What are the chances for upsell fairy to call???

We are sailing on the Gem in 4 weeks. I have booked 3 mid ship mini suites for my family. There is still a GV available. It would be a dream to be able to stay in it, but right now the price of over $12,000/person is out of my reach. I would be willing to pay a few thousand over what I paid for the mini's. What are the chances of a call from the upsell fairy? I booked through a TA, and she is aware that we would be interested if the price was right. She even called NCL a couple of weeks ago, but at that time they wouldn't budge from the price.

We are sailing on the Gem in 4 weeks. I have booked 3 mid ship mini suites for my family. There is still a GV available. It would be a dream to be able to stay in it, but right now the price of over $12,000/person is out of my reach. I would be willing to pay a few thousand over what I paid for the mini's. What are the chances of a call from the upsell fairy? I booked through a TA, and she is aware that we would be interested if the price was right. She even called NCL a couple of weeks ago, but at that time they wouldn't budge from the price.

Receiving an upsell call would be not very special if the ship is not full. Receiving an upsell call with an offer to go from a mini-suite to a GV for a few thousand dollars would be very special. Although not unheard of, if you check this board and assuming these messages in fact are true.

There is a department at NCL that tries to get the ship full and/or more profitable at the last moment through seducing passengers to buy an upgrade for 1 or 2 categories higher for a relatively favorable price. If a high end suite is available, it is logical to try to seduce passengers in lower suites to buy the high end suite. They already have paid a large amount and often are willing to pay the extra amount of dollars for the full monty. Count on a few thousand dollars, depening on the season, ship and length. The low end suite then becomes available for passengers on a waiting list or in a balcony (mini-suite) for also a serious amount and count on many hundreds of dollars, if not more. Et cetera.

This is something that is also common practice within some large hotel chains and with many airlines. It is called yield management or revenue management.

Rumour is that the GV is exempt from upsells for already half a year or so. I have not been able to verify this and still doubt it to be true, because we received an upsell offer for the GV last year.

Anyway, I would not loose too much sleep waiting for the GV call and I would spend that time dreaming. :)

Thanks for your reply. My catagory of mini suites is sold out. I have already paid over $10,000 for the three mini's. I thought maybe I had a good chance being it would free up 3 mini's for others wanting to book, and they would still be getting 3 or 4 thousand more from me.

They like to offer upsells (if available) to passengers in cabins that they think they can turn around again quickly. As noted above, the first upsell offers will go to pax booked in penthouses. Then they'll offer available upsells to those booked in the aft mini-suites, because those are quite popular and can be resold quickly (usually). And then they just go down the line. Though these boards make it seem as if everyone gets an upsell offer, that's just not the case. I was offered a GV upsell for my aft-mini on Jade for $1100. That was on a 12-day Med cruise. I was also offered a DOS for my 2 BR-family suite on Jewel for $900. That was on a ten-day Canada sailing. The Jade upsell was offered five days before the sailing and the Jewel offer was the day before.

Thanks for your reply. My catagory of mini suites is sold out. I have already paid over $10,000 for the three mini's. I thought maybe I had a good chance being it would free up 3 mini's for others wanting to book, and they would still be getting 3 or 4 thousand more from me.

Aha...

If you are suggesting to combine all 3 mini's into 1 GV this might be something different. NCL would be able to catch 3 mini's in 1 upsell. If the GV is still being upsold, it seems logical for NCL to look at your booking as one of the most profitable for them.

If I was you I would just call NCL and ask them bluntly if they would be interested in the swap.

We got a call on Thursday from the NCL Upgrade Fairy for our cruise departing March 18th. By the time I was able to contact her Friday morning, the upsale offer for ours was gone (it was for a Penthouse suite with a large balcony at the front of the ship, that came with a butler and conceirge), however she had a family suite available for $760.00 and a deluxe owner's suite available for a mere $3,000.00 more (for a 10 day cruise). I declined both offers. She was extremely nice and I asked her how they decided who would get these upgrade offers. She said it first goes to NCL Latitude members. We are members and have sailed previously about 7 times with NCL. Good luck, who knows you may get a call, but 4 weeks out would probably be a bit early.

We are sailing on the Gem in 4 weeks. I have booked 3 mid ship mini suites for my family. There is still a GV available. It would be a dream to be able to stay in it, but right now the price of over $12,000/person is out of my reach. I would be willing to pay a few thousand over what I paid for the mini's. What are the chances of a call from the upsell fairy? I booked through a TA, and she is aware that we would be interested if the price was right. She even called NCL a couple of weeks ago, but at that time they wouldn't budge from the price.

While on the Pearl last November one of the GV's was open and we asked why as we knew NCL had filled the GV's in the past via calls from the "Up-Sale Fairy" (we stayed in a GV a couple years ago thanks to the Up-Sale Fairy). We were told by the Hotel Director that the decision had been made to no longer fill the GV's via up-sales as cruisers who had paid full price for a GV had made numerous complaints to NCL management about cruisers staying in the other GV at litterally fractions of the cost, but receiving the same perks and benefits as the cruisers who had paid full price for the GV.

Obviously, NCL can change this at any time, but it appears that if cruisers want to stay in a GV, we'll have to pay full price for the GV. We're planning on staying in a GV in a few years as we're going on a cruise with my DW's family, and are saving our pennies up as we know we'll be paying full price for the GV.

You could, however, get an up-sale call into other suites, and trust me, they're nice. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply. My catagory of mini suites is sold out. I have already paid over $10,000 for the three mini's. I thought maybe I had a good chance being it would free up 3 mini's for others wanting to book, and they would still be getting 3 or 4 thousand more from me.

Do you have the 3 mini-suite reservations linked ???

Do you have the 3 mini-suite reservations linked ???

Great point. gaylemh, if you haven't linked your reservations you need to do so as that way NCL will see that you have 3 mini-suites which could result in an up-sale call coming your way.

If you booked through a TA then he could go to bat for you with NCL and perhaps work a deal. If you have a PCC they might also be able to work a deal.

The exact week of your cruise makes a huge difference in the price - on 4/8 the price is trending up and is at 12,599 while on 4/15 it is trending downward and is 7,999.

As for the upsell fairy you can only expect a catagory or two change for about 1/2 the actual cost of the cabin.

BTW I have heard where they will sail with the GV empty.

I asked the TA to make sure our reservations were linked. They said they were, but I can't find anything showing they are linked when I log on to NCL to look at my reservation. Is there somewhere online where I could see if they are linked?

While on the Pearl last November one of the GV's was open and we asked why as we knew NCL had filled the GV's in the past via calls from the "Up-Sale Fairy" (we stayed in a GV a couple years ago thanks to the Up-Sale Fairy). We were told by the Hotel Director that the decision had been made to no longer fill the GV's via up-sales as cruisers who had paid full price for a GV had made numerous complaints to NCL management about cruisers staying in the other GV at litterally fractions of the cost, but receiving the same perks and benefits as the cruisers who had paid full price for the GV.

 

Obviously, NCL can change this at any time, but it appears that if cruisers want to stay in a GV, we'll have to pay full price for the GV. We're planning on staying in a GV in a few years as we're going on a cruise with my DW's family, and are saving our pennies up as we know we'll be paying full price for the GV.

 

You could, however, get an up-sale call into other suites, and trust me, they're nice. Good luck!

I don't see the difference in an upsell to a GV or an upsell to any other suite or cabin. Everyone that paid full price would be complaining that the cruisers that were upsold were getting perks and lower prices than what they paid.

I was OK with the price we paid for the mini's, and I'm very happy with what I got, but it would be a once in a lifetime vacation for my family to be upsold to the GV.

Rumour is that the GV is exempt from upsells for already half a year or so. I have not been able to verify this and still doubt it to be true, because we received an upsell offer for the GV last year.

I can confirm that an employee in the upsell department that called me last November stated that they are no longer able to offer upsells to the GV. It is something about NCL desiring to preserve the exclusivity and dollar value of the GV.

That is what NCL tells you when you ask them about it. NCL has every right to up sell regardless of what other guests paid. Are GV type people willing to wait in hopes of an up sell and take a normal suite if they didn't? I don't think so.

I can't believe people would complain that other people are paying less. Probably real uptight friendly people! Next time you're on a plane, ask 3 people what they paid for their seat, I bet you get 3 different answers. Prices go up and down all time. Its called a market and we live it it.

I can confirm that an employee in the upsell department that called me last November stated that they are no longer able to offer upsells to the GV. It is something about NCL desiring to preserve the exclusivity and dollar value of the GV.

In checking other sail dates for the Gem, I noticed a few that the price for the GV came down drastically right before sailing. What difference would it be if they did an upsell or dropped the price? Either way they are not preserving the dollar value of the GV. I'm going to hope that the price will come down, like I've seen on other dates, and jump on it.