Royal up status just flipped, thought we were going to win!

[CanuckCurlers]

Wife and I are on Indy Sunday for our 20 month delayed honeymoon, bid 150 per person over minimum (moderate bid) for a Junior suite from our balcony. Also bid on 2 other rooms, but not as aggressive, both of those showed expired, but JS showed pending. Then at 6 pm CT, Junior suite shows “upgrade unavailable” but the other 2 show pending again. 
 

Wednesday there were 25 JS available, today there are 0, there is no way they sold 25 JS’s in 2 days at 5300 for 2 people. 
 

Hope it is a fluke, would love a JS for our Honeymoon! 
 

any other examples of that happening? 

[JessyCruises]

We are still waiting to hear about our bids on the Sunday sailing of Odyssey too.  I am in a balcony and have 3 bids in.  They all still show pending but can no longer be modified.

[John&LaLa]

11 minutes ago, CanuckCurlers said:

Wife and I are on Indy Sunday for our 20 month delayed honeymoon, bid 150 per person over minimum (moderate bid) for a Junior suite from our balcony. Also bid on 2 other rooms, but not as aggressive, both of those showed expired, but JS showed pending. Then at 6 pm CT, Junior suite shows “upgrade unavailable” but the other 2 show pending again. 
 

Wednesday there were 25 JS available, today there are 0, there is no way they sold 25 JS’s in 2 days at 5300 for 2 people. 
 

Hope it is a fluke, would love a JS for our Honeymoon! 
 

any other examples of that happening? 

 

Maybe stronger bids got your cabin😉

[CanuckCurlers]

If so, that is fine, but $600 total bid (300 per person) is way above all the comments from other boats that were winning at minimum or just over…. 
 

being 65% to the right on the graphic made me confident we had a shot! 

[djefferis]

Keep in mind the bids seem to reflect what the original fare paid was - so let’s say your minimum was $150 a person and you bid $300 ($600) total. 
 

If your fare was $2k to start (no idea of course - just using round numbers to demonstrate) - you are effectively bidding $2600 on the upgrade $2k base and $600 additional.

 

If someone who paid $2500 had a minimum bid of $50 ($100 per cabin) and bid $51 - they would have the higher offer ($2602 vs your $2600).

 

I would also say don’t up hope yet too - a lot of weirdness with RoyalUp lately

[dswallow]

1 hour ago, djefferis said:

Keep in mind the bids seem to reflect what the original fare paid was - so let’s say your minimum was $150 a person and you bid $300 ($600) total. 
 

If your fare was $2k to start (no idea of course - just using round numbers to demonstrate) - you are effectively bidding $2600 on the upgrade $2k base and $600 additional.

 

If someone who paid $2500 had a minimum bid of $50 ($100 per cabin) and bid $51 - they would have the higher offer ($2602 vs your $2600).

 

I would also say don’t up hope yet too - a lot of weirdness with RoyalUp lately

 

It shouldn't work that way as Royal Up should be aiming for maximum incremental revenue. The scheme should allow them to at a given point in time find the highest bids to shift the most people upward in categories to maximize the earned income. You'd seek to find the most revenue you could earn from all possible combinations that could be found between people willing to put a bid on upgrades and available cabins, including what cabin types become available if you should move a bidder into a new category. It's a very simple algorithmic run once you have established a collection of bidders and what they're willing to pay for all the various possible upgrades, and know the inventory of cabins being set aside for use for upgrades. 

That doesn't mean they couldn't add other factors if they deem them important, be it looking at other revenue coming from the people in the cabin previously, or even sorts of preferential treatment that may be determined by someone for whatever reason.

But the whole point of Royal Up is revenue to Royal Caribbean for maximizing the value of available inventory.

[sowhat]

 Also they do royal up on sold cabins just in case of  guests cancelling just before sail date.

[djefferis]

Again - their ship, their program - how they run it remains a “trade secret” - just making a comment in my observations and those others have posted. 
 

They have supposedly contracted out to a 3rd party - who knows what compensating factors RCL instructs them to use (bidder Crown & Anchor status, age, location, etc) - I am 100 positive though that RCL has studied who is the most profitable consumer and what criteria they fall within and what makes them spend more. 
 

If “giving” an upgrade for less to someone shows statistically they will spend more on higher profit margin things - you can be sure RCL will work to upgrade those passengers.

And OP - keep in mind the difference between a Balcony and JS is not like that of a regular suite. Yes - you get a bathtub, a walk in closet and a wider balcony space and Coastal Kitchen for dinner - but no suite lounge, no double points and not like your getting a room that’s double the size - more like 15% bigger (it’s more  on paper - but the bath and closet take up alot of that).

 

Whatever you get - I’m sure you’ll be happy. 

 

[RFerrington]

I agree with @dswallow.  Whether you win a RoyalUp offer has as much to do with the category of cabin you are vacating as it does with the category of cabin you are moving up to.  If they can "resell" your cabin easily and profitably, they will move you out...and then a domino effect begins where they move up from below.

[Jimbo]

What's the reasoning behind using a 3rd party to do the upgrades?

[Jkaczanowski]

17 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

What's the reasoning behind using a 3rd party to do the upgrades?

I would think it’s highly programming intensive to create and run iterations to maximize revenue.  IT is not RC’s strong point, and it’s probably better they are not involved. 

Edited August 21, 2021 by Jkaczanowski

[Biker19]

19 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

What's the reasoning behind using a 3rd party to do the upgrades?

Plusgrade ( the company that runs Royal Up for RCI and a lot of other companies) development probably took some effort and few companies want to invest the resources to come up with something of their own. 

[dasi11]

I saw someone mentioned you get Coastal Kitchen dinner in a JS.  Due to overcrowding, that is not the case.  You must be in a full suite not a JS to eat in Coastal kitchen.  Even Pinnacles are not using CK right now.  If you want the JS for the room, it is a very nice size.  The other perks like the CK and double points do not come with it right now with the royal up bidding. 

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, dasi11 said:

You must be in a full suite not a JS to eat in Coastal kitchen. 

I don’t recall any reports of anyone in a JS being denied CK strictly because they are in a JS. Being denied due to lack of availability is always a chance but don’t think a blanket denial JS been rolled out. 

[dasi11]

We have a 1 royal, 3 grands and 2 junior suits booked on Anthem.  2 people in each room.  We have confirmed with RCL that the junior suites will not be able to join us in CK.  NO WAY they can join us for dinner.  We may cancel all the reservations since we want to eat together every evening for dinner in CK.  They have told us we will not be accommodated!  Everyone single person is D+ also.  More than 300 points at least for each person.  Still a no go.  Final payment is coming up quickly and we are still not sure what to do.  I am in a Grand and I think we will give it up by switching the name on the reservation to one of the JS reservations but that still leaves one couple out.  We checked and there are no suites available to upgrade at any price from the JS's.

Edited August 21, 2021 by dasi11

[dasi11]

11 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

I don’t recall any reports of anyone in a JS being denied CK strictly because they are in a JS. Being denied due to lack of availability is always a chance but don’t think a blanket denial JS been rolled out. 

We have a 1 royal, 3 grands and 2 junior suits booked on Anthem.  2 people in each room.  We have confirmed with RCL that the junior suites will not be able to join us in CK.  NO WAY they can join us for dinner.  We may cancel all the reservations since we want to eat together every evening for dinner in CK.  They have told us we will not be accommodated!  Everyone single person is D+ also.  More than 300 points at least for each person.  Still a no go.  Final payment is coming up quickly and we are still not sure what to do.  I am in a Grand and I think we will give it up by switching the name on the reservation to one of the JS reservations but that still leaves one couple out.  We checked and there are no suites available to upgrade at any price from the JS's.

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, dasi11 said:

We have confirmed with RCL that the junior suites will not be able to join us in CK. 

You have not confirmed that on the ship - the only place that it counts. CSRs have been known to provide inaccurate information. Also, you can’t extrapolate one experience (even if eventually get denied on the ship) to the rest of the fleet. 

[dasi11]

3 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You have not confirmed that on the ship - the only place that it counts. CSRs have been known to provide inaccurate information. Also, you can’t extrapolate one experience (even if eventually get denied on the ship) to the rest of the fleet. 

It is coming in a letter before you cruise.  It is no longer a benefit of staying in a JS while they have capacity limits.   Due to covid they are not allowing the Pinnacle to eat there either unless they are in a full Suite.   You may have connections but personally knowing the Suite staff, High roller status, etc. is not a way around this rule right now.  We tired contacting everyone.  Even a large tip is not going to help.  Rules are rules right now.  

[AshleyDillo]

4 minutes ago, dasi11 said:

It is coming in a letter before you cruise.

 

Can you post a copy of this letter? I haven't seen this communicated officially anywhere yet.  Will help in making booking decisions.

[Darkingnj]

2 hours ago, djefferis said:

 

And OP - keep in mind the difference between a Balcony and JS is not like that of a regular suite. Yes - you get a bathtub, a walk in closet and a wider balcony space and Coastal Kitchen for dinner - but no suite lounge, no double points and not like your getting a room that’s double the size - more like 15% bigger (it’s more  on paper - but the bath and closet take up alot of that).

 

Whatever you get - I’m sure you’ll be happy. 

 

No double points in a JS?  Is this something new,  like within the past 18 months?  We've always received double points in a JS as well as priority boarding.

[Jkaczanowski]

5 minutes ago, Darkingnj said:

No double points in a JS?  Is this something new,  like within the past 18 months?  We've always received double points in a JS as well as priority boarding.

The original thread was about royaling up to a JS.  If you royal up, points are based on your original booking class

[Darkingnj]

15 minutes ago, Jkaczanowski said:

The original thread was about royaling up to a JS.  If you royal up, points are based on your original booking class

Got it...thanks 👍🏽

[cruisegirl1]

2 hours ago, dasi11 said:

We have a 1 royal, 3 grands and 2 junior suits booked on Anthem.  2 people in each room.  We have confirmed with RCL that the junior suites will not be able to join us in CK.  NO WAY they can join us for dinner.  We may cancel all the reservations since we want to eat together every evening for dinner in CK.  They have told us we will not be accommodated!  Everyone single person is D+ also.  More than 300 points at least for each person.  Still a no go.  Final payment is coming up quickly and we are still not sure what to do.  I am in a Grand and I think we will give it up by switching the name on the reservation to one of the JS reservations but that still leaves one couple out.  We checked and there are no suites available to upgrade at any price from the JS's.

Being D+ with 300 points provides no leverage.  Sorry to say that 300 points is worthless in RCCL's eyes.  Pinnacles, with thousands of points,  are not guaranteed access either.   Your JS friends will not be able to join  you  in the suite/concierge lounge  either

 

If it is just dinner issues, can you all downgrade to JS.  You'll still  have a bit more space, double points but then you can all dine together.  Since you are all D+, you'll have 5 daily drinks on our card to enjoy around the ship or in the D lounge. 

 

I hope it works out.

M

[neverbeenhere]

I double agree with dswallow. I'm pretty sure that the original price paid has nothing to do with the results of Royal Up offers. Especially, because the one time we got the upgrade we had originally paid a very very low price.

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, dasi11 said:

Due to covid they are not allowing the Pinnacle to eat there either unless they are in a full Suite. 

@John&LaLa says otherwise and that policy has been reported more official than the JS exclusion.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Biker19