Incredibly disappointed with Cunard.

[Jim_Iain]

Glad things have worked out for you.    I was getting angry for you ---- especially since it is your honeymoon.   Even though it was resolved it left a nasty taste in my mind toward Cunard.

 

[Ditchcrawler]

Hello all,

I should mention that in my TA's correspondence with Cunard that their rep did say that something would be delivered to our stateroom. I missed that in my elation of the massive problem being resolved.

 

I feel I must air that publicly. It is only fair.

 

My now wife however does make the point that a day in Venice was more or less wasted with me dealing with the issue. 

 

Would it be unfair to ask for complimentary thermal suite access for the duration of the cruise on account of it?  It's something she would genuinely love. We did miss a few activities in Venice we had planned while I dealt with the issue when it reared it's ugly head. Surely such a thing couldn't cost Cunard too much to facilitate?

 

What are your thoughts?

[3rdGenCunarder]

4 hours ago, Pushpit said:

- Plusgrade - which is a airline tool - does change some of the dynamics here, in that it can upgrade people via an auction process, and I can see it would be easy to get the numbers wrong on a full sailing (as this sailing is). So you upgrade someone into balcony on a fat bid, you initially use another person's bid from balcony to club to create space. Then the club bidding passenger refuses to pay the extra.

 

The T&C of the bidding offer require that you register a credit card and if your bid is accepted, the card is charged and there's no option to change your mind. But I'm sure there are chain upgrades as you describe. 

 

My cruise is two weeks away and I have not had an answer from Cunard on my upgrade bid. I don't expect an upgrade, as QG has been showing sold out for a while and there's no way for QG passengers to upgrade to give me a place. I'm surprised my bid is still on the table so late. When I did an upgrade bid on QV last fall, I think the "sorry, no upgrade for you" email came more like 3 weeks out, maybe more. Waiting so long to place passengers probably contributed to the overbooking situation.

[eroller]

2 hours ago, Ditchcrawler said:

Hello all,

I should mention that in my TA's correspondence with Cunard that their rep did say that something would be delivered to our stateroom. I missed that in my elation of the massive problem being resolved.

 

I feel I must air that publicly. It is only fair.

 

My now wife however does make the point that a day in Venice was more or less wasted with me dealing with the issue. 

 

Would it be unfair to ask for complimentary thermal suite access for the duration of the cruise on account of it?  It's something she would genuinely love. We did miss a few activities in Venice we had planned while I dealt with the issue when it reared it's ugly head. Surely such a thing couldn't cost Cunard too much to facilitate?

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Absolutely ask for it. The worst they can say is no.  But be sure to ask the right person.  Ask to speak with the Hotel Director/Chief Purser upon boarding.  Nicely explain the situation of which they might already be aware.  
 

Keep in mind the spa is an outside concession and not run by Cunard, so they may or may not be able to make that happen for you.  Regardless it’s a good idea to bring your issue to ship’s upper management and let them know it’s your honeymoon (which should be on their paperwork).  At the very least they may comp a nice dinner in the specialty restaurant.  

[bluemarble]

1 hour ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

The T&C of the bidding offer require that you register a credit card and if your bid is accepted, the card is charged and there's no option to change your mind. ...

 

I believe this is another case where the terms and conditions vary between the US and UK. I'll quote a relevant portion for each country.

 

Excerpt from the US Cunard Upgrade Terms and Conditions:

 

"You must submit a valid credit card number when prompted by the offer site to make an upgrade offer. If your upgrade offer is accepted, we will immediately and automatically collect payment from you by charging the credit or debit card you provided, using the details submitted."

 

Excerpt from the UK Cunard Upgrade Terms and Conditions:

 

"You must submit a valid credit card number when prompted by the offer site to make an upgrade offer. These credit card details are required to validate your upgrade offer and will not be stored or retained by us once your upgrade offer is submitted. We will not automatically collect payment using these credit card details if your upgrade offer is accepted – you must still contact us to arrange payment in accordance with these terms."

[Winifred 22]

2 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

I believe this is another case where the terms and conditions vary between the US and UK. I'll quote a relevant portion for each country.

 

Excerpt from the US Cunard Upgrade Terms and Conditions:

 

"You must submit a valid credit card number when prompted by the offer site to make an upgrade offer. If your upgrade offer is accepted, we will immediately and automatically collect payment from you by charging the credit or debit card you provided, using the details submitted."

 

Excerpt from the UK Cunard Upgrade Terms and Conditions:

 

"You must submit a valid credit card number when prompted by the offer site to make an upgrade offer. These credit card details are required to validate your upgrade offer and will not be stored or retained by us once your upgrade offer is submitted. We will not automatically collect payment using these credit card details if your upgrade offer is accepted – you must still contact us to arrange payment in accordance with these terms."

Yes we had 48( I think )hours to pay for our upgrade. I was surprised as we had given credit card details . Would be easy to miss email informing us of upgrade and need to pay promptly. It was way before 21 days out of sailing too. 

Edited May 12 by Winifred 22

[GeorgianGal100]

8 hours ago, Ditchcrawler said:

Hello all,

I should mention that in my TA's correspondence with Cunard that their rep did say that something would be delivered to our stateroom. I missed that in my elation of the massive problem being resolved.

 

I feel I must air that publicly. It is only fair.

 

My now wife however does make the point that a day in Venice was more or less wasted with me dealing with the issue. 

 

Would it be unfair to ask for complimentary thermal suite access for the duration of the cruise on account of it?  It's something she would genuinely love. We did miss a few activities in Venice we had planned while I dealt with the issue when it reared it's ugly head. Surely such a thing couldn't cost Cunard too much to facilitate?

 

What are your thoughts?

You should definitely ask for something extra as it sounds like you may have been gifted some champagne and perhaps flowers but that doesn't make up for the worry and loss of a day in one of the most incredible cities in the world.  Maybe ask for on board credit which could cover the cost of the thermal spa entry then Cunard is paying for it not the third party?  I'm not a seasoned Cunarder...yet, so don't know for sure who and when is the right time to ask but if it were me I'd be asking now for OBC.  Perhaps someone else can advise who knows more, but don't let this fiasco ruin another precious day of your honeymoon.

[Pushpit]

3 hours ago, Winifred 22 said:

Yes we had 48( I think )hours to pay for our upgrade. I was surprised as we had given credit card details . Would be easy to miss email informing us of upgrade and need to pay promptly. It was way before 21 days out of sailing too. 

 

I think it's 72 hours, and of course the problem is if it goes to your spam file (as it did in my case, another random outfit asking for money.....) and you only check your spam file every few days. There are some dire warnings about how if you don't accept you can't assume you're going back to your pre-booked cabin, and that may have some part to explain in this downgrade event, as pure speculation on my part. 

 

The email is entitled "Your Cunard Upgrade offer has been accepted" and the emailer is upgrades@cunard.com, if your email service allows you to tailor spam emails.

 

7 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

My cruise is two weeks away and I have not had an answer from Cunard on my upgrade bid. I don't expect an upgrade, as QG has been showing sold out for a while and there's no way for QG passengers to upgrade to give me a place. I'm surprised my bid is still on the table so late. When I did an upgrade bid on QV last fall, I think the "sorry, no upgrade for you" email came more like 3 weeks out, maybe more. Waiting so long to place passengers probably contributed to the overbooking situation.

I've done about half a dozen of these upgrades now. My experience is that if you put a bid in at about 80 days to departure and it's above the floor level used by Plusgrade (and there is an avilable suite), you will get a response within about a week after your bid, saying you've been successful. If that hasn't happened after say 10 days from the bid, then you can go and look to see what is still on sale and maybe adjust your bid upwards a bit.

 

If your bid was and remains below the floor level then Plusgrade sits on your bid until about 4 days to departure, then their process is over. So as you head from 2 weeks to 4 days it's not looking likely, but of course at QG level there are relatively few suites in the market and all it takes is for one person to cancel and the algorithms go off to work again. Around 4 days to departure you would get an email saying your bid has been unsuccessful.

[Pushpit]

6 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

I believe this is another case where the terms and conditions vary between the US and UK. I'll quote a relevant portion for each country.

 

There's a very specific reason for this. In the UK and EU, there are data protection, money laundering and consumer protection laws that greatly restrict companies sitting on your credit card information for a long period. In particular the CVV cannot be stored for a long time. If a company doesn't present a CVV the credit card company isn't obliged to honour the payment. Hence in this case Plusgrade in UK and Europe would verify the card number is correct when bidding, but can't take a payment something that may not be provided. If they did they would be on the hook for consumer protection laws if the bid didn't work. So they have to try again with payment collection once the upgrade is confirmed and the price fixed. The USA has a different regulatory approach, to put it politely.

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 hours ago, Pushpit said:

The USA has a different regulatory approach, to put it politely.

 

You're right. Every company you do online business here wants to remember your password and store your credit card details. Easily declined, but you have to pay attention.

 

And I just realized that I already got a plusbid upgrade for my cruise more than a month ago. I was in Britannia, bid on PG, and got it rather quickly. But PG was pretty open at that time and I guess they were willing to fill cabins at a discount. I'm surprised that I got an offer to bid up to QG after already successfully bidding up once. I guess plusbid knows nothing of my price history?

[Pushpit]

26 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

And I just realized that I already got a plusbid upgrade for my cruise more than a month ago. I was in Britannia, bid on PG, and got it rather quickly. But PG was pretty open at that time and I guess they were willing to fill cabins at a discount. I'm surprised that I got an offer to bid up to QG after already successfully bidding up once. I guess plusbid knows nothing of my price history?

I don't think Plusgrade greatly cares, they are market facilitators, and from their point of view if you want to pay more money they will normally try to get it to work, subject to whatever availability and rules that Cunard has set down. Plusgrade only makes money on successful bids, and I would be almost certain there is a revenue share agreement between Plusgrade and Carnival. So in that context your price history is less interesting than any cash you want to spend on this.

[david,Mississauga]

20 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

I agree,  but the move over , ever increasing inducement takes time, this seems last minute, but given right wording shouldn't take more than a few days if inducement was enough. 

 

But nothing stopping Cunard emailing everyone with balcony, offering healthy inducement and asking for volunteers.  I'm sure if they emailed what must be hundreds, they would get enough willing to have a refund and OBC. This would  be easier for those they can email to directly not via TA. 

 

Many years ago Cunard asked for volunteers to downgrade to Britannia Class on our crossing. Our TA assured us there was no pressure on us to accept. The offer was extremely generous. I don't remember but it may have been a credit for the whole amount that we paid. Under normal circumstances we would have accepted but this was a special crossing for us and we didn't want to give up single-sitting dining.

 

  It is disgraceful that Cunard has changed the policy.

[kitkat343]

On 5/10/2024 at 1:04 PM, richard_london said:

Pleased the situation has been resolved.  I know a couple on a Cunard cruise I was on and they were doing back to back cruises, and for the second cruise they were bumped down from their balcony to an ocean view down on 1 deck (this was on the QE) because Cunard had a big (as in number of people) travel agency booking joining the ship.  They were as livid, as I'm sure you were.  So I don't think you are an isolated incident.

 

On 5/11/2024 at 8:45 AM, MCC retired said:

By comparison, Princess has a very generous move over program. I answer those e-mails immediately.

 

I completely agree . Princess often overbooks but offers ever increasing benefits for those who accept these "Move Over" offers until resolved. Cunard as part of Carnival Corp should do the same?

 

This,  Absolutely this.  It's totally fine for a cruise line to overbook as long as they are planning on taking responsibility when there are too few cancellations.   All you have to do today is send out an email to all of the balcony cabins and whomever contacts them first to take the offer gets it.  Even the original offer to this couple would have probably been sufficient for someone on this cruise - I'm sure someone on the ship would be happy to take a 50% refund in exchange for a downgrade in cabin (they could also throw in some free specialty meals to sweeten the offer easily).  Or offer someone a FCC.  There could also be people whose work situation changed or family situation arose and they'd want to cancel but didn't due to the significant penalties of cancelling late who might be fine with just cancelling the cruise altogether.    

[Jedi_Laz]

Not classy Cunard.

That's no way to treat your customers.