Cunard Getaway fares.

[ohsod1t]

We have booked a Vantage fare for a November sailing on the Queen Vic.
One of the benefits was on board spend. They are now offering exactly the same amount of on board spend to Getaway fare passengers. This has to be false advertising.
I was happy to go along with the price difference and their two tear price policy, but this is a step too far. Cunard have gone down in my estimation and we will book elsewhere next time.

[Manoverboard]

I fail to see why some of the passengers should not get their on board spends, the rules are based on the cruising period rather than the price paid.

In any event some of the Getaway fares are only a few £100s less than the Vantage fares and Cunard no doubt need to do this to sell their empty cabins on what seems to be on the surface an under subscribed cruise.

Perhaps next time you will book the Getaway deal ... like wot we did, albeit with P&O.

ps .... hello and welcome

[Mervyn and Trish]

If this is accurate I can see why OP would be hacked off.

Surely the selling point of Vantage was that they chuck in a few benefits, including choice of coach, parking or OBC, plus choice of cabin and not having to pay in full, and the deal was if they offer the same deal at a reduced price you get some money back through upgrade or OBC.

Getaway was the dodge to avoid giving money back by offering a reduced price but with no benefits for later bookers. If they start chiselling away at those benefits, as this suggests (and OBC being the one worth most in hard cash) they'll not only cause more upset but encourage yet more people down the Getaway route, which is contrary to what they need/would like to do to keep up revenue.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Further to post above have checked and OP is right. They are lashing out OBC or stateroom upgrades to Getaway passengers on selected cruises, eroding the Vantage benefits. Bonkers in my view.

[oldbluefox]

I can understand the OP's upset and annoyance. If there are no benefits apart from the ability to choose your cabin then there seems little point in booking Vantage. We felt exactly the same after paying full Vantage fare and then sitting with Getaways who had paid half of what we had paid, AND THEN got upgraded. The result is that this time wee have gone Getaway, and are very happy with what we have got. However we are fortunate in having flexibility in when we can go as our original cruise hardly dropped in price at all so we are booked on the 'reserve'.

It does make you wonder who dreams up the pricing policies as there is really little rhyme nor reason to them and encouraging more and more passengers to go Getaway can hardly be good business.

[Manoverboard]

Not at all bonkers ... better to have 60% of something than a 100% of nothing.

I haven't checked out the figures involved here but if Cunard can reign in a few more punters with a modest OBC then that has to be better, for them, than dropping the Getaway price by a greater amount.

The T&Cs of Vantage vs Getaway seem clear enough and there is not any mention of Getaway Clients being excluded from OBCs but they do state that Vantage Clients may get extra OBCs .... as in over and above the standard amount.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Not at all bonkers ... better to have 60% of something than a 100% of nothing.

I haven't checked out the figures involved here but if Cunard can reign in a few more punters with a modest OBC then that has to be better, for them, than dropping the Getaway price by a greater amount.

The T&Cs of Vantage vs Getaway seem clear enough and there is not any mention of Getaway Clients being excluded from OBCs but they do state that Vantage Clients may get extra OBCs .... as in over and above the standard amount.

The OBC is $210 per cabin so about the same as P&O were offering with the Vantage deal on similar cruises. I agree it's better for the company to hand out OBC because it feels like a benefit for the customer but actually only costs the company the wholesale of whatever the passenger spends it on. E.g. £20 OBC spent on a bottle of wine costs the company about £3!

Also accept the T's and C's are as you say. However, the perception of paying Vantage was always that even though you pay a bit more (in some cases a lot more) you got perks the Getaways didn't. And in the box summarising the two fares on the website a big play was made of Vantage getting choice of parking/coach/OBC, with nothing mentioned for Getaway. So it's not a lie, but it feels like a sin of omission.

And I still think it's bonkers. Yes, a short term gain, 60% of something better than 100% of nothing this year, but if customers perceive they're getting less and less for paying the Vantage premium, then more will opt for Getaway next year and next year they'll get 60% of something rather than 100% of the same thing. As a business model it's unsustainable if the ship becomes increasingly full of discount passengers, rather than just the handful of cabins it used to be.

Having said all that, I do notice that on these particular cruises (and it is only a selcected few) the price difference is not huge, so maybe that's the trick. Make Getaway reductions less and give more perks until by magic there's only one fare again.

[david63]

... so maybe that's the trick. Make Getaway reductions less and give more perks until by magic there's only one fare again.

That is the only way it can go.

It matters not that people do not book Vantage fares as the Getaway fares will not have such large reductions until very close to the sailing date - if at all. It will all come down to how long people can hold their nerve before booking in the hope of a reduction.

Remember that the cruise line are in total control of the prices and can charge whatever they want whenever they want. At the end of the day the cruise line needs £x to break even on a cruise and once that has been reached then everything else is profit

[Manoverboard]

The difference between Vantage and Getaway fares will close, it has been doing this for months now but the 55% discounted prices are still out there for those who can book at the last minute.

For example Adonia's D315 ... originally £2,259 for a balcony cabin but it is presently on sale for £999.