To Haggle or Not

[Sauer-kraut]

If I can find a lower price online (not using the Cunard site), is it possible to then contact my cruise person at Cunard and say I have found X rate and will you match it or beat it? Is that done or considered in bad taste?

[Valentino]

We did the same thing. We were still outwith the cancellation period and my husband found a QG room cheaper than the PG room that our TA was getting us. What we did was send her the details of the reduced rate and asked her to match it - failing that we would have cancelled with her and booked direct on line.

 

She did manage to cancel our original booking and then rebooked with Cunard at the rate that was offered on the web site.

 

I say go for it. (Unless you're made of money of course) :)

[southwestie]

always ask, they can only say no at worse.

 

I gave my TA a lot of bookings for friends and they gave us a futher £80 of each booking and thats after the 5% and TAs discount and OBC etc, etc, etc

[MsDeva]

The key word here is to shop around. Cunard show their prices with the so called discount.

A good TA will always match it and then some.

We have booked cruises with agents in the USA...and also here in the UK.

Look for the best deals....do the homework.

[pepperrn]

If I can find a lower price online (not using the Cunard site), is it possible to then contact my cruise person at Cunard and say I have found X rate and will you match it or beat it? Is that done or considered in bad taste?

 

Try it! I did for my group of friends (me and 11 others) all travelling together on one cruise, we got several thousand £ "off" the cost of the voyage. I went back to the TA and quoted an on line price I'd found, not only did my TA match the price, they also arranged upgrades for all 12 of us (from D inside grade to either A or B balcony grades) and OBC for the whole group. Of course it helps that my TA do nothing but cruises and are in a big city and book loads of repeat passengers with Cunard, you may find a "high street" travel agent in a tiny town or small village hasn't got much bargaining power, and one would hope that Cunard would look after passengers booking directly with them. Always seek out a cruise specialist or if dealing direct with Cunard, prepare to be tough!

 

And Cunard gained new passengers from this deal. Of the 12, six booked more voyages on QM2...

[southwestie]

Wow, you really did well to get Several thousand of pounds discount and upgrades, no wonder they booked further voyages, I know I would, what kind of voyage lengh was it you booked?

[Valentino]

I imagine it would be quite easy to save several thousand pounds with a group of 12 booking. Consider that my hubby and I upgraded from a P1 to a Q5 and it cost us $3'500 less (by shopping around) multiply that by 12 and bingo - bob's your uncle - squids in!:p

[southwestie]

I imagine it would be quite easy to save several thousand pounds with a group of 12 booking. Consider that my hubby and I upgraded from a P1 to a Q5 and it cost us $3'500 less (by shopping around) multiply that by 12 and bingo - bob's your uncle - squids in!:p

 

 

Indeed, I agree, thats why I wondered what grade of cabins they were and the lengh of voyage so i can barter with my TA and or others-

[Valentino]

we originally booked through out TA and were given the price on the Cunard web site. My husband (just out of curiosity) checked round on all the various web sites and found one in the US that was lots cheaper. The trick is to look around and find the cheapest deal possible then do what we did - present it to your TA and ask if they can match it.

[pepperrn]

I imagine it would be quite easy to save several thousand pounds with a group of 12 booking. Consider that my hubby and I upgraded from a P1 to a Q5 and it cost us $3'500 less (by shopping around) multiply that by 12 and bingo - bob's your uncle - squids in!:p

 

Hi Valentino

 

You're correct, with 12 of us on one booking the amount saved soon mounted up! This all happened one week before final balance was due. I felt, sadly, that a booking for 12 people carried more "weight" than a booking for a single traveller or a couple, it shouldn't of course. All we wanted was the lower price, the upgrades were unexpected and a bonus.

 

We couldn't get a table for 12 in Britannia and had to be content with two tables for 6 alongside each other. The same happened in Lotus. However, in Todd English they re-organised the layout to give us our table for 12 :)! We were impressed:):)!

 

Of the 12, 10 had never been on a ship before, and as I said, they were so impressed with the deal and QM2 that 6 have since been back to enjoy further voyages on her.

 

Thanks and very best wishes.

[southwestie]

we originally booked through out TA and were given the price on the Cunard web site. My husband (just out of curiosity) checked round on all the various web sites and found one in the US that was lots cheaper. The trick is to look around and find the cheapest deal possible then do what we did - present it to your TA and ask if they can match it.

 

 

Quite right, I am lucky and have a great TA who so far has never had to be beated down, we did however just manage a table for 12 on the 5 day cruise, all arranged by our friends TA, we took over the captains table, number 82, sadly only 11 of us there, ( we missed you Laura) and The Commodore did pop over a couple of times to say hello, I might add, this table is way too big and it was hard at time to converse across it, we also felt on show evey evening, (not a bad thing)

[Sauer-kraut]

Thanks for all the great information. I'll just have to keep cruising the web and see what is available when I know for certain I can book.

[southwestie]

well done, main thing is keep having wonderful voyages one way or the other, we have 6 booked for 2011 so far, I thought I might be cruised out, but I know I wont be:)

 

Hope to see onboard one day

[sullaRaffaello]

If I can find a lower price online (not using the Cunard site), is it possible to then contact my cruise person at Cunard and say I have found X rate and will you match it or beat it? Is that done or considered in bad taste?

 

The poster's question was about going back to Cunard, not a travel agent. I had that situation, called Cunard and they said cancel with us and book where you found the lower price. I still do not understand that, since Cunard has to pay the site a commission. Anyway I booked with the site and saved over $600 per person.