QV's Phantom Voyage

[57eric]

The phantom voyage is Feb. 24, 2021, Auckland to Brisbane, 7 nights.  It can be seen, but not booked, at https://www.cunard.com/en-us/find-a-cruise/V106E/V106E. 

 

My attempts (2 phone, 1 email) to have Cunard explain why it cannot be booked yielded either no response or one that was demonstrably incorrect.  It was possible to book the corresponding cruise for this year (V906E).

 

Any thoughts?

[Toffeegirl68]

Would be good to see this on sale - as I am moving from London to Auckland this year and it'd be good to have a Cunard 'fix' booked in advance to ease my transition.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Toffeegirl68

[Toffeegirl68]

Now I'm confused - or just tired....

https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/find-a-cruise/Q107D/Q107D

New Zealand And Tasmania, 11 Nights, Queen Elizabeth, 25 Feb - 8 Mar 2021, (Auckland, Bay of Islands, Sydney, Hobart , Melbourne then Sydney.)

Its not a ghost voyage - its a magic ship !

[Toffeegirl68]

Brain just woke up - different ship!!!!  I need a holiday.....

[bluemarble]

I see there are several other 2021 QV voyages (from Australia) that are in a similar situation. Those other 2021 QV voyages which are listed but cannot be booked on the Cunard website include:

 

V017A = Sydney to Brisbane, 3 nights

V107B = Sydney to Darwin, 9 nights

V107F = Brisbane to Hong Kong, 17 nights

V107H = Brisbane to Southampton, 57 nights

V107I = Darwin to Hong Kong, 11 nights

 

And I see voyage V106D = Auckland to Sydney, 4 nights is listed with all the cabin categories shown as "Sold out" on the Cunard website, so it cannot be booked either.

 

All of these voyages (as well as V106E = Auckland to Brisbane, 7 nights) are shown on an Australia travel agent website with prices listed as "TBA" which I interpret to mean "to be announced".

 

Not sure this helps you very much, but that's what I am seeing just in case it is of some help.

[57eric]

42 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

I see there are several other 2021 QV voyages (from Australia) that are in a similar situation. Those other 2021 QV voyages which are listed but cannot be booked on the Cunard website include:

 

V017A = Sydney to Brisbane, 3 nights

V107B = Sydney to Darwin, 9 nights

V107F = Brisbane to Hong Kong, 17 nights

V107H = Brisbane to Southampton, 57 nights

V107I = Darwin to Hong Kong, 11 nights

 

And I see voyage V106D = Auckland to Sydney, 4 nights is listed with all the cabin categories shown as "Sold out" on the Cunard website, so it cannot be booked either.

 

All of these voyages (as well as V106E = Auckland to Brisbane, 7 nights) are shown on an Australia travel agent website with prices listed as "TBA" which I interpret to mean "to be announced".

 

Not sure this helps you very much, but that's what I am seeing just in case it is of some help.

Good observations.  While I concur that V106D shows sold out on Cunard, it was available when I started trying to book V106E, and it remains available on at least one TA site.

[bluemarble]

10 minutes ago, 57eric said:

Good observations.  While I concur that V106D shows sold out on Cunard, it was available when I started trying to book V106E, and it remains available on at least one TA site.

 

Ah yes, I see that now too about voyage V106D. One website I routinely check is showing me prices for insides and balconies for booking on a "guarantee" basis on that voyage.

[Jack E Dawson]

I might be able to shed a little light on this, based on our own recent experience. The Auckland to Brisbane trip is a segment on the QV Around the World Voyage. When these World Voyages were put on the market last month, Cunard (or their computer algorithms) first allocated cabins for passengers making the entire voyage, then cabins were allocated by segment. In this way it would avoid a situation where someone wanted to book the entire World Voyage but couldn't get on because all of he cabins were taken on the Auckland to Brisbane segment.

So far, my wife and I have only made crossings on the QM2. On our last one, this past September, we set out a goal(dream) to try and sail completely around the world east to west), in annual continuous segments, and to experience all three (four?) Cunard ships. When we tried to get on the Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco for January 2019 it was already sold out. Unfortunately that segment, sailing east to west, is only offered every other year. So when they had the 2021 World Club pre-sale a few weeks ago, I was on the phone with Cunard 30 minutes after their California offices opened at 5:00AM their time, 7:00AM my time. The booking was quickly made but there were only 4 cabins to choose from. Fortunately we were able to get a good cabin location. That afternoon I called Cunard back with a minor question and happened to get he same agent. After answering my question she also mentioned that that segment was now sold out.  Sure enough, when I checked on line, that segment wasn't even shown. Then the next day it was shown but all categories were marked as sold out. My guess is that when it gets closer to final payment time, there will be cancellations and cabins will become available, but who knows. 

Hope this helps.

Jack

[57eric]

2 hours ago, Jack E Dawson said:

I might be able to shed a little light on this, based on our own recent experience. The Auckland to Brisbane trip is a segment on the QV Around the World Voyage. When these World Voyages were put on the market last month, Cunard (or their computer algorithms) first allocated cabins for passengers making the entire voyage, then cabins were allocated by segment. In this way it would avoid a situation where someone wanted to book the entire World Voyage but couldn't get on because all of he cabins were taken on the Auckland to Brisbane segment.

So far, my wife and I have only made crossings on the QM2. On our last one, this past September, we set out a goal(dream) to try and sail completely around the world east to west), in annual continuous segments, and to experience all three (four?) Cunard ships. When we tried to get on the Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco for January 2019 it was already sold out. Unfortunately that segment, sailing east to west, is only offered every other year. So when they had the 2021 World Club pre-sale a few weeks ago, I was on the phone with Cunard 30 minutes after their California offices opened at 5:00AM their time, 7:00AM my time. The booking was quickly made but there were only 4 cabins to choose from. Fortunately we were able to get a good cabin location. That afternoon I called Cunard back with a minor question and happened to get he same agent. After answering my question she also mentioned that that segment was now sold out.  Sure enough, when I checked on line, that segment wasn't even shown. Then the next day it was shown but all categories were marked as sold out. My guess is that when it gets closer to final payment time, there will be cancellations and cabins will become available, but who knows. 

Hope this helps.

Jack

I am seeing wide availability for Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco on TA sites.  I don't know what to make of this.  Does Cunard habitually show fewer cabins than third parties do?

[bluemarble]

9 minutes ago, 57eric said:

I am seeing wide availability for Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco on TA sites.  I don't know what to make of this.  Does Cunard habitually show fewer cabins than third parties do?

 

I am also seeing quite a bit of availability for voyage V105 (QV's Jan. 2021 Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco voyage) on Cunard's website at the moment. Especially in the Inside and Oceanview categories, but also some Britannia Balconies. Very similar to what I am seeing on other third-party booking sites. Grills are sold out though.

[bluemarble]

One additional note about the "sold out" voyage V106D (Auckland to Sydney). That voyage does show up in the Cunard website's search results if you apply the "Sold out voyages" filter. None of those other unavailable Australia/New Zealand voyages we've mentioned in this thread can be found that way, including voyage V106E, Auckland to Brisbane, which is the subject of this thread. The Cunard website does not appear to consider them sold out at this point anyway.

[Colin_Cameron]

Would be interested to see if these voyages look the same on the Australian or New Zealand version of the website.

 

I know that some of the 2020 equivalent voyages (on QE) didn't show up on the .co.uk site until the changes in the website.

 

Regards, Colin.

[bluemarble]

5 hours ago, Colin_Cameron said:

Would be interested to see if these voyages look the same on the Australian or New Zealand version of the website.

 

I know that some of the 2020 equivalent voyages (on QE) didn't show up on the .co.uk site until the changes in the website.

 

Regards, Colin.

 

I'm seeing the same results when I vpn over to the Cunard Australia site. Voyage V016D shows up using the "sold out voyages" filter after doing a standard "find a voyage" search. I'm only able to see Voyages V106E, V017A, V107B, V107F, V107H, and V107I by manipulating the "... /find-a-cruise/..." URL in the browser to request those specific voyages by number and they aren't available to book.

 

We know the spring 2021 voyage schedule could be viewed using this same trick on the new website to retrieve specific voyages by voyage number well before those voyages were officially announced by Cunard and then later were actually available to book. And we also know in previous years Cunard has made some segments of longer voyages available to book sometime after those longer voyages were announced.

 

My theory (and it's only a theory) is that something similar is going on with these voyages. It does seem a little odd though that Cunard would have made the 4 night segment V106D available to book (and it's now "sold out" on the Cunard website) but not the others on this list.

Edited April 2, 2019 by bluemarble

[bluemarble]

Interesting. Voyage V106D, Auckland to Sydney, 4 nights has started showing availability on Cunard's website within the past few hours. Insides and Britannia Balconies are available to book on a guarantee basis, the same as was showing on third-party booking sites in the US yesterday.

 

The other "phantom voyages", including V106E, Auckland to Brisbane, 7 nights are still not available to book though.

 

And sorry for the typo "V017A" in my previous posts which should have been "V107A".

[LittleFish1976]

21 hours ago, Colin_Cameron said:

Would be interested to see if these voyages look the same on the Australian or New Zealand version of the website.

 

I know that some of the 2020 equivalent voyages (on QE) didn't show up on the .co.uk site until the changes in the website.

 

Regards, Colin.

V106D shows availability in both Britannia Inside and Balcony categories on the Cunard Australia website.

[57eric]

On ‎4‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 9:31 PM, 57eric said:

I am seeing wide availability for Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco on TA sites.  I don't know what to make of this.  Does Cunard habitually show fewer cabins than third parties do?

I had forgotten that TA's block cabins.  It is common, and maybe even normal, for Cunard to show less inventory than what has actually been sold to passengers.  Also, leaving the TAs out of it, Cunard may not show cabins available but still be able to offer guarantee space.

[bluemarble]

I just noticed the new Cunard website has a "Search by cruise number" feature. Maybe it's been there for a while and most people already know about it. I thought that was functionality that had been lost in the new website. If you're like me and haven't seen that feature before on the new website, here's how to find it.

 

From my smartphone browser (or from my desktop after reducing the browser window width to 1024 pixels), that's one of the search options presented after pressing the "Search" button on the home screen.

 

In my normal desktop browser mode, that's an additional search option presented when I select any of the other search options "Where would you like to go?", "Where would you like to embark?", "When would you like to travel?", or "For how long?" on the home screen.

 

Anyway, of interest to this thread, this "Search by cruise number" feature complains "Please enter a valid cruise number." when I attempt to search for voyages V106E, V107A, V107B, V107F, V107H, or V107I. Not that this really tells us a whole lot. Just an additional observation to report about those voyages being unavailable to book.

[bluemarble]

While discussing the latest Cunard "August 2019 - May 2021" brochure on another thread, I noticed this errata sheet inserted into the hard copy version of that brochure I picked up on board QM2 a couple months ago. Thought this might be of some general interest to this "Phantom Voyage" topic (for both QM2 and QV).

 

[57eric]

Thanks Bluemarble.  While it is helpful that Cunard published this, I would have expected the message to read "Please note the following voyages are not on sale at this time but may be offered later, pending availability".