Tell Me About Cunard Air - Please

[Cruise NH]

Although we are diamond on Cunard we've never used them for booking flights and I'm wondering what everyone's experience has been.

 

We are considering a cruise out of Tokyo (from Boston) so that's why we're looking for some fare advantage if it exists.  At a minimum we would want to pick our own seats and dates for departure.  It would be nice to be able to have a choice of airline and of seating class.  I know for example that JAL flies non stop from Boston to Tokyo, I wouldn't want to do that in anything less then premium economy but wouldn't mind a deal with business class of course.

 

Anyway, would love to hear how this has worked out for others especially on longer routes.  Thank you.

[gentlemancruiser]

Cunard air works very much the same as it would when you are booking directly with the airlines.  Once your get your ticket numbers. you visit the airlines website and choose your seats.  

 

With Cunard air you can choose your class, economy, premium economy, business, or first.   You can also choose the airline you prefer.  

 

Sometimes the fare can be better using Cunard's air.   Especially true when you are not flying round trip.

[addo]

From the UK we use Cunard for air travel as they have the best prices for one way fares. You can state your preferred airline as we did last week returning from Perth.  We were able to choose seats and add extra bags if required as normal.  

 

The only difference has been when it is a group booking to or from Europe when we cannot choose seats.

[PORT ROYAL]

9 hours ago, Cruise NH said:

Although we are diamond on Cunard we've never used them for booking flights and I'm wondering what everyone's experience has been.

 

We are considering a cruise out of Tokyo (from Boston) so that's why we're looking for some fare advantage if it exists.  At a minimum we would want to pick our own seats and dates for departure.  It would be nice to be able to have a choice of airline and of seating class.  I know for example that JAL flies non stop from Boston to Tokyo, I wouldn't want to do that in anything less then premium economy but wouldn't mind a deal with business class of course.

 

Anyway, would love to hear how this has worked out for others especially on longer routes.  Thank you.

Totally agree with Gentlemancruiser.  

However, there is one piece of information to assist when booking with Cunard. 
Pay for one’s flight, in full, on booking, as one would normally.  If within the period of flight opening, one can immediately receive the locator number and select one’s seat/s.  

Otherwise, you’ll wait until balance is paid, possibly by then all the ‘good’ seats have gone.

[LadyL1]

The only exception to choosing seats early is with British Airways, paid in full or not. This even applies to premium seats. BA charges a hefty sum to choose seats ahead of the 24 hour check-in time, and one of the few airlines to operate this dismal money grabbing system! Frequent flyers can choose seats slightly before flight, so beware if this is important to you.

[Victoria2]

29 minutes ago, PORT ROYAL said:

Totally agree with Gentlemancruiser.  

However, there is one piece of information to assist when booking with Cunard. 
Pay for one’s flight, in full, on booking, as one would normally.  If within the period of flight opening, one can immediately receive the locator number and select one’s seat/s.  

Otherwise, you’ll wait until balance is paid, possibly by then all the ‘good’ seats have gone.

Just make sure you're giving correct info for bookings which aren't UK based. The OP is US based and I imagine, will book under US  booking conditions which might be different from our UK t&cs.

[Victoria2]

19 minutes ago, LadyL1 said:

The only exception to choosing seats early is with British Airways, paid in full or not. This even applies to premium seats. BA charges a hefty sum to choose seats ahead of the 24 hour check-in time, and one of the few airlines to operate this dismal money grabbing system! Frequent flyers can choose seats slightly before flight, so beware if this is important to you.

Thanks for this. We wouldn't  book BA by choice [bottom of a long list of alternatives for us] but it's good information to know.

 

 

[Cruise NH]

Thanks for all the replies it’s great information and does help us.  One way fares to Japan seemed extremely high, at least we can look at this alternative.

[frankp01]

By suggesting a range of dates, and departure airports, to our travel agent, the fares he returned to us varied by several hundred dollars! By departing on Thursday, rather than Friday, and from Philadelphia versus NYC, we saved quite a bit. And all of the fares were much less than those I'd found on my own. I don't recall if it was due to the final payment date but we weren't able to change our seats immediately. Not too long after We were able to change our seats (and, for that matter, pay to upgrade to Premium). And we accumulated frequent flyer miles. I'd definitely use Cunard Air again.

[MCC retired]

Cunard Air for 1 way when booking from the US can be very reasonable.

Seats can usually be chosen @ the airline website.

 

[Windsurfboy]

9 hours ago, LadyL1 said:

The only exception to choosing seats early is with British Airways, paid in full or not. This even applies to premium seats. BA charges a hefty sum to choose seats ahead of the 24 hour check-in time, and one of the few airlines to operate this dismal money grabbing system! Frequent flyers can choose seats slightly before flight, so beware if this is important to you.

 

Frequent flyers can book seats straight away as soon as they book for free, even on BA holidays when you only pay 15% deposit.  

 

But wouldn't use BA unless pretty certain route has new suite which means Heathrow not Gatwick . 

 

If you have any form of air miles great for booking one-way. Some airlines allow you to buy air miles, not normally worth it but can be for a one-way, may be worth exploring . 

[techteach]

We used flyer miles for business on BA. But we paid dearly to ensure we got the seats we wanted. We did not go through Cunard because I thought it would cost more and new the rule about not being assigned seats until full payment. I’ve only flown BA twice and I haven’t had a bad experience.