Casino Free play certificate

[mat5664]

I am recently off QM2 and on the last night of the cruise I was given a certificate for $1500 free play for a future cruise by the Casino manager.  Cruise has to be booked by September 24 and taken by March 25.

 

The certificate gives a number to call (UK and US) for the 'Cunard Players Club'.  However, that number in the UK is just normal CS and they have never heard either of the certificates or the 'Cunard Players Club'.  The Casinos are operated by a third party but you would think/hope CS would know about them given it's their phone number that is provided.

 

Has anyone here received similar?   I am assuming I can just book online or through a TA and take the Cert to the Casino cashier rather than having to book through someone specific?

[techteach]

Oh, I want to hear more about this! Do any of the other Carnival lines work with any of the major casino brands? RCI works with MGM and after sailing with them once I earned a free casino voyage and got some good offers. I hope Cunard will do the same. Perhaps I just wasn’t betting enough on Cunard!

[MylesS]

I don’t frequently gamble on Cunard ships, but have done a bit on this trip.

 

I believe this is a new thing, as I don’t believe Cunard did large rewards to casino players like this in the past.

 

My understanding is since all transactions are linked to your cruise card, you earn points (not the same as the slot machine) - once you pass thresholds, you gain perks. 
 

I believe since this is new, CS might not be aware of it yet. 

[starquake]

1 hour ago, MylesS said:

I believe since this is new, CS might not be aware of it yet. 

It's NOT new.

 

I've had free play certificates from every cruise we've been on since 2019 from Cunard.   YOu only get them if you gamble a LOT in the casino, as I got one and my father did not on last cruise.

 

However, I've only once been able to USE the credit, mostly as it requires relatively short notice bookings and we're usually already fully booked (with Cunard and others) for next 2 years holidays and are out of leave from work so can't take another.   The time it worked a call to the customer service number on the certificate HAS allowed the freeplay on a previously already "booked" cruise.   This worked when it was booked direct with Cunard, but we were rejected on one booked via our Agent. 

 

Hope you get your credit as $1500 is better than the $150-300 I usually manage.

 

My experience is therefore you DO need to contact customer services to get the cert attached to booking.   Just put an email in, it's how we've done it before.

Edited July 13 by starquake

[MylesS]

Just now, starquake said:

It's NOT new.

 

I've had free play certificates from every cruise we've been on since 2019 from Cunard.   YOu only get them if you gamble a LOT in the casino, as I got one and my father did not on last cruise.

I had only assumed it was new as I’d never heard of people receiving them from Cunard, but I had heard about people receiving many from other cruise lines.

 

My apologies! 

[starquake]

4 minutes ago, MylesS said:

I had only assumed it was new as I’d never heard of people receiving them from Cunard, but I had heard about people receiving many from other cruise lines.

 

My apologies! 

It's okay, I know pretty much everyone who received one on the last QM2 cruise we were on ditto QE ;).

 

The ones that are still in the casino at closing are often the receipients shall we say, and as it's usually a small "crew" of customers doing that, you tend to know who receives the offers. 

 

On a 3 segment cruise, one of the guys that got a huge offer (he received it in casino) included I believe a free cruise, so anyone saying Cunard just does free play may be "mistaken".   

Another cruise, a big player was in, betting $1-5000 a hand.    He didn't pay for his Queens grill suite funnily enough.    They actually gave him a (blackjack) table at time of his choice every night (he had a table reserved just for him and his friend).

 

It is really funny who you get to meet on a cruise shall we say 😉

Edited July 13 by starquake