“Automatic” bid upgrade

[amscene1]

So some speculate that there is a certain price in which bids “automatically” get upgraded.

 

It may be a threshold that is somewhat acceptable to NCL to take money now, rather then wait and have the consumer withdraw the offer. This is said to happen about 24 hours after a large bid.

 

Do we know if it is really automatic or must it be reviewed manually by a person. Has anyone ever had a bid accepted on the weekend? What does it take in your experience? (Good, fair, strong, excellent, etc)

 

Can anyone chime in with an automatic upgrade or a bid that was accepted within 24 hours...

 

 

 

 

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[Maniacal Cruiser]

So some speculate that there is a certain price in which bids “automatically” get upgraded.

 

It may be a threshold that is somewhat acceptable to NCL to take money now, rather then wait and have the consumer withdraw the offer. This is said to happen about 24 hours after a large bid.

 

Do we know if it is really automatic or must it be reviewed manually by a person. Has anyone ever had a bid accepted on the weekend? What does it take in your experience? (Good, fair, strong, excellent, etc)

 

Can anyone chime in with an automatic upgrade or a bid that was accepted within 24 hours...

 

 

 

 

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The most important word has been highlighted. The entire upgrade process is run by a third party, not NCL. Seeing as the amount for a winning bids would be different on each sailing of each itinerary there is most likely no set magic ring amount that will be an automatic winner.

[armwinder]

What would happen if there were more than one bid of exactly the same? How would they chose at that point. This must be a common occurrence as so many bids are coming in for a particular cabin.

[snorklinbarb]

What would happen if there were more than one bid of exactly the same? How would they chose at that point. This must be a common occurrence as so many bids are coming in for a particular cabin.

 

Some here have speculated factors like latitudes level may be considered or be tie-breakers. Having offers turned down (albeit lowball) on two different sailings, does not seem like Plat Plus played any positive role. But then prices in general dropped so I ended up calling and paying for an upgrade from sailaway gty and inherited a couple of perks as well. Spread between sailaway and other levels had narrowed to the point it worked out favorably.

 

So for those waiting for upgrade offers, keep an eye on price moves. I'm right now doing that while my offers are "pending."

[PelicanBill]

The Breakaway repositioning sailing Oct. 27 had a lot of cabins unsold. So we saw some waves of bids accepted - reported to be mostly above min. bids. That cleared up inside and oceanviews and a sale began. Then we saw another wave of bids accepted. One was a minimum bid.

 

I really think the thresholds depend on how many unsold cabins there are, or get cleared by other upgrades.

[amscene1]

I have never seen them do it on the weekends personally. Maybe everything has to be okayed by a human.

 

 

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[Trimone]

We got informed on a Tuesday about 7 weeks before sailing, factors involved were:

Had a Spa Balcony booked.

We joined the Breakaway on the second day of the cruise, the cruise started for the main at Copenhagen.

We only bid the minimum in the poor range for H5

However I would say the cruise wasn’t perfect, very few joined the ship at warnemunde, therefore when Copenhagen came round again, you felt you should have been leaving, and crew were kept welcoming you aboard.

[mringenoldus]

Does NCL also send an email if you are not granted the upgrade. We are 13 days out from the Bliss sailing.

 

 

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[Budget Queen]

It isn’t just the “bid”. Supply and demand are the factors. EVERY sailing will be unique. The overall cost is the bottom line not jut the bid.

[PelicanBill]

Yup.. it's all about "yield management" as they say in the travel industry.

 

And yes you get an email saying your bid was not accepted but it may not be until 2 days before sailing.

[BirdTravels]

Does NCL also send an email if you are not granted the upgrade. We are 13 days out from the Bliss sailing.

In 11 days from now, you will get a separate email for each bid not accepted.

[mringenoldus]

Thanks very much for the help!

[Nola26]

There was a poll on bids submitted and won, the results I saw indicated that most wins were towards the "Poor"end. Now results can certainly be skewed by those willing to share, but the idea that a "Strong"/large bid is an automatic winner hasn't been shown to me in the data.

 

My personal one time hit was at the lowest possible bid. It was a post hurricane, Thanksgiving sailing out of San Juan. I moved from an inside to a balcony. There were likely special considerations for NCL to move passengers up to open up insides. There were lots of families from Puerto Rico aboard, so I think NCL did a special promotion or humanitarian offer and needed the cabins. I was solo, but I had been on the Dawn the prior year so a balcony cabin added a twist of different for me. It also didn't hurt that every port was paradise in the Southern Caribbean so the balcony was a lovely way to "meet" them all at the start of my day.

 

I received an offer to bid for my upcoming Christmas cruise on the Pearl, but I haven't decided to participate. I have an inside that will work just fine for me. It will be interesting to see if my resolve folds as cruise gets closer, lol.

[JamieLogical]

The only real "evidence" we have of the concept of the mythical "auto-accept threshold" is a few posts in the main upgrade thread by people who received acceptance of their bids within about 24 hours of placing them, while others on their sailing didn't receive acceptance until the "batch process" for the rest of their sailing. The conclusion we drew from that is that their bid must have been high enough to trigger something to cause it to be accepted outside of the normal bid processing cycle. But we can't be CERTAIN that is what happened and there is definitely no way to know whether there is anything like an auto-accept threshold for every room category on every sailing.

 

As for tie-breakers. There has been some speculation there too. Remember a "tie" wouldn't necessarily be you and another person bidding the exact same amount on an upgrade. A "tie" would be ALL monetary factors being even, meaning the total value of upgrading you vs. someone else would have to be the same. The cabin you free up would have to be filled for a certain amount and then on down the chain. But assuming there is a true "tie", the obvious potential tie breakers would be Latitudes level, the amount you paid for your initial booking, when you booked, and/or when you put in your upgrade offer. There has also been some speculation that they may look at previous on board spending, but I have seen no indication of that data being passed along to PlusGrade (the third party that runs the Upgrade Advantage Progam) in the code for the bidding form.