Upgrade Pecking Order?

[Classiccruiser777]

Greetings fellow Cunarders - Is there any rhyme or reason on who gets upgraded? For example, do Diamond & Platinum World Club members get upgraded more frequently than other cruisers? Talking with my TA I was told that a "guarantee" booking stands a better chance of being upgraded than when booking a specific cabin. Is this what you have experienced or heard? Thank you for your responses.

[Bigmike911]

Upgrades are one of the dark arts. Here is how I think they work and I have been on 11 cruises and upgraded on 9. I think your TA is correct on upgrades from a guarantee. Booking a guarantee allows Cunard to maximize their bookings. You will always get at least what you book, and could do better, as they can move you about fill the ship.

 

I think that being a platinum or diamond helps as well. Cunard like many other companies appreciates their repeat customers. I think frequency of voyage helps e.g. several a year or every year, and finally your spend in the particular category is helpful. In other words, if you book higher grades or higher categories in the grade, the better your chance to go to a higher grade.

 

If you book particular rooms, such as connecting rooms on the QM2, Handicapped rooms or other special requirement rooms, there is more likelyhood you will not get upgraded, although I was recently upgraded from a specified room, to a higher grade in the same area of the ship.

 

My final rule, is to book the category I am happy with, and enjoy any upgrades you get.

 

Cheers Mike.

[StarFlyr]

Are most of your upgrading within a status (A5 to A2 for example)? Or have you made the "leap" from a Balcony to a Princess cabin?

[missfrankiecat]

It's certainly nothing to do with customer loyalty. I'm a Diamond WC member and have been upgraded precisely once, on my second ever crossing many years ago on QE2.

[Host Sharon]

Are most of your upgrading within a status (A5 to A2 for example)? Or have you made the "leap" from a Balcony to a Princess cabin?

 

 

I have been upgraded from cheapest outside to balcony before now but as others have said - that was on a guarantee booking.

[zider]

Are most of your upgrading within a status (A5 to A2 for example)? Or have you made the "leap" from a Balcony to a Princess cabin?

Yes i have!! Booked a D8 then was upgraded to a A4 & at check in i had the surprise of my life to find that i had been upgraded again to a P3.

[north east girl]

Last year we were upgraded from an A3 to princess grill on our 12 voyage. I had already paid to upgrade from B to the A3. Maybe the upgrade was due to the fact that this was our 3rd trip on QM2 in the space of a year.

 

Also been upgraded on our first TA from B4 to B1 then on our 2nd trip from P3 to P2. Would say we have been very lucky with the upgrades.

 

This time on QE we have booked an A4 with the bigger balcony, have said no upgrade on this one.

 

Catherine

[Summergee]

On their first voyage with Cunard our adult sons booked a D8 guarantee and were upgraded to a D5.

[Norfolk Brit]

This time on QE we have booked an A4 with the bigger balcony, have said no upgrade on this one.

Catherine

 

We had one of these on the maiden (4054) - hope you enjoy it as much as we did:).

 

The only time we've ever had an upgrade was on QE2, when we were upgraded to PG - we booked at the (fairly) last minute at a heavily discounted price, and it was only our second Cunard cruise, but it was a guarantee.

 

Mary

[Dorchester]

I am personally of the opinion that a passenger's past loyalty with Cunard has very little to do with being granted a visit from the 'Upgrade Fairy', but rather it is a question of how much one has paid for a particular cabin. It is my understanding that all cabins have a 'base price', and if the cabin that you have booked is in demand, then you can get upgraded to a higher status cabin, the chance of which is proportional to how much you paid for the original cabin booked.

 

On our very first voyage with Cunard in 1995, we (being somewhat naive and inexperienced in the quirks of Cunard pricing), we paid almost the 'brochure price' for a C1 grade cabin on QE2. We were astounded to be upgraded to a Q3 - but naturally did not complain! Although we have had upgrades since then, none has been of such magnitude.

 

Regards,

David

[north east girl]

We had one of these on the maiden (4054) - hope you enjoy it as much as we did:).

 

The only time we've ever had an upgrade was on QE2, when we were upgraded to PG - we booked at the (fairly) last minute at a heavily discounted price, and it was only our second Cunard cruise, but it was a guarantee.

 

Mary

Thanks for that Norfolk Brit, We have got 5143, in the deck plans it looks just like the one you had. It is further along than yours. Did you feel as though you had a lot more space? Just 7 weeks away now.

 

Catherine

[Norfolk Brit]

Looking at the deck plans, the corner balconies on deck 5 are somewhat smaller than those on 4; having said that, they're still much larger than the standard shelves:D.

 

We absolutely loved it - on a warm weather cruise, it was like having an extra room. They are somewhat overlooked, but if yours is similar to the one we had, part is covered by overhang and that's private; the open part by the rail can be overlooked by, perhaps, three or four balconies on the deck above - we didn't find this a problem, and it's certainly more private than sitting on the Promenade Deck or Sundeck...

 

Mary

[moniquet]

I find when reading these threads (not just Cunard) that 99.5% of passengers get amazing upgrades...except me of course. Soo many get upgraded I wonder how they make a profit:D

[William Dean]

I have been upgraded from cheapest outside to balcony before now but as others have said - that was on a guarantee booking.

 

I have been upgraded from steerage to Queens Grill at the pier. This wasn't a guarantee booking.

 

WD

[moniquet]

See what I mean;)

[Essiesmom]

I booked a B4 gty on QM2, and with the third price drop, our TA just couldn't stand the suspense and booked us a B3. Two weeks before sailing, I checked the personalizer and was surprised to find we were now in an A1. They look at what is still open, and at what there are inquiries for, and upgrade those people in cabins they can easily resell. EM

[phoebecat]

Experience, and a little bird who works at Cunard has told me that there is one reason and one reason only for upgrades ... if you are in a cabin or cabin grade that someone else wants, they will kick you up to a vacant one higher up the food chain that they might not otherwise sell, to ensure they get the money from the person who wants your original cabin.

 

As inside ones tend to be very popular for single travellers, odds on you will get an upgrade to balcony.

 

Or, if you love your particular cabin, as we do, you can just tick the 'No upgrades' box!

[AstroExeter]

We have just been upgraded from a D8 on deck 4 to D3 on deck 9 for our upcoming voyage on QM2 from Hong Kong to Southampton. Hopefully the "fairy" will appear again before we go. On our back to back TA last Oct/Nov we were upgraded from a standard inside to an oceanview on check-in.

 

We always book an inside stateroom as we spend very little time in it, so we don't expect massive upgrades. Anything is welcome. :D

[moniquet]

Can't see any economic value for Cunard to upgrade someone in steerage to Queens grill...doesn't make sense:rolleyes:

[F5Loar]

yeap it's always everybody else on your cruise that get's the free upgrades. I have to pay for mine at full book rate. I like the idea of book the room you want at the price you can afford and hope for better things to come your way later. If they don't you got what you wanted.

[AstroExeter]

I am quite happy to have the inside stateroom that I always book, but should the "upgrade fairy" visit I am not going to poke it in the eye with the blunt end of a stick! :)

[cinta]

We always pick the lowest PG guarantee available because we know we will be happy with that, but have had a lot of upgrades to QG or offers of them at a discounted price :D

[bazzaw]

On a number of cruiselines, we have had 8 upgrades in 8 cruises. We always book the very cheapest interior cabin on a "guarantee" fare.

 

HOWEVER - this means we may in fact get what we paid for - and also means that we often have no cabin allocation until very late in the piece. We recently cruised from Australia to the UK (6 weeks) on P&O Oriana - we had no cabin allocation at all (not even for the cheapest inside that we had paid for) until 2 days before we departed.

 

The questions are : ! Are you a gambler? 2 Do you really care where they put you?? :D For us , the answer to Question Number 2 is "No" . But we really enjoyed the "deluxe" outside cabin that we had on Oriana for six weeks.

 

Barry

[Salacia]

please excuse me for going off topic...

 

Bazzaw, are you aware of the tsunami warning?

[bazzaw]

Yes- thank you. I don't believe that we are in any danger here in Australia. We are wondering just where QM2 is

 

Barry