hoopics

Sailing on Pearl this Sunday. Both my neck and my back are acting up, and if I were going to be home next week I'd see my acupuncturist. I'm somewhat hesitant to have needles stuck into me while at sea, but I'm hoping the inside passage is smooth enough that it isn't an issue. What I'd most appreciate is recent feedback on the quality of the people likely to be handling treatments on this sailing. It seems like most of the older threads are for other vessels, and/or complaining about cost / insurance / the concept of acupuncture on a boat.

Has anyone had acupuncture on Pearl in the past 12 months? How was it, and what'd they "fix"? Do you remember who you saw?

Thanks.

I understand that they offer upgrade bids on sold cabins in case of last minute cancellations.

That's part of it. But it's a ladder. If the biggest suite on the boat is open, someone is going to have their bid accepted and be upgraded into it. When they are moved, their old cabin will open. That lower tier cabin gets filled with the next upgrader. Then the cabin they just were pulled out of gets upgraded with the third upgrader. On down to some low tier of cabin where demand for "better" ceases.

If every class of cabin above you is sold out, I'd think your odds of getting upgraded are low. But if vacancies exist in any class, everything should shuffle upward by at least that number of open cabins. Plus late cancelations. This lets NCL maximize revenue by filling every cabin at the highest rate the market will bear (highest combo of original fare + bid), and shifts any vacancies down to less desirable cabin classes.

Does the Min, max depend on length of cruise and destination, I wonder...

From following this thread it seems to vary most significantly based on 1) fare originally paid / current cabin class, 2) occupancy level of sailing, 3) destination, 4) length of cruise, 5) phase of moon, 6) breakfast choice of programmer, and 7) other.

As it only happens at night, is a rhythmic sound, and appears to subside after a time, is the origin possibly...biological? If you know what I'm saying.

And I think you do.

Thanks for the great report. We're heading on this voyage next month and can't wait. A couple questions for you:

Did you try disembarking first thing at any of the ports of call, and if so how were the lines to get off the ship? We have an early excursion booked in Ketchikan and I'd like to know when we should plan to queue up to exit.

Did anyone seem to be using the pools? Were they heated at all? Our kids are like fish, but I want to manage expectations about how likely / unlikely pool time will be.

Any chance you used the bowling alley, golf nets or climbing wall? How do those work in terms of having to book time slots, wait in line, pay for use, etc.

Thanks again.

1. Create an image of the daily. A scanner works. As does a good .jpg taken with your phone / tablet / etc.

2. Go to imgur dot com, or comparable free web image hosting site. I mention imgur only because it's the easiest I know of and doesn't require any registration / creating an account. Click on the upload picture button.

3. Once your picture is up on imgur, get the url to the image itself. There are a few ways to do this, depending on your operating system and browser. In a windows-based environment, right-click on the image and choose "copy url." In iOS, tap on and hold the image on your screen. You should get a bubble that says save image or "copy." Choose "copy."

4. Create a new post here. Pick the little picture button (for insert image) from the message bar. Paste in the url for the picture you copied in the dialogue box that opens. Hit submit reply. The image should appear within your post.

5. If you get a size / dimension error or some other picture error, repeat step 4, but by picking the "insert link" button rather than the insert image button. Paste the url for the picture you copied into the dialogue box that opens. Hit submit reply. a **link** to the image should appear within your post. People who click on that will be taken to the image.

Mods, I hope all of the above is kosher with the posting rules. Apologies if I missed one. I looked for something in the guidelines on how to post images, and didn't see any existing content on point.

BTW - you didn't trigger it, but if you buy more than a certain amount in the duty free shop you will be reported and (for US citizens anyway) will pay Customs 3% on your purchases upon re-entry into the country. I think the limit is $800. "Duty Free" is not "tax free".

This is a conflation of a few easily confused concepts. A "duty" is a tax -- specifically a border tariff, assessed by a customs service on goods entering a country. Now for that $800 limit -- U.S. Customs provides for personal use / gift exemptions for otherwise dutiable goods. That's most commonly $800, but can also be $200 or $1600 for certain classes of goods. Details on that are here: https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/246/~/duty--free-exemption A nice summary on the concept of duty and some of the complexities here: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/kbyg/customs-duty-info

So what makes a "duty free" shop duty free? It means that the merchant selling the goods didn't have to pay a duty on them to bring them into that country where the store is, before selling them to you. This is why you buy duty free goods when LEAVING a country, rather than arriving into it -- if you were to take goods from the duty free store into the country outside that store, you might have to pay a duty on it.

Theoretically, duty free stores can pass their duty savings on to you as a reduced savings. Once upon a time, when duties where high, you might have a 10 or 20% import tariff on products -- particularly luxury goods. Duty free shops had a measurable price advantage relative to shops outside the duty free zones, who had to account for their own import costs in reselling the goods. Now, however, free trade has greatly lowered a number of previously high tariffs. Indeed many goods are "duty free" (or nearly so) for merchants outside the duty free zone too, meaning the applicable tariff rate is 0%, and the duty free store has no duty advantage. Same thing goes if they're selling products made in the country where they are selling them; duties aren't part of the equation [this is all simplified, of course; excise taxes can sometimes be a thing].

Bottom line, with very limited exceptions involving certain luxury goods in certain countries, as well as some alcohol / tobacco products where additional tax savings can exist in the country of sale, "duty free" savings are largely a thing of the past. If we see current geopolitical trends head back towards protectionism, duties might rise and duty free shopping could become relevant again. But it'll be because tariffs increase prices outside the airport, not within the duty free stores.

As for your watch on that cruise ship, from a quick look at the tariff schedule U.S. rates on watches vary between 0% and about 7% depending on type of watch and country of origin. So there might theoretically be duty savings out there. But the mark-up for a captive audience on a cruise ship is almost certain to eat that up and then some. I wouldn't expect to ever find a meaningfully better deal by virtue of duty treatment. If it goes on sale, it's for the same reasons as at a land-based retailer.

Sorry OP, this is not NCL's most mishandled cruise of the past 12 months, let alone ever. As a disinterested observer (well, interested only for the schadenfreude -- because it's the Internet), several of the Star's recent "voyages" that came to require ocean tugs, as well as that one Bermuda cruise that chained everyone to the dock in NYC and then took them to Florida instead, all seem to have been better examples of organizational fail.

What you describe just seems to be the reality of a megaship meeting weather and a mechanical issue in non-megaship-equiped ports. If you're going to head to sea with the population of an entire mid-sized town, things are going to go rather quickly pear-shaped in irrops.

We brought 8 bottles of cheapy wine on the Escape. Charged $15 US corkage for each. We didn't have the UBP as a perk, so this was the next cheapest option. We could have left it at the MDR for dinner each night, but we drank one per dinner, so none leftover to store! lol You can bring it where ever you want on the ship, which was great.

 

Also, just as an FYI, O'Sheehan's had 60oz pitchers of various draught beers on tap for $13.95 + 18% grat. We utilized this as well.

How closely (if at all) did they inspect the seals on the wine? Seems you could get a bottle of cheap red with a screw cap, drain it, refill with 151 or other high grade spirit, and then pay $15 tax to bring on a large quantity of mixable booze "legally."

Thanks! I'm curious if all of the quads on the Pearl have the trundle or if any of them do have 2 Pullmans? We would love to have 2 Pullmans but if the trundle is what is there, it's no big deal.

 

The kids are just excited to get on a ship!

So far I'm seeing zero examples of any outside porthole or oceanview cabins on Pearl with two Pullmans. But I'm not quite ready to say they don't exist (people have implied they exist in discussions but not photographed them). I did find this additional configuration in one of the porthole rooms, where you have an upper pullman and lower trundle, with the double bed sliding to the side: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2061396

I also found this thread with an apparently grumpy person who seemed to have gotten 8120 (other side from yours) and seems to have gotten a pullman plus a center trundle: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2013816

That thread links to this one with more pictures of the cabin class on the Dawn: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1996957&highlight=cabin+sleeps

So with a pair of munchins you're probably okay, but I get the gripes if one were expecting to sleep four adults.

Wow, not much at all out there on either this cabin or even this class. A few things I could find:

See here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1957080

This thread contains a picture from what seems to be a similar cabin on the Jewel, with the wall bunk bed down and four people: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=901947

This video is a similar adjoining room on deck five, but rated for three people instead of four. I believe the difference is the four person room has a 4th bed. Don't know if it's a second fold-down bed on the other wall, or a trundle that comes out between the two lowers:

Thanks. I should have said it's a private jeep tour, and we're renting the services of a driver / guide too -- through one of the well recommended local companies, not NCL. Eagle Beach looked neat with the sand and the wind swept appearance, but if theres a better route I'm all ears. Figured we'd see the chapel on the way.

We're looking for, vague and cliche as it sounds, "Alaskan nature." My kids are sheltered, 1st world, east coast, suburban, couch-focused screen-obsessed snowflakes who rarely get more than 100 yards from a paved road. The rare fox sighting at night is a huge scary deal. They're not ever going to be back country trekkers.

But I'd love for them to walk under foggy trees, stand on a beach, and see a glacier, with bonus points for wild life to go with it. So a jeep to get away from the buses full of people for a few hours really appealed. I'm just struggling on where to go. So feel free to tell me I'm doing it all wrong, and should consider X, Y and Z instead.

We'll be there in June, on the Pearl (2 PM arrival, 10 PM departure) and have booked a jeep for a private three hour tour. It'll be me, my wife, and our young kids (8, 5). They'd like to "visit a rain forest." I'd like to visit the Mendenhall Glacier and Eagle Beach. I found this rain forest trail, which seems suitable, but also is entirely the other direction from Eagle Beach: https://www.adventureflow.us/adventure/rainforest-trail/

My questions for the collective wisdom of this forum:

1. Is the trail above worth a visit?

2. Are there any similar / better trails up towards Eagle Beach or the glacier?

3. Should we plan to go to the trail I linked above and skip Eagle Beach, or in three hours can we do the trail, the glacier, and the beach (distance / time at locations makes me think no)?

4. In addition to the above sights, if we'll have a car and driver for three hours, what other off-the-beaten-path nature sights should we consider? Far more interested in something natural than something totally touristy like a brewery or salmon bake.

Thanks for any tips.

My understanding is it's neither. All those H2 guests have a chance to bid on H1, or between now and sailing they might cancel. So NCL wants your bid on H2 in the system in the event that one frees up. If it happens, they can take your money and slot you into it. That process will then repeat with the aft suite you're leaving. But only if you win a bid and leave the after suite.

It's quite straightforward when you think about it, really. Any cabin that opens up between now and two days prior to your sailing, they can put available for sale to the public at full rate (or even above full rate, as someone booking last minute might really want that sailing). If it fills, it falls out of the upgrade inventory. The person sailing in the cabin goes into their pool of people potentially making bids. If it doesn't fill, then at 2 days prior to sailing it's in the pool of cabins for upgrade.

By two days prior to departure, NCL will have all of their bids. At that point, it's a pure math exercise. If H1 is open, they take the bid that gets them the greatest additional revenue to fill that cabin. With that filled, they go to H2. They take the bid that gets them the greatest additional revenue to fill THAT cabin. Then H3, and on down the ladder.

Each person who wins a bid for a higher cabin opens their own cabin. At least down through the OV level, that cabin is likely in a class that's of value to someone lower than them on the ladder. So they fill the cabins level by level, top to bottom, and get extra $$ for each cabin that gets swapped out. And they're doing it at the highest price the market will bear on that sailing. When it's all said and done they're unlikely to have any open cabins other than inside cabins -- or maybe outside cabins they hold vacant as emergency reserves for changes needed during the sailing. And if they do have open cabins, its because their bidding model failed and they set the minimum bid prices too high.

While their per-cabin yield on the upgraded cabins is less than if they'd sold those on the open market at full rate [because they've now sold for the price of the cabin in the class below + upgrade amount], they're only filling upgrades because they DIDN'T sell some number of cabins on the open market at full rate. The ship would have sailed with those cabins unsold, meaning every upgrade dollar is pure profit -- not even their food costs go up, as the upgrade cabins are all being filled with people who'd have been on the boat anyway.

It's absolutely brilliant, and I'm frankly shocked that other cruise lines haven't gone there prior to now. Look for the model to start popping up on other cruise lines, then in hotels, airlines, etc. I'm certain it'll be a giant winner for them. The only people who may not like it are frequent cruisers who were buying last minute upgrades via the 1-800 number and getting better deals as fewer people were competing.

Very sorry for your loss [five years ago as it may be], but thank you for taking the time to write about how well NCL handled it.

My aunt passed away on the first night of a Mediterranean cruise on a different, major cruise line (I see no reason to call them out in this thread -- it's in the past now). Suffice it to say, however, that their handling of the whole thing was fundamentally different. And not in any ways that were good. Many aspects of your story go straight to the heart of all my family found wrong with this other cruise line's handling of a terrible situation -- NCL seems to have showed compassion, efficiency, a willingness to bend rules which stood in the way of helping those in need, and an appreciation that you'd have no idea what to do in the aftermath while standing in an unfamiliar port. People should not take for granted that NCL seems to have their act together when it comes to handling events on board that can be life-changing for those who've survived; they might have just disembarked you and left you to sort it all out for yourself.

I find how they set the bid ranges for our sailing in June interesting. I received the e-mail yesterday, even though we're still may weeks out. We're booked into a mini-suite, on a sailing where mini-suites are sold out. The upgrade site is offering:

--SE / SF: 500-2000 pp [minimum / max bid]. These classes are currently sold out. My recollection is that when they were bookable, they were about $4,500 more than our cabin. So a max bid would save us only about $500 against what we could have booked for, and a min bid [setting aside likelihood of success] would save us $3,500.

--SC: 750-2500. This class can still be booked. The current rack rate is about $6k more than what we've paid. A max bid would save us about $2,000, and a min bid would save us $4,500.

--H4: 1000-2750. This class is sold out. My recollection is the rack rate was about $7500 more than what we paid. A max bid would save us $2,000, and a min bid would save us $5,500.

--H3: 1500-3000. This class can still be booked. It's a bit over $9k more than what we paid. A max bid saves $3k, and a min bid saves $6k.

--H2: 1500-3000. This class is sold out. Don't recall the original pricing. Sorry.

--H1: 2000-5000. This class can still be booked. It is almost $32k more than we paid. So a max bid saves us $22k, and a min bid saves us $28k.

The only one that seems hilariously out of whack is H1. All the others, I can see the rationale for the starting bids. They jump in 250 or 500 increments, which other than H1 seems to be about 1/3 of the rack rate difference between the classes on this sailing. The upper boundaries make less sense to me. They don't seem to track the revenue loss to NCL in as linear a fashion. I'm certain people smarter than me have come up with the calculations, though.

I put in bids for the classes I wanted, and didn't for the others. I'm very happy with the cabin I have, so I won't be heartbroken if I don't get an upgrade, but if I do I think I'll feel the value was there for the extra space / configuration over a minisuite at the points I bid.

pizza...you can like chicago tomato casserole, new york hand tossed, thin crust pizza, st louis style pizza and even double crust pizza, but yes, it usually comes down to what you're used to

ftfy.

I second the sentiment that not all rates are the same. For my recently booked cruise, which was the first I'd booked in about 10 years, I scoured the web to see what the Internet commerce model had done to prices. As the guidelines permit only posting about the "Type of agency" a person might use, rather than specific agencies, I checked with:

1) the cruise line;

2) a local TA that came highly regarded for cruises;

3) a supposed "internet only" TA website that billed itself as having pricing advantages for those who didn't need any TA advice, as they could cut out the overhead of actually employing people [i assume by returning part of their commission as a discount];

4) an airline's affiliated travel agency that offered miles for money spent with them;

5) a website that allowed you to specify the cruise you want, and then had travel agents bid on that cruise;

6) major cruise-focused online travel agencies found through travel search engine aggregators;

7) supposed low budget online travel agencies that would give you prices only if you called;

8) a "luxury vacation" specialist recommended by a friend.

I ended up getting 12 or 13 quotes in all, on a cruise that was just under $7,000 via NCL during the search; the only NCL promos at that time were the free at sea items and greatly reduced deposit. From worst to best, a couple of the major websites and the luxury specialist were at exactly the NCL price. A couple of the others were offering the same price and between ~$200 and $400 OBC. One, which I found through the site that had the agents bid, yielded an offer of almost $1,000 under the NCL price, as a straight discount. This one seemed too good to be true so I threw it out as an outlier. But one of the other offers I received there was for a ~$600 discount, which seemed legitimate and would have gotten me all the same perks as booking through NCL.

The airline was at the NCL price, but they were offering miles that I valued at between $400 and $800 [depending on how I ultimately use them]. They also had a 110% price match guarantee, if you could point them to a lower price on a website that didn't require you to log in or call for price (i.e., something available to the public). The website that billed itself as an online-only agency with no travel agents quoted a price that was not quite $500 under the NCL price. The local TA was willing to match that via an OBC. The TA at the airline said they couldn't match, but did throw in a $75 OBC to get the deal done with her.

Taking a chance, I booked with the airline. I then submitted a link to the airline's price match portal, pointing them at the online-only agency. They matched it, via a payment in that amount to the cruise line against my final balance. I still got the $75 OBC, the NCL free at see benefits, and had the reduced deposit. I'll get the miles after I sail. Assuming the miles are deposited as advertised, if you value them at a midpoint, I'll have ended up saving ~$1000 on a not quite $7,000 cruise vs. just booking at rack rate. And I get all the same benefits.

Now, it took WAY too much work to pull it off, and my wife would argue the return on investment for my time wasn't there; some of the ~$400 OBC credits were found within my first 30 minutes of checking different sites. But I enjoy 'beating the system', and in this instance I feel like I squeezed out the best possible deal that was available at that moment in time.

If I hadn't had need for the miles, the calculus would have shifted to either the no-TA website, one of the TAs who bid through the other website, or the local TA who was going to match via an OBC. They were all +/- $200 of each other, and it would have come down to comfort factor with their being there if some problem arose during my trip. I did get the sense that as to any particular sailing and cruise line, these results are going to skew, potentially a lot, as different agencies buy rooms in bulk for different sailings and/or may have incentives to meet quota for a particular time of year. That can impact either the credits or OBCs you'll be offered.

Your mileage may vary.

Thanks again for the great thread. If I can be greedy, do you happen to have any video of the small kids' pool outside of Splash Academy, the small computer center for kids next to that pool, and the hallway through to the elevators there? I'm considering a cabin under that area and I'm concerned about noise. I'd like to get a better sense of what's above. Thanks very much.

Exactly why it's not called a gratuity and instead called a daily service change.

Oh, legal did their job in the marketing collateral, I grant you that. But here's how ncl.com describes it:

Why is there a service charge?

The reason there's a fixed service charge is an important one: Our Crew (as are the crew from other lines) is encouraged to work together as a team. Staff members including complimentary restaurant staff, stateroom stewards and behind-the-scenes support staff are compensated by a combination of salary and incentive programs that your service charge supports. How much is the charge? Onboard Service Charges are additional.

In my view, that sure reads like what a typical person would think of as a gratuity. The thing that astounds me is this -- of gratuities they say:

What about Gratuities?

Unlike most other ships in the cruise industry, there is no required or recommended tipping on our ships for service that is generally rendered to all Guests. While you should not feel obligated to offer a gratuity, all of our staff are encouraged to “go the extra mile,” so they are permitted to accept cash gratuities for exceptional or outstanding service if you care to offer them. Also, certain staff positions (e.g., concierge, butler, youth program staff and beverage service) provide service on an individual basis to only some guests and do not benefit from the overall service charge. We encourage those Guests to acknowledge good service from these staff members with appropriate gratuities. Additionally, there is an 18% gratuity and spa service charge added for all spa and salon services, as well as an 18% gratuity and beverage service charge added for all beverage purchases and an 18% gratuity and specialty service charge added to all specialty restaurant dining and entertainment based dining. Read more about the service charge.

Having had to pay a daily charge to cover employee service, I'd have thought it went to all passenger-facing employees. But no. After paying a supplement to cover some but not all wages, NOW I start tipping. How many of these folks who don't share in the DSC end up under-tipped because people wrongly think they've already gotten 18%?

As an aside, the email above is real. If you go to NCL all the details of the new program are buried in the FAQ. There appear to be advantages to prepaying for cruises after April 1; the prepay rate appears to be grandfathered, while the onboard rate is not. Classy.

gratuity. ... noun, plural gratuities. a gift of money, over and above payment due for service, as to a waiter or bellhop; tip. something given without claim or demand.

wage. ... noun, plural wages. A fixed regular payment earned for work or services, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis.

If you are mandating your customers pay a significant defined fee as a condition of carriage, and increasing it to cover your increased cost of operations (e.g. the crew's very reasonable demands for increased compensation in an inflationary period), that fee ceases to be a gratuity. It is asking your customers to cover your payroll costs so that you don't have to raise wages. It utterly defeats the notion of a gratuity as a reward for exceptional service, or a tool for direct feedback to over / under performing individuals in the service industry as to how they're doing. That I am now encouraged to prepay this fee -- before having my first interaction with any of the hard working service team who notionally earn it by keeping me happy -- underscores this.

If it weren't for the knowledge that corporate doesn't care, I'd refuse to pay it. But that would only hurt the people who are least able to bear the loss of the money -- hourly workers from poor countries breaking their backs to feed families half a world away. And the cruise line knows this. The entire practice has become so divorced from what it originally represented that it would be comical, except for livelihoods being at stake.

Thanks for the lens response. I'm still thinking through what we will use for photography. (I also want to be in the moment, not just thinking about taking photos or videos.)

If your budget permits, consider a Sony RX10 III. 24-600mm f/2.4-4.0 bridge camera. Smaller than a dedicated DSLR and no extra lenses to pack. Just picked one up in advance of this cruise and its amazing.

And I want to highlight again that he is spending for someone else. He is booking 10 cabins. There very easily could be someone on their first NCL cruise who, if NCL complies with the OP, may benefit getting a Haven at a discounted price when a passenger who is actually loyal but on a separate booking, who bid fairly, may get shut out. So now we are basing loyalty on whose credit card was swiped, rather than who sails.

I'm new to NCL and trying to get up to speed through this forum, so I don't have a basis to compare the current management to how things were under the prior regime. But I am seeing a number of parallels in this thread / NCL's new upgrade process (as I understand it) and what United Airlines did with their mileage plus program under Jeff Smisek after the Continental Airlines merger.

Pre-merger, long time high revenue UA passengers received many benefits -- written and unwritten -- as a nod to their loyalty. That included things like free operational upgrades to 1st class, waivers of various penalty rules, and little acknowledgements by the crew on board. Sounds like NCL may have been similar, with upgrades handled opaquely through a phone line that wasn't actively promoted to infrequent travelers [sorry if I have that wrong from what I've read].

Post merger, everything quickly became more rigid and shifted to nickle and dime monetization. Part of that corresponded with the general race to the bottom in the airline industry, (e.g. involving things like checked bag fees, elimination of meals and pillows, etc.). But much of it was just that management team being penny-wise, pound-foolish. The most notable example was so-called "time of departure" or TOD upgrades for purchase, which started being offered to NON-STATUS passengers for less than they were offered to high status passengers (read about it in the UA forum on Flyertalk if it's of interest). A college kid who flew the airline once a year might be offered a seat in first class for $49 during online check-in, while a three million mile flyer who had put in a request to upgrade using an award certificate they'd earned (by spending half their waking hours in a United seat, at the cost of $xxx,xxx in annual spend) wouldn't have that instrument clear and wouldn't be offered a paid upgrade at all, or would be offered the same seat for $499. This was coupled with fewer award seats being offered, reservations agents on the elite phone lines becoming less flexible, and the on-board product generally being downgraded.

The result? Many high dollar flyers jumped to other airlines -- notably American and Delta. That hit United in their PRASM figures (revenue per seat mile), which led to several bad quarters, which led to further erosion in on-board quality (no more pillows, no more blankets, no more meals in domestic first on some flights, etc.). The experience for everybody began to suffer. Yes, UA got that extra $49 for the 1st class seat they might have previously given away, but they lost untold $xxx,xxx in individual spend from hundreds if not thousands of disgruntled high mileage flyers.

So what's my point here? Yes, NCL has a new system that lets everyone compete for upgrades based on what they are prepared to spend, which is going to maximize upgrade revenue and minimize the number of free upgrades being handed out / sold for less to high dollar customers. Yes, OP is asking for those cabins to be handed out based on historical spend, and perhaps at levels that are less than what an infrequent cruiser on this sailing might spend. But if you are a fan of this cruise line, and if you want the on board service level to remain high, you want NCL to continue to attracting high dollar customers and want them to keep them happy. You do not want them to monetize everything at a what-the-market-will-bear, ala carte model.

In any industry, it's much easier to strip benefits (written and unwritten) than it is to restore them -- once you've established a revenue stream, you have to explain to your board / stockholders why you're going to give up on that revenue and start giving it away for free for unquantifiable "loyalty." If too many big(ger) fish like OP start walking over inflexible approaches to things like upgrades, you risk all your perks being eroded.

Your mileage may vary.

Can't answer your question about the port, but which airline, how big was the schedule change, and have you pushed back on the schedule change? Most of the mainline carriers will waive change fees and even some fare differences if a schedule change by them impacts other travel plans. How much they can / will do for you varies by the length of the change, your status (if any) with the carrier, and what sort of rebooking (or refund) you're asking for.

Wow, that's what I call responding to your readers! Great video of Bliss. Thank you.