Two deposits, pick one cruise later?

[TheOldBear]

Mrs Bear and I are currently reserved for the M232B sailing [7-25 October 2022 - roundtrip NYC - Hamburg]

 

We are now looking at the 26 night Northern Lights sailing M234A [25 Oct - 20 Nov]

 

Would it be reasonable (with the current refundable deposit 'Discovery Awaits' promotion currently in effect) to just add a reservation for M234A? [and wait until just before the full payment date to decide]

 

Is it better to do an explicit swap from M232B to M234A now?

 

Complicating things, the $UNNAMED_BIG_BOX travel agency is attempting to get the Cunard 25% cancelation premium re applied to the current reservation. When the $UNNAMED_BIG_BOX travel agency received the cancelation from Cunard they processed all cancelations as refund requests - not the Cunard default of additional 25% credit.

 

The desired end state is to have a deposit on just one cruise, with the 25% premium from the Covid canceled cruise applied.

Edited April 25, 2021 by TheOldBear
korrect speling

[Bigmike911]

Good luck Old Bear. I have had a westbound T/A from Hamburg for August 2022. I saw a nine day northern Europe voyage that goes from Southampton to Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge and back immediately preceding. It was in the cabin category I wanted, but it had to be booked Southampton to Southampton. My great travel agent tried to get Cunard to sell me the voyage as Southampton, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge. Hamburg. And let them sell the Hamburg-Southampton as a short break to someone else.

 

No dice, so finally I gave in and booked the Southampton, to Southampton trip. I will have two rather spacious suites for one person for the Hamburg Southampton leg of both voyages. But I am in the Suite I wanted for Hamburg to NYC, so I am ok with this. I was kind of surprised at their lack of flexibility. They could have made good money for the two day, and because two day's have very little OBC could have made extra cash from the misc. charges. 

[majortom10]

Being from the UK where we do not get refundable deposits once paid if we cancel we lose it. I do think it is unfair that citizens of the US can book numerous cruises therefore blocking cabins from being booked by others when they possibly have no intention of going on the cruise. I once had dinner on another American cruise line and they freely admitted that they had booked 5 cruises on release to get the best cabin with no intention of going on 4 of them. He said his plan was to wait to see which cruises dropped in price so better value and then cancel the other 4 just before balance is due. Rather unfair on many people who want to book cruises but cannot get cabins as booked by people with this intention IMO.

[turnip eater]

True.

I heard of a passenger  who used to book several inside cabins, different names, then he booked yet another ‘guaranteed’ cabin for himself and gained a free upgrade as no inside cabins were available. He then cancelled the original cabins. When the cruise line top man found out, the passenger had his trip cancelled and was never allowed on that cruise line again. Obviously someone with lots of time on their hands

[Windsurfboy]

3 hours ago, turnip eater said:

True.

I heard of a passenger  who used to book several inside cabins, different names, then he booked yet another ‘guaranteed’ cabin for himself and gained a free upgrade as no inside cabins were available. He then cancelled the original cabins. When the cruise line top man found out, the passenger had his trip cancelled and was never allowed on that cruise line again. Obviously someone with lots of time on their hands

I don't understand this as guarantee cabins are only issued just before sailing, after any free cancellation comes to an end.

 

However I agree with Majortom this is not good for other passengers.  If everyone did this would cause chaos.  I note that MSC has stopped free cancellation for Yacht club cabins due to this happening. If Cunard's  IT was decent it's a wonder they don't track serial cancellers

 

I wonder if the same will happen on UK non cruise staycations,  people booked cancellable hotel rooms , but will cancel them if overseas travel is allowed.

[TheOldBear]

In the current case, I will only be be taking one of two cruises [unless there is an unexpected windfall this week 😉 ].  I don't want to keep both reservations open.

I was able to make the M234A reservation, with a BV category guarantee. It now looks likely we'll be dropping the M232B reservation sooner than later [dependent on the resolution of the 25% Cunard cancelation premium on this year's cruise].

[turnip eater]

I’m only stating what happened on the (non Cunard) cruise line. Perhaps rules on when Guarantee cabins were allocated have changed because of bad practices.🤔

on our first Cunard cruise, Christmas 2011, we only booked about 4 weeks out and were given our Q3 three weeks before sailing...Thrilled🥂

[Windsurfboy]

5 minutes ago, turnip eater said:

I’m only stating what happened on the (non Cunard) cruise line. Perhaps rules on when Guarantee cabins were allocated have changed because of bad practices.🤔

on our first Cunard cruise, Christmas 2011, we only booked about 4 weeks out and were given our Q3 three weeks before sailing...Thrilled🥂

 

You're right I was applying current Cunard rules.