Check your Cunard air!

[3rdGenCunarder]

If you booked air through Cunard, double-check your arrangments!

 

I now am the proud possessor of NINE different booking confirmations. Or maybe it's ten. There was the first one when I booked in early June, then the updated one after I did my air arrangments and paid the deposit a few days later. Then there was the rapid progression of 6 (yes, SIX) replacement versions after I was part of that "little" data release at the end of June.

 

I had booked directly with Cunard. Final payment is due next week. So Cunard sent me an email reminder 2 weeks ago, with a confirmation attached. amazing! It had all the correct data. So I was still at 8 confirmations and holding. all good.

 

Then last week, I got another reminder, with a confirmation attached. I opened it and discovered that my $800 airfare (Premium Economy on virgin) was now just $23.50. (Now I'm up to 9 variations of the booking confirmation) My first thought was "Wow! Is that a bargain, or what????" :D My second thought was "Oh NO, they've lost my air arrangements." :eek: So I went to the Virgin website and saw that my booking number still worked and all was OK there.

 

I called Cunard on Friday to pay up. But before I would hand over my money, I asked the nice man I spoke with to go through the whole booking. When he got to the airfare of $23.50, I said that this wasn't right. So he went back into the original booking and found the price of economy air. No, I said, it's premium economy, not economy. He put me on hold while he talked to the air department. I was worried about this because at the time of the data release, one of the variations I received had the upgrade fee at double what it had been when I booked, and I didn't want that to happen again. Lord knows what it would be now, two months later.

 

Fortunately, the air department found the right version of the booking, and all is well, and I paid the bill. So now I have a zero balance confirmation form (actually two of them :rolleyes:) with the correct info on it.

 

The nice man at Cunard said that they had made changes in the computer system in the air department and that strange/incorrect charges were showing up on some bills.

 

So if you booked air with Cunard before late June/early July, double check that it's all OK, and when you get your final bill, check the airfare amount. Tempting though it was to try to get a plane ticket for $23.50, I figured that the risk of having no way to fly to my crossing was not worth it.

[Austcruiser84]

If you booked air through Cunard, double-check your arrangments!

 

I now am the proud possessor of NINE different booking confirmations. Or maybe it's ten. There was the first one when I booked in early June, then the updated one after I did my air arrangments and paid the deposit a few days later. Then there was the rapid progression of 6 (yes, SIX) replacement versions after I was part of that "little" data release at the end of June.

 

I had booked directly with Cunard. Final payment is due next week. So Cunard sent me an email reminder 2 weeks ago, with a confirmation attached. amazing! It had all the correct data. So I was still at 8 confirmations and holding. all good.

 

Then last week, I got another reminder, with a confirmation attached. I opened it and discovered that my $800 airfare (Premium Economy on virgin) was now just $23.50. (Now I'm up to 9 variations of the booking confirmation) My first thought was "Wow! Is that a bargain, or what????" :D My second thought was "Oh NO, they've lost my air arrangements." :eek: So I went to the Virgin website and saw that my booking number still worked and all was OK there.

 

I called Cunard on Friday to pay up. But before I would hand over my money, I asked the nice man I spoke with to go through the whole booking. When he got to the airfare of $23.50, I said that this wasn't right. So he went back into the original booking and found the price of economy air. No, I said, it's premium economy, not economy. He put me on hold while he talked to the air department. I was worried about this because at the time of the data release, one of the variations I received had the upgrade fee at double what it had been when I booked, and I didn't want that to happen again. Lord knows what it would be now, two months later.

 

Fortunately, the air department found the right version of the booking, and all is well, and I paid the bill. So now I have a zero balance confirmation form (actually two of them :rolleyes:) with the correct info on it.

 

The nice man at Cunard said that they had made changes in the computer system in the air department and that strange/incorrect charges were showing up on some bills.

 

So if you booked air with Cunard before late June/early July, double check that it's all OK, and when you get your final bill, check the airfare amount. Tempting though it was to try to get a plane ticket for $23.50, I figured that the risk of having no way to fly to my crossing was not worth it.

 

This is why I don't combine things. You just don't know what will happen! Plus you're more likely to get your choice of things - like airlines, rail etc. Not to mention you aren't restricted by their schedules.

[3rdGenCunarder]

This is why I don't combine things. You just don't know what will happen! Plus you're more likely to get your choice of things - like airlines, rail etc. Not to mention you aren't restricted by their schedules.

 

If a flight will be r/t, I book my own. This time, I took Cunard air because I didn't want to pay an outrageous price for oneway air. And I got my choice of flights, not Cunard's. They allow you one free "air deviation," which means you can specify the date and flight. (Once you've made your choice, there is a fee to change.) I knew from previous trips that Virgin would likely be their carrier from Newark, and that was what I wanted. I'm lucky to live near a major hub, so Cunard won't make me fly from Newark to London by way of Dallas or some other strange routing.

 

Where you have to watch out for bad air arrangements is with some of the packages sold by cruise lines or travel groups. They can put you on the most insane routings with multiple connections in order to keep their cost down. I've heard the horror stories from friends, but never had a problem with Cunard air before this computer problem.

[safarigal]

I have also decided to use Cunard air for the first time for my October crossing as the airfares were ridiculous. The return flight from JFK listed on my Voyage Personaliser isn't actually the flight that I am on according to my record locator, but I am going to go with what the airline says!

[ocngypz]

ARGH.........I was afraid this was going to happen when they switched over to the new system on the 15th.

 

Thankfully, my peeps don't use Cunard air very often.

 

The new system is like Princess EZ Air.. where we just choose whatever flights happen to load up on the screen with the given parameters.

 

We still have to call for ta air, though.

[3rdGenCunarder]

ARGH.........I was afraid this was going to happen when they switched over to the new system on the 15th.

 

Thankfully, my peeps don't use Cunard air very often.

 

The new system is like Princess EZ Air.. where we just choose whatever flights happen to load up on the screen with the given parameters.

 

We still have to call for ta air, though.

 

The man I spoke to at Cunard said I got hit by a "double whammy," the data spill and then the air problem.

 

And on top of that, Virgin is renumbering their planes, so seat selection is not available in premium economy, so I have to keep checking back to see if they've got that sorted out yet.

 

Nothing is ever easy...