General terms and conditions

turcon travel services GmbH

1. Scope of T&C, third party services

1.1 These general terms and conditions of travel (T&C) define the contractual relationship between turcon travel services GmbH, Brückenstrasse 45, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany (referred to as „turcon“) as the tour operator and the client in case of the booking of a travel package or other related services. The T&C are complementary to the legal requirements resulting from §§ 651 a) ff. Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB) and §§ 4–11 der Verordnung über Informations- und Nachweispflichten nach bürgerlichem Recht (BGBInfoV) (Decree on burden of information and proof according to civil law).
1.2 In the case of procurement of travel packages as well as procurement of individual services in the areas of transportation, accommodation or services (e.g.  booking of flight only, hotel room only or rental car only) and travel insurance via www.tamitamtravel.com please refer to the general terms and conditions for procurement of services by turcon, to be found on the website under Terms and conditions – procurement. In these cases, contractual relationships exist solely between the client and the service provider which has been conveyed by turcon to the client.
1.3 The relevant characteristics of the trip are derived from the respective service descriptions.
1.4 Original language of these T&C and the contract is German. In case of any disputes, the original language is relevant.

2. Contract, Confirmation, Insurance certificate

2.1 The offers shown on the website do not constitute offers in the legal sense but are rather an invitation to the client to book a trip or other services with turcon.
2.2 Turcon is packaging the required services by way of dynamic packaging in real time. This real time request of services and prices at various providers (like hotels, airlines, consolidators e.g.) results in the possibility of prices shown changing from request to request on short notice.
2.3 When signing up for a trip, the client is mandatorily offering to the tour operator the closing of a contract. Using the confirmation form on the website the client makes a binding offer to turcon, if – after selecting the required services and filling in the confirmation form, which contains information about travelers, contacts and payment – he clicks on the „book now“ button. The client’s offer is accepted by turcon by sending a confirmation E-mail (signing of contract) immediately after receiving the booking information to the E-mail address the client deposited.
2.4 The client signs up not only for himself but also for all travel participants mentioned on the confirmation form, for whose obligations from the contract the client is liable for as for his own, as far as he took over those liabilities by means of an explicit, separate declarations.
2.5 The client can, during the booking process on the website, change and correct all chosen services and all entered data until sending the confirmation (by clicking on the „book now“ button) via the normal computer functions as e.g. the „back“ function of the webbrowser or cancel the booking process anytime.
2.6 Turcon will not permanently save the text of the contract after a booking has been done; the text oft he contract cannot be accessed by the client via the internet after the booking is done. The client will receive a booking confirmation E-mail containing a confirmation of services booked and the respective prices. Sentence one does not offset any existing commercial or tax regulations which turcon will still honour.
2.7 The client is obliged to make sure that all personal information used for the booking, especially name, address, E-Mail address are correct and that reception of the confirmation e-mail and travel documents in the form of physical or electronic documents is assured and not impeded by e.g. a SPAM-filter of his E-mail inbox.
2.8 The package price paid by the client is covered by an insolvency insurance policy at Zurich Insurance plc, Germany Branch. The client will receive a certificate according to § 651k BGB with travel confirmation.

3. Travel documents

3.1 Travel documents will be sent to the client by E-mail to the E-mail address entered in the booking process after completing the payment for the total package price.
3.2 For electronic flight tickets (e-ticket) there won’t be any paper tickets sent. In the case of e-tickets, the flight booking code is sent to the client via E-mail together with the other travel documents. The client and all other participants will receive their boarding passes after presentation of passports or ID document and the flight booking code at the check-in of the respective airline. Additional information will be presented when sending the travel documents to the client.
3.3 Should the client not have received his travel documents five days before the start of his journey, he must inform turcon about this immediately. If the package has been fully paid by the client, turcon will send the respective documents immediately.

4. Services and prices

4.1 The scope of booked services can be derived from the respective service descriptions and the information in the travel confirmation referring to those service descriptions. Special requests from the client made during the onling booking process aren’t binding for turcon as long as turcon does not explicitly confirm them in writing (e.g. vial e-mail).
4.2 Start and end date of the journey can be seen in the travel confirmation document.
4.3 Airline tickets and other tickets referring to a specific date are only valid on the dates referred to on the ticket.
4.4 All prices indicated are endprices including current VAT and other taxes and duties. Costs for additional services such as e.g. procurement of visa documents are not included in the package price except these services are mentioned explicitly in the service description as well as the booking confirmation document.

5. Payment conditions, down payments

5.1 The client will pay the total amount for the trip directly to turcon.
5.2 If not agreed on differently on a case by case basis, a 20% down payment on the travel price is due at the time the client receives the booking confirmation and the insurance certificate (rounded to the next full Euro amount). The down payment is payable within 7 days of receiving the booking confirmation and insurance certificate. Residual payment is due 28 days prior to travel start date without another demand from turcon.
5.3 For short term bookings (booking equal or less than 28 days bevor start of trip) and given that the client did receive an insurance certificate, the full package price is due for payment immediately.
5.4 The costs for travel insurance booked by the client are due immediately at the time of down payment.
5.5 If the complete trip has a duration of less than 24 hours, does not include an overnight stay and the price per person is less than EUR 75.00, payment can be demanded without handing out an insurance certificate. In this case, the complete price for the trip is due for payment at receipt of the invoice.
5.6 The travel price may be paid by the client by means of credit card. Turcon will charge the credit card entered by the client at the time of booking with down payment and residual payment amount at the times indicated under 5.2. The client will not face any additional surcharges for credit card payment.
5.7 If, at the time of charging the credit card account according to 5.2. turcon does not get credited with the amount due, due to lacking coverage or other reasons to accountable to the client, turcon has the right to charge a lump sum amount of EUR 10.00 for cancellation. It is the client’s right to prove that this amount is not or not fully justified.

6. Changes in service

6.1 Fundamental changes in services to the services agreed to in the contract that become necessary after booking and that turcon did not initiate against good faith are only allowed as far as these changes are not material and do not affect the overall trip.
6.2 Any guarantee claim remain intact as far as the changed services are flawed.
6.3 Turcon is obliged to inform the client about any material changes and their reasons immediately after being aware of them.
6.4 In case of material changes in fundamental services the client has the right to cancel his booking free of charge or to request participation in a trip of at least the same value, should turcon be able to offer such trip from their range without additional cost to the client. Client has to demand cancellation or replacement immediately after receiving turcon’s information about changes or cancellation.

7. Amendments of pricing

7.1 Turcon reserves the right to change the agreed travel price in case of increase of transportation cost or duties for certain services as port or airport taxes as follows.
7.2 If at closing of the contract existing transportation cost, especially fuel surcharges, are increased, turcon has the right to increase the travel price according to following calculation rules:

7.2.1 If the increase is per seat, turcon may charge the increase amount to the client.
7.2.2 In other cases the additional transportation costs debited by the transportation company will be divided by the number of seats booked with the respective means of transportation. The resulting amount per seat can be charged to the client by turcon.

7.3 If duties like port or airport tax existing at the time of closing of the contract are increased vis-a-vis turcon, the travel price can be increased by the respective amount.
7.4 An increase of travel price according to Art. 7.1-7.3 is only allowed if there is a timeframe of at least 4 months between the closing of the contract and travel start date and if the circumstances leading to the increase were neither known nor foreseeable for turcon.
7.5 In case of a change in price turcon will immediately inform the client. A price increase less than 20 days before the travel start date automatically becomes void.
7.6 Should the increase in price be more than 5 percent the client has the right to cancel the contract free of charge or request participation in a trip of at least the same value if turcon is able to offer such trip from their inventory without charging an additional price to the client. The client has to claim these rights immediately after receiving turcon’s notice of price change vis-a-vis turcon. It is recommended – in the client’s own best interest – to notify turcon in writing (e.g. via letter) of his cancellation.

8. Travel insurance

8.1 Travel insurance such as travel cancellation expenses insurance or a travel health insurance are not part of the contract and not included in the travel price.
8.2 Turcon recommends that the client insure himself comprehensively with the solution of his choice. Turcon explicitly notifies the client of the possibility to take out travel cancelation expanses insurance or repatriation cost insurance in case of accident or disease. In case of a client taking out a travel insurance package and a manifestation of an insured event, however, turcon is not involved in damage regulation but solely the insurance company chosen by the client.

9. Cancellation by client

9.1 The client can cancel his travel contract anytime before travel start date wihout any formal requirements. In case of cancellation client has to notify turcun. Relevant for validity of cancellation is the time of reception of cancellation notice by turcon. The client is recommended, for reasons of proper documentation, to notify turcon in writing (e.g. via letter) of his cancellation.
9.2 If the client cancels the contract before start of travel or if the client does not make use of booked trip, turcon loses its claim towards the client. If client cancels for reason outside of turcons responsibility, turcon has the right to claim adequate damages depending on travel price, for effort and expenditures up to the time of cancellation. Cancellation cost hereby are generalized, depending on remaining time to travel start date. Usually saved efforts and usually possible ulterior use of travel services are taken into account.
9.3 The amount of generalized cancellation cost depends on the services chosen by the client; detailed information can be seen in booking documents. Client is asked to take note of individual information regarding cancellation costs in the terms and conditions of the trip booked. If the client did book a multitude of services with individual prices (e.g. flight and excursion), cancellation cost are defined per service and then summed up.
9.4 It remains within the client’s discretion to prove that cancellation fees claimed by turcon aren’t justified or aren’t justified in the full amount claimed.
9.5 Turcon reserves the right to claim higher cancellation costs than the generalized fees mentioned above. In this case turcon is obliged to prove the actual costs faced, taking into account saved effort and a potential re-sale of the travel services.
9.6 The client’s right to put forward a replacement traveler remains intact.

10. Contract transfer

10.1 Until the travel start date the client can request that another person enters the rights and duties resulting from the travel contract in his place. Turcon can object to this if said person does not fulfill any specific requirements of booked trip or if entering into the contract by said person is against the law or against official directives.
10.2 If another person is entering rights and duties of the existing travel contract, turcon will charge any additional cost of transferring the contract (e.g. administration cost, telephone, postage). The client and the substitute participant are jointly and severally liable for paying these additional costs.

11. Unused services

If the client does not make use of individual services offered to him in an orderly fashion for reasons of his own volition (e.g. premature departure), the client has no right to be compensated. Turcon will do its best effort try to get a refund of saved efforts from ist suppliers. This obligations becomes void if the services are immaterial or if the refund is precluded by law or official decree.

12. Damaged and delayed luggage

12.1 International air transportation is regulated by the Montreal convention for the air sector and the Warsaw convention regarding the liability for death or injury of travelers, delays in travel and/or of luggage as well as destruction, loss or damage of luggage. Which convention is applicable under what circumstances depends on which countries have signed and ratified those conventions.
12.2 The countries having signed and ratified the Montreal convention can be found on the internet, e.g. on www.icao.int/secretariat/legal/list%20of%20parties/mtl99_en.pdf
12.3 Turcon strongly recommends in case of damaged, lost or delayed luggage in air transportation, to immediately notify the responsible airline on the spot via a notice of damage (P.I.R.). The notice of damage has to be handed in 7 days after discovery of the damage/the loss and 21 days after recovering delayed baggage at the latest. All other cases of damaged, lost or delayed luggage have to be reported in addition to turcon or the local tour operator.

13. Warranties

13.1 If the agreed trip does not take place, or not in the contractually agreed form, the client can request remedy within a reasonable time. Turcon can refuse the request for remedy if it results in disproportionate efforts. The request for remedy can also be fulfilled through a replacement travel arrangement of the same or higher value. Should the client culpably omit to report any deficiencies to turcon or the local tour operator indicated to him, the client loses the right for remedy for this deficiency.
13.2 For services not delivered according to contract the client has the right to request a reduction in price if the deficiency has been immediately reported to turcon and no remedies have been made.
13.3 Should the trip, due to a deficiency, be materially compromised and should turcon not make remedies within a reasonable amount of time, the client has the right to cancel the travel contract respecting any legal restrictions. It is strongly remommended the client cancel the contract in writing. The same holds if the client cannot participate in a deficient travel for material reasons apparent to turcon. The definition of a due date for remedy becomes unnecessary only if remedy is impossible or turcon refuses to make remedy or if the immediate cancellation of the contract is justified by a special interest oft he client. The client still owes the part of the travel price relevent for the services he made use of, if those services were of interest to him.

14. Cancellation and withdrawal by turcon

14.1 Turcon can cancel the travel contract immediately if the client disturbs the trip in defiance of a warning by turcon or the local tour operator sustainably and materially and further fulfillment of the contract is not acceptable to turcon.
14.2 If the client is not paying the travel price at due date and after receiving an overdue notice including a due date fully or partly or if the travel price cannot be successfully debited from the clients bank account or credit card, turcon can withdraw from the contract. In case of withdrawal, turcon retains the right to receiving the travel price, reduced by costs saved and the advantages turcon gets from reselling the services not used by the client. Cancellation cost hereby are generalized, depending on remaining time to travel start date. Usually saved efforts and usually possible ulterior use of travel services are taken into account. Generalized costs are calculated according to Art. 9.3. It remains within the client’s discretion to prove that cancellation fees claimed by turcon according to Art. 9.3. aren’t justified or aren’t justified in the full amount claimed.
14.3 For withdrawal according to Art. 14.2, turcon reserves the right to claim higher cancellation costs than the generalized fees mentioned above. In this case turcon is obliged to prove the actual costs faced, taking into account saved effort and a potential re-sale of the travel services.

15. Force majeure

In the case of force majeure the mutual rights and obligation are defined by § 651 j BGB.

16. Limitation of liability

16.1 Liability for damages from the travel contract other than bodily harm is limited to three times the travel price, as far as the damage for the client is not caused by deliberate acts or gross negligence of turcon or as far as turcon is responsible for the client’s damage solely based on a service provider being to blame. The limitation of liability is valid per participant and per trip.
16.2 Tortious liability for damaged goods not being caused willfully or in gross negligence is limited to three times the travel price. The limitation of liability is valid per participant and per trip.
16.3 Claims potentially exceeding the liability limitation concerning luggage based on the Montreal convention remain unaffected by the limitations of Art. 16.1 and 16.2
16.4 Turcon is not liable for deficiencies in services, injury and damaged goods related to services that are not part of the travel contract but rather have been booked by the client at the destination with service providers or third parties (e.g. excursions, rental cars etc.). Liability for these services are conforms to the terms and conditions of these companies, of which fact the client is hereby explicitly made aware and which can be made known to the client if he wishes so. Possible liabilities of turcon for neglecting its reference, information and/or organisational obligations remain unaffected.

17. Time limits, addressees and statute of limitation

17.1 Claims for uncorrect fulfillment of the travel contract (§§ 651 c bis 651 f BGB) the client must assert within one month after contractual end date of the trip versus turcon. After this deadline has passed claims can only be asserted by the client if he, in absence of fault, was prevented from meeting the deadline. However, this is not true for deadlines to report damaged luggage, delayed luggage delivery or lost luggage in connection with air transportation according to Art. 12. These have to be reported within 7 days. Late delivery of damaged luggage has to be reported within 21 days.
17.2 Claims have to be asserted versus Turcon Travel Services GmbH, Brückenstrasse 45, 69120 Heidelberg.
17.3 Claims of a client resulting from  §§ 651 c bis 651 f BGB for loss of life, injury or health damage resulting from a willfull or negligent breach of duty of the tour operator, his legal representative or an agent of the tour operator will lapse within two years. The same is true for claims for other damages based on willfull or negligent breach of duty of the tour operator, his legal representatives or agents.
17.4 All other claims from  §§ 651 c bis 651 f BGB lapse within one year.
17.5 The limitation period for claims according to Art. 17.3 and 17.4 start one day after the contractually agreed end date of the trip.

18. Passport, visa and health regulations

18.1 Turcon is obliged to inform citizens of the EU member country in which the trip is offered about the regulations regarding passport, visa and health issues before a contract is closed as well as to inform them about any changes before travel start date. For citizens of other countries the respective consulate will provide information. In this it is implied that there aren’t any special circumstances existing regarding the client himself or any co-travelers (e.g. double citizenship, statelessness).
18.2 It is up to the client himself to procure and carry any official travel documents, potentially mandatory vaccinations as well as to comply with customs and foreign exchange regulations. Disadvantages resulting out of non-compliance with these regulations, e.g. cancellation costs, have to be bourne by the client. This is not the case if turcon did not, insufficiently or incorrectly inform the client.
18.3 Turcon cannot be held liable for timely issuance and delivery of necessary visa by the respective diplomatic representation. This also holds if the client charged turcon with procurement of these documents except turcon has culpably violated its own obligations.
18.4 Customs and foreign exchange regulations are handled very strictly in various countries; it is up to the client to inform himself about these regulations and to comply with them.

19. Information about the identity of the operating air carrier

The regulation on informing air transport passengers of the identity of the operating air carrier (REGULATION (EC) No 2111/2005) obliges turcon to inform the client about the identity/identities of the operating air carrier/s at the time of booking. If at the time of booking the operating air carrier isn’t yet defined, turcon will name those airline/s which will in all probability operate the flight. As soon as it is known to turcon which airline/s will operate the flight it will inform the client accordingly. Should there be a change in airline (as client has been informed), turcon will inform the client about the change. Turcon will immediately take all appropriate measures to make sure that the client is informed about the change as soon as possible.

20. Data protection

The survey, storage and processing of personal client data is at any time done considering all data protection regulations, especially of the federal data protection act (BDSG). Our privacy statement can be accessed under „privacy“ on the website.

21. Final provisions and place of jurisdiction

21.1 All legal relations between turcon and the client are exclusively governed by the law of the federal republic of Germany.
21.2 Should the client be a business, a public legal entity or a special fund under public law, exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this contract is Heidelberg. The same holds if the client does not have a general place of jurisdiction in Germany or if place of residence or common domicile is not known at the time a complaint is filed.
21.3 There are not side agreements to this contract. Changes and additions to this contract must be put in writing.
21.4 Should one or several provisions in this agreement wholly or partly become invalid, or should the lose validity at a later point in time, the validity of the remaining provisions shall not hereby be affected. Legal regulations will step in for the invalid provisions. The same is true for any omissions in the contract.

Tour operator:

Turcon travel services GmbH
Brückenstrasse 45
69120 Heidelberg