Under sold cruise: Does Oceania move cabin assignments upwards

[happy cruzer]

Hi,

 

This did with my booking last October. Inside to Balcony completely free of charge. :)

 

How did you find out about the upgrade? From TA, checking online, or at the cruise checkin time?

 

Congrats.

[jeanine]

Oceania surprised me twice with a complementary upgrade! Once surprised when on board other was in our docs! You know these upgrades may have been because we were booked guarantee!

Edited July 25, 2017 by jeanine
mistake

[TERRIER1]

We were upgraded from B4 to B3 and didn't know about it until our card key would not work on our cabin. After several attempts, it appeared the cabin was changed to accommodate a large alumni group that wanted to stay together. Oceania did not notify us or our TA.

[Jancruz]

My question is: Has anyone arrived at embark port to find an unexpected upgrade they paid $0 for?

 

NO

Jancruz1

[Jancruz]

Oceania surprised me twice with a complementary upgrade! Once surprised when on board other was in our docs! You know these upgrades may have been because we were booked guarantee!

That was the reason..

Jancruz1

[susiesan]

My question is: Has anyone arrived at embark port to find an unexpected upgrade they paid $0 for?

 

Yes, but it was a long time ago, 2006. Very long story. It was an inside to a verandah.

We didn't know about it until we boarded the ship in Dover and were informed we had a new cabin assignment. Was happy to take it.

[srdancer]

Baltic cruise on Marina July 2013. Booked OV. 6 months before the cruise we were upgraded free to B1.

 

May 2017 Med cruise on Marina, uspell offer multpile times from B1 to PH for less than 1/2 the original difference in price. 10 days with no sea days, so not worth it. Then 2 days before cruise they offered to refund our money plus $3000 if we canceled. We would not have done it anyway but were already in Rome when the offer came in. Ship was totally booked.

[LHT28]

Baltic cruise on Marina July 2013. Booked OV. 6 months before the cruise we were upgraded free to B1.

 

May 2017 Med cruise on Marina, uspell offer multpile times from B1 to PH for less than 1/2 the original difference in price. 10 days with no sea days, so not worth it. Then 2 days before cruise they offered to refund our money plus $3000 if we canceled. We would not have done it anyway but were already in Rome when the offer came in. Ship was totally booked.

In that case they wanted your cabin to clear the GTY or waitlist

 

not the same as when a cruise is undersold & they have empty cabins to fill

[Paulchili]

In that case they wanted your cabin to clear the GTY or waitlist

 

not the same as when a cruise is undersold & they have empty cabins to fill

 

Exactly.

O does not upgrade for free to empty higher category cabins unless they "need" your lower cat cabin for someone's guarantee/waitlist booking.

[I_r_a]

> Has anyone arrived at embark port to find an unexpected upgrade they paid $0 for?

 

Yes. There have been posts about being surprised by the Upgrade Fairy.

 

Ira

[Paulchili]

 

Yes. There have been posts about being surprised by the Upgrade Fairy.

 

Ira

 

See above posts #33 & 34

Do you know the circumstances of those upgrades? Where they the kind Lyn and I described or was it on an undersold cruise (leaving their old cabins empty)?

[susiesan]

You can see what cabins are open by making a "test" booking and you will be given a choice of cabins in that category and the deck you prefer - just do not complete the booking. The list of available cabins is not a complete or full list - just a certain number (unless there are just a few left, in which case you will be given all choices). If you want a particular cabin and it is not one of those listed as available, just put in the cabin number. I suppose you could do this for every single cabin on a deck and see what is available - a lot of work :D

 

I was curious about the Oct. 25 Riviera sailing since all categories are available except the bottom 4. Final payment was due 2 days ago. So I did what Paul suggested. There are over 50 unsold cabins on this sailing. Surprising, since I thought Med cruises were very popular.

[Paulchili]

I was curious about the Oct. 25 Riviera sailing since all categories are available except the bottom 4. Final payment was due 2 days ago. So I did what Paul suggested. There are over 50 unsold cabins on this sailing. Surprising, since I thought Med cruises were very popular.

 

Maybe it is because it is relatively late in the season for Med?

All of that means that there will be many upsell offers from bottom 4 categories as well as lower price offers for new bookings to fill the ship.

Cases like these show the advantage of booking onboard as "lowest fare guarantee" is good even after final payment for onboard bookings (provided their cat is still available).

[susiesan]

Maybe it is because it is relatively late in the season for Med?

All of that means that there will be many upsell offers from bottom 4 categories as well as lower price offers for new bookings to fill the ship.

Cases like these show the advantage of booking onboard as "lowest fare guarantee" is good even after final payment for onboard bookings (provided their cat is still available).

 

Since I haven't been on O since 2011 I couldn't book this cruise onboard.

 

I have received one upset offer, 2 weeks ago, but it wasn't very generous. Maybe there will be more since I am in a low priced OV that seems to be highly desirable for cruisers on a tight budget.

[LHT28]

50 empty cabin is nothing in the grand scheme of things

Do you have insider info that is how many are still available

Were the GTY cabins filled & waitlist cabins assigned ?

Oct is still a ways off & some people often wait until after FP to snag a deal

[susiesan]

50 empty cabin is nothing in the grand scheme of things

Do you have insider info that is how many are still available

Were the GTY cabins filled & waitlist cabins assigned ?

Oct is still a ways off & some people often wait until after FP to snag a deal

 

Nope, no inside info. I used Paulchili's tip to pretend to make a booking and counted how many open cabins there were in each category then added them up. There could be even more.

[gbits]

Our cruise leaves in 37 days. Using Paulchili's tip, I see there are 3 OC suites and 7 PH1 Suites still available. Not sure if thats all of them or only what you can see. Until recently there were also 7 PH2 Suites but they are now WL. PH3 is on a Guarantee and there are 3 A1's. Everything else is WL. Our friends, who are in a B2 have gotten at least 4 upsell offers for a penthouse (and declined each). Neither we, nor our other friends (both in OV) have received any upsell offer. I gather they dont make offers to OVs and insides until they see if they can get any of the veranda people to move to suites?

[pinotlover]

The answer to the OP question is "Somtimes Yes, Sometimes No, and it is never in Oceania's advantage to be predictable on the issue, therefore they are not. Understand now?

[rln44]

We were on the Sirena for an Amazon river cruise last year. For some reason this cruise was selling very poorly (perhaps because of Zika virus worries or poor initial reviews of the ship). When we noticed a price drop we contacted our TA . The next thing we knew we had been upgraded from an outside to a concierge veranda cabin with an additional $1000 on board credit. We have been cruising for decades and never experienced anything like this before.

[Paulchili]

We were on the Sirena for an Amazon river cruise last year. For some reason this cruise was selling very poorly (perhaps because of Zika virus worries or poor initial reviews of the ship). When we noticed a price drop we contacted our TA . The next thing we knew we had been upgraded from an outside to a concierge veranda cabin with an additional $1000 on board credit. We have been cruising for decades and never experienced anything like this before.

 

Just out of curiosity- how much did the cruise fare drop by from what you paid?

[ORV]

Just out of curiosity- how much did the cruise fare drop by from what you paid?

 

Do you remember last year when most of the SA cruises got all three Olife options?

 

We were on a 17 day Marina that went down $1000 from what it was originally, and at the same time added the other two perks we didn't have. $1000 OBC + 5 excursions each + drink package.

 

Theirs might have been similar. Perhaps their TA moved them to a higher category to keep the same amount of money on the table. On ours we got a price reduction as it was prior to final payment.

[ORV]

Do you remember last year when most of the SA cruises got all three Olife options?

 

We were on a 17 day Marina that went down $1000 from what it was originally, and at the same time added the other two perks we didn't have. $1000 OBC + 5 excursions each + drink package.

 

Theirs might have been similar. Perhaps their TA moved them to a higher category to keep the same amount of money on the table. On ours we got a price reduction as it was prior to final payment.

 

Our cruise was in Jan of this year.

[Paulchili]

Do you remember last year when most of the SA cruises got all three Olife options?

 

We were on a 17 day Marina that went down $1000 from what it was originally, and at the same time added the other two perks we didn't have. $1000 OBC + 5 excursions each + drink package.

 

Theirs might have been similar. Perhaps their TA moved them to a higher category to keep the same amount of money on the table. On ours we got a price reduction as it was prior to final payment.

 

That certainly was a win-win-win situation in your case.

The reason I asked rln44 about the reduction in fare is that it would be interesting to know just how good of a deal they got.

If the fare went down by $500 and they got $1000 OBC + upgrade - it was great. If the fare went down $1500 and they got $1000 OBC (non-refundable) + upgrade - not such a great deal; or even if the fare went down by $1000 and they got $1000 OBC I would rather take the money instead of the non refundable OBC.

Presumably they did well - I just wanted to know the particulars. We've had similar deals in the past on cruises that do not sell well and we usually take the reduction in the fare.

[susiesan]

I got the second upsell offer for my Riviera cruise. OV to an A1 Concierge verandah for $600 pp, $1200 total. Declined again. For a port intensive cruise with late port departures and only 1 sea day, and thinking about cold weather in the Med in late October/early Nov., I doubt I would be using the verandah much. In fact, I won't even be in the cabin except to sleep.