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Horrible experience with Cunard Air


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:mad:I sailed in princess grill cabin from NYC on June 15. Purchase business class ticket home from Heathrow through Cunard. I have my British air print out, and I paid for it months ago. I am at Heathrow and Cunard has not bought the ticket. Cunard U.S. Is closed, and after spending an hour on the phone with Cunard London, I received no help. Have purchased a very expensive ticket home on later flight but am absolutely furious at the horrible service

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Unfortunately, this just happens some time. The air department at Cunard dropped the ball. We have a friend who booked his air through Holland America and he gets to the airport at ORD and couldn't find his ticket. It was never issued by Holland America. With the help of an American Airline rep, he got it settled, but could not get on the flight he was originally booked on and had to take one about 4 hours after the one he originally was confirmed on. This was only about 3 weeks ago, so this stuff does happen.

 

You will be reimbursed.

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My husband in the U.S. And my travel agent have both now spoken with Cunard in the U.S with very underwhelming results. They refused to call me here or to attempt to upgrade me on the flight home. Did say they would look into a refund for the ticket I bought today. That doesn't really compensate me for the loss of a business class flight, lounge access, and higher baggage allowances. I enjoyed the cruise but am now done with them.

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I'm not sure I blame you - doesn't sound like a very satisfactory result at all.

 

Last year when I booked a transatlantic voyage, Cunard booked my flights but did not tell me I would have to book in online and my husband and I were unable to sit together on our flight to New York. Not a very nice start to the holiday and no empathy from Cunard at all!

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Clearly a very stressful experience, but I'm confused how it's possible to have a "British Air[ways] print out" if no booking was made and no ticket bought. I always double check I have a definite booking reference for every flight I make, and ensure I know all about check in, no matter who has made the booking.

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Clearly a very stressful experience, but I'm confused how it's possible to have a "British Air[ways] print out" if no booking was made and no ticket bought. I always double check I have a definite booking reference for every flight I make, and ensure I know all about check in, no matter who has made the booking.

The print out itself is just a notice from the airline that a seat has been booked. The agent has to send a separate confirmation that the seat has been paid for then the airline will issue a ticket. From reading so far it looks like the confirmation step has been missed by the agent (Cunard) and the seat hasn't been ticketed.

 

M-AR

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This also happened to my parents with Viking ocean cruises. They arrived at the airport to drop their bags and the cruise line hadn't paid for their tickets.

 

Again they were little help on the phone and they ended up having to buy very expensive walk up tickets, plus baggage costs.

 

It was straightened out after the cruise, with a full refund of the flight costs and a future cruise voucher that equaled 30% of their total holiday cost. So keep at Cunard until you have a resolution that your are satisfied with.

 

 

Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Forums

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You're justified to be done with Cunard. Something like this is a traveler's worst nightmare especially when you had documentation from the airline indicating that everything was in order. Please let us know how this is eventually settled. It's really not enough for Cunard to just refund your Complete Air charges as this screw up put you in a situation where you had to spend a lot more money.

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That's not good I would be fuming, this should never happen on high end vacation from a premium business..

 

We just swapped from Gatwick to Birmingham, the original was with BA from Gatwick I got a reference number from Cunard to book seats which as of now are still live on my BA account even tho I've got a new booking on United from Birmingham, when I tried to book my seats with united they said the seats were not ticketed and could not book any seats until Cunard paid for the ticket, I got my TA to get this sorted took a few days but once it said ticketed on the account then they allowed us to book seats, so after reading about your problem I'm glad I got Cunard to sort ours..

 

I was told Cunard wait until the very last moment to confirm their manifesto with airlines and hotels, until it's confirmed and paid everything is just on hold..

 

You were lucky you had the means to pay for a new ticket imagine a family in the same situation with very little cash..

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Good point. Although the OP was not scrimping, this tale should be cautionary to those who can barely afford to travel. What would they do with no cash, no money backing up their debit card, and not enough credit to pay for alternative travel.

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I'm not sure I blame you - doesn't sound like a very satisfactory result at all.

 

Last year when I booked a transatlantic voyage, Cunard booked my flights but did not tell me I would have to book in online and my husband and I were unable to sit together on our flight to New York. Not a very nice start to the holiday and no empathy from Cunard at all!

 

I actually think that Cunard were not to blame here as checking in online has been the norm for years. Also, with some airlines, unless you pay extra, you cannot book a seat until 24 hours before departure. If you belong to frequent flyer clubs this can help in securing seats together, depending on status.

Sorry this happened to you, but procedures are changing all the time in the travel industry.

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How can it not be Cunard's fault? I bought and paid for a business class ticket through them. I had a confirmation number and a seat assignment. I was in the BA system, and could check n 24 hours in advance. I did so last night, after Cunard was closed. The BA page said to check in with an agent at the airport. When I had the problem at Heathrow, Cunard in London would not help. However, my husband, who has 25000 twitter followers posted about it and Cunard Southampton called me immediately, though they have as yet done nothing to assist me.

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Being a detail person, I always book my own air, follow up a couple of times before date of travel, have my boarding pass, eticket in hand, & seat assignment so that there are no surprises 😎 I notice some are using tickets on their phones here in US. Not me. Paper trail always works.

The ordeal of not having a flight properly ticketed before or after cruise is too stressful & ruins trip. Sorry that Cunard dropped the ball!

Barbara

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Clearly a very stressful experience, but I'm confused how it's possible to have a "British Air[ways] print out" if no booking was made and no ticket bought. I always double check I have a definite booking reference for every flight I make, and ensure I know all about check in, no matter who has made the booking.

 

I have a booking number and a seat assignment. They even asked me to choose an entree. BA simply says Cunard hasn't sent the eticket.

 

I'm also a little confused here.

 

Over the last few years an E-ticket has only served to access online check-in, or alternatively that British Airways (BA) six diget alpha numeric code (ABC6DE).

 

When arriving at the airport only my passport has been required.

 

As far as seat assignment goes that has been given, with BA at least, during on-line check-in and printing of boarding pass.

 

Interesting story.

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Being a detail person, I always book my own air, follow up a couple of times before date of travel, have my boarding pass, eticket in hand, & seat assignment so that there are no surprises 😎 I notice some are using tickets on their phones here in US. Not me. Paper trail always works.

The ordeal of not having a flight properly ticketed before or after cruise is too stressful & ruins trip. Sorry that Cunard dropped the ball!

Barbara

 

I'm partially like you Barbara and always have a paper back up in addition to what is on my iPhone.

 

I once read of a woman turning up at Heathrow for a flight to the US and having no ESTA paper backup when the system said there was no record of her ESTA. It cost her dearly in missed connections.

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Being a detail person, I always book my own air, follow up a couple of times before date of travel, have my boarding pass, eticket in hand, & seat assignment so that there are no surprises 😎 I notice some are using tickets on their phones here in US. Not me. Paper trail always works.

The ordeal of not having a flight properly ticketed before or after cruise is too stressful & ruins trip. Sorry that Cunard dropped the ball!

Barbara

 

I book my own air, too. And I'm a double checker. I have to, we fly with United and they change flight times and numbers without any notification.

 

The one time I had Cunard book it for me was when they had that "little" data release several years ago and had to reissue booking numbers. It took MANY calls to Cunard to get my airfare correct. I had paid for a business class upgrade. First I had no flight, then they found it but the price was much higher than I had paid, then they honored the original price. But after all that I still wasn't able to get a seat assignment until my final payment (which was when Cunard said they paid for the plane tickets).

 

What I don't understand about OP's situation is why BA allowed seat assignment and even meal selection for a ticket that hadn't been paid for.

 

Cunard definitely could have done better on this!

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I'm also a little confused here.

Someone in the travel trade will doubtless correct me if I'm wrong, but if a TA or travel company such as Cunard make a flight only booking with e.g. BA they won't have to pay the full fare up front (if anything at all) but they will still receive a booking reference and itinerary which they can pass on to the passenger. If Cunard then forget to pay the balance the passenger presumably doesn't get a reminder so potentially has no idea that Cunard have messed up until they arrive at the airport - they may well not have bothered to check in online as there's no need if they already have an allocated seat.

 

I guess that's what happened to the OP - as far as they were concerned they had a booking reference, itinerary, and allocated seat, and had no reason to suspect that their booking had been cancelled for non payment or other mess up by Cunard.

 

It's possible for a private individual to get a booking reference from BA without paying the full fare - simply book a package such as flight + car hire and you're only asked for a deposit. The balance is due 60 or so days before travel but the passenger is able to reserve seats, request special meals etc as if they'd paid the full fare up front, the difference being that the booking vanishes if the balance isn't paid. BA send reminders in advance of the deadline for paying the balance but I wonder whether they do that for trade customers: the assumption might be that the customer, e.g. Cunard, is organised enough to pay up on time without a reminder.

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I actually think that Cunard were not to blame here as checking in online has been the norm for years. Also, with some airlines, unless you pay extra, you cannot book a seat until 24 hours before departure. If you belong to frequent flyer clubs this can help in securing seats together, depending on status.

Sorry this happened to you, but procedures are changing all the time in the travel industry.

 

Goodness - talk about blaming the victim. I suspect a judge would not agree with you.

 

Several times in the 1970s and 80s we took advantage of Cunard's free air travel on BA for the opposite direction of Atlantic crossings. The free flights were normal at that time. Fortunately we never had a problem, whether flying economy or paying a supplement for Club Class. But then, real tickets were issued by the travel agent or Cunard.

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This is absolutely terrifying/appalling.

 

We're taking our first Cunard crossing next May and plan on using Cunard Air as it'll be substantially cheaper than purchasing outright.

 

Is there any way to be proactive against this happening? If I showed up and Cunard hadn't paid for my flight ... I very well would be in jail for the following behavior!

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Cunard has come through, belatedly. A guest relations employee had called me while I was in the air, and I called her back this morning. She was lovely. They agreed to immediately pay me for the tickets I bought yesterday, and provide some yet to be determined compensation for the delay, lack of lounge access and business class service. She also promised to have management investigate the service, or lack thereof, that we received yesterday from both U.K. and U.S. Cunard personnel. We will probably get a voucher, too, and I might even use it!

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