NCL Air Upgrade Offer

[jbcallender]

NCL doesn't miss a trick when it comes to getting the last nickel out of you.  I have an 11/14 cruise, with NCL air included, so we are at day 31 and expecting flight arrangement any minute now.  Today, I got an e-mail from NCL Air asking me to bid on a seat upgrade offer on the flight - identical to a cabin upgrade offer.  And, of course, they will let you know if your offer is accepted.  Two years ago when we expected to go on this same cruise, the seat upgrade was just a flat price to go from economy to premium economy.  This is an 8 hour plus flight so I think it is money well spent. 

[MotownVoice]

Usually the cruise line makes it clear that if you want upgraded air (which involves seating and boarding) you have to arrange it on your own with the airline.

This is new to me.

Now I'm wondering why I can't just ask NCL to upgrade my seating once they send me my air itinerary which I'm certain I will hate.

 

[cruiseinfoseeker]

11 minutes ago, jbcallender said:

NCL doesn't miss a trick when it comes to getting the last nickel out of you.  I have an 11/14 cruise, with NCL air included, so we are at day 31 and expecting flight arrangement any minute now.  Today, I got an e-mail from NCL Air asking me to bid on a seat upgrade offer on the flight - identical to a cabin upgrade offer.  And, of course, they will let you know if your offer is accepted.  Two years ago when we expected to go on this same cruise, the seat upgrade was just a flat price to go from economy to premium economy.  This is an 8 hour plus flight so I think it is money well spent. 

Airlines do this, too. Are you certain it is from NCL and not the airline itself?  

 

 

[julig22]

I was offered a paid upgrade when it was a NCL charter to Tahiti a few years ago.  Bidding probably makes more sense in that case because as I recall the price for the upgrade was pretty spendy.  In fact I think I may have gotten a second, lower offer.

I've also gotten other offers to bid but from the airline, not NCL.

[jbcallender]

1 hour ago, cruiseinfoseeker said:

Airlines do this, too. Are you certain it is from NCL and not the airline itself?  

 

 

Yes, definitely from NCL.  Email address is ncl.com and link takes you to an ncl.com hosted page.  Unmistakenly NCL.

[jbcallender]

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

I was offered a paid upgrade when it was a NCL charter to Tahiti a few years ago.  Bidding probably makes more sense in that case because as I recall the price for the upgrade was pretty spendy.  In fact I think I may have gotten a second, lower offer.

I've also gotten other offers to bid but from the airline, not NCL.

Same thing here, the April 2020 cruise for this same itinerary, Tahiti to Hawaii, I paid $249pp for a seat upgrade.  Of course the cruise was cancelled.  This upgrade offer bid started at $260pp and went up from there.  We are finally getting to take this cruise on the third try - knock on wood!

[cruiseinfoseeker]

10 minutes ago, jbcallender said:

Yes, definitely from NCL.  Email address is ncl.com and link takes you to an ncl.com hosted page.  Unmistakenly NCL.

interesting. its the first I've heard of this. can you tell us what your flight to to/from? 

 

nevermind. I see its tahiti. there are probably very few flights they could do the bidding themselves. if they chartered the flight would be an example. but I doubt we'll be seeing this for like basic flights on say United or Delta

 

anyway, good luck if you did bid.  but either way, that cruise is going to be awesome!

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by cruiseinfoseeker

[julig22]

27 minutes ago, jbcallender said:

Same thing here, the April 2020 cruise for this same itinerary, Tahiti to Hawaii, I paid $249pp for a seat upgrade.  Of course the cruise was cancelled.  This upgrade offer bid started at $260pp and went up from there.  We are finally getting to take this cruise on the third try - knock on wood!

Haven't rebooked yet, can't come even close to the price & itinerary I had, March 2020 - it was one of the first cancellations. Just looked, my seat upgrade email says they started at $499 so you were getting a bargain!

[julig22]

2 hours ago, MotownVoice said:

Now I'm wondering why I can't just ask NCL to upgrade my seating once they send me my air itinerary which I'm certain I will hate.

 

Because you're probably not on a charter where NCL controls all the seats, not the airline.

[PATRLR]

4 hours ago, cruiseinfoseeker said:

Airlines do this, too. Are you certain it is from NCL and not the airline itself?  

Interesting.  What airlines have a bid process for upgrades?

[cruiseinfoseeker]

21 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

Interesting.  What airlines have a bid process for upgrades?

Edit to what I had first put here.

The more I thought about it, it finally came to me. It was spirit. My husband takes spirit to Myrtle Beach and it was his flights there when we got the email for upgrade---which isn't a real upgrade because spirit only has the one cabin. It was for their big front seat I think

Edited October 14, 2022 by cruiseinfoseeker
Change my response

[PATRLR]

14 minutes ago, cruiseinfoseeker said:

Edit to what I had first put here.

The more I thought about it, it finally came to me. It was spirit. My husband takes spirit to Myrtle Beach and it was his flights there when we got the email for upgrade---which isn't a real upgrade because spirit only has the one cabin. It was for their big front seat I think

Thank you.  I think the only times we've flown Spirit (including this upcoming November trip to get to Miami) we've purchased The Big Front seat outright.  It's one of the better deals in the sky.  But that is probably why we were never exposed to this idea of bidding on the "upgrades". 

[jbcallender]

Full disclosure - it's Air Tahiti Nui from LAX to PPT, it's a charter as the flight number is not a published number.  Logistically, NCL has to get a large number of people to Tahiti to get on the boat, so I they probably have a standard charter agreement with TN.  Some are already on the island, some are back to backs already on the boat, but there are certainly 280 or so people remaining to fill up a 787.   As they control the seats, they can dole them out however they wish.  My point was that in 2020, the upgrade was a flat price, now NCL has figured out how to wrangle a few more bucks out of me.