Before a package contract is made, the organiser or retailer must give the traveller the pre-contract information in Schedule 1 of the Regulations and the right standard information form, using the form and wording the Regulations set out. Which form you use depends on how you sell:

• Schedule 2, where hyperlinks can be used, such as on a website

• Schedule 3, where hyperlinks cannot be used or the sale is made by phone

• Schedule 4, for packages created through linked online bookings, where the customer’s name, payment details and email address are passed to a second trader and the customer books with that trader within 24 hours of the first booking being confirmed

Each package form says the combination is a package, that the named company is fully responsible for it and that it has insolvency protection, then sets out the traveller’s key rights and names the protection provider. Failing to give the pre-contract information is a criminal offence.

The April 2027 change

From 6 April 2027, the five forms for linked travel arrangements, in Schedules 6 to 10, are removed along with linked travel arrangements themselves. The package forms are not changed. Some arrangements that are linked travel arrangements today will become packages, so the package forms will apply to them.

Worth knowing

• The form is not the booking confirmation, the ATOL Certificate or your booking conditions. It sits alongside the other information you give before booking.

• The prescribed package forms still tell travellers they benefit from EU rights. The wording has not been changed since Brexit, and because the law requires the prescribed form and wording, take advice before changing it.