Booking terms

Who you are contracting with

Birr Journeys is a trading name of Phoenix Protocol Union, a corporation registered in Delaware, United States, with its business address at 390 NE 191st St, Miami, Florida 33179. When you book, your contract is with that company.

The ground operation in Georgia is being established, and the local operator of record is named on your confirmation before you travel. We are not yet registered as a Seller of Travel in Florida. That registration is in progress, and no departure is sold before it is complete.

What a journey is

An escorted small-group journey for travellers aged roughly 60 to 78, booked in most cases by an adult son or daughter. A group is 12 to 16 travellers. An Arabic-speaking host accompanies the group from airport gate to airport gate, and a state-registered nurse travels with it.

The host is not the group’s nurse, and we never describe them as one. Prayer times and halal meals are planned into each day rather than arranged on the spot.

These are leisure journeys. They are not medical or clinical, and nothing on them is offered as such.

The price, and the currency you are charged in

We charge in US dollars. Where a price is also shown in Saudi riyals, that figure is an indication converted at a published rate on a stated date. It is not the amount you are charged. Your own bank will usually add a foreign-transaction fee of about 2.75% to 3% on a dollar charge.

Your booking records the dollar amount, and that is the only amount we will ever ask you for. A price that changes later does not change what you have already agreed: a booking keeps the price it was sold at.

Payment

A deposit of 35% holds the seats on a public departure. On a private or institutional booking the deposit is 50%. The balance is due 45 days before departure.

Payment is taken by Stripe. We never see or hold your card number. The deposit and the refund terms are shown to you before you pay, not after.

The health questions, and why a journey can be declined

Before travel, each traveller is asked about their health, so the days can be planned at their pace and so we can say honestly whether a journey suits them. The questions are answered by the traveller on their own private page, not by the person paying.

A journey can be declined on the basis of that review. If it is, the whole deposit is returned. The reason belongs to the traveller: it reaches the person who booked only if the traveller has agreed to that.

The minimum, and the decision date

Every open departure carries a minimum of eight travellers and a named decision date, both shown on the departure page before you book. If the minimum is not reached by that date, the departure does not run and every deposit is returned in full.

We do not run a departure short-handed, because that changes the journey you booked.

Passports, visas and entry

We do not collect passport numbers. We collect nationality, passport expiry and country of residence, because those determine which visa rules apply and who may review a traveller’s health questions.

Each traveller is responsible for holding a valid passport and any visa their nationality requires. We state the visa position per passport from official sources and we help with the paperwork, but a border officer’s decision is not ours to make or to promise.

Insurance

Travel insurance is required on every journey. Where a policy is arranged through us, the certificate and what it does and does not cover is sent before departure. We do not describe a policy as covering anything we have not read in it, and we never assume a policy covers a condition someone already has.

What we are responsible for, and what we are not

We are responsible for arranging the journey described on your confirmation with reasonable care, and for telling you promptly and plainly when something changes.

We are not responsible for events outside our reasonable control — weather, border decisions, strikes, civil disruption, or a traveller’s own decision not to follow the itinerary. Where such an event stops a journey from running, our refund and cancellation policy sets out what comes back to you.

Complaints

Write to hello@birrjourneys.com. There is no form to find and no queue to join. If something goes wrong during a journey, tell us while you are still on it if you can, because most things can be put right the same day.

Law

These terms are governed by the law of the State of Delaware, United States. Nothing here removes a right you hold under the law of the country you live in.