Bhutan & Beyond Terms & Conditions For YTI ‘Yoga & Meditation Retreat In India’.
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for the global travel industry to revise travellers booking Terms & Conditions (T&C).
The following T&C will now apply for all new bookings made by Bhutan & Beyond. These will provide our travellers with more transparency & improved financial security, under the circumstances of travelling in a potential COVID-19 environment.
It is both mandatory, and your obligation as a traveller, to read these T&C carefully and to fully understand your liabilities. This is essential for your own protection.
Our Bhutan & Beyond T&C now come in two sections. The first is the updated Terms & Conditions from our parent company, MTA Travel, via their pdf link below. The second section, further below, is our own revised Terms & Conditions peculiar to Bhutan & Beyond and covering specific T&C for the YTI Yoga & Meditation Retreat in India in JAN25 .
All sections of our T&C complement each other.
T&C Section 1: MTA Travel Booking Terms & Conditions
MTA Travel (Mobile Travel Agents) are the parent company of Bhutan & Beyond. As such we are initially bound by the MTA Travel Terms & Conditions.
It is both mandatory, and your obligation as a traveller, to read these T&C carefully and to fully understand your liabilities. This is essential for your own protection.
The MTA Travel T&C can be found on the pdf link below.
MTA Booking Terms and Conditions
T&C Section 2: Bhutan & Beyond – Additional Booking Terms & Conditions for YTI India Tour JAN25.
It is both mandatory, and your obligation as a traveller, to read these T&C carefully and to fully understand your liabilities. This is essential for your own protection.
It is essential you carefully read and agree to these additional following Terms & Conditions. These form a component of the contract you enter into when making travel reservations to Bhutan with Bhutan & Beyond and our overseas partner suppliers.
It is important you are aware, and accept, that pre-planned arrangements may occasionally need to be amended at late notice due to events beyond the control of any operator involved in the provision of your travel related services.
1. Booking Form & Passport Scan:
It is mandatory that you fully complete our on-line tour booking form and submit this in order we can hold a reservation on your behalf. At the same time we require a quality scan of your passport photo page (regardless if it has expired or will expire before travel) which we use to ensure we have your name details 100% correct. We appreciate you limiting each passport scan to less than 2 MB in file size.
The 2 steps to make your YTI India Tour booking with Bhutan & Beyond:
- Complete our on-line booking form in full and submit. Remember you must read our Terms & Conditions first for your protection!
- To our booking form please attach scanned COLOUR copies of your passport photo page/s. The full page margins must be inside the scan and please ensure the image is very clear. There should be no shadows or glare and please keep each image size 2MB or less.
2. Deposits & Final Payments:
Please note all our Bhutan & Beyond (referred to as B&B) India land tour costs, and India domestic airfares are quoted in India Rupees (INR) and will be converted into Australian dollars, at the bank exchange IMT (International Money Transfer) rate of the day, when final payment is due.
Initial land tour deposits will be collected in Australian dollars, as quoted below, and in the accompanying table of fees. Final India Rupee (INR) tour costs will be converted into Australian dollars, when due, using our bank exchange IMT rate of the day, less your Australian dollar deposit already paid.
Payment Options:
B&B accepts payment by EFT and IMT, along with selected credit cards. Please note we do not accept payment by cheque or cash. Credit Card payments are welcome, however do incur merchant fee surcharges as follows:
Australian Credit Cards:
MasterCard 1.15%
Visa 1.35%
Amex 1.80%
Example of calculating CC merchant fees.
Just say you pay B&B a deposit of AU$1500.00 for 2 adults. You elect to pay by MasterCard at the rate of 1.15%. Please key AU$1500 into your calculator, multiply it by 1.15 and press the % key on your calculator. The CC merchant fee in this case is therefore AU$17.25. Please don’t press the = key!
All Overseas Credit Cards:
There is a flat merchant fee of 3% when we debit all overseas credit cards. (MasterCard, Visa, Amex or Diners).
Additional Deposit & Service Fee Information Specific to the YTI ‘Yoga & Meditation Retreat to India’:
Some of our airfares, particularly those from Australia to India and return are also quoted in Australian dollars. These will be clearly advised to you when quotes are provided and bookings are confirmed.
- Of the Bhutan & Beyond land tour deposit of AU$750.00 pp, AU$190.00 per adult is non-refundable should cancellation be made for any reason. This is our Bhutan & Beyond service fee regardless of whether travel takes place or not.
- Additional fees of AU$290.00 pp will apply to cover India hotel and tour operator service fees, should tour cancellation be made between 91 days prior to arrival in India and the time your final tour payment is due being 60 days before your arrival in India.
- In some cases these non-refundable service fees may be claimable against your travel insurance.
- B&B requires your tour deposit within 7 days of your tour bookings being confirmed in writing.
- Final balance of land tour costs is due 60 days prior your arrival into India. HOWEVER, if you prefer to pay your final tour balance earlier (perhaps because the rate of exchange might be more favourable) B&B will happily accept earlier payment and will immediately transfer your funds to India in INR.
- Cancellation of your tour reservations may occur if your final payment is not received by the due date.
- Airfares & en-route stopovers (ie. Singapore) may require earlier payment & be subject to their own T&C.
VERY IMPORTANT!
Travel insurance does NOT cover you if governments close international borders and/or the Australian Government places a ‘DO NOT TRAVEL’ status on your destination via their Smart Traveller website, therefore preventing travel to be undertaken at late notice. These exclusions have always been in place pre-COVID-19, and are not new exclusions.
3. Voluntary Amendments & Cancellations to Your Land Tour in India:
Amendments to your arrangements, after your initial tour deposit has been paid, will be subject to a minimum fee of AU$40 per transaction depending on the nature of the amendment. Additionally any airline fees involved will be levied at that time.
Deposit date until 91 days prior arrival in India:
Land Tour Deposit is refundable less B&B service fees of AU$190 pp. Any airfare cancellation/change fees will be charged separately according to airline fare conditions.
91- 60 days days prior to arrival in India:
An additional cancellation fee of AUD290.00 pp will be levied in addition to our India land tour base cancellation fee of AUD190.00 pp.
60 days or less before arrival in India:
Sorry, no land/domestic India airfares tour refund is permitted.
4. Your Health & Travel Insurance:
ESSENTIAL READING PLEASE:
You are personally responsible for ensuring your general health & fitness is sufficient for your planned journey.
We strongly recommend you consult your personal doctor, or nearest Travel Medical Alliance (TMA) centre, at least 6 weeks before departure, for advice on vaccinations and medications. TMA can be contacted in Australia toll free on T: 1300 421142.
**MUST READ RE TRAVEL INSURANCE**
It is strongly recommended you hold adequate comprehensive travel insurance before/when you pay your tour deposit.
Bhutan & Beyond can assist you with the provision of a suitable travel insurance policy. Please enquire. Should you purchase your own travel insurance independently please forward us the front page of your certificate of cover as soon as this is purchased.
Many insurers now offer limited extra cover for COVID-19 Coronavirus related events. Please ensure you carefully review travel insurance Product Disclosure Statements (PDS) before you make your decision to purchase insurance.
Please BEWARE!
Travel insurance does NOT cover you if governments close international borders and/or the Australian Government places a ‘DO NOT TRAVEL’ status on your destination via their Smart Traveller website, therefore preventing travel to be undertaken at late notice. These exclusions have always been in place pre-COVID-19, and are not new exclusions.
5. Enforced Itinerary Changes:
India is located in south Asia. This region can be challenging to travel in for a wide variety of reasons. B&B, along with our partner operators in India, reserve the right to make necessary changes to your pre-arranged and prepaid land tour itinerary structure, where unforseen circumstances dictate such changes. Depending on circumstances a refund may not be offered for such late changes and your travel insurance may cover for any financial loss.
6. Airline Flight Cancellations & Delays
Bhutan & Beyond, and our partner ground operators, take no responsibility for airlines amending flight times at short notice and/or cancelling and/or rerouting flights for operational reasons. No responsibility can be assumed for delay, cancellation or unavailability of a flight, or for missed connections. In such an instance any additional costs must be borne by the traveller and claimed via their travel insurance.
7. Bhutan & Beyond Tour Costs:
Our India tour costs are quoted in India Rupees (INR). They are therefore subject to exchange rate fluctuation until converted into Australian dollars on the day you choose to pay your final balance due. Occasionally we reserve the right to increase prices after a trip has been quoted on, however this is only in instances beyond our control. An example of this is a foreign Government imposing higher tourism taxes, before travel has been undertaken, or an airline increasing fuel surcharges prior to ticketing.
Unless advised otherwise, your trip pricing does NOT include items of a personal nature such as tipping & gratuities, medications, travel insurance, telephone calls, laundry, visa charges, excess baggage charges, daily incidental expenses or drinks.
8. Bhutan YTI Yoga Tour Payment Schedule & Service Fees:
Initial India Land Tour Deposit and B&B Service Fees:
In addition to the YTI tour deposit of AU$500.00 pp, Bhutan & Beyond requires a deposit of AU$750.00 per person. This is due within 7 days of B&B confirming your reservation in writing.
Of this tour deposit A$190.00 per person is totally non-refundable should tour cancellation be made for any reason. This fee covers the Bhutan & Beyond service fee. Additional fees of AU$290.00 will apply to cover Bhutan hotel and tour operator service fees, should tour cancellation be made between 90-61 days prior to arrival in India.
There is no refund possible for cancellation from 60 days prior departure to departure date.
The date for final tour payment is 60 days before your arrival in India being Friday 29 November 2024.
Should any tour member request amendments to their flights or stopovers or other tour related arrangements, after they have been fully paid, a service fee of AU$40.00 per person will apply along with any supplier fees incurred.
Costs for ex-Australia airfares to Delhi & Travel Insurance:
These costs, to be advised when arrangements are booked and confirmed, are due at time of booking, or within 24-48 hours of booking, depending on the suppliers T&C.
Final Balance of India Land Tour Costs:
This is due 60 days prior arrival in India. B&B will send you a final payment reminder approx 65 days prior arrival in India. B&B will send your final invoice in INR converted into AUD, using the rate of exchange of the day, and minus your previous deposits paid.
8. Minimum Participants for this small group tour in India:
The maximum tour size will be 18 persons and the minimum tour size is 11 persons. We like to keep our tours small. Less is best in India!
9. Your Acceptance of Risk.
You acknowledge your journey to/from and through this region of South Asia comes with the usual risks of travel. You accept these risks and the possibility personal injury, death, property damage or loss may result from your decision to participate in such a journey.
You agree that should you be affected by any sickness, serious injury or other unforseen circumstance, that Bhutan & Beyond, and/or any of our overseas partner operators, can arrange any urgent medical treatment or emergency evacuation as deemed necessary for your safety and that all such costs will be borne by you and/or your travel insurer.