Long haul flights - arrange your own or through Cunard?

[Kensington-cruiser]

We are in the UK and looking at a Cunard Alaska cruise in 2025 departing Seattle. We would be interested in other cruisers experience of arranging flights through Cunard. Do they offer better value than arranging yourself? It would be business class flights. Any advice would be great - thank you!

[Victoria2]

8 minutes ago, Kensington-cruiser said:

We are in the UK and looking at a Cunard Alaska cruise in 2025 departing Seattle. We would be interested in other cruisers experience of arranging flights through Cunard. Do they offer better value than arranging yourself? It would be business class flights. Any advice would be great - thank you!

We decide on our flights eg airline/class of travel/ itinerary and have our TA package them in with the cruise onto one booking. Usually more expensive than booking them as separate items but gives us peace of mind if one part of the holiday throws up an issue.

 

[jrmende63]

We are going in a few days early, so we booked our own airfare. We booked a black Friday deal for significant savings. I 
 

[MCC retired]

Not sure if Cunard Complete Air is the same in the UK but in the US the one way fares often can be a much better rate than booking the airline direct .Not sure about r/t?

Edited February 25 by MCC retired

[3rdGenCunarder]

I looked at flights from Newark to Vancouver for my Alaska cruise and for business, it was slightly less expensive to book for myself. I haven't booked yet--that's on my to-do list for this week. I'll call Cunard again, but it fheir rates are still higher than "rack rate," I'll do my own booking.

 

I have found that the best deals through Cunard are for one-way air to go with a one-way transatlantic.

Edited February 25 by 3rdGenCunarder

[NE John]

For our June 2024 Alaska voyage I booked via my credit card travel. Reasons: Used credit card points to help pay for flight and upgrade to UnitedFirst, wanted to fly direct from Newark to Vancouver, and generally I’m a control nerd with my itinerary. I’m not sure how much control I’ll have with Cunard air. We are also arriving/leaving Vancouver two days before and after to spend more time there and not worry and any transport delays. 
Maybe someone can elaborate how much control one has by booking CunardAir. We’ve booked CunardAir before but frankly don’t remember the details. 
 

[ascot2012]

We are like you from the UK, we originally booked the flights with Cunard via our very good independent TA, this was booked before the flights had been released by the airline.

When details of the Cunard flights were released our agent gave us the details and we were able to book direct with BA quite a lot cheaper, we even managed to get PE seats for less than the Cunard economy price, and the agent was able to cancel the Cunard flight.

We are sailing out of Vancouver for Alaska though, therefore our flights are London Gatwick to Vancouver.

 

[Craigrlewis]

9 hours ago, Victoria2 said:

We decide on our flights eg airline/class of travel/ itinerary and have our TA package them in with the cruise onto one booking. Usually more expensive than booking them as separate items but gives us peace of mind if one part of the holiday throws up an issue.

 

We always book through Cunard and don't bother then checking the costs in isolation. Alike Victoria2 we want the peace of mind.

[Victoria2]

As  Kensington-cruiser is UK based, one assumes his/her question concerns UK bookings and as US v UK travel T&Cs and pricing can be so wildly different, US info is, as always,  interesting but not very pertinent here.

 

For UK info, if booking a one way flight, FF miles is the best option and also utilisation of the miles. Second best is probably a Cunard one way flight.

 

If booking a return, we were told many years ago, Cunard apparently can very occasionally give great deals on Business and First if they 'get a deal with an airline' but in our experience hen's teeth with pigs flying overhead spring to mind.

 

When booking, whilst there's no difference in choice of airline, routing, date and timing of flight if you book through Cunard [as you can dictate everything and have it all on the same booking as the cruise], there's no denying, it's usually more expensive than if you book it yourself.

 

You can self book yourselves a flight a few days before the cruise [very sensible] but you can do that with the Cunard booked flight if you want. What booking your own flight won't do is give peace of mind in this ever changing world, where conflict, strikes and weather can ground flights and re route ships,  if travel plans are screwed.

 

LikeCraigrlewis, the peace of mind given that it's not our problem to solve outweighs any discounts we might find if we book flights ourselves.

[2BACRUISER]

@Kensington-cruiser we too are looking at Alaska 2025 as its our ruby anniversary and my 60th if god spares me lol 😁 my DH hates flying long haul so i want direct flights only to Seattle, i noticed for our particular dates Cunard are offering air fares at £1500 per passenger. I looked up Virgin direct flights from heathrow and economy come out (based on this years dates as 2025 not available) came out at around £1900 return for both of us, i could use the extra money Cunard are charging to upgrade to premium economy. We also want to spend a couple days pre cruise so i think we'll be booking our own flights at this point. Can you add cunard air at a later date? 

[Megabear2]

The flights are looking expensive at present. I'm looking at Tokyo to Seattle May 2025 and Cunard are £2,000. A quick check via my t/a retells me currently if I bought today for tte same time May 2024, ie relatively soon, the cost today is around £1600. I'm waiting. 

[Solent Richard]

5 hours ago, Craigrlewis said:

We always book through Cunard and don't bother then checking the costs in isolation. Alike Victoria2 we want the peace of mind.

 

That is a standard school of thought and it offers a higher degree of security should there be any delay in the airline flight and for short delays one can be sure the ship will wait. There was a well documented example on one of my facebook groups involving Cunard just before Christmas 2023:  and that was what one would accept as a simple flight London to New York.

 

There does seem to be a misconception however regarding Cunard and Travel Agent booked flights. The passenger is well protected when their cruise and flight are part of a 'Cunard fly/cruise package' arranged: whether sold by either Cunard or sold through a travel agent.

 

Not so when one uses a TA to arrange one's flight choice of a different airline flight, maybe a different flight dates,  and when one wishes to purchase a seat other than 'economy'.  The same rules will apply (as did in my earlier example),  and Cunard (or any other cruise line) will have no responsibility should there be a flight delay.

 

Of course its a good little earner for Cunard (or whatever cruise line) as they can block book return flights from port cities where both the cruise departs and returns to the same destination and similarly where the departure and arrival ports are different aka cruise turnover ports.

 

 

[Solent Richard]

1 hour ago, 2BACRUISER said:

@Kensington-cruiser we too are looking at Alaska 2025 as its our ruby anniversary and my 60th if god spares me lol 😁 my DH hates flying long haul so i want direct flights only to Seattle, i noticed for our particular dates Cunard are offering air fares at £1500 per passenger. I looked up Virgin direct flights from heathrow and economy come out (based on this years dates as 2025 not available) came out at around £1900 return for both of us, i could use the extra money Cunard are charging to upgrade to premium economy. We also want to spend a couple days pre cruise so i think we'll be booking our own flights at this point. Can you add cunard air at a later date? 

 

I can believe that. When we sailed with Cunard in 2019, Queen Victoria, Singapore to Cape Town I booked our flights independently and had four nights pre cruise in Singapore and the same post cruise in Cape Town.

 

The savings made over both the Cunard Fly Cruise price and a TA's, whom I tasked individually to find a package, paid for our 8 nights hotel accommodation at both ports while we had the bonus of choosing Singapore Airlines outbound and Emirates homebound.

 

[MCC retired]

Maybe someone can elaborate how much control one has by booking CunardAir. We’ve booked CunardAir before but frankly don’t remember the details. 

 

Cunard Complete Air does state Late Arrival Protection and one Point of Contact.

No deposit required to book along with cruise reservation , no payment until 45 days prior to flight.

Once booked , seats may be assigned by calling the airline  or online @ the Airline site.

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 hours ago, 2BACRUISER said:

@Kensington-cruiser we too are looking at Alaska 2025 as its our ruby anniversary and my 60th if god spares me lol 😁 my DH hates flying long haul so i want direct flights only to Seattle, i noticed for our particular dates Cunard are offering air fares at £1500 per passenger. I looked up Virgin direct flights from heathrow and economy come out (based on this years dates as 2025 not available) came out at around £1900 return for both of us, i could use the extra money Cunard are charging to upgrade to premium economy. We also want to spend a couple days pre cruise so i think we'll be booking our own flights at this point. Can you add cunard air at a later date? 

 

Unless you specifically want to spend time in Seattle, take a look at flights from London to Vancouver. The flight is about the same amount of time as London to Seattle. 

[ascot2012]

We have booked to arrive in Vancouver a few days before our cruise departs, and with a little bit of smart booking we got an extra night post cruise, by traveling home a day later we were able to book a night in the Pan pacific hotel and still save money compared to the Cunard fare, therefore we shouldn't have any issues with flight delays affecting our cruise.

Well fingers crossed!!!!! 

[3rdGenCunarder]

12 hours ago, NE John said:

For our June 2024 Alaska voyage I booked via my credit card travel. Reasons: Used credit card points to help pay for flight and upgrade to UnitedFirst, wanted to fly direct from Newark to Vancouver, and generally I’m a control nerd with my itinerary. I’m not sure how much control I’ll have with Cunard air. We are also arriving/leaving Vancouver two days before and after to spend more time there and not worry and any transport delays. 
Maybe someone can elaborate how much control one has by booking CunardAir. We’ve booked CunardAir before but frankly don’t remember the details. 
 

 

You sound like me. I want control and I do fly a few days early. It extends the vacation and gives me peace of mind (as does travel insurance). One of the things I like about doing my own booking is seat selection right away. IIRC, Cunard Air doesn't let you choose until final payment for the cruise. I think some airlines allow you to pay the airfare early in order to choose seats, but I don't know if they all do. 

 

I have a lot of miles stored up. When DH died, it was worth the cost to move his miles to my account. Between proximity to Newark Airport and all those miles, United is my default airline. 

[MCC retired]

Cunard Air doesn't let you choose until final payment for the cruise. I think some airlines allow you to pay the airfare early in order to choose seats, but I don't know if they all do. 

 

I have used Cunard Choice Air several times and have always been able to choose my seats as soon as I booked the cruise and well before Final Payment.

[NE John]

I would feel better doing everything via Cunard but can’t use stores credit card points to shave off some of the cost. Unless I’m wrong about that?

[2Oldpeopleinlove]

3 hours ago, NE John said:

I would feel better doing everything via Cunard but can’t use stores credit card points to shave off some of the cost. Unless I’m wrong about that?

I’m in the U.S. also, and I have been treating credit card points travel as a lucrative hobby for years. We fly eastbound transatlantic in business class on points whenever possible, spend a week or so either in the UK or in France with our son and his family, and then take the QM2 back to the U.S.  (Iberia cards have great signup bonuses and their off-season TA flights are very cheap for business.)

 

If you don’t have that much interest in playing the game, then you might consider booking via Cunard (if that’s your preference) on a Capital One Venture card, which would allow you to acquire 2 points per dollar and then erase that amount in travel expenses on the card. 

[rsquare]

22 hours ago, NE John said:

Maybe someone can elaborate how much control one has by booking CunardAir. We’ve booked CunardAir before but frankly don’t remember the details. 

Quite a bit of control, in my experience.  I've booked a flight, through Cunard, from Newark to Paris for several days before ship departure, and then came back to London via Eurostar.  And I never had any problems specifying Virgin Atlantic from EWR to LHR, back in the days when they flew that route.

[WorkforBeerGuy]

Two years ago, we took our first Cunard cruise, for a pair of milestone birthdays.  I had our TA book a westbound crossing in QG.  When flights were finally available, I asked our TA to book specific BA flight and seats from BOS to LHR, as well as AA flight from LGA to BOS at the end of the cruise.  I was monitoring BA's website and could see the desired seats being committed in real time.

In researching flights I could see that in many cases a one-way flight could be almost the same as a round trip ticket.  One advantage with Cunard Air is that one can mix and match airlines and could get reasonable one-way fares.  (For our next TA, I will seriously consider Amtrak Acela from NYC to PVD.)  And we didn't have to pay until T-4 months.

But we had one major issue.  A few weeks later, AA dropped the NYC/BOS shuttle.  AA rebooked us from LGA to Ronny RayGun DC airport, and then after a number of hours, finally from DCA to BOS.  Cunard Air dutifully sent us the new air booking.  They also did this every time BA modified their flight schedule.

The problem was that Delta also operated the NYC/BOS shuttle.  So I wanted Cunard Air to change the AA flights to a non-stop Delta flight.  The only way for Cunard Air to do this was to delete all flights and start over.  But when we originally booked the BA flight, we got a fantastic FC deal that was only about 20% over their idiotic Club World Business seating.

So there are good things and bad things about Cunard Air.

[mahasamatman]

I always book our air separately and directly from the airline. I do check the cruise line's fares, but it's never been worth the additional risk and restrictions that come with getting a third party involved.

[maggielou362]

20 hours ago, 2BACRUISER said:

@Kensington-cruiser we too are looking at Alaska 2025 as its our ruby anniversary and my 60th if god spares me lol 😁...

You were a Child Bride! Sounds lovely, a double celebration.

[tacticalbanjo]

21 hours ago, 2BACRUISER said:

@Kensington-cruiser we too are looking at Alaska 2025 as its our ruby anniversary and my 60th if god spares me lol 😁 my DH hates flying long haul so i want direct flights only to Seattle, i noticed for our particular dates Cunard are offering air fares at £1500 per passenger. I looked up Virgin direct flights from heathrow and economy come out (based on this years dates as 2025 not available) came out at around £1900 return for both of us, i could use the extra money Cunard are charging to upgrade to premium economy. We also want to spend a couple days pre cruise so i think we'll be booking our own flights at this point. Can you add cunard air at a later date? 

We've booked for Alaska 2025 with my parents (going to be a 40th birthday, a 60th birthday, a 65th birthday and a 10th wedding anniversary all within 2 months of our sailing so lots to celebrate!) and have also found the flights very expensive - £1.5k pp from London to Seattle including for our toddler who wouldn't have to pay full fare if we booked separately.

 

On advice from our TA we're holding tight until the flights are available and having another look then. They have said we can get Cunard to add the flight to the booking at that stage. We will fly out a few days in advance just in case of any delays and so we can explore Seattle before the cruise.