Another Bidding Question-

[Kattus]

Hopefully someone will be able to answer this: I know a few people who've sailed since the Upgrade Advantage program was implemented mentioned they received notification of their winning bid well in advance of their sailing.

 

I'm on the Breakaway May 7th and have monitored the number of available cabins and pricing since we booked in late March. While the H5 and H9 (the two categories I really care about) prices dropped a little, but not enough to upgrade ourselves, the number of rooms has remained the same. There are 15 H5 and 12 H9 cabins available. I have hopes that DH and I have a decent shot of getting into the Haven. Inside rooms went down $200, and the once sold out Oceanview is now showing as available, and there are countless balconies in every category but aft. Is there a small possibility that given the sheer volume of cabins still available, that they're already starting to shuffle people around, starting from inside and ov?

[VideoTech]

Hopefully someone will be able to answer this: I know a few people who've sailed since the Upgrade Advantage program was implemented mentioned they received notification of their winning bid well in advance of their sailing.

 

I'm on the Breakaway May 7th and have monitored the number of available cabins and pricing since we booked in late March. While the H5 and H9 (the two categories I really care about) prices dropped a little, but not enough to upgrade ourselves, the number of rooms has remained the same. There are 15 H5 and 12 H9 cabins available. I have hopes that DH and I have a decent shot of getting into the Haven. Inside rooms went down $200, and the once sold out Oceanview is now showing as available, and there are countless balconies in every category but aft. Is there a small possibility that given the sheer volume of cabins still available, that they're already starting to shuffle people around, starting from inside and ov?

 

Is it possible? Yes. But since no one on here works for NCL, there's really no one who can answer your question. None of us knows the criteria, time-frames, or any of the other decisions that go into NCL's decision to accept or reject an upgrade bid. And I'm not sure the number of available rooms on the NCL website is any reliable guideline either.

 

Perhaps as the Upgrade Advantage program goes on a while longer, and more and more people get upgrades, we might be able to develop some ideas about how NCL makes those decisions.

[kevinrobedm]

The Upgrade Advantage is just a way for NCL to have their customers do the work of "bidding" to get an upgrade. Before you would call in they would give you a price and you would accept it or not. Today they pit us all against each other and take the highest bid for the room. The customers do all the work and decide how much each of us think the upgrade is worth and NCL sits back and picks the highest bidder.

 

In our case we called NCL prior to booking our cruise and asked if Costco Travel was part of the "Upgrade Advantage" program. We were told yes. We booked with Costco and as time went on and we did not get the emails I called back into NCL and found out that really Costco had "opted" out of the "Upgrade Advantage". It makes no sense to my why they would as Costco still gets a portion of the upgrade pricing but who am I to try to understand Costco. At the end of the day we were not eligible to participate in the bidding we we just called into Costco, go them to call NCL and got an upgrade price to move from a Mini Suite to a Spa Balcony (the lowest category in the Haven, which we were fine with). We got all the benefits of the Haven upgrade and got to pick our room and know that it was a done deal.

 

I kind of preferred this wondering if we were going to get the email, wondering if our bid would be high enough, then waiting to see if we won. Seems more like a big game of chance that we were not going to play.

 

We always book the lowest class cabin we would feel comfortable staying in, then watch for the upgrades ourselves. It seems those days are going bye bye as the bidding process becomes mainstay. I am sure before long all of their cruise partners will be opted in to this new process and it won't matter.

 

Good on NCL to find a new way to do less work and have customers bid against each other to get the most they can for every room on the ship.

 

It is what it is and like everything we will all complain then just get used to it.

 

My 2 cents.

[Kattus]

The Upgrade Advantage is just a way for NCL to have their customers do the work of "bidding" to get an upgrade. Before you would call in they would give you a price and you would accept it or not. Today they pit us all against each other and take the highest bid for the room. The customers do all the work and decide how much each of us think the upgrade is worth and NCL sits back and picks the highest bidder.

 

In our case we called NCL prior to booking our cruise and asked if Costco Travel was part of the "Upgrade Advantage" program. We were told yes. We booked with Costco and as time went on and we did not get the emails I called back into NCL and found out that really Costco had "opted" out of the "Upgrade Advantage". It makes no sense to my why they would as Costco still gets a portion of the upgrade pricing but who am I to try to understand Costco. At the end of the day we were not eligible to participate in the bidding we we just called into Costco, go them to call NCL and got an upgrade price to move from a Mini Suite to a Spa Balcony (the lowest category in the Haven, which we were fine with). We got all the benefits of the Haven upgrade and got to pick our room and know that it was a done deal.

 

I kind of preferred this wondering if we were going to get the email, wondering if our bid would be high enough, then waiting to see if we won. Seems more like a big game of chance that we were not going to play.

 

We always book the lowest class cabin we would feel comfortable staying in, then watch for the upgrades ourselves. It seems those days are going bye bye as the bidding process becomes mainstay. I am sure before long all of their cruise partners will be opted in to this new process and it won't matter.

 

Good on NCL to find a new way to do less work and have customers bid against each other to get the most they can for every room on the ship.

 

It is what it is and like everything we will all complain then just get used to it.

 

My 2 cents.

 

Especially when people get carried away and overbid, not realizing that it'd be less $$ to upgrade themselves. Haven't seen any activity with my sailing, just another possible cancellation. My DH and I decided that we'll lower our bid if the inventory doesn't change within the next 2 weeks. When is your sailing?

[kevinrobedm]

We are on a back to back leaving April 30 for 16 days then another 9 day for a total of 25 days in the Haven, not sure I am going to want to come back to reality after that.

 

 

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[skittlebug83]

Hi Kattus, we are on the same roll call!

 

Finally bit the bullet this week and put a bid in. Am trying to move from an IA to a Balcony.

I definitely did not want to overbid, I know it would have cost around $500 total to just book a balcony in the first place so I tried to keep that in the back of my mind going into it. I guess we will see what happens, I think the odds of getting some kind of Balcony cabin seem pretty good since there are so many still showing. In a dream world I would get the Spa Balcony but I know the chances of that are slim.

 

I too have been monitoring the available cabins and I can't make head or tails of it.Thought it was strange that I had the option to bid on an Oceanview when that category was showing as sold out, and now mysteriously 4 rooms are showing. Also noticed that the BB category went from 15 to 5 overnight which made me think that they had already started a shuffle.

[kevinrobedm]

I find you can go crazy checking the site everyday to "guess" what is happening that is why we just bit the bullet and called in and did the upgrade. We got exactly what we wanted and now I really don't need to check the site everyday. I had been checking prices pretty much everyday since we booked in October 2016, was almost my second job. Now I am back to just my real job :)

 

 

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[Kattus]

Hi Kattus, we are on the same roll call!

 

Finally bit the bullet this week and put a bid in. Am trying to move from an IA to a Balcony.

I definitely did not want to overbid, I know it would have cost around $500 total to just book a balcony in the first place so I tried to keep that in the back of my mind going into it. I guess we will see what happens, I think the odds of getting some kind of Balcony cabin seem pretty good since there are so many still showing. In a dream world I would get the Spa Balcony but I know the chances of that are slim.

 

I too have been monitoring the available cabins and I can't make head or tails of it.Thought it was strange that I had the option to bid on an Oceanview when that category was showing as sold out, and now mysteriously 4 rooms are showing. Also noticed that the BB category went from 15 to 5 overnight which made me think that they had already started a shuffle.

 

 

They should create a dance called the "Bidding Room Shuffle." I think you have a great shot at a balcony cabin; did you bid on any minis? I'm not even sure if my current cabin, a spa mini, would be included with the minis, but if so, am wondering if it being sold out would somehow increase my chances of getting an upgrade. And if that's the case, you are more than welcome to enjoy my spa mini :D

[Kattus]

I find you can go crazy checking the site everyday to "guess" what is happening that is why we just bit the bullet and called in and did the upgrade. We got exactly what we wanted and now I really don't need to check the site everyday. I had been checking prices pretty much everyday since we booked in October 2016, was almost my second job. Now I am back to just my real job :)

 

 

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That's what I'm doing, SEVERAL times a day like a maniac. When I was at practice the other weekend or during one of my runs, I had to block out thinking about it since I wasn't near a computer to check price and inventory. My husband thinks I've lost my mind each time I give him updates ;p

[skittlebug83]

They should create a dance called the "Bidding Room Shuffle." I think you have a great shot at a balcony cabin; did you bid on any minis? I'm not even sure if my current cabin, a spa mini, would be included with the minis, but if so, am wondering if it being sold out would somehow increase my chances of getting an upgrade. And if that's the case, you are more than welcome to enjoy my spa mini :D

 

Haha bidding room shuffle, I like it!

I was only given the option to bid on Oceanviews and Balconies, so no chance at a mini for me.

I didn't bother bidding on the Oceanview, it wasn't something that interested me.

I do wish they let you bid on the specific room type for the lower categories as well because I would have probably bid more if I knew it was specifically for the Spa Balcony or even the large balcony.

A spa mini sounds amazing, you are in a great room even if you don't get upgraded!

[goldie888]

I am on the April 30th sailing on the Gateway and did bid on the upgrade. Hopefully we will know the outcome soon.

 

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[kevinrobedm]

What did you bid on Goldie and what are you in now ?

 

 

 

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[goldie888]

What did you bid on Goldie and what are you in now ?

 

 

 

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We are now in an ocean view cabin and have bid on both the balcony and mini suite. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

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[kevinrobedm]

It sucks that they may make you wait up until 48 hours before the cruise to find out. We are on the same sailing as you and that is why we chose just to do the upgrade so that we did not have to wait and wonder.

 

 

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[marktwothousand]

Anyone recently booked with Costco who got a chance at upgrading? I booked with them and wondering if they've still opted out. Who would I be able to confirm this with, NCL or Costco?

[Heatherlh1129]

On 4/13/2017 at 5:29 AM, kevinrobedm said:

The Upgrade Advantage is just a way for NCL to have their customers do the work of "bidding" to get an upgrade. Before you would call in they would give you a price and you would accept it or not. Today they pit us all against each other and take the highest bid for the room. The customers do all the work and decide how much each of us think the upgrade is worth and NCL sits back and picks the highest bidder.

 

In our case we called NCL prior to booking our cruise and asked if Costco Travel was part of the "Upgrade Advantage" program. We were told yes. We booked with Costco and as time went on and we did not get the emails I called back into NCL and found out that really Costco had "opted" out of the "Upgrade Advantage". It makes no sense to my why they would as Costco still gets a portion of the upgrade pricing but who am I to try to understand Costco. At the end of the day we were not eligible to participate in the bidding we we just called into Costco, go them to call NCL and got an upgrade price to move from a Mini Suite to a Spa Balcony (the lowest category in the Haven, which we were fine with). We got all the benefits of the Haven upgrade and got to pick our room and know that it was a done deal.

 

I kind of preferred this wondering if we were going to get the email, wondering if our bid would be high enough, then waiting to see if we won. Seems more like a big game of chance that we were not going to play.

 

We always book the lowest class cabin we would feel comfortable staying in, then watch for the upgrades ourselves. It seems those days are going bye bye as the bidding process becomes mainstay. I am sure before long all of their cruise partners will be opted in to this new process and it won't matter.

 

Good on NCL to find a new way to do less work and have customers bid against each other to get the most they can for every room on the ship.

 

It is what it is and like everything we will all complain then just get used to it.

 

My 2 cents.

Did Costco give u a deal on an upgrade or the full price difference in rooms. Unfortunately we booked thru Costco snd it’s been HELL to upgrade. They want to charge us a fortune to do so. We booked our cruise for this June a year ago and paid double what they are charging now. Neither Costco or NCL will give us the time of day!!