1. Transport
All tours sold by The Wild Life begin and end in Johannesburg unless the itinerary (as detailed in the invoice) says otherwise.
2. Reservations
Reservations will only be processed once we have received a booking form and a signed copy of our Terms and Conditions from you. Nevertheless, even if we do not receive a signed copy back you will be deemed to have read, accepted and clarified any misunderstandings and agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions, upon payment of a deposit.
Please pay for tours as stipulated below
• You will need to pay a non-refundable, non-transferable deposit of 50% of your total tour price within 10 days of making your reservation. The balance to be paid 90 days prior to the departure date. For all reservations with published airfares, immediate deposit payment within 24 hours will be required. Any tours commencing within 90 days of booking date will require full payment.
• Travel itineraries to destinations costed in Euro/USD/GBP:
Full payment of the reservation is required within 24 hours to avoid currency devaluation which could negatively impact the total package price. All bookings not paid within the 24 hour period will be re-costed and any differences will be borne by the customer. This applies to itineraries where currency conversions are required.
We have the right to cancel your reservation if we do not receive your total fare by the relevant due date. If this happens, the cancellation clause (6) below will apply and any deposit we have received will be applied against the new amount due. Reservations only become firm bookings when our office confirms that we have received your deposit.
3. Tour Prices
The prices shown are correct when quoted and are calculated using the estimated exchange rate as advised by commercial banks at the time of quoting and fares on that particular day and time. E+OE. But final prices are only calculated on the day that we receive final payment. Once you have paid in full there will be no change and the price paid is guaranteed.
We reserve the right to change tour prices, and will use our best endeavour to notify you if there is an increase in airfares, air fuel surcharges, airline taxes or any currency and / or price adjustments, up until the day you leave. Prices will include taxes, surcharges and levies BUT these charges will as far as possible be reflected as a separate item(s) as these amounts are levied by third parties, and therefore beyond our control.
Prices quoted in SA Rand and are subject to currency fluctuations. If a SA Rand price is quoted then the Sa Rand Price will be valid for the period stated in the quotation e.g. 24 hours, provided full payment is received by the date stated on our invoice. Please check with our consultant the final amount reflected in our invoice prior to making payment.
4. Exclusions
Tour prices do not include airport or tourist taxes, costs of getting passports, visas, telephone calls, laundry, entertainment arrangements, lunches and drinks, covid tests, travel insurance or any other costs you may incur (unless these have been specified in your itinerary),as well as personal items.
5. Hotels
The Wild Life have the right to substitute hotels with a similar category of hotel or to upgrade to a higher category at no extra cost to you, if we need to. We will try to give you as much notice as possible, Hotels have the right to close their facilities without notice, if they face operational issues. Such, facilities and amenities may change without notice.
6. Standard Cancellations
In line with procedures followed by global tour operators, we may identify exceptional circumstances in which we need to cancel a tour prior to departure. If this happens, all amounts received for the booking, including the deposit, will be refunded to you. This will be considered full and final settlement of any liability of any kind, however it may arise, relating to the cancellation. Under normal circumstances, all deposits are non-refundable / non-transferable.
If you or your agent cancels a trip, these cancellation fees apply, over and above the deposit. For air-tickets please refer to clause 16.
Cancellations and postponements of Confirmed Bookings and Services are only effective on receipt of a written notification, whereupon you will also immediately become liable for a percentage of the Confirmed Itinerary as set out below, or as referenced within any addendum(s) to these Terms and Conditions applicable at the point the booking is confirmed.
You have contracted Covid-19 within 14 days of travelling;
You are in quarantine because of Covid-19 within 72 hours of the commencement of your Confirmed Booking.
There is a formal government travel restriction, in relation to Covid-19, within your country of residence, or within a country that is included on you itinerary which prohibits your travel.
Either your country of residence or any country which is included within your itinerary, is under official government-sanctioned lock-down preventing you from fulfilling their itinerary.
Destinations included in your itinerary have no formal lock-down arrangements in place, however, have: Your itinerary includes international flights which have been cancelled with no alternative route being available (for your to complete their travel itinerary).
No fee will be charged to move your booking on to a future safari to any destination that we have on offer. This is subject to availability, and the postponement is only valid for a time period of 12 months from the starting date of the postponed safari. Please see * terms below.
No less than 20% of the total amount of your Itinerary will be payable to us as a non-refundable cancellation charge. Under exceptional circumstances, this may vary. We will endeavour to work with our third-party operators to ensure we get your funds returned, but this can’t be guaranteed. All funds not paid across to 3rd party operators in order to secure your reservation and excluding the 25% fee that we retain, will be refunded to you.
Offer you an alternative safari, of the same or greater value, in the event, there is a restriction in place preventing fulfilment of their original booking, however alternative travel arrangements are available.
Consider each Covid-19 cancellation and postponement request on a case-by-case basis and a tour discretion.
In all circumstances, we request formal evidence from you to support your request to cancel your booking and where insufficient evidence has been provided, and we are unable to apply these Covid-19 Terms, our standard Terms and Conditions will continue to apply.
2023 – Confirmed Bookings which are cancelled more than 91 days prior to their Commencement Date
No less than 20% of the total amount of the Itinerary will be payable to us as a non-refundable cancellation charge. Under exceptional circumstances, this may vary. We will endeavour to work with our third-party operators to ensure we get your funds returned, but this can’t be guaranteed. All funds not paid across to 3rd party operators in order to secure your reservation and excluding the 20% fee that we retain, will be refunded to you.
2023 – Confirmed Bookings which are cancelled 90-46 days prior to their Commencement Date
No less than 50% of the total amount of your Itinerary will be payable to us as a non-refundable cancellation charge. Under exceptional circumstances, this may vary. We will endeavour to work with our third-party operators to ensure we get your funds returned, but this can’t be guaranteed. All funds not paid across to 3rd party operators in order to secure your reservation and excluding the 50% fee that we retain, will be refunded to you.
2023 – Confirmed Bookings which are cancelled 45-0 days prior to their Commencement Date
100% of the total amount of your Itinerary will be payable to us as a non-refundable cancellation charge. By this point we have fully paid funds across to any third-party operators and will not be in a position to refund.
Covid Cancelation Policy:
Health
Travel
i) closed their border either to international travellers or to travellers from your country of residence, or
ii) the application of visas in relation to the travel itinerary has been suspended;
Covid-19 cancellation and postponement terms (01 January to 15 December 2022)
The cancellation and postponement terms that we will provide, where the above Covid-19 Criteria applies, are as follows:
Criteria Terms
Confirmed Bookings which are postponed 30 days or less prior to their commencement date
Confirmed Bookings which are cancelled 30 days or less prior to their commencement date
*In the event that a Confirmed safari is postponed the balance, after any applicable charges, of funds held on account will be allocated to new safari arrangements which will be repriced at the rates prevailing at time of postponement. This may also require an increase in deposit at that time.
EXCEPTIONS TO OUR COVID-19 CANCELLATION AND POSTPONEMENT TERMS
Please be aware that the following exceptions will also apply: We reserve the right to:
We will not be held responsible for any losses or subsequent expenses incurred by you due to a delay in receipt of your Covid-19 testing results which prevents or impacts your ability to travel at any point during your journey. This includes but is not limited to:
i) the cancellation of; or
ii) a delay to the commencement of;
iii) during or on completion of your client(s) Confirmed Booking itself.
Once a Confirmed Booking is postponed:
The standard Terms and Conditions under which it was originally booked will apply for any future changes to the booking.
It may be rearranged up to 12 months from its original Commencement Date. *See below.
(*) In the event that a Confirmed Booking is postponed, the balance (after any applicable charges) of funds held on account will be allocated to a Future Booking. This means that the Future Booking will be repriced at the rates prevailing at the time it is rebooked and may result in an additional deposit payment requirement.
If cancellations occur due to Force Majeure:
a) A travel voucher for the full amount paid will be issued by our Principals (Airlines, Hotels, Ground Handlers) to be utilized within a reasonable period (time period to be defined by the Tour Operator based on the circumstances prevailing at the time of issuing) or;
b) A refund of payment made less a service fee (25% of total booking value), cancellation fees levied by airlines and other third parties. The service fee is for the consulting and administration (incl. bank charges on payments made to 3rd parties i.e. hotels, airlines, etc on your behalf) services provided to you/agent in getting you to make an informed decision of your choice of tour package, this service will be deemed to have been fully discharged upon you effecting payment of the deposit
In all circumstances you will be liable for the difference between the above amount and any deposits we have received.
Terms & Conditions
7. Insurance
Insurance is compulsory for all guests and we strongly recommend that you be adequately covered by appropriate travel insurance. We will accept no liability before/after travel if you do not purchase insurance and you could be refused a seat on any safari with The Wild Life.
8. Special Requests
If you have special requests, please tell us about these when you book. We will make every effort to satisfy these, but we can make no guarantees.
9. Amendments
An amendment fee of $100 applies to each change that you make to a confirmed reservation.
Amendments made 12 weeks of departure may attract the cancellation fees mentioned in Clause 6, as well as the above amendment fee.
Also, a cancellation fee on the air portion of your tour may apply if you request changes after your ticket has been issued by the airline. This penalty can be as high as 100%. Such changes include, but are not limited to, changes due to the incorrect spelling of your name.
Passengers coming from other centres in South Africa may join a tour if they pay the applicable add-on airfares. Once tickets are issued, they cannot be changed and are non-endorsable.
10. Late Bookings
Reservations made within 21 days of departure must be paid for in full before service/s can be requested and/or confirmed. If the requested service/s is unavailable, we will refund the full amount.
11. Delays
The Wild Life cannot be held responsible for any delays before departure, or during the course of our tours, if these are caused by technical difficulties at airports or by airlines, strikes, weather conditions or any other circumstances that are beyond our control.
12. Force Majeure (“Superior Force”)
The Wild Life will not be held responsible, or pay any compensation, if the performance of our contractual obligations is affected, cancelled, delayed or otherwise impacted upon by Force Majeure. The latter includes, but is not limited to, unforeseen circumstances, an act of God, fire, flood, drought, earthquake, windstorm or other natural disaster; an act of any sovereign including war (or threat of, or preparation for war), armed conflict (or threat of, or preparation for, armed conflict), invasion, act of foreign enemies, hostilities (whether war be declared or not), rebellion, revolution, insurrection, military or usurped power or confiscation; acts of terrorism, civil war, civil commotion or riot (or the threat of, or preparation for, acts of terrorism, civil war, civil commotion or riot); civil emergency (whether an emergency be declared or not); fire or explosion (other than, in each case, one caused by breach of contract by, or with the assistance of, the party seeking to rely on it as a force majeure event or by a member of the same group as such party), adverse weather conditions; nationalization, requisition, destruction or damage to property by or under the order of any government or public or local authority; embargo, blockade, imposition of sanctions or breaking off of diplomatic relations or similar actions; radioactive, nuclear, chemical or biological contamination or sonic boom, pressure waves caused by aircraft travelling at sonic or supersonic speeds; law, or governmental order, rule, regulation or direction, judgment, order or decree; epidemic or pandemic; labour dispute including, but not limited to, strikes, industrial action, lockouts or boycott; interruption or failure of utility service including to electric power, gas, water, internet or telephone service; loss at sea; collapse of building structures; closure of airports, air traffic control delays, rescheduling of flights, hotels or airlines overbooking and technical problems.
We will refund monies based on the provisions of clause 6 (a) and (b) above. Any decision made in respect of tour services by independent operators to reroute or amend the itinerary due to any of the above or similar circumstances is at the discretion of the service provider and we shall not be liable for any claim whatsoever arising from such events. We will nevertheless use our best endeavours to obtain a refund or replace the tour – always remembering we are at the mercy of the supplier.
13. Unused Services
No refunds will be paid for unused services, whether or not these are part of the basic package, and whether or not they are pre-booked optional arrangements.
14. Documentation
It is your responsibility to ensure that you, and anyone traveling with you, have the correct documentation before you depart. This includes, but is not limited to, passports, visas, health certificates and inoculation certificates. The Wild Life is not responsible for any consequences that may arise if you fail to comply with the necessary health / passport / visa / re-entry permit requirements. Passports must be valid for at least 6 months after your return with a minimum of 2 to 3 blank pages. Please note that all travel documents, including domestic air tickets, must reflect the exact name and surname of the passenger, as reflected in the passport or identity document. You may also be asked to present the credit card you used to pay for your ticket.
It is important to check the information in ALL your travel documentation IMMEDIATELY upon receipt to ensure that all details are exactly as you requested.
15. Reconfirmation
Please remember to reconfirm all flight reservations, including domestic connecting flight times, with the airline at least 72 hours before you depart. If you do not, your reservation may be cancelled, or you may be inconvenienced by airline-initiated amendments.
16. Responsibility Clause
The Wild Life and our associated companies and agents, act as agents and facilitators for carriers and ground operators. The Wild Life as such does not own, manage or operate aircraft, transport or hotels and merely facilitates your access to and use of such facilities. The condition for this is that we not be held liable for any injury, damage, loss, accident, delay or other irregularity that may happen due to ground operators’ defect/s, other than liability in terms of section 61 (1) of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). This may occur in any vehicle or other form of carriage or by error by any company or person engaged in conveying a passenger, while carrying out a tour or participating in any activity. We do however acknowledge that we may be held liable for injury or death due to our error or omission.
The airlines concerned cannot be held responsible for any act, omission or event while you are not on board the aircraft. The passenger tickets issued by the airline are the sole contract between the airline and the person who bought those tickets. These tours may be sold in conjunction with the services of any IATA airline.
We act only as an agent for the owners, contractors and suppliers of transportation and/or other related travel services provided and assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage to baggage or property or for any injury, illness or death or for any damages or claims whatsoever caused directly or indirectly from accidents, loss or damage to person or property, delays, transport, failure, strikes, wars and uprisings or acts of God over which we have no control.
AIR TICKETS – These tickets are linked to contracts (‘Air T&C’) are very complex and can entail very strict requirements regarding change, airport and departure taxes and cancellation provisions and you MUST enquire about ALL the applicable conditions BEFORE you pay for the ticket. You should also take note that if your flight/itinerary consists of more than one flight/coupon/ticket, you are not allowed to use such tickets/coupons out of sequence or to ‘skip’ one (& e.g. opt for train, bus or car transport) as this will VOID the entire balance of the journey/itinerary. ‘No-shows’ may result in the ticket being voided and/or the Client being charged a cancellation fee. Note that the Air T&C shall constitute the sole contract between the airline and the Client and any right of recourse the Client may have, will be solely against the airline in terms of the Air T&C. Your rights of recourse as a consequence of over-booking are prescribed by the CPA. Loyalty programs are governed by strict rules of which the Client must be aware and retention of boarding passes and other documentation pertaining to such programs is the sole responsibility of the Client. Consult the Travel Agent about refunds for unused tickets as strict rules apply.
17. Car Hire
If you intend to hire car while visiting a foreign country, please ensure that you have valid driver’s license and get an international driving permit.
18. Hotel Check-In/Check-Out
Check-in is usually after 3pm (this may be delayed during peak season) and check-out is usually before 11am. To avoid inconvenience, please confirm these times with the specific hotel.
19. Method of Payment
The Wild Life will accept payment in cash, electronic funds transfer or by credit card, provided that the relevant credit criteria are met. Payment via credit card will attract a surcharge between 2%-4% depending on the type of credit card used.
20. Unscheduled extensions
It is understood that any expenses relating to these unscheduled extensions will be for the passengers account. Any loss due to delays may not be refundable. Passengers must refer to their respective travel insurance purchased. (Wholesaler) will at all times endeavour to assist you in the event of any emergency but do not guarantee the outcome.
Terms & Conditions
21. General
This document, together with The Wild Life’s invoice/itinerary, is the sole record of the agreement between us. Neither The Wild Life nor you, the passenger, will be bound by any representation, warranty, and promise or amendments that are not recorded in this document, in any of our brochures, on our website or as stipulated by the CPA.
No addition to these Standard Terms and Conditions will apply unless they are in writing and have been signed by an authorized representative of The Wild Life.
No indulgence that The Wild Life may grant to you, the passenger, will waive any of our rights. All costs and disbursements, including legal costs incurred by The Wild Life in recovering damages and or payments, will be for your account.
22. Queries
If you have any reason to complain, or if you experience any problems with your tour, please inform the supplier of the services or inform us immediately, to enable us to resolve the problem for you.
We need to receive your complaint in writing, via an email sent to us. If you do not give us the opportunity to resolve a problem when it occurs, your right to claim compensation may be reduced or evoked. We will make every effort to resolve your complaint in a way that satisfies you, but we will not accept liability for any claim.
23. Law & Jurisdiction
South African law and the jurisdiction of South African courts will govern the relationship between the Client and The Wild Life. The Wild Life shall be entitled to institute any legal proceedings arising out of or in connection with this contract in any Magistrates Court having jurisdiction in terms of Section 28 of the Magistrates Court Act no. 32/1944 as amended, notwithstanding that the amount in issue may exceed the limits of such jurisdiction.
24. Data collection
You understand that The Wild Life Safaris Ltd (“The Wild Life”), through its affiliates and related entities, collects and processes Personal Information about its guests as part of its activities and in order to provide you with the service in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
You agree that Personal Information and sensitive Personal Information shall be collected by The Wild Life employees about You/ Your children during the booking process. You further understand that data collected about You / Your children by The Wild Life shall only be processed by:
• The Wild Life for the purposes for which the Personal Information has been collected and shall not be divulged to any third party save for any data which may be available in the public domain, as may be required by law or as provided for hereafter; You declare that all Personal Information and sensitive Personal Information given by You / Your children to The Wild Life is true and correct. You acknowledge that any Personal Information collected on You /Your children by The Wild Life shall be kept for as long as required under the law. You acknowledge that further information and details of The Wild Life data protection policies and procedures can be given to You / Your children by the appropriate staff of The Wild Life upon You making such request in accordance with the procedures set out in the Privacy Notice.