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Have you ever received an upsell call from HAL?


3redheads
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We are sailing for the first time on HAL next year. In our 10 cruises on other lines, we've never received an upsell call.

We've always booked balcony or higher, except for our first cruise on Princess.

 

Have you ever received an upsell call?

Was it a good deal (good being subjective)

Did you take it?

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We are sailing for the first time on HAL next year. In our 10 cruises on other lines, we've never received an upsell call.

We've always booked balcony or higher, except for our first cruise on Princess.

 

Have you ever received an upsell call?

Was it a good deal (good being subjective)

Did you take it?

 

On 20 HAL cruises I have gotten upsells on about 12 of them. Mostly I get them when I book a Signature Suite and they try to upsell me to a Neptune. Generally I find them to be a good deal, so I take them. The two I passed up were from a Neptune to a Pinnacle and I did not feel they were worth the extra money involved.

 

Since I now book directly through HAL, the offers come by email for HAL's upsell department and I have to then call them directly. When I booked through a TA the TA called me with the offer.

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We book with major cruise agencies and have received a couple of upsell offers (we took one). One time the offer came via an e-mail from our cruise agent....and the other time we got a phone call from our cruise agent (she called because she thought the offer was so good we would accept).

 

Hank

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Usually, we book with the cruise line, but this time, we booked with a major big box store travel section because the price was a lot less than the HAL website. I cannot imagine getting a call from ****** Travel:(

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We've had very few upsell offers only because we normally travel with another couple & we choose our cabins..We also normally book outside cabins..

 

One time when we booked by ourselves we were offered an upsell to either a Lanai or a balcony.. Both were an excellent deal..Since we've been in balcony's, we decided we wanted to try the Lanai & took the upsell..

 

We loved the lanai & would book one again if we have a chance..:cool:

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Yes we have. Our PCC is familiar with what we're looking for in an upsell so she knows when to call us. Last cruise she called a few times but we held out because we thought we could do better. We were correct and got exactly what we wanted. We went from a balcony guarantee to a Spa Neptune Suite for what we considered to be a great deal.

 

 

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With HAL it seems you need to be American or Canadian for this to happen.

 

We are five star HAL and Aussie. We always book a balcony, yet we have never been visited by the upsell fairy. We have seen accompanying American travellers of lesser status receive offers, and for us - nothing.

 

Having said that we are committed HAL cruisers.......

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With HAL it seems you need to be American or Canadian for this to happen.

 

We are five star HAL and Aussie. We always book a balcony, yet we have never been visited by the upsell fairy. We have seen accompanying American travellers of lesser status receive offers, and for us - nothing.

 

Having said that we are committed HAL cruisers.......

 

 

 

Have you spoken to your PCC or HAL corporate about this? You may be surprised what happens if you ruffle a few feathers. They want to keep you happy.

 

 

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Have you spoken to your PCC or HAL corporate about this? You may be surprised what happens if you ruffle a few feathers. They want to keep you happy.

 

Tried that and just got brushed off, told us our agent would receive any offers. When I protested further they just passed the query to the Oz office who said all these offers come from Seattle and they had no control over it. I might try a letter to the CEO next......

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Got an upsell offer to a balcony on a self-booked three-in-an-OV cruise (two weeks around Cape Horn). Believe it was an e-mail... did NOT jump on it but thought about it over a weekend... called and found out it was still available AND the upsell amount was only for the two primary mariners, my mom got the sofa near the balcony door for nothin'!

 

Took it as a surprise to her. The cabin and large window were great. Only really used the balcony in Glacier Alley (we were on the correct/port side!), and my mom did take the down comforter outside to read on her Kindle on the sunny afternoons on the way back north -- I think she wanted to show she appreciated the upgrade.

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We got one from an inside to a balcony at no cost. There was a price drop for the cabin we were in. You could take the price drop or take the balcony, which we did. It was a TA from Rome to Ft Lauderdale.

Allan

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We have received a number of upsell offers. Normally, they are good deals.

 

One cruise, the price was not and we declined. Obviously most others did too as it went to a 3rd round when the price was a good deal (IMO) and we accepted.

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We've received (and taken) upsells on our last two HAL cruises.

 

On the Westerdam, I had booked an inside guarantee about 8 weeks from sailing at a great price and received a call from my HAL PCC with an upsell to a guarantee verandah for only $150 each...I took it, as it brought our price to $599 each for a balcony...not a bad deal. We ended up with an extended aft balcony and now won't sail without a balcony!

 

This past March we got a great deal on a Signature Suite for the Zuiderdam. I received a total of three email offers to upsell to a Neptune, each one with a lower price. We accepted the third offer which was $299 each, or just $60/day for the two of us. We were very happy with that deal.

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We booked an Ocean View cabin on our 7 day May cruise to Norway on the Rotterdam. We didn't think we'd use a balcony enough in Norway in May to warrant the extra expense.

Three weeks before the cruise, through our TA, we got an upsell offer to Vista Suite for $599 per person, we declined.

Two weeks before the cruise, got another upsell offer to Vista Suite for $299 per person, we declined.

One week before the cruise, got another offer, $233 per person, we declined, (then had second thoughts, but too late).

As we were packing to leave for our flight to Amsterdam (4 days before the cruise), our TA called, we had been re-assigned to a Vista Suite (no charge)! WOW!

It was a wonderful cruise, but we didn't use the balcony much.

The upgrade fairy DOES exist!

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It reading the replies thus far, it appears to me that upsell offers depend on:

 

1. Booking through HAL directly is more likely to result in an upsell offer as it is an automatic email from the upsell department to the customer. I suspect that some TAs do a great job in passing along offers, while others do not (extra work for little reward).

 

2. It depends on the category and ship you are booked on. For example, you are less likely to get an upsell offer to a Neptune on an R or S class ship, primarily due to the limited number of Neptune cabins. On the other had, the Vistas have many more Neptunes and upsells from a Signature to them seem to happen frequently.

 

3. It depends on how full the ship is. We tend to sail in the slower times of the year (better pricing) thus we likely see more upsells than people who book peak season.

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It reading the replies thus far, it appears to me that upsell offers depend on:

 

1. Booking through HAL directly is more likely to result in an upsell offer as it is an automatic email from the upsell department to the customer. I suspect that some TAs do a great job in passing along offers, while others do not (extra work for little reward).

 

2. It depends on the category and ship you are booked on. For example, you are less likely to get an upsell offer to a Neptune on an R or S class ship, primarily due to the limited number of Neptune cabins. On the other had, the Vistas have many more Neptunes and upsells from a Signature to them seem to happen frequently.

 

3. It depends on how full the ship is. We tend to sail in the slower times of the year (better pricing) thus we likely see more upsells than people who book peak season.

 

I guess you can't go by my experience, but on my recent cruise, I got an upsell offer directly from HAL through my e-mail and I used a TA. No phone calls from a TA or HAL.

 

Point 3 seems very likely.

 

Everyone needs to watch their e-mail carefully.....your offer may have gone into junk mail.

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With HAL it seems you need to be American or Canadian for this to happen.

 

We are five star HAL and Aussie. We always book a balcony, yet we have never been visited by the upsell fairy. We have seen accompanying American travellers of lesser status receive offers, and for us - nothing.

 

Having said that we are committed HAL cruisers.......

 

I don't know about the nationality factor. However, in our 10 years of sailing HAL, we have received only one upsell, and that was from a Signature Suite to a Neptune. We declined.

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No.

 

But we have never had an upsell call from any other cruise line with the exception of a move over offer from Princess which we happily accepted.

 

The absolute best cruise line direct booking/service/price/efficiency we have had to date came from the RCI team in Australia.. They were on their game.

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...

 

Have you ever received an upsell call?

Many times (emails, not calls)

Was it a good deal (good being subjective)

No, never

Did you take it?

No

These offers came when we booked directly with the cruise line. We haven't received any since booking with a TA.

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We are sailing for the first time on HAL next year. In our 10 cruises on other lines, we've never received an upsell call.

We've always booked balcony or higher, except for our first cruise on Princess.

 

Have you ever received an upsell call?

Was it a good deal (good being subjective)

Did you take it?

 

I have been offered an upsell on every cruise, and my booking is with a TA. Sometimes I have turned it down as it wasn't reasonable, and last cruise I gambled and waited till a third-time-around offer, and took it. It had dropped substantially from the first offer, by almost half.

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