BOOKING TERMS AND CONDITIONS

ACEtours is not a private or public company. It is a club, which promotes travel for like-minded people. We will not receive any money from you directly or indirectly. All payments are to be made to the Tour Operator, who we have selected to provide the travel and accommodation arrangements.

Your contract will be with the tour operator under whose ATOL the holiday is booked. You will receive full details and conditions of this operator at the time of booking. Their conditions will be applicable. . When you make a booking you guarantee that you have the authority to accept on behalf of your party, the terms of these booking conditions. No employee or representative of this club or the Tour Operatory has the authority to vary these terms and conditions. The contract is made on the terms of these booking conditions, which are governed by the law of Northern Ireland, and under the jurisdiction of the Northern Ireland Courts. All correspondence by email will be considered "signed" by the customer, negating the need for a signed booking form.

Your Financial Protection

When you buy an ATOL protected flight or flight inclusive holiday you will receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists what is financially protected, where

you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong."

 “The suppliers identified on your ATOL Certificate, will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate (or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where the supplier is able to do so for reasons of insolvency, an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought or a suitable alternative (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder. However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable).”

 “If the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suitable alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme. You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against Acetours or the ATOL Holder (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims may be re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme.”

BOOKING AND PAYMENTS  The Tour Operator will forward a confirmation invoice and an ATOL Certificate within 24 hours of receiving your completed confirmation advice and deposit (as shown on the booking form ). At that time the booking is confirmed and a contract exists between you and the operator and all conditions become binding for both of you. The person making the booking guarantees payment of the total cost of the holiday booked, and also does so on behalf of and with the consent of all others for whom the booking is completed. The balance of the holiday cost must be paid no later than 10 calendar weeks before departure or by a date advised on your confirmation invoice. If the deposit or balance is not received by the due date the Tour Opertor may reserve the right to cancel the booking and your deposit will be forfeited. For bookings made within 10 weeks of departure, the holiday is payable in full.

PAYMENT BY CREDIT CARD  If you pay by credit card, in full or even partially, any claim against insolvency must be made through the credit card provider.

PRICE POLICY  In practice, the Tour Operator will reserve the right to increase or decrease holiday or tour prices at any time before you book and to publish an amendments or updates. After booking, changes in transportation costs, including the cost of fuel, duties, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as landing taxes or embarkation/disembarkation fees at ports and airports or exchange rates and government (UK & foreign) action such as changes in VAT or any other Government imposed charges mean that the price of your travel arrangement may change after you have booked. However, there will be no change within 30 days of your departure. Usually, they will absorb, and you will not be charged for any increase equivalent to around 2% of the price of your holiday. You will be charged for the amount (if any) over and above that. If this means that you have to pay an increase of more than 10% of the price of your holiday, you will have the option of accepting a change to another holiday (subject to availability) or cancelling and receiving a full refund of monies paid. We will confirm the up-to-date price of your chosen holiday advertised in our brochure before confirming your booking. The price of your holiday in 2023 was calculated using exchange rates as stated in the Financial Times on 01st July 2023. 

£1 = €1.13, £1 = US$1.15.

DISABILITES AND MEDICAL CONDITIONS  Many of our holidays require some degree of physical fitness and regrettably may not be suitable for the physically challenged. You must let us know if you or anyone in your party suffers from any medical condition or disability before a booking is made. ACE tours cannot provide individual assistance with boarding coaches or other forms of transport, baggage handling, walking or other personal requirements Clients should be confident that they can do these tasks unaided or that they have a helper travelling with them, who is able to assist you. We are happy to give advice and assistance with the choice of your holiday, which will be dependent upon the nature of the disability. In order to ensure your enjoyment of the holiday, we ask all clients to provide full details of any disability or special requirements at the time of booking. We may request certification from your GP to confirm that you are fit to travel. Where walking tours are part of the holiday, all clients must be able to walk at a reasonable pace, so as not to hold up the other clients. If you are not able to keep up, we may have to leave you behind and give directions as to where you can meet up with us later. Failure to notify us of any disabilities or hindrances, which may cause you not to be able to manage your own luggage, or hinder access to or from transport, or to proceed unaided, may result in you being refused permission to travel. Regrettably, on some holidays, we may not be able to accept motorised wheelchairs or mobility aids. 

Rail Travel:  Please note that our holidays featuring rail travel may not be suitable for wheelchair users and may be difficult for those with walking difficulties or significant health problems. Please check with us before booking.  Furthermore, we usually cannot confirm that you will receive a seat in the direction of travel and you MUST be prepared to travel facing either forwards or towards the rear.

Walking:  Due to the historic nature and layout of some towns, access to places visited and to hotels by coach, may be limited. Clients are therefore advised that a significant amount of walking may be involved. Many of the places are extremely old and there are often uneven steps and terraces. We will, however, make every effort to accommodate anyone with a disability or hindrance, where possible.

You are urged to contact us for further information if you have any difficulty in walking or you have mobility problems and we will be pleased to advise you on the suitability of any particular holiday. Should your medical condition change from the time of making your booking you must advise us as soon as possible. Furthermore, all customers should be able to look after their own luggage at all times and in all situations. We cannot be held responsible for, or be expected to attend to possessions, luggage, equipment or any other item belonging to our customers.

If we have not been informed about an individual’s disability or hindrance before check-in at the airport or coach departure point we may be forced to refuse travel. No refund will be given in this instance.

CHANGES OR CANCELLATIONS BY YOU Requests to change your booking after confirmation may be made in writing or email, but we are not bound to comply with such requests. If additional people are added to your booking, they are added on the understanding that they have also accepted these booking conditions. Where we can meet a request for a change to your holiday, we will instruct the tour operator to issue a revised holiday invoice to confirm this. Substantial amendment/re-ticketing charges in respect of name changes, misspellings, incorrect initials etc. may be incurred once the booking has been confirmed. It is therefore important to ensure that the correct information is passed to us when the booking is confirmed. Any such extra charges arising from incorrect information given to us will be passed to the customer.

If the tour is booked by another Tour Operator, that Tour Operator will supply full details of cancellation and amendment charges.

If the tour has been arranged by Acetours, with payment to Orrs Travel Ltd., the cancellation charges will be aligned to the major Tour Operators, such as TUI, Jet2, for example. They are, as follows;

How long before your holiday you cancel     Percentage Of Your Holiday Price

56 days or more                                                 Loss of deposit

55 - 49 days                                                        50%

48 - 29 days                                                        70%

28 - 15 days                                                        90%

14 - 0 days                                                          100%

DEPOSITS & BALANCE PAYMENTS

Currently for the years 2023 and 2024 the deposits required to confirm your reservations are as follow, unless otherwise specified. Land-based holidays with flights, £250 per person. River cruises with flights, £350 per person. In some instances, we will require interim payments and you will be advised of these and what they are for, at the time of booking. Our deposits are based approximately on what it costs to buy the airfare and, in some cases, pay a deposit to the cruise line and/or hotels involved in the holiday. These payments are usually not refundable to us, so in the event of a cancellation, we must pass them on. Sometimes the payments we make are marginally more than what we have received and sometimes the deposit we have collected is marginally more than our costs but the differences are minimal. We also need to factor in any administrative costs we may have incurred.

In all cases, though, it is incumbent upon the persons travelling to ensure they have adequate travel insurance, through which a claim can be pursued in the event of most insurable instances. It is one of our conditions that every traveller has such adequate travel insurance, which should cover airline failure and delay or cancellation due to adverse conditions, such as volcano ash.

FORCE MAJEURE Compensation payments do not apply to changes, cancellations or curtailment caused by reason of war or threat of war, riots, civil strife, terrorist activity, industrial disputes, natural and nuclear disaster, fire, World Health Organisation or Foreign Office advice, adverse weather conditions, technical problems to aircraft, closure or congestion of airport or ports, cancellation or changes of schedules by airlines, and all similar events beyond our control. We cannot accept responsibility where the performance or prompt performance of our contract with you is prevented or affected as a result of such circumstances beyond our control. Any costs incurred for any reason caused by Force Majeure will be paid by you, the customer. We will, of course, do our utmost to keep any such costs to an absolute minimum.

FLIGHT CHANGES/DELAYS  It may be necessary before departure to alter the airline, aircraft or flight timings (by less than 12 hours) or your airport of destination or departure for any of several reasons. Where such changes occur it is not possible to transfer to another holiday or to cancel without incurring normal cancellation charges. Carriers such as airlines used in our programme may be subject to change. Such a change is deemed to be a minor change.

In accordance with EU Regulation 2111/2005 we are required to advise you of the actual carrier operating your flight/connecting flight, where possible. We do this by listing the carriers to be used on our booking confirmation invoice and on our website. Any changes will be notified to you as soon as possible.

COMPLAINTS  If you have cause for complaint whilst on holiday, you must bring it to the attention of the group leader and/or the hotel, who will do their best to rectify the situation. Should a problem remain unresolved you should make a complaint in writing to ACE Travel Club within 14days of the completion of the holiday. If you have special needs that prevents you from writing to us then, we will accept details of your complaint over the telephone. For complaints arising from airlines or the tour operator, we will initially act as a liaison between you and the operator but cannot accept any responsibility on behalf of them. 

HOLIDAY INSURANCE  It is a condition of carriage that all travellers must have adequate travel insurance to cover all eventualities. We do not currently offer holiday insurance. We will not carry a client who does not hold valid travel insurance. If you do not already have insurance, may we suggest one of the "on-line" websites, such as but not limited to www.moneysupermarket.com, all of whom offer a broad spectrum of policies, including cover for those with pre-existing medical conditions. Should circumstances give rise to an insurance claim and the customer has not adequate cover, that customer will be expected to pay all costs for the services they receive. ACEtours will, under no circumstances whatsoever, make such payments. The customer will have to find their own funds and there will be absolutely no exceptions to this.

EARLY BOOKING RECOMMENDED  We cannot stress enough the value of booking early. The prices are accurate as of 01st November 2022 for 2023 holidays) but may change at any time without notice. With ever changing air costs and currency fluctuation, we cannot guarantee prices. We will confirm the price of the holiday at the time of booking. Therefore those who book early will get the best value and will avoid increases.

CURRENCY SURCHARGES.  Due to the dramatic fluctuations of currencies, we have no choice but to implement terms to protect us from these. If the value of Sterling drops by less than 2%, we will not surcharge you. If, on the other hand, it drops by more than 2%, we will surcharge you the difference above the 2%. The same applies to changes in currency in our favour. Changes of 2% or less will not result in any change to your invoice but where the change is greater, we may adjust your invoice in your favour shortly before your balance is due.