Cancellation of a cruise questions Australian booking

[alibabacruisers]

Hi, I have never had to consider cancelling a Cunard cruise and was wondering if I could pick your brains before I approach Cunard.

 

The time has passed for losing the deposit so am trying to figure out what my options are.  Can I transfer the deposit to another cruise and what are the ramifications of that?

 

Any help will be appreciated greatly!

[NE John]

11 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

I have a question you may be able to help with regarding cancellation of a cruise.  If the cancellation window has passed ( will lose my deposit if I cancel), can I transfer the booking to a new cruise and have a new cancellation date?  I am trying to not lose my deposit.  I know...I have never had to cancel so am a deer in the headlights, so to speak.

I have always used a travel agent so I learned something from my above experience. Note that I cancelled/rebooked within the same cruise for a lower fare and more OBC offered and I changed suites within PG. 
When you cancel, Cunard annuls the original Booking Number and creates a new one, like you are starting from scratch. I was not offered to “transfer” my booking. 
I cancelled/rebooked before the final deposit was due and they immediately refunded my original deposit (and all my shore excursions) and I had to make a new deposit and I luckily rebook my shore excursions as the Mendenhall Glacier tour was sold out. 
Im not sure if my experience is going to help answer your question though. 
 

[LadyL1]

It really depends on the T&Cs that applied when you booked, presumably in Australia.  Perhaps someone from your country can help: I think any other advice from those in other countries might be “just presuming”. Have you called Cunard?

I hope you get a good outcome.

Edited January 27 by LadyL1

[sfred]

Hi @alibabacruisers.  In Cunard's Australia T&Cs, paragraph 18.b details the refund schedules which vary based on the fare category you purchased:

 

 

 

You indicate that the time has passed for losing the deposit, so if Cunard stays strict to the T&Cs you are probably out of luck.  That said, I understand that sometimes they are flexible on transferring the deposit if you rebook at the time of cancellation to a new cruise at a higher fare. 

 

My only personal rebooking experience is on the same cruise at a lower fare.  In these instances, I lost the original deposit but my new rebooked fare was lower still, so I was money ahead. 

 

Good luck - please let us know how you go.

[MCC retired]

Cunard is unique in making you cancel then rebook as a new booking.

Most cruise lines just change your reservation info to take advantage of a  better deal.

[alibabacruisers]

Thank you both for the info. 

 

I am trying to figure out if I can save my deposit by transferring a booking to a higher price cruise and will email Cunard and see what they say.

[Winifred 22]

Depends on the T and C’s of your booking. For U K bookings you can only move your non refundable deposit once and then only to a cruise of equal or higher value.to be taken within 12 months.  If you cancel a subsequent booking you will loose your deposit. The new booking will have whatever offers are applicable for the new booking. My SIL only these week needed to move a rebooked cruise but had to loose his deposit. After final payment  date cancellation charges apply on a sliding scale starting  at 50% and eventually becoming 100%. Your best bet is to ring Cunard as Australian T &C’s may be more favourable. 

[Patria21]

7 hours ago, MCC retired said:

Cunard is unique in making you cancel then rebook as a new booking.

Most cruise lines just change your reservation info to take advantage of a  better deal.

I think it may depend on whether you’re American or British and who you talk to. We had a number of bookings where we wanted to change our grade of cabin. The on-board representative on the QM2 told us if we went directly through her to Cunard we would have to cancel and rebook - but if we went through our travel agent we could keep our same booking numbers and the perks that went with them. Comparing all the totals it was a better deal to go through our agent. New cabins, new prices, same booking number. 

[MCC retired]

For US Bookings , just changing the grade (category) @ the rate code originally booked , can be done without having to cancel the original reservation.

If you are changing to take advantage of a better rate code (promotion) then you must cancel and rebook.

Original deposits can be moved to new booking .

All this before Final Payment of course.

[LittleFish1976]

On 1/28/2024 at 9:33 AM, alibabacruisers said:

Hi, I have never had to consider cancelling a Cunard cruise and was wondering if I could pick your brains before I approach Cunard.

 

The time has passed for losing the deposit so am trying to figure out what my options are.  Can I transfer the deposit to another cruise and what are the ramifications of that?

 

Any help will be appreciated greatly!

I'm also in Australia and make most of my bookings through the local office. Based on my experience I would be very surprised if they will allow you to transfer your deposit to another booking. This does depend on the T&Cs of your particular booking but you do mention that the time for refund of deposit has passed. If you have particular personal circumstances which are leading to your intention to cancel, you could explain those circumstances to them but I have found them to be totally inflexible with their rules.

 

Best of luck though.

[alibabacruisers]

Thanks for all the input and experiences! 

 

We are leaning to just keep the cruise as it is as it is to Norwegian Fjords and we have never been to that area.

[sfred]

20 minutes ago, alibabacruisers said:

We are leaning to just keep the cruise as it is as it is to Norwegian Fjords and we have never been to that area.

 

If you do decide to go, best wishes for a great voyage.  We loved our November 2022 trip on QM2.  Wintertime Norway is so different from Brisbane.  We had a nice view of the northern lights, visited several ports we had never been to before, and listened to Captain Hall's noon position reports with the sun just barely peeking up over the southern horizon.