Gulp! Transatlantic 'Cunard Air' fares for June 2024 are through the roof!!

[space oddity]

Hmm, interesting.  FWIW, in the UK -- as a previous poster noted -- the transatlantic fares have stopped including a flight to/from New York, but they do still offer it as an add-on when you book. (The per-person cruise-only fares are cheaper than what we used to be offered, but the total price including a flight is probably slightly higher, at least for the things we book.) Right now it's still showing ~£420 per person for flights LHR-New York for next summer, and £500ish for flights to Manchester (for example).  

 

It sounds like I'm preaching to the choir, but we've mostly had really positive experiences with the flights booked through Cunard.  In particular, in the past even when booking Economy they haven't booked into the absolute cheapest fare buckets -- meaning it's been possible for us to upgrade on our own dime, earn miles, etc. The fares for premium economy and business are often pretty reasonable, too.

 

The one caveat is that sometimes flights to cities _other_ than New York have been crazily more expensive.  As one example, I think last year -- when asking about flying to Washington, DC instead of the included JFK flight -- they quoted us something like an extra £1K per person!  No real idea why, but I assumed it had to do with markets where they have pre-paid for a certain number of seats vs others where they are just quoting you the current market price.  

 

Also fwiw, we've found one-way trips to be a really great use of miles (in terms of "value per mile") -- on many airlines, a one-way is exactly half the miles of a return/round-trip, whereas the cash pricing can be wildly different.  (We are actually skipping the "cunard air" option for our own transatlantic next summer, partly because we are combining with lots of other travel -- and planning to use miles/vouchers for our outbound legs.)  

 

Good luck!  

[Millieloulou]

This has really taught me a lesson for our next cruise,guess your never too old to learn.Or maybe my husband will face the Atlantic crossings .

[alc13]

20 hours ago, frankp01 said:

@snowballs mom Thanks for your thoughts. You're seeing fares similar to what we're seeing. Our travel agent didn't say there was an issue of having to wait to book our airfare this early. But I'm wondering if we should wait until 10 or 11 months out. That's more-or-less the deadline you quoted.

When we've bought Cunard air in the past, I never paid attention to whether the fares were refundable. I do know that we didn't have to pay for the flights until the final-payment date for the cruise fare. You may have a point. I'll ask our agent to go ahead and book flights that are refundable, and keep our fingers crossed that the fares drop.

We booked some refundable fares recently on American Airlines, and discovered that it doesn't mean they return your money.  Instead they give you certificates for future flights (and separate certificates for each traveler, regardless of who booked and paid for them).  Very misleading, and not really the meaning of the word "refundable."  Anyway, be careful how that term is used when if/when you book those flights.

[MCC retired]

We have added Cunard Complete Air to our US Booking thru our Travel Agents POLAR Booking Tool 

on our past few TA's .

We chose the Flexiable Fare choice which does not require payment until Cunards Final Payment. It may be deleted up until then ,without penalty.

Since it is an actual airline reservation we have been able to choose seats without any airfare payment.

The Fare has always been much better than booking with the airline.

Just hoping that when we are able to add Cunard Complete to our2024 TA (330 days) that the fare is not as bad as predicted here.

 

[LibertyBella]

I just booked the Queen Victoria out of Rome for next August, and I shudder as I think about the airfare, because I know how few and far between cheap European air fares have been lately.

 

So, my brother flew out of Toronto to Rome a few years ago to save money (he lives in Pgh., PA), however he had his whole family, but for us to drive up there and park the car is just WAY too much of a hassle.

 

In March we cruised on Viking and used their air,  and they put us on a three connection return with three different countries--including Canada.  The aggravation of going from airport to airport just gets on one's nerves.

 

Lastly, we just returned from a Princess cruise flying home from Athens--I used Princess Air but I chose and I booked the flights.  Yes, I splurged on the non-stop and it was heaven--and the cost was less than if I booked it myself directly with the airlines, and I was able to choose my seats immediately because I am also a FF on the airlines I used. 

 

Final caveat--a few years ago we flew to Europe on FF miles, and on the way home we had a connection--of course the first leg's airline's pilots decided to go on a walkout systemwide, and we were left hanging in Venice, trying to get to London. Nobody would help us get on another flight due to the FF miles rules.  So we had to BUY a flight to London (via Amsterdam); thank goodness travel insurance reimbursed us (But my luggage was lost for a few days). 

 

Now I try to avoid ALL connections, no matter how cheap, and I prefer not to use my FF miles for international travel as sometimes the risk outweighs the reward.

[techteach]

@LibertyBella Thanks for all of your great information. I am especially interested in the problem with the FF miles since that’s what we use when we fly international. I’m going to have to read the fine print.

[ExArkie]

14 hours ago, LibertyBella said:

Final caveat--a few years ago we flew to Europe on FF miles, and on the way home we had a connection--of course the first leg's airline's pilots decided to go on a walkout systemwide, and we were left hanging in Venice, trying to get to London. Nobody would help us get on another flight due to the FF miles rules.  So we had to BUY a flight to London (via Amsterdam); thank goodness travel insurance reimbursed us (But my luggage was lost for a few days).

Interesting experience. We have used FF miles for trips to Europe on the Big Three US airlines and various alliance partners many times in the past and have had some sort of glitch on all three. United and Delta took care of rebooking seamlessly - on their respective partner airlines Lufthansa and KLM - while it was a bit more work with American, but we eventually were able to rebook on Iberia. All of our experiences with having to rebook while on an award ticket occurred more than five years ago, though, so perhaps the world changed again…which always seems to be in the direction of being LESS user friendly, for some reason.

[frankp01]

That was an interesting experience, and it further persuades me to use Cunard Air rather than frequent flier miles. We've been *very* happy with Cunard Air, so far: selecting city pairs, being able to upgrade our seats, selecting seats, etc. And the fares have been incredible. We haven't had one this low yet, but our travel agent said she had a Cunard Air fare out of Boston of $280!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Cunard reinstitutes its good deals by next year.

[rsquare]

We had a similar experience with HAL's version of Complete Air, which has the same Carnival plumbing behind the facade.  Our TA warned us that contracted flights were much less of a bargain this year, and then told us that she had even seen some contracted fares higher than published fares. 

 

Which she unwittingly proved by quoting us $2680 for a PHL-AMS in premium economy when the published rate  for the same seat available to all was  $2459.

[Windsurfboy]

If you want to gamble  there is a new airline starting up London to New York in 2024, Global airlines.  Good opening bargins 

[Millieloulou]

We are still having a “ding dong” with Cunard over the selection of our seats for our UK flight to New York for the Caribbean Christmas cruise.We now have a case number.Although we have settled our account our flight is yet to be ticketed.BA blames Cunard and Cunard blames BA.We cannot select our seats until 45 days before the flight.We think Cunard block books the seats ,but does not pay for them until the 45 day.

It doesn’t make sense, and it certainly does not put the customer first.We are hoping on the 45th day we will be able to find two seats together.

[Windsurfboy]

To our American friends,  if a flight is flying out of Europe,  EU , then European rules apply even to US airlines. If they cancel they are legally obliged to find you another flight same day,  even if they have to book it with an other airline

[david,Mississauga]

On 8/15/2023 at 4:15 PM, rsquare said:

We had a similar experience with HAL's version of Complete Air, which has the same Carnival plumbing behind the facade.  Our TA warned us that contracted flights were much less of a bargain this year, and then told us that she had even seen some contracted fares higher than published fares. 

 

Which she unwittingly proved by quoting us $2680 for a PHL-AMS in premium economy when the published rate  for the same seat available to all was  $2459.

 

Good grief, is that $2459 for one person?  I will need a one-way flight from Toronto to London next year.  I can get premium economy direct from Air Canada for  about $1400 - and that, of course, is Canadian $.

[WantedOnVoyage]

Maybe it's time to revive.... 

 

[Millieloulou]

Love it 😊 Having a good chuckle!,

[LadyL1]

14 hours ago, Millieloulou said:

We are still having a “ding dong” with Cunard over the selection of our seats for our UK flight to New York for the Caribbean Christmas cruise.We now have a case number.Although we have settled our account our flight is yet to be ticketed.BA blames Cunard and Cunard blames BA.We cannot select our seats until 45 days before the flight.We think Cunard block books the seats ,but does not pay for them until the 45 day.

It doesn’t make sense, and it certainly does not put the customer first.We are hoping on the 45th day we will be able to find two seats together.

Perhaps I can help a little as we use BA long haul quite frequently to get to a city direct, as well as using them with Cunard, where the pricing has been excellent.

BA use a different ticketing system to most other airlines. Unless you are a highly rated loyalty client, prebooking seats is different and expensive and this includes Club World. I doubt whether you will have access to choose seats before Cunard pay BA. If you are not a very frequent flyer one has to pay extra to prebook seats before departure (Including Club). Unless you are in Bronze tier or upwards, seats are available to choose at 24hours before departure. You will have been assigned seats so when you log in to see your allocation, you might be able to change the seats if the flight is not full.  
Virgin, United and American, that I know of, give you the opportunity of seats at an earlier date.

So I think you problem is mainly due to BA’s very outdated and expensive seat choice application. However, most flights with BA  to NY are on the new very new, quite and comfortable aircraft.

Don’t let this hiccup or worry spoil a lovely Caribbean holiday.

[Millieloulou]

Thankyou so much for your kind comments.I think we have resolved ourselves to waiting…patiently.I have a lovely husband who always books a flight and then goes straight to book our seats. .We nearly always fly BA as we find the food better, and as you say the planes are so much more comfortable .We can select our seats I think 7 days before we fly, and can use our Avios points.

Its just we cannot do it NOW

ps.I cannot tell you how much we are looking forward to the cruise and getting further than Barbados