Memorial Day Sale in real terms

[schelercamus]

What does a 4-category upgrade mean in real life? If we book an A4 on Riveria, we'd get an A1? What if we book an A1, do we get a PH?

 

[davencl]

No info on website.  The only way to know is call and ask.  Pricing on website is $400 more than when I booked one of fares listed as eligible for memorial day sale.  I booked last November.

[tgg]

2 hours ago, schelercamus said:

What does a 4-category upgrade mean in real life? If we book an A4 on Riveria, we'd get an A1? What if we book an A1, do we get a PH?

 

 

Read it carefully.  It says "up to a 4 category upgrade" with an asterisk. Lots of T & Cs at the bottom of the page.

[mauibabes]

Definitely call and ask. If there is an upgrade from A-1 level you could get to a PH 3, not usually higher. If booking a B Veranda, you do get an upgrade to a Concierge.  The important thing is that it is “Up To 4 levels, it depends on the specific cruise being booked. 
Good luck,

Mauibabes

[1985rz1]

2 hours ago, schelercamus said:

What does a 4-category upgrade mean in real life? If we book an A4 on Riveria, we'd get an A1? What if we book an A1, do we get a PH?

 

 

27 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

 The important thing is that it is “Up To 4 levels, it depends on the specific cruise being booked. 

 

And it depends on stateroom availability, so you won't know until you ask.

[pinotlover]

Your Travel Agent can give you all the specific availabilities on cruises of interest fairly quickly. Best source of information without awakening the beasts in Miami.

[godfreyb]

I booked a forthcoming cruise a while back and looked forward to a four cabin upgrade from A1 to PH.  When I asked my TA why I didn't get it was told that that level of upgrade was not allowed.  Read the fine print!

[anonymousegirl]

I called today and got a PH3 for the price of an A1 Riviera July 9-21 2023 London to Reykjavik.

[basor]

On 5/24/2022 at 5:17 AM, godfreyb said:

I booked a forthcoming cruise a while back and looked forward to a four cabin upgrade from A1 to PH.  When I asked my TA why I didn't get it was told that that level of upgrade was not allowed.  Read the fine print!

Is your cruise one of the listed itineraries?  It was not valid on every cruise and, I believe, needed to be booked during the sale not retro-active.

[rickr45]

Has anyone tried to use a future cruise deposit certificate with the Memorial Day sale? 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, basor said:

 I believe, needed to be booked during the sale not retro-active.

The sale is on until June 3rd

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/special-offers/upgrade-sale/

[Torquer]

I always felt these 4 category upgrade sales were just a marketing gimmick.  The website never provides any real details; if I book category X, then what category do I get upgraded to.  You have to contact O and they will make up whatever rules they want to maximize their profit.  Why can't they provide details?

 

We are fortunate that we are always able to cruise in OS/VS/OC suites.  Has anyone ever been upgraded to one of these from PH as part of one of these sales?  If so, I would jump on it, but I have never even bothered to investigate, because I figured there is no way O would allow it.  I just sniffed a couple of the cruises listed for the current sale and it says it applies to categories C-PH2.  I assume the upgrade from PH2 would be to just PH1, even though the higher suites are still available.

[basor]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

The sale is on until June 3rd

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/special-offers/upgrade-sale/

I was responding to his comment that he had booked a cruise awhile back and was looking forward to the 4-category upgrade....I understood his comment to mean he had a cruise booked and now wanted to get the 4-category upgrade.

[AMHuntFerry]

2 hours ago, Torquer said:

I always felt these 4 category upgrade sales were just a marketing gimmick.  The website never provides any real details; if I book category X, then what category do I get upgraded to.  You have to contact O and they will make up whatever rules they want to maximize their profit.  Why can't they provide details?

O definitely make the website uninformative in this respect. This is where being inundated with catalogs is useful as the latest one had before and after prices; alternatively pdfs of the sale with before/after prices can be found at TA sites with a google search. The catalog/pdf only have example cruises, so to compare each category you need to note the before-price in advance (or have recent catalogs).

Anyhoo...the sale is a really good deal for people who are flexible with time and itinerary. I was eyeing 4 itineraries. The best discount per day was a 10 day Greece/Turkey July 2023 cruise that had a $1000 discount on B-cabins. The C and A cabins only had $500 and $250 discounts which tells me they need to fill B-cabins on the cruise. Doing a similar cruise in September got ridiculously cheap even though the discount was slightly smaller.

2 hours ago, Torquer said:

  Has anyone ever been upgraded to one of these from PH as part of one of these sales?   I assume the upgrade from PH2 would be to just PH1, even though the higher suites are still available.

I've never seen an upgrade above penthouse. The upgrades to penthouse that I recall were A1 to PH3; PH2 and above were regular price (not saying always, just have never seen higher).

[LHT28]

12 hours ago, Torquer said:

I always felt these 4 category upgrade sales were just a marketing gimmick.  The website never provides any real details; if I book category X, then what category do I get upgraded to.  You have to contact O and they will make up whatever rules they want to maximize their profit.  Why can't they provide details?

 

We are fortunate that we are always able to cruise in OS/VS/OC suites.  Has anyone ever been upgraded to one of these from PH as part of one of these sales?  If so, I would jump on it, but I have never even bothered to investigate, because I figured there is no way O would allow it.  I just sniffed a couple of the cruises listed for the current sale and it says it applies to categories C-PH2.  I assume the upgrade from PH2 would be to just PH1, even though the higher suites are still available.

What cat you get upgraded to depends on the availability at the time of booking

the promo is  "UP TO " 4 Categories

 

There is limited availability in the Top suites usually so they do not need to discount them to fill those suites

Same with insides  they are usually booked up first 

JMO

[godfreyb]

15 hours ago, basor said:

Is your cruise one of the listed itineraries?  It was not valid on every cruise and, I believe, needed to be booked during the sale not retro-active.

I booked this cruise a year ago when they were offering 4 category upgrades on this cruise on the basis that an A1 would go to a PH.  Was sadly brought down to earth when my TA informed me that she had booked an A1 as requested but the four category upgrade would not take me to a PH as that was the rules.  Following this I monitored Oceania offerings (printed cruise brochures arrive from them almost daily) and found that when they included an offer, the basis cruise price had increased by $200 odd dollars from the previous brochure price.  So what they give in one hand they have already taken away with the other......

[rickr45]

Last year we went on a cruise purchased using a 4 category upgrade holiday sale. Paid for a A1 and received a PH3. Not exactly a "4 category upgrade" but a good deal nonetheless. Saved a few hundred dollars. On the cruise last year we bought a Future cruise Deposit Certificate offering an Onboard Savings of $600 on a 10 - 19 day cruise. We were thinking that we would take advantage this year of a 4 category upgrade sale and use the $600 onboard savings also. Long story short - when we came to book during the Memorial Day sale they wouldn't let us combine the two. Nothing specifically anywhere said we couldn't combine and when we did the FCD onboard the Oceania Ambassador understood exactly what we intended to do but said nothing. I guess Oceania decided they weren't making enough money by letting us combine. Really enjoyed cruising with Oceania but no more.

[susiesan]

 I booked a Regatta cruise September 2, 2023. I got a B1 veranda for the same price as a B2.  Not really an upgrade. I asked about booking an outside and upgrading 4 categories to a veranda but that's a no go.

[schelercamus]

Update-- This latest push to book cabins doesn't work out in our favor.

We booked 2 A2's: One with OLife Ultimate and the other with the single supplement at 150% instead of 200%. The price drop doesn't make up for what we'd lose in value.

 

[BWV]

It worked for us-an ocean view to veranda and an A1 to PH3 on the same cruise. Much better savings than the onboard bonus, and we received the onboard booking $100 onboard credit for both cabins. 

[LHT28]

20 hours ago, rickr45 said:

Last year we went on a cruise purchased using a 4 category upgrade holiday sale. Paid for a A1 and received a PH3. Not exactly a "4 category upgrade" but a good deal nonetheless.

It is  not guaranteed  a 4 cat upgrade

Offer is  UP to 4 cat based on availability  on specific cruises

Read the fine print 

[MEFIowa]

The Sale was just a simple one for wife & I on our 11/9-19/2023 Riviera cruise, turning a C Deluxe Outside into a B4 Veranda for the same $2249. [The B1-2-3 were then all priced together at $2,899.] So saved us $650 per to get the Veranda upgrade.

[rickr45]

On 6/3/2022 at 9:56 AM, BWV said:

It worked for us-an ocean view to veranda and an A1 to PH3 on the same cruise. Much better savings than the onboard bonus, and we received the onboard booking $100 onboard credit for both cabins. 

You should have been able to do both the 4-cat upgrade and the onboard bonus. 

[BWV]

13 hours ago, rickr45 said:

You should have been able to do both the 4-cat upgrade and the onboard bonus. 

We were told that we couldn’t combine the offers. 

[GeorgesGal]

On 5/23/2022 at 3:45 PM, schelercamus said:

What does a 4-category upgrade mean in real life? If we book an A4 on Riveria, we'd get an A1? What if we book an A1, do we get a PH?

 

My understanding was the upgrade would be within the category booked.