Booking Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are and what we do

These terms are between you and Yarra Pacific Pty Ltd (ACN 701 796 705, ABN 76 701 796 705), trading as Yinfinite Travel. Where these terms say "Yinfinite", "we", "our" or "us", they mean that company. Your contract is with the company, not with Michelle Yin personally.

Yinfinite is an independent travel advisory business based in Melbourne, Victoria. Michelle Yin operates as an independent travel advisor affiliated with Fora Travel, Inc., a United States company that provides the booking platform, supplier relationships and payment processing we use.

We act as your agent and booking intermediary. We are not the supplier of your travel. We arrange bookings with third-party suppliers — hotels, tour operators, guides, drivers, destination management companies, transport providers and cruise lines. Those suppliers provide the travel itself, under their own terms, and your travel contract for each service is with that supplier.

This matters, so it is worth saying plainly: what we are responsible for is arranging your travel with due care and skill. What each supplier is responsible for is delivering the travel they agreed to deliver.

We do not hold your money You pay each supplier, or Fora, directly. We do not take card payments, we do not hold client funds in our own account, and we never ask for or store your card number. If anyone asks you to send card details to Yinfinite by email or messaging app, it is not us — please tell us straight away.

2. How we are paid

We are paid commission by the suppliers we book, and that commission is shared with Fora. We do not charge you a planning fee, a booking fee, an amendment fee or a cancellation fee.

We are registered for GST. Because we charge you nothing, there is no GST payable by you to us. GST and any local taxes on the travel itself are a matter for each supplier and are reflected in the price that supplier quotes.

Being paid by suppliers creates an obvious question — does it affect what we recommend? Our answer is that we recommend what we think suits you, and that you are entitled to test that. If you want to know what we are paid on any recommendation, ask and we will tell you. We will not treat it as confidential.

If a particular supplier pays us more than others, or gives us benefits for directing bookings to them, we will tell you before you book with that supplier.

3. Quotes, prices and currency

Prices are quoted in your local currency wherever the supplier allows it — for Australian clients that means Australian dollars. Where a supplier prices only in another currency, we will tell you, and the amount you pay will depend on the exchange rate at the time and on any foreign transaction fee your card issuer charges. Those conversion costs are yours, not ours, but we will flag them before you commit.

Any price we give you before a supplier confirms it is an estimate. It is our best understanding of what the arrangement will cost, and it is not a fixed price.

A quote becomes firm only when the supplier confirms it and we confirm it to you in writing.

If a supplier increases the price after you have accepted a quote but before the booking is confirmed, we will tell you promptly and you may withdraw without any charge from us. You would still be responsible for any amount a supplier is entitled to under terms you had already accepted.

Once a booking is confirmed, we cannot and will not unilaterally increase its price. A supplier may only do so if its own terms, which were given to you before you paid, allow it — and if that happens we will tell you what your options are.

Prices generally do not include local taxes, resort fees, tourist levies, entry fees, tips or anything payable on arrival. Where we know such a charge applies, we will tell you about it before you book.

4. Travel insurance

We strongly recommend that you take out comprehensive travel insurance as soon as you pay any deposit, covering at least medical treatment and evacuation, cancellation and curtailment, and your belongings. Cover for pre-existing medical conditions, adventure activities and high-altitude travel usually has to be arranged specifically.

We can refer you to an insurer, and we are paid if you buy. If you ask, we will send you their link or, with your permission, pass on your details. From that point they deal with you directly — they take the application, issue the policy and handle any claim. If you take out a policy through that referral, we receive a fee from them. It is paid by the insurer, not added to your premium.

We do not advise on insurance. We do not recommend one policy or insurer over another, we do not tell you how much cover you need, and nothing we say about insurance takes your objectives, financial situation or needs into account.

Choosing a policy is your decision. Read the Product Disclosure Statement and the Target Market Determination before you buy, and make sure the policy covers what you are actually going to do — the destinations, the activities, and any pre-existing condition.

5. Passports, visas and entry requirements

You are responsible for holding a valid passport and for meeting every entry, transit and exit requirement for your trip.

Many countries require a passport valid for at least six months beyond your return date, and blank pages for visas. The requirement is not universal, so please check it for your destinations.

We can point you to the official sources. We do not lodge visa applications and we do not advise on visa eligibility. Requirements differ according to your nationality and your country of residence, and they change. The authoritative sources are Smartraveller and the immigration authority of each country concerned.

We will ask you to tell us which passport each traveller holds, because it affects what is possible. If any traveller holds a passport other than an Australian one, please tell us early — the requirements may be quite different.

If you are refused boarding or entry, or are delayed or deported, because a document was missing or incorrect, suppliers are generally under no obligation to refund you, and nor are we.

6. Health, fitness and accessibility

Please tell us about anything that affects how you travel — mobility, fitness, a medical condition, allergies, dietary requirements — so that we can arrange travel that actually works for you. We handle that information as described in our Privacy Policy, and we ask for it only when a supplier needs it.

We are not qualified to give medical advice and we do not give it. Vaccination, medication, altitude, and fitness to travel are matters for your doctor or a travel medicine clinic, and you should speak to one well before you go. Some destinations we work in involve altitude, long days on foot, remote areas and limited medical facilities.

Where an itinerary involves particular physical demands, we will tell you what they are. If you tell us a requirement and we arrange travel that does not accommodate it, that is our problem to fix. If you do not tell us, we cannot allow for it.

7. Confirming a booking

A booking is confirmed only when we send you a written confirmation. Until then, nothing is held.

When we confirm a booking we will give you, or link you to, the supplier's own terms — including its deposit, payment, change and cancellation terms — before you pay anything. Please read them. Those terms are what determine your money.

If you do not receive a supplier's terms before you are asked to pay, tell us and do not pay until you have them.

You must give us accurate details for every traveller, including names exactly as they appear on their passports. Airlines and many other suppliers charge to correct a name, and some will not correct one at all.

8. Travelling with other people, and with children

If you book for other people, you confirm that you are authorised to do so, that you have their agreement to give us their personal information, and that you will pass on to them everything we send you — including supplier terms, health and entry requirements, and our privacy information.

We do not deal directly with anyone under 18. A parent or legal guardian must make the booking, supply the child's details, and accept these terms on the child's behalf.

Some suppliers apply their own rules to travellers under 18 — minimum ages, supervision requirements, or documentation where a child travels without both parents. Requirements vary by country and by airline. We will tell you what we know of them, and you should confirm them with the relevant authority for your route.

9. Changes you want to make

Tell us and we will do what we can. What is possible, and what it costs, depends on the supplier's terms. We do not add a fee of our own for making a change.

Some bookings can be changed easily. Others cannot be changed at all, and a change is treated as a cancellation and rebooking at the current price.

10. Cancellation and refunds

If you cancel, the supplier's cancellation terms determine what you get back. Those are the terms we gave you before you paid.

Because you pay suppliers or Fora directly, we do not hold your money and we cannot refund it ourselves. What we will do is put your claim to the supplier, press it, and pass on to you promptly whatever the supplier releases — in full, without deduction. We will keep you told about where it has got to.

We cannot promise a refund that a supplier's terms do not provide for, and we will not pretend otherwise.

Where a supplier offers a credit instead of a refund, we will put the offer to you. A credit is not the same as a refund, and you do not have to accept one. If you have a right to a refund — under the supplier's terms, or under the Australian Consumer Law — that right is not affected by a credit being offered.

Nothing in this clause limits your rights under clause 14.

11. Changes or cancellation by a supplier

Suppliers sometimes change or cancel arrangements. When that happens we will tell you as soon as we know, explain what the supplier's terms provide, and work to find you an alternative that is genuinely comparable.

Where the change is significant and you do not want the alternative, we will pursue whatever refund or credit the supplier's terms allow, and pass it on to you as soon as we receive it.

We do not accept responsibility for a supplier's decision to change or cancel. We do accept responsibility for telling you promptly, for handling it carefully, and for pursuing your position properly with the supplier — and if we fall short of that, clause 14 applies.

12. Events outside anyone's control

Sometimes travel is disrupted by something no one could control, including:

• natural disaster or severe weather
• epidemic or pandemic
• war, civil unrest or terrorism
• industrial action
• border or airspace closure
• government order
• failure of essential infrastructure

If that happens, our obligations to you are suspended for as long as the event prevents us from performing them, and we will tell you as soon as we reasonably can.

What you get back in those circumstances depends on each supplier's terms, and we will pursue it for you and pass on whatever is released. Since we charge you no fee, there is no fee of ours to refund.

This clause does not suspend or reduce any right you have under the Australian Consumer Law.

13. Travel advisories and conditions in your destination

Please read the Smartraveller advice for every country on your itinerary before you book and again before you leave, and subscribe to updates for those destinations.

We will tell you if we become aware of an advisory that affects your trip. But we do not monitor advisories for every client continuously, and you should not rely on us to be the first to tell you.

An advisory — including a Level 4 "Do not travel" advisory — does not automatically entitle you to a refund. Whether you get anything back depends on the supplier's terms and on your travel insurance. Many travellers assume the opposite, so please do not: check your policy, because insurers commonly decline cover for travel against advice.

If you travel to a destination against an advisory, that is your decision to make. We will not pretend the risk is not there, and we may decline to make further arrangements for travel we consider unsafe.

14. Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law

Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)).

Those guarantees include that our services will:

• be supplied with due care and skill
• be fit for any purpose you have told us about
• be supplied within a reasonable time

If we fail to meet a consumer guarantee, you are entitled to a remedy. For a major failure, you may cancel our services and obtain a refund of any amount you paid us for them, or seek compensation for the reduction in value; and in either case you may also seek compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss. For a failure that is not major, you are entitled to have the problem fixed within a reasonable time, and if it is not fixed, to cancel and seek a refund.

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law, or under any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded. If a term of this document would have that effect, it does not apply to you to that extent.

Consumer guarantees also apply to the services each supplier provides, where the Australian Consumer Law reaches that supplier. Where it does, your rights against that supplier are yours to exercise, and we will help you exercise them.

15. What we are responsible for, and what we are not

We are responsible for arranging your travel with due care and skill. That includes selecting suppliers carefully, booking what we agreed to book, giving you supplier terms and material information before you pay, passing on your requirements accurately, telling you promptly when something changes, pursuing your position with suppliers properly, and passing on without deduction any money a supplier releases to you.

We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of a supplier in actually delivering its own service — the standard of a hotel room, the driving of a coach operator, the punctuality of an airline — except to the extent that our own failure to take due care and skill contributed to the problem.

Subject to clause 14, and to the extent the law permits, our total liability to you in connection with a booking is limited to the greater of:

1. the total fees and commission we received in connection with that booking; and
2. AUD $5,000.

That limit does not apply to liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for a breach of a consumer guarantee in relation to services of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption, or to any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

We are not liable for loss that was not reasonably foreseeable at the time of booking.

16. Your responsibilities

You agree to:

• give us accurate information, including names as they appear on passports, and tell us promptly if anything changes
• read the supplier terms we give you before you pay
• check and meet passport, visa, transit and health requirements
• take out travel insurance
• arrive on time and comply with supplier rules and local law while travelling
• tell us promptly if something goes wrong while you are away, so that we have a chance to help fix it

If you cause loss or damage to a supplier or another traveller through your own deliberate or negligent act, you may be responsible to that person for it. This is not an indemnity in our favour, and it does not extend to anything arising from our own negligence or breach.

17. Our relationship with Fora, and Fora's terms

We arrange your travel through the Fora platform, and Fora Travel, Inc. may provide you with its own client terms. Those terms govern your relationship with Fora. These Booking Terms and Conditions govern your relationship with Yinfinite, and are the terms on which we provide our services to you.

The Fora client terms are a United States document. Some of what they contain does not operate against an Australian consumer, and we do not rely on those parts. In particular, we do not ask you to:

• give up any right you have under the Australian Consumer Law
• release us or Fora from liability for negligence
• agree not to raise a dispute with your bank or card issuer
• accept a shortened time limit for bringing a claim, or give up a right to participate in a class action

If you ever want to dispute a charge with your card issuer, that is your right and we will not stand in the way of it. We would simply ask you to speak to us first — in most cases we can sort the problem out faster than a chargeback can, and we would rather fix it than have you go through the process.

18. Complaints

If something is wrong while you are travelling, tell us and tell the supplier at the time. Many problems can be fixed on the spot and become much harder to fix afterwards.

If you are not satisfied, write to us at hello@yinfinite.com.au. We will:

• acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days
• give you a substantive response within 30 days
• tell you what we have done, and what we will do

If we have not resolved it between us, you can take the matter to Consumer Affairs Victoria (or your own State or Territory consumer affairs body), to the ACCC, or to a court or tribunal. We do not require you to go to arbitration and we do not ask you to give up any right to bring or join a class action.

19. Privacy

We collect and handle personal information as described in our Privacy Policy, including passport and health information where a supplier requires it, and including disclosure to suppliers overseas. Please read it before you book. Where the information is sensitive, we will ask for your consent at the point we collect it.

20. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The current version will always be published at www.yinfinite.com.au with a "last updated" date.

The version that applies to your booking is the version in force on the day we confirmed that booking. We will not apply a later version to a booking you have already made. If we need to change something about a confirmed booking, we will ask you.

21. Accreditation and licensing

Travel agent licensing has been abolished in every Australian State and Territory, so no travel agent licence exists for us to hold, and we do not claim to be licensed.

We are not ATAS-accredited and we do not display the ATAS mark. ATAS accreditation is voluntary and is administered by the Australian Travel Industry Association. If that changes, we will say so here.

22. Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of Victoria, Australia, and you and we submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Victoria and the courts able to hear appeals from them.

If you live outside Australia, nothing in this clause deprives you of the protection of any mandatory consumer law of the place where you live, or of any right you have to bring a claim there.

23. General

• If any part of these terms is unenforceable, that part is severed and the rest continues to apply
• If we do not enforce a term straight away, we have not given up the right to enforce it later
• You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our agreement, which we will not unreasonably withhold

These terms, together with our written booking confirmation and our Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between us about the arrangement of your travel.

24. Contact

• Yarra Pacific Pty Ltd trading as Yinfinite Travel
• ACN 701 796 705 · ABN 76 701 796 705
• PO Box 4058, Balwyn East VIC 3103
• hello@yinfinite.com.au
• www.yinfinite.com.au