No Upgrade Email Yet for Longer Cruise in October

[JT1962]

I am 42 days out from a 19 day cruise on Divina on Oct 2 and have not received any upgrade email offers.  On my January 2022 cruise on Meraviglia, I received several email upgrade offers almost immediately after booking. 
 

It is a 7 & 12 day cruise booked as one 19 day cruise, Bella Inside, room assigned months ago.  Others in the social media groups for the 7 & 12 day cruises reported receiving upgrade offers during the last few weeks / months.
 

Do they not send upgrade offers for the longer cruises that combine 2 sailings? Do they wait to send those closer to the cruise to see what rooms are left for the full 19 days? 
 

I am signed up for offers and receive emails almost daily with new promotions. I emailed MSC and they assured me I will receive an upgrade offer if any rooms are available. Maybe it’s just the normal lack of consistency and logic with the pre-cruise experience.

[awhcruiser]

We received an upgrade email in July for our October cruise.  I don't think everyone gets one though

[JT1962]

7 hours ago, awhcruiser said:

We received an upgrade email in July for our October cruise.  I don't think everyone gets one though

Thanks. I think because I am on the 19 day combined cruise is the reason I have not received one. I am satisfied with my current cabin location, but would bid on an upgrade if the price was right.

[Georgia_Peaches]

I only just received an upgrade email a week ago for my cruise at the end of the month. But when I did a mock booking to see the prices of the categories listed in the offer, none were showing as available. I guess cancellations occur but the upgrade starting points didn’t seem too appealing to me so I passed. 

[awhcruiser]

10 hours ago, JT1962 said:

Thanks. I think because I am on the 19 day combined cruise is the reason I have not received one. I am satisfied with my current cabin location, but would bid on an upgrade if the price was right.

There was only one category that had a more than reasonable price so I bid on that. YC interior wanted a minimum bid of  $1300pp. No thanks.  Still waiting to hear if my bid was accepted.  Our cruise is 14 days.

[mscdivina2016]

11 hours ago, JT1962 said:

Thanks. I think because I am on the 19 day combined cruise is the reason I have not received one. I am satisfied with my current cabin location, but would bid on an upgrade if the price was right.

You are correct because the system can't factor in available cabins over two cruises.

 

[JT1962]

1 hour ago, mscdivina2016 said:

You are correct because the system can't factor in available cabins over two cruises.

 

Thanks. You would think if they are going to sell 2 combined cruises as 1 longer cruise, they could figure it out. But it is MSC who tends to have lots of IT and customer service issues, and I believe a contracted company that handles the upgrade bids.

 

Next time I will book as 2 separate cruises B2B. It just seemed easier to book it as one cruise.

Edited August 21, 2022 by JT1962

[mscdivina2016]

21 minutes ago, JT1962 said:

Thanks. You would think if they are going to sell 2 combined cruises as 1 longer cruise, they could figure it out. But it is MSC who tends to have lots of IT and customer service issues, and I believe a contracted company that handles the upgrade bids.

 

Next time I will book as 2 separate cruises B2B. It just seemed easier to book it as one cruise.

You are actually at a disadvantage booking 2.

 

If you have status, you get double

In YC, 2 bootles of booze.

Chance to bid.

I found it more expensive.

 

Yes a contracted company does it. 

 

[JT1962]

43 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

You are actually at a disadvantage booking 2.

 

If you have status, you get double

In YC, 2 bootles of booze.

Chance to bid.

I found it more expensive.

 

Yes a contracted company does it. 

 

Yes, I considered that when booking since I have Diamond status with the status match. I was more interested in the simplicity of one booking than the extra perks (another steakhouse dinner was the main interest). I also thought 2 separate bookings doubled the chances they would screw something up, lol.
 

It seems there are always pluses / minuses with every option with MSC. Since I travel solo, their rates are substantially lower than other lines currently with their low solo supplement promotion through next year. Once you get onboard, things are great. It’s just dealing with the pre-boarding processes that are frustrating.

Edited August 21, 2022 by JT1962

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

You are correct because the system can't factor in available cabins over two cruises.

 

Not true!  We are booked on back to backs (October) on the Seashore and have received an upsell e-mail.  So they obviously can handle back to backs.  We had no interest in upgrades (already booked in the YC) and the minimum bids for the upgrades were ridiculously high.  

 

Booking a low priced cabin and than hoping for an upsell deal (better than if you had booked the higher category cabin in the first place) is not always a good strategy.  Sometimes it works, and many times it does not work.    We follow a really weird practice of booking what we want 🙂  

 

Hank

[dexddd]

18 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Not true!  We are booked on back to backs (October) on the Seashore and have received an upsell e-mail.  So they obviously can handle back to backs.  We had no interest in upgrades (already booked in the YC) and the minimum bids for the upgrades were ridiculously high.  

 

Booking a low priced cabin and than hoping for an upsell deal (better than if you had booked the higher category cabin in the first place) is not always a good strategy.  Sometimes it works, and many times it does not work.    We follow a really weird practice of booking what we want 🙂  

 

Hank

We do the same.  Got our first bid last fall on Divinia.  There was only one option and we'd already stayed  in the RS and the room was not that much better than what we had booked.

 

Plus the lowest bid was only like a hundred bucks savings.  Got second offer and more than booking outright.

[mscdivina2016]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

Not true!  We are booked on back to backs (October) on the Seashore and have received an upsell e-mail.  So they obviously can handle back to backs.  We had no interest in upgrades (already booked in the YC) and the minimum bids for the upgrades were ridiculously high.  

 

Booking a low priced cabin and than hoping for an upsell deal (better than if you had booked the higher category cabin in the first place) is not always a good strategy.  Sometimes it works, and many times it does not work.    We follow a really weird practice of booking what we want 🙂  

 

Hank

You received a opportunity to bid on two separate cruises in one bid?

Since you were already In YC what was left? YCRS?

I had to have my b2b split last year in order to get a bid opportunity.

I did win both.

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, mscdivina2016 said:

You received a opportunity to bid on two separate cruises in one bid?

Since you were already In YC what was left? YCRS?

I had to have my b2b split last year in order to get a bid opportunity.

I did win both.

It is 2 seven day cruises booked under a single booking number (generally called a back to back).   The upgrade offers were all for larger suites (within the YC).  We originally booked a normal Outside Deluxe YC Suite.  But there are a few larger YC suites and apparently some were available on our sailing.  

 

Hank

[awhcruiser]

7 hours ago, mscdivina2016 said:

You are correct because the system can't factor in available cabins over two cruises.

 

Not true.  Our cruise is 14 days but can also be booked as a B2B

[mscdivina2016]

57 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

It is 2 seven day cruises booked under a single booking number (generally called a back to back).   The upgrade offers were all for larger suites (within the YC).  We originally booked a normal Outside Deluxe YC Suite.  But there are a few larger YC suites and apparently some were available on our sailing.  

 

Hank

That explains it. Thanks for clearing that up.

[mscdivina2016]

52 minutes ago, awhcruiser said:

Not true.  Our cruise is 14 days but can also be booked as a B2B

I know that.  I am refering to why someone who has a b2b bookeded under 1 booking number does not get an opportunity to bid into YC.

 That was my question last year and I was told I needed to split my bookings into 2.  Overnight the bid email came in on both.

[JT1962]

5 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Booking a low priced cabin and than hoping for an upsell deal (better than if you had booked the higher category cabin in the first place) is not always a good strategy.  Sometimes it works, and many times it does not work.    We follow a really weird practice of booking what we want 🙂  

 

Hank

I did book what I wanted and am satisfied with the cabin location, but would consider an upgrade bid if the price was reasonable. I was primarily curious about why I had not received any offers since others on the 7 & 12 day sections reported receiving offers and I received multiple email offers on my January 2022 cruise. 
 

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by JT1962

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, mscdivina2016 said:

I know that.  I am refering to why someone who has a b2b bookeded under 1 booking number does not get an opportunity to bid into YC.

 That was my question last year and I was told I needed to split my bookings into 2.  Overnight the bid email came in on both.

I think we can explain why this happened to you and not to me (we got an upgrade offer under 1 booking number).  It apparently has to do with the available inventory.  For some weird reason, MSC allocates some cabins to specific cruises but will not make them available to a longer cruise (even when the cabin is empty).  When we booked our Seashore 14 day cruise (which is two 7 day cruises) the available YC suites were very limited.  If I looked at the inventory for the two 7 day cruises, there were plenty of YC Suites available (for both cruises) but they could not be booked under a single booking number (we could have booked them under two separate booking numbers).  I called my trusted cruise agent and asked her if we could change to a different cabin and gave her a few cabin numbers that were available for both of those 7 day cruises.  But the MSC folks here in the USA said they could not do the booking for those cabins as the system had them allocated for 7 day bookings and not a 14 day booking.  When this happens with other cruise lines (we have cruised on 16 lines) the system can easily be overridden and the available cabin booked!  But not on MSC where it seems like the customer service folks here in the US have no power to do much of anything!  

 

I also get the feeling that the Italian and Swiss (keep in mind that MSC is headquartered in Switzerland) are very unyielding when it comes to customer service.  While here in the USA, many customer service folks are taught that "the customer comes first or the customer is always right" while it seems like in Europe the customer service attitude is (it is my way for the highway).  It seems to be more of a cultural thing rather than any nastiness.

 

We are already seeing something similar with the new Explora Journeys line where a simple request is met with "we do not do that."  Make the same kind of request of a line like Seabourn and they wlll usually move heaven and earth so they can say yes.  In other words, if dealing with MSC I am likely to hear "No" while with many other lines I will hear "yes or let me see what I can do."

 

Cultural differences do show-up in other parts of the travel industry.  Get on a US or Canadian airline and the flight attendant might walk through the cabin asking passengers to "please buckle your seat belt."  But on some European airlines the flight attendant might say, "You will buckle you seat belt" or "buckle you seat belt."   This was reflected on a recent Lufthansa flight we took from Munich to Washiington D.C.  At the time I had to struggle not to break out laughing because it was like a cliche.

 

Many Americans who deal with MSC have complained here on CC about MSC's customer service (prior to boarding the ship).  I have heard it said by a friend who works for MSC (in a senior position) that MSC must change their attitude when doing business in North America.  What is acceptable under European culture is not always acceptable here.  

 

Hank

[JT1962]

1 hour ago, mscdivina2016 said:

 I was told I needed to split my bookings into 2.  Overnight the bid email came in on both.

I’m curious as to how you split your booking. Did you email existing reservations, call MSC or were you booked with a travel agent? Did they keep your pricing, room number, preferred meal time, etc. the same? Was this before or after final payment?

 

Thanks.

[mscdivina2016]

14 hours ago, JT1962 said:

I’m curious as to how you split your booking. Did you email existing reservations, call MSC or were you booked with a travel agent? Did they keep your pricing, room number, preferred meal time, etc. the same? Was this before or after final payment?

 

Thanks.

I called and with Covid I used their own booking rules to my advantage. 

It was 4 weeks prior to sailing and also when the ships were sailing empty.

 I cancelled with piece of mind program for 1st week of December. Now I had 2 choices of FCC or book another but not the one I just cancelled.

 So I booked 2nd week of December and then 3rd week of December. It did cost me $12 in the end.

Bid email came fast and I bid max and won both to Yacht club. 1st bid was accepted 10 days prior. Second bid was accepted while I was on first sailing.

[JT1962]

14 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

I called and with Covid I used their own booking rules to my advantage. 

It was 4 weeks prior to sailing and also when the ships were sailing empty.

 I cancelled with piece of mind program for 1st week of December. Now I had 2 choices of FCC or book another but not the one I just cancelled.

 So I booked 2nd week of December and then 3rd week of December. It did cost me $12 in the end.

Bid email came fast and I bid max and won both to Yacht club. 1st bid was accepted 10 days prior. Second bid was accepted while I was on first sailing.

Thanks for the reply. That probably won’t work for me since I’m not sure they still have the same policy.  Also, I already have flights booked and the flights for the new dates I would need are substantially higher. I now know to book separately if I choose to combine 2 or more cruises in the future.

[Morgsmom]

5 hours ago, JT1962 said:

Thanks for the reply. That probably won’t work for me since I’m not sure they still have the same policy.  Also, I already have flights booked and the flights for the new dates I would need are substantially higher. I now know to book separately if I choose to combine 2 or more cruises in the future.

Maybe, or maybe not.. sometimes it is cheaper to book as one 14 day cruise (if sold that way) vs B2B with two separate bookings.  🙂  MSC logic at its finest.

[iwtobek]

23 hours ago, Hlitner said:

What is acceptable under European culture is not always acceptable here.  

Not sure this is even accepted in Europe. I am as European as I can be — worse even, as I am French. Here we have a saying, “le client est roi”, literally “the customer is king”. 

As I see it, people all over the world book MSC, for some reason (price, value, quality of pizzas or whatever). That doesn't give MSC incentive to upgrade their service, even in areas where they need it most (hello USA). People too sensitive over this matter will book somewhere else anyway (and MSC can't compete).

 

[Ljames23]

On 8/21/2022 at 5:40 PM, Hlitner said:

We are already seeing something similar with the new Explora Journeys line where a simple request is met with "we do not do that."  Make the same kind of request of a line like Seabourn and they wlll usually move heaven and earth so they can say yes.  In other words, if dealing with MSC I am likely to hear "No" while with many other lines I will hear "yes or let me see what I can do."

What did you request? 

[Hlitner]

11 minutes ago, Ljames23 said:

What did you request? 

Pretty simple request to allow us to book in Euros rather than in dollars.  The quick answer was that if you live in North America you must book in Dollars (which costs about $2000 more than booking the same cruise in Euros.

 

Hank