Flight Centre Booking Conditions
Booking conditions
Understanding your contract
Your rights under your contract for travel arrangements will depend on the type of travel arrangement you book with us, which will be either a booking for package travel or for one or more individual travel services. Regardless of the type of arrangement you book with us, the provider of your travel service will have its own terms and conditions (such as airline conditions of carriage, accommodation or car hire terms or tour organiser terms and conditions). All such terms and conditions (including limitations of liability) apply to these Booking Conditions and, accordingly, a reference to “these Booking Conditions” shall mean the terms and conditions set out herein as well as all terms and conditions of any provider of your travel services. To the extent of any inconsistency between a travel service provider’s terms and conditions and the terms and conditions set out herein, the travel service provider’s terms and conditions shall prevail, save to the extent that any provision in the travel service provider’s terms and conditions is deemed to be invalid or unenforceable. Your travel service providers will be identified on your quote or travel documents and their respective terms and conditions will be available directly on their websites or by contacting them. Alternatively you can ask us for copies. You must read all applicable travel service provider terms and conditions carefully because in every case they will apply to the provision of your travel services.
Package travel arranged by us
We act as agent only
Any booking you make will be with the relevant travel service provider and not Flight Centre. The relevant travel service provider, and not Flight Centre, will be responsible to you for the provision of the relevant travel service. Any services we provide to you are collateral to our agency relationship with the travel service provider and are separate to the actual provision of the travel services.
For any excursion or other tour that you book while on travel arranged by us, your contract will be with the operator of the excursion or tour and not with us and your legal rights in connection with such excursion or tour will be against that operator. We are not responsible for the provision of the excursion or tour or for anything that happens during the course of its provision by the operator, except to the extent caused by fault on our part.
Prices & payment
To confirm your travel arrangements you may be required to pay a deposit per person. All deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable for changes of mind or cancellations by you. We will advise you of the amount of the deposit and date for final payment at the time of your booking.
If you have made a package booking with us you will be required to pay a deposit of €200 per person for economy class flights and €400 per person for premium economy, business and first class flights. An additional deposit will be required for any tour or cruise or for certain airfares which form part of your package. The balance for your package must be paid no later than 10 weeks prior to departure or such earlier time that we notify you.
Certain airfares and services (including some packaged airfares and services) are booked at especially competitive rates which may require payment in full at the time of booking and may be non-refundable.
We will collect all mandatory taxes, however some countries may charge additional departure, hotel or other taxes that must be paid locally. We advise travellers to retain sufficient local currency to meet these charges.
Please note that for all air bookings, except package bookings, a service fee of up to €20 will apply.
Payment by debit and credit card
We accept most major debit and credit cards. You authorise us to charge all amounts payable by you in relation to the services provided to the card designated by you. If payment is not received from the issuer for any reason, you agree to pay us all amounts due immediately on demand.
Payment by cheque
Cheques should be made payable to Flight Centre Travel Group (Ireland) Limited and must be drawn in Euro only. We require ten working days for cheques to clear before tickets and travel documents can be issued and services booked. Please confirm with your travel consultant that there is sufficient time between cheque payment and any ticketing or travel deadline. You agree (a) not to stop payment of the cheque even when you cancel a booking and (b) that we may apply the proceeds of the cheque to satisfy any liability you have to us, including any liability in respect of cancellation fees, before refunding the balance to you.
Payment by bank transfer
If you are paying by this method you will need to request account details from your consultant and make the payment at least three business days prior to the actual due date. You must notify your consultant of your payment once it has been made.
Frequent flyer
Travel documents
Schedule changes
If you change your booking
No date changes are permitted outside of your ticket’s validity period. ‘Minimum stay’ and ‘maximum stay’ rules apply to return and multi-stop flights.
Certain travel arrangements (e.g. advance purchase tickets and non-flexible fares) may not be changeable after a reservation has been made and any alteration could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100% of the service cost. Name changes are not permitted in any instance (subject to the section below ‘If you transfer your package holiday’).
If you have purchased a return flight, multi-stop or round the world flight and you do not check in on a confirmed flight, the airline will register you as a ‘no show’ and your tickets on your subsequent flights will be cancelled by the airline. Please contact us as soon as possible if you do not intend to check in for a confirmed reservation in these circumstances.
If you transfer your package holiday
If you cancel your booking
If you have made a package booking with us the cancellation fees will be an amount determined in accordance with the table below, except where otherwise indicated.
If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your travel insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges from your travel insurer. Refunds will only be made available to the person named on the booking payment receipt, unless otherwise agreed in writing by all travellers listed on a booking.
Your refund and remedy rights as set out in these Booking Conditions are subject to your rights under the Package Travel Regulations and the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980.
Days before departure within which written notice is received by us | Cancellation fee (% of total price excluding deposit) |
More than 70 days | Deposit only |
57-70 days | Deposit + 40% |
37-56 days | Deposit + 50% |
28-36 days | Deposit + 60% |
15-27 days | Deposit + 90% |
14 days or less | Full booking value |
If we change or cancel your booking
We will advise you of the carrier operating each flight in your itinerary. Any changes to the carrier after you have received your tickets will be notified to you as soon as possible and in all cases at check-in or at the boarding gate. Please note that carriers may be subject to change. Such a change is deemed to be a minor change. Other examples of minor changes include alteration of your flight departure time by less than 12 hours, changes to aircraft type and change of accommodation to a comparable or higher standard. No compensation is payable in respect of minor changes.
In certain circumstances we or a travel service provider may be required to cancel your travel arrangements (for example, if the minimum number of travellers required for a tour or excursion is not reached or for reasons of force majeure, pandemic or epidemic illness or if you fail to pay the final balance by the due date). In these circumstances (except where you have failed to pay the final balance) you can either have a refund of all money paid or, if available, accept an offer of alternative travel arrangements of comparable standard (we will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value).
Under EU law (EC 261/2004) you have rights in some circumstances to refunds or compensation from your airline in cases of denied boarding, cancellation or delay to flights. Details of these rights are published at EU airports and are also available from your airline. However, reimbursement by an airline of the cost of a flight that forms part of a package does not automatically entitle you to a refund of your entire package travel arrangement cost from us.
Passports & visas
If you are travelling to Australia, Canada or the United States please be advised that there are compulsory pre-registration requirements for their visa waiver programs. If you have registered before, please check your registration is valid and has not lapsed. Please note, you may not meet the eligibility requirements and may be required to obtain a visa.
If you are travelling to South Africa with a person under the age of 18 you will be asked to show the child’s full unabridged birth certificate. There are additional requirements if the child is travelling with only one parent, with neither biological parent, or unaccompanied. Failure to provide this information on check in will result in passengers being denied boarding.
It is a requirement for some air carriers to provide personal information, including passport information, about all passengers on their aircraft. The data will be collected when you check-in (either online or at the airport) or, in some circumstances, will be required when you make your booking.
Travel insurance
Travel advice
We bring to your attention the existence of a 'Community List', which contains details of air carriers that are subject to an operating ban within the EU. The Community List is available for inspection at ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/air/safety/air-ban/index_en.htm.
Health advice
Special requirements
If you have a complaint
Your financial protection
Our responsibility for your booking
In all circumstances, we will not be liable where any failure in the performance or provision of your travel arrangements is due to: (a) your acts or omissions or the acts or omissions of another member in your group (b) any third party not connected with the provision of your travel arrangements and where the failure is unforeseeable or unavoidable or (c) unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances (including but not limited to war, threat of war, riot, civil disturbances, industrial dispute, terrorist activity and its consequences, natural or other disaster (such as volcanic ash or hurricanes), nuclear incident, fire, adverse weather conditions (actual or threatened, including snow and fog), closed or congested airports or ports, unavoidable technical problems with transport and similar events).
Our liability will in all cases be limited in accordance with and/or in an identical manner to: (a) the terms and conditions of the travel service providers that provide your travel arrangements (which, by making a booking with us, you acknowledge form part of these Booking Conditions) - and (b) relevant international conventions, including the Carriage by Air Conventions (within the meaning given in section 1(5) of the Carriage by Air Act 1961), the Athens Convention of 1974 on the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea and the Convention of 1980 concerning International Carriage by Rail.
Package travel arranged by us
In accordance with the Package Travel Regulations, if we have arranged a package for you and the travel arrangements are not performed with reasonable skill and care we will make good those arrangements or pay you appropriate compensation if this has affected the enjoyment of your trip. Our liability in respect of packages arranged by us, except in cases involving death, injury or illness, is limited to a maximum of three times the cost of your package travel arrangement. This maximum amount will only be payable where everything has gone wrong and you have not received any benefit at all from your package travel arrangement. Any amounts you receive from travel service providers or travel insurance will be deducted from any sum paid to you as compensation by us.
Individual services and tour organiser packages
If you have made a booking with us for an individual service or for a pre-arranged package organised by someone other than us our obligation to you is to (and you expressly authorise us to) make travel bookings on your behalf with reasonable skill and care and to arrange the relevant contracts between you and travel service providers on your behalf. We exercise care in the selection of reputable travel service providers but we are not ourselves a provider of travel services and have no control over, or liability for, the services provided by third parties. All bookings are made on your behalf subject to the terms and conditions, including conditions of carriage and limitations of liability, imposed by these travel service providers. Your legal rights in connection with the provision of individual services and third party arranged packages are against the specific provider and are not against us, except to the extent a problem is caused by fault on our part.
Local regulations
In each case above, a service will be deemed to have been provided to you with ‘reasonable skill and care’ if it complies with the locally enforced regulations of the country in which it is performed, or, in the absence of locally enforced regulations, if the service is delivered in a reasonable manner given locally accepted standards and practices. Please be aware that overseas safety and hygiene standards are often lower than in Ireland.
Money not held on trust
Protecting your personal information
Final provisions
Any provision (or part of any provision) of these terms and conditions which is invalid in any jurisdiction is invalid in that jurisdiction to that extent, without invalidating or affecting the remaining provisions (or part provision) of this agreement or the validity of that provision in any other jurisdiction.
Emergency contact