DeanUU

For the cancelled excursions? Ours arrived in our CC account yesterday.

I received the original upgrade email a few weeks back: when I logged in to MyCunard this morning the upgrade options appear to be unchanged. I noticed the nonsensical discrepancy between Late Saver fares and the options to upgrade when the email first came through. I was hoping the upgrade options might have been refined to be more competitive but…no. Not sure if cancelling and rebooking is even an option given we supposedly lose a % of our paid amount this close to the cruise. I’d definitely consider an upgrade bid, but when the minimum bid is relatively exorbitant as compared to a Late Saver fare it just makes no sense. At the very least Cunard should make the upgrade bid process a competitive exercise!

On Upgrade Bidding... OK, someone explain this to me as if I am 5 yrs old. We paid in full for a sheltered balcony a while ago, QM2 Singapore-Southampton. Let's say the price for that was "x". We received an email offering the opportunity to bid to upgrade...excellent! Minimum bids to upgrade are (in AUD): Britannia Club: $3385 per guest (so $6770/suite) Princess suite: $7905 pg (so $15810/suite) Queens Suite: $7100 pg ($14200/suite) Condition is that we have no say in the suite we are offered in the upgrade. Fair enough. Nor can we change back to our original suite. Here's what I don't understand. If I book and pay for a cruise today, so Late Saver Fare, the prices quoted with same condition ie no suite selection: Britannia Club: "x" +$200/suite Princess Suite: "x" + $6950/suite Queens Suite: "x" + $13350/suite You see where I am going with this...there is no benefit whatsoever in considering an upgrade. Why the hell would I pony up an additional $6770 (minimum) for an upgrade to Britannia Club when I can book a Late Saver for just $200 more than what was the original cost of my cruise? Even Princess Suite seems to be good value as a Late Saver fare. The ONLY advantage I can see to booking & paying way in advance is that you can choose your stateroom, however the Britannia Club suites seem to be in their own section of the ship, Decks 12 & 13, forward & mid forward so you're going to have a good idea of where you are going to be. The smart play, going forward, is to snap up late fares from now on as they present much better value that choosing to upgrade later. As established Cunard cruisers I would have thought the better option for Cunard would be to offer really decent upgrade options to existing guests and open up the lower priced cabins as much as possible.

Fair enough, missed that post. I guess we can both take the missing segments as a data point indicating Dubai and Middle East as a region will be bypassed.

FWIW If you check the Cunard site you will note that the Dubai-Southampton specific cruise no longer appears for sale. Nor does Singapore - Dubai. Singapore-Southampton remains available (still lists Dubai as a port stop, but that has never changed). Not 100% conclusive but it makes sense for Cunard to remove those specific cruises if they know they won’t be sailing to Dubai and will have to process FCC’s unnecessarily. My money is on port stop at Colombo then head South West towards South Africa.

Well that’s crystal clear, isn’t it? Not much room for interpretation. Sorry to hear that this will probably impact your travel. Hopefully Cunard will offer a meaningful alternative in the coming weeks (assuming that’s an option for you).

FWIW I think you’re on the money here. First, the insurers will be much happier if QM2 gives the whole region a wide berth. A British symbol owned by an American conglomerate? May as well paint a big bullseye on the hull. I suspect we’ll see QM2 divert south after the Colombo port stop, bypassing Dubai and the other Middle Eastern ports to transit via the Cape. The customers scheduled to board in Dubai will be issued FCC’s or will have arrangements made to join the ship in Cape Town. Maybe also offer incentives to join early in Singapore instead. We know QM2 has a scheduled departure on 28 April from Southampton-NY, so Cunard will be looking closely at the cost ramifications of missing that sailing date and concluding that bypassing the Middle East is the safest and most cost effective solution.