Are cabins really selling this far ahead on QM2 transatlantic

[dthompsond1]

I am looking to travel on QM2 from New York to Southampton on October 7th. 2022. According to the Cunard website, there are only 2 sheltered balcony cabins left and only about half a dozen balcony cabins left. Can this really be true so far in advance?. Also I am looking to fly from UK to Boston 2 weeks before sailing. Does any one know if you can get a flight credit for flying into a different airport. Cunard's fare for UK passengers includes flights but you get no discount if you opt out of their flight.

 

 

 

[Victoria2]

58 minutes ago, dthompsond1 said:

I am looking to travel on QM2 from New York to Southampton on October 7th. 2022. According to the Cunard website, there are only 2 sheltered balcony cabins left and only about half a dozen balcony cabins left. Can this really be true so far in advance?. Also I am looking to fly from UK to Boston 2 weeks before sailing. Does any one know if you can get a flight credit for flying into a different airport. Cunard's fare for UK passengers includes flights but you get no discount if you opt out of their flight.

 

 

 

If needed, we always have a flight incorporated into our Cunard booking but date, route, grade and airline of our choosing if that helps. I think you'll fine Cunard will give you an air credit  credit if you choose not to take the flights which come with the booking.

[shippmates]

Yes the cabins do sell that quickly.  We booked our August 2022 cruise in December 2020.  If anyone is looking for a handicap cabin unless you book them the day the sailings are released, you will have to waitlist for a cabin.  

[dthompsond1]

Thanks all for replying so quickly, will get on to my travel agent today

[PORT ROYAL]

1 hour ago, dthompsond1 said:

I am looking to travel on QM2 from New York to Southampton on October 7th. 2022. According to the Cunard website, there are only 2 sheltered balcony cabins left and only about half a dozen balcony cabins left. Can this really be true so far in advance?. Also I am looking to fly from UK to Boston 2 weeks before sailing. Does any one know if you can get a flight credit for flying into a different airport. Cunard's fare for UK passengers includes flights but you get no discount if you opt out of their flight.

 

 

 

If it assists, just did a quick dummy booking and there are deck 11 staterooms available.(suggested by Cunard website).  Suggest you speak with Cunard or your TA as there may be spare  capacity for non-web bookers

 

[majortom10]

We struggled to book an inside midships cabin when we tried to book a Roundtrip TA for July 2022 in October last year. It wasnt that they were selling out it was because Cunard were not releasing all cabins for the roundtrip. We could have booked a cabin which we had been in before for westbound and Eastbound 7nt TAs but they wouldnt let me book 14nt Roundtrip.

[PORT ROYAL]

29 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

We struggled to book an inside midships cabin when we tried to book a Roundtrip TA for July 2022 in October last year. It wasnt that they were selling out it was because Cunard were not releasing all cabins for the roundtrip. We could have booked a cabin which we had been in before for westbound and Eastbound 7nt TAs but they wouldnt let me book 14nt Roundtrip.

Did Cunard accept your 2 x 7 nights booking?
 

[david,Mississauga]

I had a quick look at the booking site (the US site with fares shown in Canadian $) and there is plenty of availability of sheltered balcony cabins. Deck 4: there are 35; Deck 5: 32; Deck 6: 25.

[newjoisey]

1 hour ago, PORT ROYAL said:

If it assists, just did a quick dummy booking and there are deck 11 staterooms available.(suggested by Cunard website).  Suggest you speak with Cunard or your TA as there may be spare  capacity for non-web bookers

 

Please explain a dummy booking. 

[PORT ROYAL]

Just now, newjoisey said:

Please explain a dummy booking. 

Follow the booking process, select stateroom deck, midships, edit stateroom, select/change etc, then “Checkout” and bail out at the next page.

 

[newjoisey]

For what purpose ?

[Windsurfboy]

1 minute ago, newjoisey said:

For what purpose ?

 

It's one way to find out exactly what cabins are available. 

[PORT ROYAL]

1 minute ago, newjoisey said:

For what purpose ?

To assist the OP with evidence of Balcony Stateroom availability other than limited Sheltered.

[newjoisey]

wow 

[majortom10]

2 hours ago, PORT ROYAL said:

Did Cunard accept your 2 x 7 nights booking?
 

Never tried because it was far more expensive than booking the 14nt roundtrip. I am sure they would have done but I wasnt prepared to pay the extra amount.

[Bigmike911]

In booking a trip next August, just prior to my Westbound T/A from Hamburg, I worked with my travel arranger. Part of the issue she was having was that some of the voyage inventory is held in the UK and some in the US, and neither side can see the other's. 

 

She was able to call Cunard and get the combination I wanted, but I think it was due to the amount I was willing to spend to make it happen. Cunard won't turn away a good income opportunity, especially now, even if a little work is required on their side. 

[buchanan101]

On 4/19/2021 at 11:30 AM, dthompsond1 said:

I am looking to travel on QM2 from New York to Southampton on October 7th. 2022. According to the Cunard website, there are only 2 sheltered balcony cabins left and only about half a dozen balcony cabins left. Can this really be true so far in advance?. Also I am looking to fly from UK to Boston 2 weeks before sailing. Does any one know if you can get a flight credit for flying into a different airport. Cunard's fare for UK passengers includes flights but you get no discount if you opt out of their flight.

 

 

 

Quite possibly - our crossing for this October was cancelled (the last cancelled one I think - next one - literary festival- is still on) and straight away I booked for a year on and quite a lot booked up. Foolishly (or otherwise) went for Queens Grill; thought that having to wait another year to celebrate my 60th deserved it. 

 

Thought all crossings allowed opt out of Cunard flights and a fairly paltry credit. Who wants to return the same say to the UK when arriving in NY (though I am sure they do allow delayed return). Using Avios for return

Edited April 22, 2021 by buchanan101

[BigMac1953]

47 minutes ago, buchanan101 said:

Quite possibly - our crossing for this October was cancelled (the last cancelled one I think - next one - literary festival- is still on) and straight away I booked for a year on and quite a lot booked up. Foolishly (or otherwise) went for Queens Grill; thought that having to wait another year to celebrate my 60th deserved it. 

 

Thought all crossings allowed opt out of Cunard flights and a fairly paltry credit. Who wants to return the same say to the UK when arriving in NY (though I am sure they do allow delayed return). Using Avios for return

 

You can return whenever you like. Just give Cunard the date and they will arrange the tickets. We've done it a few times, but prefer the round trips!

[dthompsond1]

Thanks for all the replays, have now booked October 7th 2022 transatlantic from New York, Deck 5 sheltered balcony (5217)on starboard side. Got a £200 per person reduction for not taking their flight as we are looking to fly to Boston a couple of weeks earlier and doing the fall foliage before taking train to New York.

[macsford]

10 hours ago, dthompsond1 said:

Thanks for all the replays, have now booked October 7th 2022 transatlantic from New York, Deck 5 sheltered balcony (5217)on starboard side. Got a £200 per person reduction for not taking their flight as we are looking to fly to Boston a couple of weeks earlier and doing the fall foliage before taking train to New York.

dthompson1, you might find this of interest.

Last year we had booked with Cunard to arrange our flight to Toronto instead of New York before our planned crossing from New York to Southampton. It was arranged for nearly 2 weeks earlier so that we could visit our family in Toronto first .  I believe it was the same price. (It depends whether there is any difference in the BA prices available when booking.) We chose which flight we wanted including the internal flight to Heathrow. We had to pay for the flight to Toronto along with our deposit as it was a deviation from Cunard's block booking.

Of course, it was cancelled and we booked the same for September 2021.  Also now cancelled.

 

The point is that we found it really easy to make this change through Cunard. Much easier than trying to arrange a one way ourselves.

In both cases we were arranging ourselves only our transfer from Toronto to New York before the crossing.

We really hope to make it happen in 2022. How wonderful it will be to arrive back in England without the jetlag and best of all without the horrors of Heathrow before the internal flight to the North of England. We will hire a car one way rental Southampton to Harrogate (surprisingly cheap.)

[Calliope]

On 4/19/2021 at 11:46 AM, majortom10 said:

Never tried because it was far more expensive than booking the 14nt roundtrip. I am sure they would have done but I wasn't prepared to pay the extra amount.

At least on my side of Cunard's Pond sometimes it is better pricewise to make two separate transatlantic back to back bookings than what Cunard has listed for the round trip 14 night cruise. It might be worth pricing out the round trip voyage both ways.

[LadyL1]

On 4/24/2021 at 8:58 AM, dthompsond1 said:

Thanks for all the replays, have now booked October 7th 2022 transatlantic from New York, Deck 5 sheltered balcony (5217)on starboard side. Got a £200 per person reduction for not taking their flight as we are looking to fly to Boston a couple of weeks earlier and doing the fall foliage before taking train to New York.

You might want to revisit this decision when you are able to book flights about 11 months out. I think you will find a single fare to Boston will be very much more than £200! You can book a deviation flight with your Transatlantic voyage, some more distant cities with a premium, but it does not matter when you travel. We have done this many times to gateway cities in the USA, Boston amongst them.

If you have booked with Cunard direct there will be no problem adding a flight at the end of this year when available; not sure how helpful a travel agent might be.

You have a wonderful trip to look forward to; whilst in Boston make sure you find time to visit the JFK library, which is easy to get to and just outside the city. Your effort will not be wasted. (jfklibrary.org)

 

[majortom10]

9 hours ago, Calliope said:

At least on my side of Cunard's Pond sometimes it is better pricewise to make two separate transatlantic back to back bookings than what Cunard has listed for the round trip 14 night cruise. It might be worth pricing out the round trip voyage both ways.

Currently Cunard in the UK are advertising roundtrip in inside cabin from £1719pp if you book west bound and then return eastbound as 2 x 7nt TAs they are charging £1369pp for westbound and £1319pp for the eastbound. Obviously that price includes flights which wouldnt be needed  so dont know what allowance they would deduct for not using flights but I very much doubt it would be £1000pp so obviously booking 14nt roundtrip would be far cheaper than booking 2 x 7 nt TAs.

[dthompsond1]

22 hours ago, LadyL1 said:

You might want to revisit this decision when you are able to book flights about 11 months out. I think you will find a single fare to Boston will be very much more than £200! You can book a deviation flight with your Transatlantic voyage, some more distant cities with a premium, but it does not matter when you travel. We have done this many times to gateway cities in the USA, Boston amongst them.

If you have booked with Cunard direct there will be no problem adding a flight at the end of this year when available; not sure how helpful a travel agent might be.

You have a wonderful trip to look forward to; whilst in Boston make sure you find time to visit the JFK library, which is easy to get to and just outside the city. Your effort will not be wasted. (jfklibrary.org)

 

Thanks LadyL1 for information about flights. I have booked direct with Cunard so will look into it nearer the time