Current UK Grade Upgrade Offer

[olippold]

Hello,

 

We received an email recently offering free upgrades on certain cruises next year (Inside to Balcony and so on). We've actually already booked a cruise next year (Q614 on the QE in August) and as this cruise is included in the offer, I thought I'd see how much I might have lost out. The answer is not at all.

 

I booked this cruise a few months ago, which is almost a year in advance. That's quite unusual for us, as we've never booked more than 6 months in advance before, but I've noticed that cruises we've been looking at have been selling out much more quickly. For example, we did a Fjords cruise in August 2014 which we booked earlier that same year, whereas the same cruise in August 2015 was fully booked almost a year in advance. We do have a teenage daughter and need to ensure all the Zone slots aren't already taken, so that will have had some effect on the availability shown to us.

 

But as I booked this cruise early, and I was interested in whether it's better to book early or late, so I decided to occasionally check on the prices and see how much they changed. The following shows some examples of the balcony prices (all in GBP):

 

13/10/15: Ranging from 2,799 (CB) to 3,399 (BA). Our grade (BE) is 3,199. No Early Saver option.

4/11/15: 3,199 (CB) to 3,649 (BB, BA sold out). BE is now 3,529 or 2,829 for Early Saver.

25/11/15: 3,349 (BF) to 3,479 (BB). BE is now 3,379 or 2,979 for Early Saver.

22/12/15: 3,499 (BF) to 3,549 (BB). BE is now 3,519 or 2,979 for Early Saver.

 

Currently, with the new offer, the prices are:

 

29/12/15: 3,199 (BF) to 3,549 (BB). BE is now 3,199 and no Early Saver options any more. (Note inside prices are also 3,199). I assume BB is excluded from the offer for whatever reason.

 

So the balcony prices have gone down, but not by very much, and the BB price is unchanged. I haven't been monitoring Inside prices at all, but would they really have been so close to the balcony prices all the time? I'm wondering if the Inside prices have been hiked for this promotion. Normally If I bought items at a sale, there'd be a (legal?) requirement that they genuinely have to have been at the full price for a certain period of time, but I'm not sure if this applies to cruises due to the constant price fluctuations. It just doesn't seem right to me that you're paying more than you would 2 months ago yet supposedly getting a free upgrade. It looks particularly bad if you compare against the Early Saver option, which has now been removed!

 

Oliver

[bunkrest]

Its a bit like gambling in a casino the house always wins..

[Ray66]

Here's another example of a certain short cruise (all Cunard Fare prices) on the "Upgrade On Us" offer:

 

At 18th July:

BY Balcony - £549

 

At 29th December:

BY Balcony - £599

DF Balcony - £579

Oceanview EF - £579

 

Hmmmm...

[olippold]

Its a bit like gambling in a casino the house always wins..

 

Of course if it were like gambling, they might consider my price monitoring akin to card counting and rapidly eject me, pausing only to break my legs on the way. :)

[Kynance]

We booked a BC grade balcony cabin on Q616 (Canary Islands, September 2016) on Sunday. We were intending to book something anyway, mainly because the extra OBC offer we were sent when we returned from our trip this October is due to expire on 31 December.

 

Having checked the prices of cruises we were considering against the August 2015 - January 2017 edition of the Cunard brochure, I'm pretty happy with the price paid of £1,899 each. That's the same price as a BF cabin we've been in the last couple of times but the BCs are slightly aft of mid-ships, so in a slightly more stable position. The brochure price is £2,049 for the cheapest balcony so I think waiting has probably benefited us. We always book the Cunard fare because we want to eat late on a table for 2. Combining the $110 OBC offers per person in the brochure together with the $300 we get each from the offer, I think we have a good deal which suits us. Interestingly, having read the original posting, I checked the brochure price of the cheapest inside cabin - £1,599, which is £300 cheaper than the current Cunard fare (although you can get early saver fares on insides for £1,299).

 

A similar itinerary on Queen Victoria in May 2016 came out at £1,499 for a BC cabin, which is £200 less than the brochure price for the cheapest balcony, but the overnight stay in Madeira in September appealed so we went for the more expensive (but 2 days longer) option.

 

Once I've made the booking I tend not to pay attention to prices - as we wouldn't book an early saver or saver fare now anyway, I'm pretty sure we probably wouldn't see an offer which would make me wish we had waited. At the moment, however, I think we've done pretty well: we always have a balcony and want second sitting: we have both of those and because we are on full fare and have booked 9 months ahead, I'm pretty confident we'll get our two top (in 16 trips to date, I always have!).

[Solent Richard]

Hello,

 

Currently, with the new offer, the prices are:

 

29/12/15: 3,199 (BF) to 3,549 (BB). BE is now 3,199 and no Early Saver options any more. (Note inside prices are also 3,199). I assume BB is excluded from the offer for whatever reason.

 

So the balcony prices have gone down, but not by very much, and the BB price is unchanged. I haven't been monitoring Inside prices at all, but would they really have been so close to the balcony prices all the time? I'm wondering if the Inside prices have been hiked for this promotion. Normally If I bought items at a sale, there'd be a (legal?) requirement that they genuinely have to have been at the full price for a certain period of time, but I'm not sure if this applies to cruises due to the constant price fluctuations. It just doesn't seem right to me that you're paying more than you would 2 months ago yet supposedly getting a free upgrade. It looks particularly bad if you compare against the Early Saver option, which has now been removed!

 

Oliver

 

Here's another example of a certain short cruise (all Cunard Fare prices) on the "Upgrade On Us" offer:

 

At 18th July:

BY Balcony - £549

 

At 29th December:

BY Balcony - £599

DF Balcony - £579

Oceanview EF - £579

 

Hmmmm...

 

I guess its all down to 'supply and demand'. No different really to the airlines who, as the flights get closer, so the price rises.

 

And on one Cunard cruise I have watched, still 7 months away, I tried the offer you refer to the day before yesterday.

 

Guess what? All Grills and Britannia Club 'SOLD OUT'.

 

My loss of course.