Princess Introduces Bidding For Upgrades

[jwattle]

3 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

And folks know that only the highest bid wins, resulting in overbidding. Happens everyday on Ebay.

And yet... Sometimes the underdog bids may win...not the low bids, but some high bids that are reasonable.😊

[DallasGuy75219]

4 minutes ago, MileHighAko said:

That's what I love about this! Everybody wins (including Princess)!

 

... except those wanting something for nothing (free upgrades) and those with socialist entitlements who can't comprehend that people with bigger wallets than them are inherently willing and able to pay for nicer cabins than they can or will pay for.  In other words the people b****ing and moaning about the change here.

[Over from NZ]

This is a great idea. Bye, bye, to the system where only a select lucky few get the option to purchase an upgrade. Anybody can bid on an upgrade. If you strike it.. great. If not, nothing lost. This is great!

[vjmatty]

2 hours ago, Bgwest said:

Again, respectfully disagree. The upsell solicitations/emails are generated by PCL and sent out only to those who are offered the upsell "opportunity".

 

If you are not a designated recipient of the upsell solicitation/email, you will never know such an opportunity ever existed.  

I don’t think you understood me….you don’t have to wait for an upsell email from Princess, you can initiate it by email TO Princess for the upsell. Now that will likely end with the new bid program. 

[DallasGuy75219]

9 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

True.  But the Upgrade Chain is bidding on specific cabins, and no one else knows that the cabins in their chain are going to be bid on, especially if they are showing up as occupied on the deck plan. Why would anyone else put in a bid on D203 if it looks like it is taken?  But the Upgrade Chain is manipulating the system so that D203 becomes available as the result of upstream movement.  Yes, if someone else also bids on the cabin and bids higher, the plot fails.  I said that there is room for manipulation and collusion.  I never said that this was failsafe.  

You're ignoring the complexity of making every cabin on the ship available for the everyone in a lower category to bid on, and then managing that process, even systematically.  Princess has no incentive to build out that system and process when there are plenty of people willing to bid for a guarantee cabin in a higher category.

 

If there was incremental money to be made by allowing bidding for specific cabins, one of the other cruise lines that beat Princess to the game would have already tried it.  

[LACruiser88]

Another big question that will probably set this thread on fire, will they give priority to bidding based on your Princess Captain Circle status???

[ceilidh1]

I wonder if the bidding system will work as well as the app...as long as you don't have to use the app to bid I think it's a great idea. I bid with NCL pretty much every booking. Sometimes I'm lucky, sometimes I'm not. I have a maximum price I'm willing to pay and won't go higher - it's no different to playing roulette. You have to know when to walk away!

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

 

It may be lower, but this system enables Princess to squeeze extra money from up to 4 other bookings.

 

You book a mini-suite, and bid for a suite.

Your mini is now available, and someone in a balcony bids for the mini.

Folks in an ocean-view now bid on the balcony, and someone in an inside will bid on the ocean-view.

 

 

Actually not any different from the old system as far as number of cabins.  They did the same thing under the old system.  When someone purchased an upgrade their room was then offered.  So really not much different as far as the number of rooms that could be offered..

 

The more efficient that a cruise line is in maximizing revenue from those that want to upgrade the more competitive they can be on fares.  

[Guest ldtr]

47 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

Another big question that will probably set this thread on fire, will they give priority to bidding based on your Princess Captain Circle status???

No reason that they should.

 

Expect it will be strictly by price with any ties going to the person that submitted their bid first.

[prmssk]

49 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

Another big question that will probably set this thread on fire, will they give priority to bidding based on your Princess Captain Circle status???

Celebrity just added a (very small) multiplier based on loyalty status to their program.  It is so small though I'm not sure it will make a big difference.  But it is possible Princess could do same.

[prmssk]

For those of you thinking you will be able to bid on a specific cabin, I don't think it works that way for any cruise line and it would be a logistical nightmare.  I expect you will pick the category (and it may not include subcategories) and then if you win your bid, you will have no say over the location.  Keep in mind that the goal of this program will be to fill empty rooms and make a little extra money so the rooms that will be left, will be the ones in less desirable locations.  When I bid on Celebrity, I researched carefully where the rooms were located of the categories I was interested in to make sure I would be okay with the location of any of them.

[Guest ldtr]

1 minute ago, prmssk said:

For those of you thinking you will be able to bid on a specific cabin, I don't think it works that way for any cruise line and it would be a logistical nightmare.  I expect you will pick the category (and it may not include subcategories) and then if you win your bid, you will have no say over the location.  Keep in mind that the goal of this program will be to fill empty rooms and make a little extra money so the rooms that will be left, will be the ones in less desirable locations.  When I bid on Celebrity, I researched carefully where the rooms were located of the categories I was interested in to make sure I would be okay with the location of any of them.

Do not see why it would be a logistical nightmare.  Just a sorting problem.  Bid for a category of room get organized by price bid.  If there are X rooms available, and the persons bid is in the top X, then they can check if someone bid for a specific room only they could assign those rooms first, then assign the remaining.  If that rooms is not available then that bid would be dropped and the person at X + 1 bid position would move up.

 

Not that complicated to implement.  The only question is would it be fair, since the more desirable rooms would be those bid by room on, making it less attractive to others.

 

The other question would be how would someone know that a room would be available for upgrade?  After all if it was available to be booked, then someone could always book the room before the upgrades were assigned and their bid would be invalid if that was their only option.

[cr8tiv1]

Every (——) airline flight I take to ——- sends me an email to bid for a better seat.  I played that game for a little while until:

 

1.  There were no first class seats available, but still open for bidding.

2.  I increased my bid a couple of times but never close to full price.  None accepted. 
3.  Sour grapes?  It wasn’t worth it to me.  I had my favorite seat.  First Class for a few hours, isn’t worth it.  Did upgrade using miles for a longer direct 11 hour flight, pre-pandemic.  
 

I’ll stick with reserving the cabin I want the first time. BTW, only upgraded once in all of my Princess years. 

[prmssk]

4 minutes ago, ldtr said:

Do not see why it would be a logistical nightmare.  Just a sorting problem.  Bid for a category of room get organized by price bid.  If there are X rooms available, and the persons bid is in the top X, then they can check if someone bid for a specific room only they could assign those rooms first, then assign the remaining.  If that rooms is not available then that bid would be dropped and the person at X + 1 bid position would move up.

 

Not that complicated to implement.  The only question is would it be fair, since the more desirable rooms would be those bid by room on, making it less attractive to others.

 

The other question would be how would someone know that a room would be available for upgrade?  After all if it was available to be booked, then someone could always book the room before the upgrades were assigned and their bid would be invalid if that was their only option.

Inventory changes constantly as people book, make changes to their booking, and cancel so there would be no way to show which rooms are available.  And if they allowed people to bid on a specific room, then they would lose out on all the bids for rooms that were not available and thus likely still not fill the more undesirable rooms they are trying to fill.  I would be shocked if Princess allowed you to bid on a specific room.

[Guest ldtr]

10 minutes ago, prmssk said:

Inventory changes constantly as people book, make changes to their booking, and cancel so there would be no way to show which rooms are available.  And if they allowed people to bid on a specific room, then they would lose out on all the bids for rooms that were not available and thus likely still not fill the more undesirable rooms they are trying to fill.  I would be shocked if Princess allowed you to bid on a specific room.

If they allowed it, the only impact would be to the person that bid on a specific room if it was not available.  They would basically lose the opportunity to bid. No problem as far as Princess is concerned as long as enough people bid for them to move the next person up.

 

I doubt Princess would go that route. But it would not be complex if they chose to do so.  The issue would be more of why would a passenger make such a bid since the odds of getting a specific room would be pretty low.

 

They could also set it up where rooms were allocated randomly in order of bid value and that if someone bid for a specific room it would have to be available when they got to their bid.  That would mean that someone wanting a specific room would have to bid more to have a chance of getting it.  Would solve the fairness issue

Edited August 19, 2022 by ldtr

[capriccio]

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

Another big question that will probably set this thread on fire, will they give priority to bidding based on your Princess Captain Circle status???

I had the same thought.  More than ninety percent of the time we book the exact mini suite we want well in advance of the cruise and mark it meta upgrade only.  Two times since we reached the elite level we have booked balconies last minute (after final payment) when minis weren't available and have received the "in recognition of your elite status we are offering you an upsell" email.  Both were to mini-suites at reasonable prices and we took them.  Although never publicized as such, I always looked at it as a unrecognized (and non-guaranteed) elite benefit.  Just one more change to elite benefits.  But it will have little, if any, impact on us.

Edited August 19, 2022 by capriccio

[cr8tiv1]

How Does Princess Upgrade Work?

1. Check whether your cruise is eligible for bidding on an upgrade.
2. Browse through the upgrade options available and place your bid(s) to upgrade your stateroom on your upcoming cruise. Making a bid on multiple staterooms will increase your chances of being upgraded, but you’ll only pay for one.

 

As with so many Princess releases, clarity is not one of their strengths.  I copied this from Page 1.

 

Notice is says:

 

Place your bid(s)....on multiple STATEROOMS.  It does not mention categories.  Then it proceeds to say that your chances would be increased with more bids, but you will only be charged for one. 

 

Is this to be interpreted that if you are in an interior, you should place a bid for Oceanview, Balcony, Mini, CC Mini, Suite?  Or does it mean to pick a specific stateroom in an Ocean View category such as P329 or P332, place 2 bids, as an example? 

[Steelers36]

56 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

How Does Princess Upgrade Work?

1. Check whether your cruise is eligible for bidding on an upgrade.
2. Browse through the upgrade options available and place your bid(s) to upgrade your stateroom on your upcoming cruise. Making a bid on multiple staterooms will increase your chances of being upgraded, but you’ll only pay for one.

 

As with so many Princess releases, clarity is not one of their strengths.  I copied this from Page 1.

 

Notice is says:

 

Place your bid(s)....on multiple STATEROOMS.  It does not mention categories.  Then it proceeds to say that your chances would be increased with more bids, but you will only be charged for one. 

 

Is this to be interpreted that if you are in an interior, you should place a bid for Oceanview, Balcony, Mini, CC Mini, Suite?  Or does it mean to pick a specific stateroom in an Ocean View category such as P329 or P332, place 2 bids, as an example? 

I would say the former option.

[caribill]

11 hours ago, Bgwest said:

Respectfully, disagree. As an example, Celebrity, among others, does this. I've successfully bid on upgrades in the past as have others I've known. All I've spoken with think its a neat way to score an upgrade at (each time I've bid successfully) a lower fare than the posted fare.

 

It's simple, if someone doesn't like it or wishes to disparage it "just because", then don't use it. 🤙

 

In the "good old days" Princess would dole out free upgrades, usually because they could resell the cabin you had easier than selling the cabin you were being upgraded to.

 

Then Princess discovered that a significant number of passengers were open to an invitation to pay for an upgrade instead of waiting for the possibility of a free one. The result, more income to Princess and less free upgrades.

 

This new "auction" process takes it to a higher level. Instead of Princess suggesting an upgrade price, let booked passengers bid for the upgrade. There have been many posts by people asking how to ask to pay for an upgrade, so Princess is really responding to consumer demand to pay more for what used to be free.

 

I do not know the details (such as how soon do you know if your bid is accepted or if your bid is too low, will you be notified so you have the opportunity to bid more), but in regular auctions, people will often keep raising bids until the final price is more than the auctioned item is worth.

 

From a financial viewpoint this could be advantageous to Princess. Instead of having a number of higher category cabins unsold as embarkation day approaches and having to deep discount them, Princess has people bidding to pay more to upgrade to them. Then Princess can market the lower category cabins which might be easier to sell to last minute passengers than the more expensive cabins.

 

But, to repeat, Princess has figured out a way to give out even less free upgrades. And many customers are happy for this to happen.

[caribill]

10 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

I am sure it will be like RCI, Celebrity NCL and MSC,

 

Once again Princess would rather be like the competition than be unique and give out free upgrades as in the past.

 

The more Princess becomes like the other cruise lines, the less reason there is to make Princess the first choice for a cruise.

[harryfat1]

I'm in the camp that says the bidding is for "category" of staterooms, not specific staterooms as per cruise critic's article, all other cruise lines that have bidding for cabin upgrades are based on "category" staterooms, not specific cabins. 

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=4006

 

So do we think Princess is a leader or follower in the cruise industry in offering something better that no other cruise line is currently providing in favor of the passengers?

 

Yes, in theory Princess can surprise me by being innovative/different than the rest of the cruise industry to providing something that is more cruiser friendly so it's less of a blind bidding in knowing exactly where my cabin is. 

 

Yeah, I believe in Santa too...

 

 

[caribill]

9 hours ago, Bgwest said:

Very, very selectively. If one is "selected", then an email appears quoting a take or leave it price. Is it not better that everyone gets an equal shot at an upgrade? Especially when one can make an informed decision what a given upgrade is worth to them?

 

 

Based on posts on Cruise Critic:

With the upsell, if you responded that you were interested you would be called by Princess and could discuss what cabins would be available and sometimes even ask for an even higher category cabin at the original upsell price. When the call ended, you either had a specific cabin you were happy to get or had turned down the offer.

 

But with the bidding, you bid on a category and if the bid is accepted, you are charged for the amount of your bid and then find out what cabin you have "won" in the auction. Don't like the result? Well you already paid for it.

 

I do not know if you will be bidding on a type of cabin (example: Deluxe Balcony) or a category within the  type (example: DB, which has cabins both mid-ship and far forward). Either way, you are bidding on an unknown location.

 

[abbydancer2003]

I've done two bids with Celebrity - Aqua to Celebrity suite (not only did I not get it, I also missed the cruise due to covid), and then Concierge to Aqua on the replacement cruise.  I did a pretty minimum bid, and it was successful, but I didn't like the location.  So I called, and got moved to not just a different room, but in the lower of the two Aqua categories. (the original was in the higher).

 

And the multiplier starts at 1% and goes up to 5% depending on loyalty level.

[caribill]

9 hours ago, Bgwest said:

Respectfully, disagree. At auction, everyone has an equal opportunity to decide what a given commodity is worth to them. Beyond the point where one is no longer interested in pursuing said commodity, then just walk away. What could be easier. 

 

 

I have seen auctions where, for example, the winning bid for a $100 gift card was above $110.

 

I can easily see where with a Princess auction the final winning bid could be above what the cabin originally was priced at. When people are just bidding on the difference in price from what they have to what they want, they may not realize what the real total price is compared to if they had bought that higher category cabin in the first place.

[4cats4me]

I’m wondering about insurance.  Since those of us who purchase insurance    do so prior to the cruise, if one bids post-final payment and wins,then the entire amount of cruise might not be covered by the insurance policy.