Upgrade bid experiences

[BBMacLaird]

7 minutes ago, hiccups said:

Bonnie, then how did Boco010, with an inside guarantee, have the ability to bid on an oceanview and a balcony cabin, if a) guarantees are not eligible and b) you can supposedly only bid on the cabin category one level above your booked category?

Although Boco010 did say he/she didn't plan to bid, so maybe if a bid was placed, it might have been rejected based on the guarantee cabin?

Hmmm, no idea how a GTY was able to bid. I'll look into it to see if that restriction has been lifted.

 

But re your #b) there is no such limitation on booking only one cabin category level above booked category. When someone is invited to bid they will see the suggested bid for any category that is available (meaning all categories that are available.) Thus a Suite bid from an OV will be MUCH higher than a Club Veranda bid from an OV.

[Redtravel]

Even though my cruise has past, I keep reading this thread trying to understand why the upgrade bidding is a secret.  Some people are sent emails inviting them to bid.  Some are not sent the email.  There are also people who are not on cruisecritic who are clueless to the bidding.  Let us not forget there are guests who do not use internet.  The whole process seems like a mystery open to some select guests.  Could somebody please explain it?  

[hiccups]

1 minute ago, BBMacLaird said:

Hmmm, no idea how a GTY was able to bid. I'll look into it to see if that restriction has been lifted.

 

But re your #b) there is no such limitation on booking only one cabin category level above booked category. When someone is invited to bid they will see the suggested bid for any category that is available (meaning all categories that are available.) Thus a Suite bid from an OV will be MUCH higher than a Club Veranda bid from an OV.

Thanks for the prompt reply.  Literary Lynne posted earlier that she is in an OV and was only able to bid on a balcony cabin, even though the sailing had suites remaining.  Someone responded they thought we were limited to a one category upgrade bid, so it's good to know that's not the case.

[hubofhockey]

7 hours ago, hiccups said:

Thanks for the prompt reply.  Literary Lynne posted earlier that she is in an OV and was only able to bid on a balcony cabin, even though the sailing had suites remaining.  Someone responded they thought we were limited to a one category upgrade bid, so it's good to know that's not the case.

 

We have a balcony and had the choice to bid on three different levels of suites.   

[Literary Lynne]

13 hours ago, BBMacLaird said:

Hmmm, no idea how a GTY was able to bid. I'll look into it to see if that restriction has been lifted.

 

But re your #b) there is no such limitation on booking only one cabin category level above booked category. When someone is invited to bid they will see the suggested bid for any category that is available (meaning all categories that are available.) Thus a Suite bid from an OV will be MUCH higher than a Club Veranda bid from an OV.

That doesn't seem to be the case for me, Bonnie. There are still suites available for sale  but the only option that I was offered to bid for was a balcony from an OV.

Lynne

[hiccups]

8 hours ago, hubofhockey said:

 

We have a balcony and had the choice to bid on three different levels of suites.   

 

We're in a balcony and can bid on four levels of suites, although currently the two highest levels are sold out on our cruise.  Prices are too high for us to want to bid, though.

[Jem 12]

3 hours ago, Literary Lynne said:

That doesn't seem to be the case for me, Bonnie. There are still suites available for sale  but the only option that I was offered to bid for was a balcony from an OV.

Lynne

 

1 hour ago, hiccups said:

 

We're in a balcony and can bid on four levels of suites, although currently the two highest levels are sold out on our cruise.  Prices are too high for us to want to bid, though.

I think the only thing that Azamara is consistent in, is that they are totally inconsistent. 😀

[Bloodaxe]

9 minutes ago, Jem 12 said:

 

I think the only thing that Azamara is consistent in, is that they are totally inconsistent. 😀

 

Another thing is the constant increase in prices and reduction of benefits by one means or another, a prime example being this bidding for upgrades.

[BBMacLaird]

5 hours ago, Literary Lynne said:

That doesn't seem to be the case for me, Bonnie. There are still suites available for sale  but the only option that I was offered to bid for was a balcony from an OV.

Lynne

Hi Lynne, there’s no telling what is pending in the system, and much depends upon the time remaining. Maybe our inventory team expects more sales, or maybe there is an abundance of suite bids by the veranda guests.

It is a very dynamic system with variables constantly changing...availability+demand+time+price.

[hiccups]

20 hours ago, BBMacLaird said:

Hmmm, no idea how a GTY was able to bid. I'll look into it to see if that restriction has been lifted.

 

But re your #b) there is no such limitation on booking only one cabin category level above booked category. When someone is invited to bid they will see the suggested bid for any category that is available (meaning all categories that are available.) Thus a Suite bid from an OV will be MUCH higher than a Club Veranda bid from an OV.

I'll be curious to check the spreadsheet to see if the difference in starting bids based on original cabin category booked is that noticeable.  But then, I guess we'd need to compare offers from different cabin categories on the same cruise, and I'm not sure if we have that data.

[Grandma Cruising]

Here’s the link to the spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pEoojQ5-EPmD4cI3gw1dVcYfYTXfZePdDXxU09l0H3M

You can see that minimum bids seem to vary a bit, even for the same length of cruise. $400 is often the minimum for OV to Verandah, but is sometimes also the minimum for Verandah to CC Suite, whereas on other cruises the minimum is $800 for Verandah to CC Suite. I guess that the minimum bid varies depending on the number and type of empty cabins.

None of the bids recorded are for more than one category up.

[combine]

Email inviting bid received on 18/7/19 84 days out

Bid date 19/7/19 

Cruise date 10/10/19

Cruise length 9 nights

Loyalty level Discoverer

Cabin booked  obstructed oceanview

Cabin bid for  Balcony

min bid £200 each $243

Amount bid  for cabin £400 $487

Bid strength weak

Outcome Successful

 

We were happy with our  original booked cabin, this is a port intensive Adriatic coastline.  Bid minimum amount only. Successful email received today 42 days out to a V2, Deck 6 Midship.There are only Guarantee balconies available on line at present . Have no idea how this works! Our new allocated cabin is perfectly acceptable to us and the price paid is comparable to the previous upgrade system.

 

[Grandma Cruising]

Thanks for all the information, combine, I‘ve added it to the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pEoojQ5-EPmD4cI3gw1dVcYfYTXfZePdDXxU09l0H3M

Good to see that it is possible to be successful with a minimum bid!

[Burlington ON]

No email bid invitation; thanks cruisecritic for letting me know it was possible!

Bid date 28Jul19 

Cruise date 26Oct19

Cruise length 9 nights

First time Azamara cruiser

Cabin booked V2 - verandah

Cabin bid for N1 - club continent suite

Bid $450/person

Bid strength weak

Outcome successful 29Aug19

[Grandma Cruising]

Burlington ON, thanks for the information. I’ve added it to the spreadsheet. Can you remember what the minimum bid requirement was?

[hubofhockey]

HGC, your spreadsheet is much better barometer for strong and weak than all of the "weak" responses from Azamara.  Of course, they do have varying degrees of weak.

Edited August 30, 2019 by hubofhockey

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, hubofhockey said:

HGC, your spreadsheet is much better barometer for strong and weak than all of the "weak" responses from Azamara.  Of course, they do have varying degrees of weak.

Interesting that on the spreadsheet 27 out of 32 bids made were ‘weak’ and 19 out of these were successful - thats 70% success rate from a ‘weak’ bid. Seems to me that if you’re interested in an upgrade bid, it’s not worth bidding much above the minimum and certainly not worth putting in a bid that’s more than ‘weak’.

[LuAnn]

36 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Interesting that on the spreadsheet 27 out of 32 bids made were ‘weak’ and 19 out of these were successful - thats 70% success rate from a ‘weak’ bid. Seems to me that if you’re interested in an upgrade bid, it’s not worth bidding much above the minimum and certainly not worth putting in a bid that’s more than ‘weak’.

 

 

As you all...who live on the "other side of the pond" would say "Spot On!! ;) Thanks that that info!!! :)

[hubofhockey]

3 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Interesting that on the spreadsheet 27 out of 32 bids made were ‘weak’ and 19 out of these were successful - thats 70% success rate from a ‘weak’ bid. Seems to me that if you’re interested in an upgrade bid, it’s not worth bidding much above the minimum and certainly not worth putting in a bid that’s more than ‘weak’.

 

Your spreadsheet really provides a standard of reasonableness.  Once again, thank you.

[Burlington ON]

This spreadsheet was invaluable to me!  Thanks Host Grandma!  Our minimum bid was $400.

[Grandma Cruising]

Glad you’re all finding it useful.

[tring]

When we received the upgrade invite and clicked through, it said that the minimum bid was dependent on how much you paid for the cruise, but I wonder if this really is the case.

[uktog]

It is you cannot bid less than the minimum it won’t let you. 

[tring]

25 minutes ago, uktog said:

It is you cannot bid less than the minimum it won’t let you. 

 

So different people have different minimums for the same cruise?

[uktog]

Good question I thought different people in the same category of room had the same minimum on the same cruise perhaps Bonnie can confirm if otherwise