or ferryboat tickets shall be returned otherwise we shall have to charge you the full amount.
5.8. Every cancellation or change in the travel information shall be in written form and shall correspond to the individual description of the trip. You are obliged to submit to Fair Point GmbH the lists of the participants in the trip within 48 hours at the latest prior the date of departure.
5.9. In case the individual description of the trip contains other conditions then they shall have prevalence over the conditions described herein.
5.10. Should any force-majeure circumstances arise the Party for which the fulfillment of the Agreement became impossible shall immediately notify the other Party about the above mentioned circumstances. Exterior and extraordinary events that are beyond the control of the Parties shall be considered to be force-majeure circumstances.
The force-majeure circumstances shall be considered as the following: wars, military actions, blockades, embargoes, other international sanctions, currency restrictions, actions by the states that make the fulfillment of the obligations under the present Agreement by the Parties impossible, fire, flood, pandemics, other Acts of God. The Parties are freed from the fulfillment of their obligations for the period of the above mentioned circumstances. The sufficient evidence of the period of force-majeure circumstances shall be the documents issued by authorized body of the corresponding country.
6. Travel insurance
The travel cost does not include cancellation insurance or medical insurance. We highly recommend that you obtain such insurance at the time of the booking. We do not get involved in determination of damages.
7. Cancellation by the tour operator
In case the minimum number of participants described explicitly in the trip confirmation has not been reached we shall be entitled to cancel the trip. This is valid also in case of objective inability to provide the tour service. The payments towards the cost of the trip made until that moment shall be immediately refunded. In such case your rights under item 4.3, last paragraph, shall apply.
8. Guarantee
8.1. In case a tourist service has not been provided or does not correspond to the conditions in the contract then you may require correction of the irregularities within an adequate period. We may replace the service by an equivalent or a more expensive service. We may refuse to correct the irregularity in case such correction requires unjustified effort. At the end of your trip you may claim reduction of the price of the trip if specific services under the contract have not been provided and you have not omitted to register them on the spot by reason of default. In case a trip has been significantly affected by a specific irregularity and we have not offered you its correction within an adequate period or it is not subject to determination of any period because the correction of the irregularity has been impossible or has been refused or the cancellation of the contract is justified on the basis of your special interest then you may, in your interest, cancel the trip contract in written form and in accordance with the legal provisions.
8.2. In case of non-performance of the services you are obliged to use all efforts within the legal provisions to cooperate for the correction of the irregularity and to cause the minimum possible damages. If your luggage has been lost or damaged during flight transfer you must give a notice of loss (P.I.R.) on the spot to the airline company providing the transportation. According to the transport conditions of the airline company such statement of a lost item is a prerequisite for you to make claims. Besides that, the loss or wrong transportation of traveler’s luggage shall be reported also to our representative. We shall not be held responsible for the damage respectively for the loss of valuables or money in checked-in luggage.
8.3. Our representatives are not authorized to accept claims.
9. Responsibility, prescription period
9.1. We shall not be held responsible for irregularities in services, personal or material damages related to services provided as external services (e.g. sports events, excursions, car hire, etc.) which have been explicitly defined as external services in the description and the confirmation of the trip even if the use of such special services took place with the cooperation of our representative.
9.2. Our responsibility for damages under the travel contract which are not bodily injuries shall be limited to the triple cost of the excursion unless:
a) A damage has been caused intentionally or due to gross negligence by the tourist or
b) We shall not be held responsible for a damage to a tourist solely due to a subcontractor’s fault.
9.3 Our responsibility shall be excluded or shall be partial as far as international agreements or legal provisions shall be applied for services due by a subcontractor whose responsibility is also excluded or partial.
9.4 We shall be responsible for clients and trips in case of material damages up to the triple cost of the trip regarding all claims for damages due to claim in tort and which are not due to intention or gross negligence. Any possible claims outside that amount based on the Montreal Agreement regarding traveler’s luggage remain valid. In this connection we recommend that you obtain a full or basic insurance at your tourist agency.
9.5 a) You should submit any other claims based on the contract, resulting from the trip due to violation of the agreement, within one month after the end of the agreed trip, in written form if possible unless you have been prevented to do so within the time limit by circumstances beyond your control. This time limit shall be also valid for claiming damages to luggage or delay of delivery of luggage in connection with flights on the basis of item 8.2 if it has been proven that you are entitled to a guarantee based on § 651 with paragraph 3, § 651 d, § 651 e paragraph 3 and 4 of the German Civil Code. Claims for damages to luggage may be submitted within 7 days and for delayed delivery of luggage – within 21 days from its delivery. b) Claims due to unpermitted actions unless related to personal damages should be submitted within one month after the end of the agreed trip in written form, if possible, unless you have been prevented to do so within the time limit by circumstances beyond your control. c) In case of personal damages due to unpermitted actions you should submit your claims within one month from the end of the agreed trip in written form if possible as far as the perpetrator or the event causing the damages within the agreed period of the trip is known or should have been known. This shall not be valid in case the damage is caused grossly by us or by our employee or if you have been prevented from complying with the time limit due to causes outside your responsibility.
9.6. Prescription period of the contractual claims of tourists – one year beginning on the date when the trip was supposed to end according to the contract. Claims due to unpermitted actions as far as there are no injuries to the body, health or freedom shall have a prescription period of one year starting on the date when the trip was supposed to end according to the contract as far as the violation has not been intentional. The legal provisions shall apply to the other cases. If the negotiations on claims submitted by you are prolonged then the prescription period shall cease until you or we refuse to continue the negotiations. The prescription period shall expire 3 months after the end of the retention at the earliest. Claims for damages due to unpermitted actions based on bodily injury or murder have a prescription period of 3 years.
10. Provisions regarding passports, visas and health care
10.1. Please pay attention to information regarding the provisions concerning passports, visas and health care in the country where your trip takes place because you are responsible for the compliance with these rules. All disadvantages arising from the non-compliance with those rules shall be borne by you unless we have not advised you or have wrongly advised you. This information shall be valid for the citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany as far as you hold a valid passport or ID card. If you are a foreigner or you hold a foreigner’s passport you must frequently comply with other rules. Please inform yourself about those rules at the relevant consulate service.
10.2. We shall not be held responsible for the prompt issue or access to the required visas by the relevant diplomatic representative service if you have asked us to do that unless the delay is due to our fault.
10.3. The technical service abroad does not always correspond to German standards. Please bear in mind eventual guidelines in this respect.
11. Obligations for information regarding the identity of the airline company providing the transport services
The European regulation regarding the provision of information about the identity of the airline company performing the flight to tourists (EU 2111/05) obliges us to inform you upon booking about the identity of the airline company performing the flight included in your trip. If the airline company is not known at the time of the booking then we will advise you of the company that will probably provide the flight(s). As soon as we know which airline company will perform the flight we will inform you. If the airline company to provide the flight is changed then we will inform you of that change. We will immediately take all steps to make sure that you are notified of the changes as soon as possible.
12. General terms
12.1. The collection and handling of all personal data is performed in compliance with the German law on personal data protection. Only personal data required for your travel are collected and delivered to partners. Our officers and partners are obliged not to provide these data to third parties. You may refuse to provide your personal data to be used for advertising purposes and/or to be provided for advertising purposes at any time by giving Fair Point GmbH, Taunusanlage 1 Frankfurt am Main 60329 a notice. After receiving your refusal we will immediately stop sending advertising materials, including for our catalogue, and we will not provide your data for advertising purposes in any case. If your trip is funded by a credit we perform data exchange in order to check the credits and the solvency as well as for marketing purposes with other service providers and in specific cases with Schufa and Creditreform. We will take into account your interests which are subject to protection. Information shall be delivered to governmental or other institutions only on the basis of valid legal provisions.
12.2. The whole information in our prospectuses is published in accordance with the legal and institutional permissions. The details in those prospectuses correspond to the situation at the time of their printing.
12.3. With the printing of new prospectuses all our previous publications with regard to the described destinations and dates cease to be valid.
12.4. Any distinguishable printed and calculation errors give us rights to dispute the trip contract.
Tour operator: Fair Point GmbH, Rudolf-Diesel-Straße 5, 65760 Eschborn, Germany
St.Nr. 014 233 02510
Ust.Id.Nr. DE291466404
Handelsregister AG Frankfurt HRB 97208