Cunard - recommended UK agent?

[JLTO]

We are about to book the 14 night cruise on QM2 ex-Southampton on 18th November. I wondered if any of the UK based mebers of this forum have experience of agents who offer particularly competitive rates for Cunard?

 

As a matter of interest, after much research, it appears that Cunard offer totally different inventories to agents either side of the Atlantic. US agents are saying there are no balcony cabins left on this cruise and UK agents are saying there are no inside cabins left. Must be a well thought our revenue maximisation ploy by Cunard I guess.

[guernseyguy]

JLTO,

 

Welcome to the board - and I fear you've committed a bit of a faux pas - we are explicitly NOT allowed to discuss TA recommendations as in 'I recommend Joe Bloggs Ltd'. So if this thread disappears you'll know why. See here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/announcement.php?f=54&a=8

 

What we CAN discuss is pros & cons of (unidentified) 'bricks and mortar' (i.e. High Street) agencies vs booking direct with the cruise line vs internet agencies. I have done all three - and generally now book with an internet agency via the telephone.

 

Peter

[sueu]

JLTO Look at post #105 on the QM2 November 18th thread (a few down from this one) That may help you!

[Anteeta]

JLTO,

 

Welcome to the board - and I fear you've committed a bit of a faux pas - we are explicitly NOT allowed to discuss TA recommendations as in 'I recommend Joe Bloggs Ltd'. So if this thread disappears you'll know why. See here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/announcement.php?f=54&a=8

 

What we CAN discuss is pros & cons of (unidentified) 'bricks and mortar' (i.e. High Street) agencies vs booking direct with the cruise line vs internet agencies. I have done all three - and generally now book with an internet agency via the telephone.

 

Peter

 

Hi, for what it's worth, I'd second that. We've used 2 different internet companies for our 2 QE2 cruises. Get a few from google using something like cheap cunard cruise, then get quotes from 3 or 4. You can check whether they're ABTA and Cunard will tell you if they are known to them as agents. We saved mega money booking by phone with an internet based co.

Good luck

[Kindlychap]

The best rates must be available to any travel agent effectively wholly owned by Carnival.

 

It is easy to establish that Carnival hold 72988 shares of the 73000 shares issued by Victoria Travel.

 

I will say no more. However (and without making any reference to any agent here or elsewhere) money isn't the only thing to consider.

[pnhmrk]

The best rates must be available to any travel agent effectively wholly owned by Carnival.

 

Why? Carnival could be using VT to boost their profits.

[spinnaker]

I wonder who owns the other 12 shares?!

 

Besides saving money through a TA, what else would you consider worth considering? I'm asking this quite genuinely as I have no experience here and am curious to know what can go wrong / right by using different TAs or Cunard direct etc..

[Kindlychap]

I wonder who owns the other 12 shares?!

 

As I recall, the three previous directors hold four each.

 

Of course just because the best rates are available to them doesn't mean that they necessarily will pass them on.

 

I reckon the "Tesco" principle may be at work. Undercut, monopolise, raise prices.

[SamanthasDad]

Hi, for what it's worth, I'd second that. We've used 2 different internet companies for our 2 QE2 cruises. Get a few from google using something like cheap cunard cruise, then get quotes from 3 or 4. You can check whether they're ABTA and Cunard will tell you if they are known to them as agents. We saved mega money booking by phone with an internet based co.

Good luck

We did the same thing. found 6 Agents via Google. Made sure that they were abta/atol registered. Then rang them all for quotes, playing them off against each other until we found the best price. They all seemed to be able to provide the same cabins/suites, so price was the only factor. We eventually got one of them down £600 from their origional quote after they "talked to the manager"

 

If you know exactly what you want then the role of the TA is just to provide the best price.

[Norfolk Brit]

The best rates must be available to any travel agent effectively wholly owned by Carnival.

 

You are quite correct; I've spent the morning researching prices for next year. The best I've come up with is very nearly 14% off the brochure price (plus small onboard spend).

 

Does anyone know why Cunard hasn't adopted the idea now followed by many hotels of offering the best rates to direct customers? It surely has to be more cost-effective than giving the travel agent commission to subsequently share with the customer. The other thing I would mention to the OP is to check cabin availability with Cunard on the phone - the availability on their web site is very limited, and the travel agents/internet sites all seem to have the same availability as each other. In my experience, there are many others hidden there, but for some reason these are almost treated as classified information.

 

Good luck, Mary

[pnhmrk]

Does anyone know why Cunard hasn't adopted the idea now followed by many hotels of offering the best rates to direct customers?

 

A travel agent, even a bad travel agent, can save the tour operator an awful lot of work and money in administering bookings.

 

By using travel agents Cunard can ensure that it is represented on every high street in the country. If Cunard don't pay commission then the agents don't carry Cunard's brochures; If the Agents don't carry the brochures then people aren't as aware of Cunard's ships; If you're not aware of a ship then you can't book a holiday on it. Look how few direct booking only lines there are.

[JLTO]

Thank you to all of you who took time to respond and my apologies if I broke the protocol of the site by asking this question!

 

I was booking for 8 passsengers on 18th Novbember QM2 so potentially there was a lot of money to be saved by getting the best deal.

 

For those interested my experiences, having booked succesfully a week ago....

 

Most UK agents were working from the same base price and so all they could discount on was thier comission, which I guess to be around 10% or so. Most discounted the Cunard price by 8%.

 

There were some significant savings to be made by booking through the US agents but their inventory (ie avaialbility) was very different to the UK agents. Basically US agents only had inside cabins avaialble and could only book the 18/11 and 25/11 departures as separate cruises.

 

UK agents on the other hand only had balcony cabins available but Cunard has packaged these 2 cruises as one 2-week holiday and thus there were very good savings to be made.

 

In the end I booked through the agent mentioned in another thread on this site which was pointed out to me by SueU. This company appear to have thier own deal with Cunard and buy cabins only and add the flight themselves - they are ABTA / ATOL bonded etc. and thus far have been very efficient.

 

By booking through this company I got a B2 cabin on this cruise for £1289 including flights back with Virgin (a big plus in my view - no problems with luggage allowance, 32 inch seat pitch and they give Star Alliance points!)

 

A special thanks to SueU - if you are on this cruise then we look forward to buying you a drink!

[sueu]

JLTO - no prolblem! Yes we are on board, and mine's a g & t!!

Sue.