Why does Celebrity keep selling Sky Suite Guarantees?

[Cruise it or lose it]

I've been watching my sailing  where there are some upper suites still available after final payment. There are no longer (according to the website) any more Sky suites available. Yet they are still selling Sky suite guarantees.  I don't understand. why.

[Clayton.C]

Guessing if they don't sell out of the upper suites they can bump up people from the Sky Suites, and fill in the new vacancies with the guarantees...

[Cruise it or lose it]

4 minutes ago, Clayton.C said:

Guessing if they don't sell out of the upper suites they can bump up people from the Sky Suites, and fill in the new vacancies with the guarantees...

I was thinking they believe they will get Move up bids. I got a Sky suite guarantee for this cruise and the rep from Celebrity really made it clear it's almost unheard of to get an upgrade.

 

[varoo]

Right.  They keep selling sky suite guarantees,  move up the people who submit move up bids to the higher level suites, and assign the vacated sky suites to the new guarantees.

 

 

[Cruise it or lose it]

2 minutes ago, varoo said:

Right.  They keep selling sky suite guarantees,  move up the people who submit move up bids to the higher level suites, and assign the vacated sky suites to the new guarantees.

 

 

I haven't been on a cruise for 2 years and mostly sail Celebrity. I was in shock that a Sky suite guarantee was more than I paid for a Celebrity suite 2 years ago. Might be a long time before I sail again in a suite. Talking it over with my spouse we decided we aren't getting any younger and to go for it.

[wrk2cruise]

The available inventory of suites is meaningless.  When booking a "W" you have to assume that you will be getting the worst suite.  (This is one category where I don't care if I get the worst one).  Many times in the past you would get the accessible sky suites which some people didn't like.  Now I believe the chances are that you will get the vacated suite from someone who bid using MoveUp from Sky Suite to a higher suite.  My personal belief is there is now a better chance of getting a S1 or a S2 than before but that's just my personal belief.

[jagoffee]

Perhaps  another reason is because the GTY does not include any BBB perks whereas with a Move Up offer allows you to key your existing perks.

[bEwAbG]

The website may also not be showing all of the inventory at any given time, either.  Could be rooms are being held aside for a variety of reasons.

 

There have been plenty of stories on here wherein people on a cruise are told everything is "sold out" when they encounter a problem once on the ship only to have a room magically appear available when the issue turns more critical.

[Cruise it or lose it]

We were assigned a S1 a few days after booking. It is not accessible. Has anyone ever been downgraded after assignment?

Edited March 23, 2019 by Cruise it or lose it

[wrk2cruise]

Once assigned I don't believe you will be changed.

[Jim_Iain]

I'll let you all know in awhile.    I upgraded to a SS Guarantee 5 weeks ago.   The sailing is in about 3 weeks and I still don't have a cabin assignment.    When I booked there was only 1 Guarantee available and then about a week later they opened up Gty sales again for 10 days.    At the time they had 3 CS, 5 RS and 1 PH open but they all disappeared when they opened up for Move-Up. 

 

While I know I will get a cabin it is a pain that I can't order luggage tabs or print my boarding pass until I have a room assignment.

[FLbeachbaby]

The only suite category available was a SS guarantee for our Greek Isles trip.  It took a good 2 months for it to be assigned. We sail in August and it did come with all the perks despite a previous post to the contrary. It was not inexpensive either. Originally booked Aqua then grabbed the guarantee when it popped up. It was also the last available suite and none have showed up since. 

[jagoffee]

6 hours ago, FLbeachbaby said:

The only suite category available was a SS guarantee for our Greek Isles trip.  It took a good 2 months for it to be assigned. We sail in August and it did come with all the perks despite a previous post to the contrary. It was not inexpensive either. Originally booked Aqua then grabbed the guarantee when it popped up. It was also the last available suite and none have showed up since. 

Are you saying that your SS Guarantee came with the Best (four perks) Package?

[justcrusn]

On 3/22/2019 at 6:37 PM, Cruise it or lose it said:

I've been watching my sailing  where there are some upper suites still available after final payment. There are no longer (according to the website) any more Sky suites available. Yet they are still selling Sky suite guarantees.  I don't understand. why.

 

Lets assume there are no sky suites vacant at the moment,  they will do one of two things.

1. (most likely) someone will bid to “move up” and they will assign you that sky suite.

2. If that doesn’t happen, you will get whatever suite is available.

 

Guarantee cabins are a nice way to fill the ship without hurting the perceived value of the brand. 

[wrk2cruise]

4 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Are you saying that your SS Guarantee came with the Best (four perks) Package?

 

It can if it's "full price".  If it's exciting deals or senior or resident discount it will not.  There are all kinds of fares for each category.  I didn't realize just how many until a recent redesign of the website of one of the popular online TA's which now lists them all.

[Cruise it or lose it]

My SS guarantee came with four perks. The rep from Celebrity quoted a resident rate and also the promo that was going on with the four perks.

 

[Gracie115]

On 3/23/2019 at 1:38 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I'll let you all know in awhile.    I upgraded to a SS Guarantee 5 weeks ago.   The sailing is in about 3 weeks and I still don't have a cabin assignment.    When I booked there was only 1 Guarantee available and then about a week later they opened up Gty sales again for 10 days.    At the time they had 3 CS, 5 RS and 1 PH open but they all disappeared when they opened up for Move-Up. 

 

While I know I will get a cabin it is a pain that I can't order luggage tabs or print my boarding pass until I have a room assignment.

Is this for the Silhouette TA 4/14?

[Redtravel]

On 3/23/2019 at 1:30 PM, wrk2cruise said:

Once assigned I don't believe you will be changed.

Not true. On one cruise I was assigned and reassigned 3 times. Each time I moved up to a higher category cabin.  The best guarantee cabins are given out closer to embarkation. I have been given a cabin right after booking months before sailing. I have also waited until embarkation to get a cabin. The best was about 25 years ago, bought an inside gty and moved up 9 categories. When you book gty, you gamble on cabin location and size. You also save money. Never been unhappy with a gty. Good luck.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Because with the Revolution of the M class no one wants to book the SS. 

[jagoffee]

13 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

It can if it's "full price".  If it's exciting deals or senior or resident discount it will not.  There are all kinds of fares for each category.  I didn't realize just how many until a recent redesign of the website of one of the popular online TA's which now lists them all.

 

13 hours ago, Cruise it or lose it said:

My SS guarantee came with four perks. The rep from Celebrity quoted a resident rate and also the promo that was going on with the four perks.

 

Good to know.  Thank you, both.   I thought I had ready somewhere that the lower price quoted for the SS GTY did not include the Best Package like the regular category.  As I think about it, I seldom  ever see the Suite GTY on my cruises, because the suites are usually sold out.

 

Thanks, again.  

[Cruise it or lose it]

On 3/23/2019 at 1:38 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I'll let you all know in awhile.    I upgraded to a SS Guarantee 5 weeks ago.   The sailing is in about 3 weeks and I still don't have a cabin assignment.    When I booked there was only 1 Guarantee available and then about a week later they opened up Gty sales again for 10 days.    At the time they had 3 CS, 5 RS and 1 PH open but they all disappeared when they opened up for Move-Up. 

 

While I know I will get a cabin it is a pain that I can't order luggage tabs or print my boarding pass until I have a room assignment.

Did you find out yet?

[malony33]

On 3/24/2019 at 8:00 PM, CHEZMARYLOU said:

Because with the Revolution of the M class no one wants to book the SS. 

WHY?

[Jim_Iain]

On 3/24/2019 at 12:03 AM, jagoffee said:

Are you saying that your SS Guarantee came with the Best (four perks) Package?

I have a Suite Guarantee booked currently that when I booked it was being offered with both all 4 Perks as well as no perks (for $400 pp less). 

[Gordoncruickshank]

On 3/23/2019 at 5:38 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I'll let you all know in awhile.    I upgraded to a SS Guarantee 5 weeks ago.   The sailing is in about 3 weeks and I still don't have a cabin assignment.    When I booked there was only 1 Guarantee available and then about a week later they opened up Gty sales again for 10 days.    At the time they had 3 CS, 5 RS and 1 PH open but they all disappeared when they opened up for Move-Up. 

 

While I know I will get a cabin it is a pain that I can't order luggage tabs or print my boarding pass until I have a room assignment.

A few years ago I switched one of our bookings to a CS guarantee. There were no CS available when I did it only a PH and a couple of RS. We got a CS but it was only allocated around a week before the cruise.

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, Gordoncruickshank said:

A few years ago I switched one of our bookings to a CS guarantee. There were no CS available when I did it only a PH and a couple of RS. We got a CS but it was only allocated around a week before the cruise.

I may be in the same time frame as you.   It is 3 weeks until our cruise and still have not gotten an assignment.