OMG! I can't Believe that Cunard are Considering this !!!

According to page 12 of the August Cunarder magazine, if I'm interpreting it correctly, Cunard are axing the premium check-in dark at the Ocean Terminal and instead, will fast-track the premium passengers to the head of the Britannia queue.

So, you are a Britannia passenger who has spent 10 minutes or more in the check-in queue , at the very last minute, as your turn comes, another (premium) passenger cuts in alongside you like a (insert suitable German car marque) driver at the traffic lights, and takes your turn. Result ????? = not good all round.

The premium check in model has worked ok for the world's airlines and cruise lines for years without problems and it is difficult to understand why Cunard are axing it. If it because it is underused at times, surely a better answer is to use it as an temporary overflow for the Britannia passengers when it is idle. Result ????? = happy bunny.

I believe that it will cause more tensions and ill feeling than the dubious benefits it is supposed to deliver.

Someone please tell me that I am totally wrong on this !!!!

We have had the experience on Eclipse when boarding in Southampton, We are Elite and were in a Aqua class cabin, and when we checked in we were fast tracked to the front of a long queue, it was very embarrassing and we got a few black looks!

Exactly what I was thinking.

Why would any cruise want to upset passengers right at the start of their holidays ??

Just happened to me at the Ocean Terminal - boarding QM2 on 12 November. I am Diamond level and there was no longer Priority check-in but I was shunted ahead of a long line of other people-I was not comfortable and many of them were dismayed and/or angry. This new practice should be DISCONTINUED NOW!:mad:

way of Carnivore Corp chipping away at civility!

Typical. First time we get to go in the Priority check in line and they change it so we now have to upset others by being sent in front of them. I think I would rather wait with the Britannia lines than do that.

Surely the other way round is better. Keep the Priority line and if empty move someone from the Britannia line over. Makes them feel better so happy all round. I have seen that at airports and other cruise lines.

Given the range of common sense points made above, it beggars belief that a group of "travel trade professionals" sitting around a table could come up with, and agree such a scheme, in the face of such obvious drawbacks.

Can you image it working at a major airport ?????

 

Surely the other way round is better. Keep the Priority line and if empty move someone from the Britannia line over. Makes them feel better so happy all round. I have seen that at airports and other cruise lines.

A much smarter idea all around!

Will this apply to Grills passengers too?

A very good friend of mine works for the security company at the Southampton port and told me starting from December the check in times will be strictly enforced.

So if you have a 14.30 check in and you turn up at 12 you will not be allowed to check in before 14.30.

Will this apply to Grills passengers too?

Yes. It says

One of the changes will be how our Platinum and Diamond WC members and Grills passengers queue to check in. You will now be greeted by a member of our team who will show you to the first available check-in agent, this will mean you will no longer have to queue at dedicated check-in desks.

Will this apply to Grills passengers too?

Yes,but all you need to do is say in a loud voice "do you know who I am"

Works every time I'm told.

David.

Odd, canon cruiser, I was on 12 November/M427 as well. I'm Diamond (happily from original set-up) too. Bag was tagged with a Priority Boarding cut-it-out-yourself paper tag, God how cheap are they going to go, and a porter took it and it was in cabin when I was. There was Priority Boarding. Top of escalator were signs, the agent ladies in red coats gabbing 'mongst themselves ... the usual Ocean Terminal day help, Cunard today, HAL tomorrow. I said "Diamond/Grill" and they walked me straight possibly eight feet to a marked area at the very right end of all the counters as you face the wall of agents. There were certainly four positions. Possibly six. All had Guests, after waiting through three in front of me I got the blonde lady at the far right/end. She was efficient. Then I walked the length of the counter to the Security lines. I asked an agent there if there was any Priority or old-age or Handicapped passage there, was told no, all was as they come along. And so it looked it to me. We chatted, i photographed the bow, she commented on the new-to-her angles i shot. Then one near her guided me to the furtherst of the six or eight check-points where were just two in front of me. Not the tens+ seemingly at others. This was about one-thirty p.m. All seemed " as usual" to me. I'm doing it again 15 December. When on board will ask YoYo/Petra what goes. Just can't imagine World Club and P.B. ticket-processing would be scrapped no matter who owns Cunard now.

Yes,but all you need to do is say in a loud voice "do you know who I am"

 

Works every time I'm told.

 

David.

I'll wait to hear that then!

Reading on ... what? A bus- load arrives and twenty or thirty are Diamond and "the line" has to watch agents parade you through to "next available agent"? God, how Bush-League! We're I in such a line I'd throw bread.

Yes. It says

 

One of the changes will be how our Platinum and Diamond WC members and Grills passengers queue to check in. You will now be greeted by a member of our team who will show you to the first available check-in agent, this will mean you will no longer have to queue at dedicated check-in desks.

The Christmas cruise is going to be interesting then. A significant number of the check-ins in New York are World Club elite. Sometimes the VIP line is longer than the serf line.

It may not apply to New York. The start of the article reads:

From the end of the year, you will begin to see some changes to the way we check passengers in at our Southampton cruise terminals. After extensive research and trials, we are rolling out a faster check-in system. These changes will mean that you will have to wait for much less time before boarding, so your holiday can begin much sooner.

Another article on page 12 about voyage cards reads:

We are pleased to say that all passengers will now be free to retain their voyage cards on disembarkation - not only do they make a great memento of your holiday, but will speed up disembarkation as passengers will no longer have to place their cards in refuse bags at the gangway.

But as everyone knows, we don't do this anyway as the person on the card swipe computer terminal keeps your card.

With the new arrangement, Cunard won't now be stuck with a refuse bag full of used voyage cards to dispose of. :)

We kept our cards (again, in NYC) last January.

Given the range of common sense points made above, it beggars belief that a group of "travel trade professionals" sitting around a table could come up with, and agree such a scheme, in the face of such obvious drawbacks.

 

Can you image it working at a major airport ?????

Nevermind airports, I can't imagine it working at the Red Hook terminal. Getting ahead of the line (jumping the queue) is not a good thing to do in NY. :eek: -S.

The premium check in model has worked ok for the world's airlines and cruise lines for years without problems and it is difficult to understand why Cunard are axing it. If it because it is underused at times, surely a better answer is to use it as an temporary overflow for the Britannia passengers when it is idle.

I agree. As a premium airline traveller, I much prefer to have a dedicated queue (well, I've never queued per se). If the premium line is empty, the attendants can direct Britannia passengers to the premium desk.

Princess did this on my last cruise out of Sydney.

Who are the people at Cunard who seem to think changing a proven model is a good thing? Sounds like change for the sake of change.

Corporate idiocy at its finest.

This must surely just annoy everybody, in all the cabin grades? I can understand there are more and more priority passengers, but this can't be the right way to go?

I am sure there will be an outcry and the new system won't last long!

but will speed up disembarkation as passengers will no longer have to place their cards in refuse bags at the gangway.[/i]

 

f. :)

Even if we ever did this, which we didn't, how could dropping a card in a bin delay disembarkation?

The bigger the business the more Government like it becomes.

David.

Top of escalator were signs, the agent ladies in red coats gabbing 'mongst themselves ... the usual Ocean Terminal day help, Cunard today, HAL tomorrow. I said "Diamond/Grill" and they walked me straight possibly eight feet to a marked area at the very right end of all the counters as you face the wall of agents. .

The check in desks were at the top of the escalator?

David.

I think I would rather stand in the Britannia line than risk the glares and worse when taken in front of them. Plus it just isn't right to do that to them either.