Booking terms

What we have agreed, and what we have not yet written down.

These terms are being completed properly rather than borrowed. What appears below is what IBEX has actually committed to. Anything not on this page is not yet a term, and if it matters to your booking you should ask for it in writing before you pay.

If it falls through, we keep nothing of our own.

There is no IBEX service charge, no processing fee and no cancellation fee of our own on any part of this. If your visa is refused or the trip does not happen, your money comes back to you.

What does not come back is what somebody else has already taken. That is the embassy, which does not return an application fee, and the airline, which takes its own charge once a ticket has been issued. Neither of those is ours and neither of them reaches us.

We show you what was taken and by whom, in writing, so you can see that the deduction is theirs and not ours.

Ask us for the figure on your own trip before you pay anything, and we will put it in writing.

What the airline usually keeps

The airline decides this, not IBEX, and it varies. As a rough guide only, on an air ticket that has already been issued:

cancelled more than 48 hours before the flight, roughly 30 to 40 US dollars.
cancelled inside the last 24 hours, more than that.
cancelled closer to departure than that, up to about 100 US dollars.

Those are usual figures and nothing more. The airline sets the real one, so ask us for the figure on your own booking and we will get it in writing.

Confirmed

Deposit: A deposit per person confirms a seat on an international group departure. It is not one figure across the board: across the departures on sale today it is $500, $1,000, €500 or €1,000, depending on the trip. Your tour page states the figure for your departure, and we confirm it in writing before you pay.
Balance: The remainder is paid in two instalments after the deposit, before departure. The dates are set out in your booking confirmation.
Domestic departures: Northern Pakistan tours are priced in rupees and take 50 percent in advance to confirm a seat.
Visa: Applied for by IBEX as part of the package on almost every international tour we run. Where a trip is different, its own page says so before the price. A refusal is possible; no operator can guarantee a visa.
If a visa is refused: IBEX charges no processing fee and no cancellation fee of its own. Whatever comes off is what the airline or the embassy keeps, and we show you what it was. The embassy does not return its application fee, and an issued ticket carries the airline's own cancellation charge. Everything else comes back to you. Ask us for the figure on your own trip before you pay anything, and we will put it in writing.
What children pay: Under 2 years, 75 per cent off the adult price. From 2 to 8 years, 25 per cent off the adult price. Over 8 years, the full adult price. Where a trip publishes its own child fare, that fare is the one that applies and it is printed on the trip's own page.
Age limit: There is no age limit on our tours. Everyone is allowed, at any age, and children travel at a child fare.
Prices: Quoted per person. International tours are invoiced in the currency shown on the tour page; any rupee figure alongside it is indicative.

Still being finalised

Listed openly rather than left blank, because these are the clauses you would most want to have read.

Cancellation by you: what is refundable and by how far out. What is certain already is that no charge of ours is inside it.
The exact instalment dates, counted from your departure date.
Cancellation or a date change by IBEX, and what you are owed if it happens.
The single room supplement.
The exact fee each embassy keeps on a refusal, mission by mission.
Whether travel insurance is included, offered, or your own responsibility.
Passport validity and baggage allowance by destination.
Force majeure, and what happens when a border, an airline or the weather closes a trip.

Ask us about any of these before you pay a deposit and you will get the answer in writing, from a person, with your booking reference on it.

Ask for the terms in writing