Is upgrade strength meter a true indicator of bid acceptance?

[dbrown84]

I'm cruising solo on a CAS offer in a inside cabin (the Pearl in February). I received the upgrade advantage invitation. Minimum bid for a balcony is $50, but the bids score as poor until you get up to about $150. The upgrade offers are charged for two people even if traveling solo, so it would be $300 to submit a "fair" bid. Well, I could just call CAS and pay $300 for the upgrade since this is the standard upgrade price thru CAS. So I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with winning a bid that was scored as poor? I was thinking about bidding between $50 and $75. I know it doesn't hurt me to submit a bid that is never accepted, but I just wanted to get a sense of if bids so low stand a chance.

[bob brown]

I can't answer your question exactly, but on my last cruise on the Breakaway, I had booked an Inside Guarantee, and ended up with a nice midship balcony.....and I did not even ask or bid for an upgrade....

So if I were you, and you don't really want to pay a lot...go ahead and bid the minimum, and see what happens...:)

[timf2001]

No, they are simply a graphical representation of where your bid sits between the minimum bid and maximum bid. It does not factor in what other people have bid, how many rooms are available, or what your actual chances are of winning. If anything, it's an indicator of how NCL's revenue department would feel receiving that amount as a winning bid.

[Alegeeter]

I was sailing with CAS, made a poor bid for a minisuite and got it.

I think it all depends on the sailing and how many rooms are available. I don't think the meter has anything to do with your actual chances but they hope that they can at least squeeze a few more bucks out of those who focus on it.

[Nola26]

I just returned from a cruise on the Dawn. I was also solo on a land casino inside cabin deal. I bid the minimum and received an acceptance in about 2 days and was within a few weeks of cruising.

 

I was happy with my mid ship/aft location. It was a deck below my original cabin and about the same mid ship location.

[European_CruiseGirl]

I bid a poor bid on my Jade cruise for an MA - SE bid. Bid was accepted over two months before the cruise.

 

It seems like the indicator is there only for you to feel bad about your bid and bid more [emoji23] My poor bid was already $150 over the minimum. Looking back and what I have since read most bid only very little above the minimum and are still successful. Well I still got my suite for under half than what it would have cost to book it directly so I am satisfied still [emoji846]

 

 

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[FLcruisergrl]

I'm cruising solo on a CAS offer in a inside cabin (the Pearl in February). I received the upgrade advantage invitation. Minimum bid for a balcony is $50, but the bids score as poor until you get up to about $150. The upgrade offers are charged for two people even if traveling solo, so it would be $300 to submit a "fair" bid. Well, I could just call CAS and pay $300 for the upgrade since this is the standard upgrade price thru CAS. So I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with winning a bid that was scored as poor? I was thinking about bidding between $50 and $75. I know it doesn't hurt me to submit a bid that is never accepted, but I just wanted to get a sense of if bids so low stand a chance.

 

Yep, our bid was $100 above minimum, so the needle didn’t even move off of the bottom of poor. Got our upgrade from B1 to H6!

[garycarla]

No way!

 

For example, if they have 5 cabins available and 6 people bid at the higher level, somebody is not going to get a room.

 

Does not matter where their bid is on the meter - higher bids are higher bids.

 

And, even if NCL wanted to be accurate, they cannot be. They do not know what others will bid tomorrow.

[bob brown]

Before this "bidding" (which is a clever idea from whomever had it), they would often call you, and offer upgrades over the phone. If they did not get enough acceptance, they would call and lower the asking price...sometimes a few times....

If they still did not get enough (to cover oversold 'guarantee' category's), they would upgrade you free of charge, (unless you told them not to upgrade you), to both cover oversold guarantee categories, as well as make room for more sales at lower priced categories....now, they don't have to do that as much...

[NYcruzzer]

No way!

 

For example, if they have 5 cabins available and 6 people bid at the higher level, somebody is not going to get a room.

 

Does not matter where their bid is on the meter - higher bids are higher bids.

 

And, even if NCL wanted to be accurate, they cannot be. They do not know what others will bid tomorrow.

 

I assume they look at total picture ? Current category, initial fare paid, and bid. For my upcoming cruise my BB cat is sold out and BA is GTY. Was informed my Haven bid (2 bedroom) was accepted 5 weeks before sailing. Bid was in poor range.. Very Happy.

[Pappion]

January I bid the lowest amount and went from balcony to H9 and I was on a CAS offer.

 

 

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[jdvmd]

Put in a bid on Thanksgiving Day morning and have been checking numerous times a day but nothing yet. Can only hope the department that handles this was off for the holidays. Makes me think I should go back and increase the bid amount. We sail Dec. 16.

[FLcruisergrl]

Put in a bid on Thanksgiving Day morning and have been checking numerous times a day but nothing yet. Can only hope the department that handles this was off for the holidays. Makes me think I should go back and increase the bid amount. We sail Dec. 16.

 

You may not hear anything until 2 days prior to sailing. I’d only increase it if you are very comfortable doing that-not hearing right away doesn’t necessarily mean your bid won’t be accepted.

[MiamiLady]

I got an upgrade from an inside to a outside window for the poor bid of $50pp.. I think it a crap shoot!

 

 

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[garycarla]

You may not hear anything until 2 days prior to sailing. I’d only increase it if you are very comfortable doing that-not hearing right away doesn’t necessarily mean your bid won’t be accepted.

 

 

Exactly.

 

When they are ready to process, they take the highest bids and move along.

 

I am GUESSING that they might have a certain dollar amount they would take earlier... if somebody bids a real high number, they might decide to go ahead and TAKE their money.

 

Another scenario could be when they have (for example) 40 balcony cabins available for upgrades. Maybe go ahead and book/upgrade 20 now with the 20 highest current bids.

 

No idea if they do things in batches, or an entire cruise date at once.

[dna529]

I got upgraded from inside to balcony for 50 pp pretty early on.

 

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[KarimaJ]

I had a poor bid for a balcony and it sat until 2 days before sailing, then got rejected [emoji30]

 

 

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[mking8288]

On 2 different sailings (late April & late October) - we bid successfully on 5 out of 6 staterooms, from Inside to OV, OV to Balcony and straight from Inside to Balcony, bordering on Poor to Fair ... one was practically in the middle of the "Poor" scale on the meter. The highest we paid was $100 on a balcony for 2 and $150 for 3 on another balcony, Gem & Breakaway - respectively (that's $50 x 2 and $75 x 2)

 

Lowered that $50 winning bid actually by $5 a few days after we scored the other balcony @ $150 in total paid ... so, they got assigned category BC - deck 10 and we got category BD - deck 9, within a few doors of AFT elevators & stairs on the BA.

 

They got upgraded about 3 weeks out & we got ours upgraded a little closer to the 48 hours deadline - these being off-season sailings with quite a bit of unsold inventory at the 30 days mark still.

 

Unlike the frenzy bidding for Haven with fewer availability - guess who's laughing at the bank/credit card account balances for the incremental upgrade without extra perks.

 

To the OP, it really doesn't matter on your solo sailing is CAS subsidized or discounted (you're already "prepaid" your room for being a gaming player ;p right) - we had solo that upgraded for exactly that, $50 x 2 or $75 x 2, submit your bid and just leave it there for a while ... odds are that your bid will be considered & processed at 2 or 3 weeks out, maybe at the 5 to 10 days acceptance deadline. If you start increasingly your "offer" every 48 hours until it is "accepted" - the stockholders, CEO and CFO at NCL will be thanking you for your impatience.

[gma_pat]

Our bid from balcony to Haven Spa Suite on BA was in the poor category - just enough above minimum to move the needle. We "won" the upgrade 4 weeks prior to sailing with 3 rooms available so I am not sure what their method for acceptance is.

[garycarla]

Our bid from balcony to Haven Spa Suite on BA was in the poor category - just enough above minimum to move the needle. We "won" the upgrade 4 weeks prior to sailing with 3 rooms available so I am not sure what their method for acceptance is.

 

Maybe they needed your particular balcony for some reason? Maybe some of the folks in Spa Suite moved up opening up more? Or some cabins cancelled? Maybe most of the other people bid at the minimum level?

 

Hard to say.