Celebrity is allowing people to outbid your MoveUp offer

[NutsAboutGolf]

3 hours ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

It’s effectively letting you know you have no chance. If you bid $50 and they already have a full slate of $200 bids, you stand no chance and that is what it is. So if you want a realistic chance, pay more. 
 

Would you rather know immediately or wait 60 days to find out you didn’t get the upgrade? 

 

This makes the most sense; do you know this for sure?

[zitsky]

Not an expert but seems the problem is pax thinking a cabin is “theirs” because they put a low bid on it while other people bid higher.  It was never your room.  Imagine if auctions went to the first bidder not the highest?

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

If you think the email about raising your bid is wrong then let Celebrity executive office know.

 

I personally buy a cabin where I will be happy and bid if I might snag a bargain.  The problem is are all underbidders sent an email giving them the choice to bid again?  What does pending really mean?

 

FWIW won two bids.  Did not win one other.  Have never had a bid shown as pending. 

 

I wonder if pending has something to do with them charging the credit card 

[cublet]

Hello,

 

It is possible the X does not know about this. The upgrade scheme is a product of a company called Plusgrade. It says:

 

Plusgrade’s market-leading solutions provide our travel partners with both substantial value-added incremental ancillary revenue and serve as a powerful merchandising strategy in helping our partners introduce new products, build brand loyalty and drive incredible improvements in customer satisfaction.

 

If X is reading this, then I think the 'building brand loyalty and.... improvements in customer satisfaction' flew out the window months, if not years, ago.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[Cruise a holic]

Clearly the economy is doing fine for some people.  The prices are so high now.

Edited October 29, 2022 by Cruise a holic

[hcat]

1 hour ago, cublet said:

Hello,

 

It is possible the X does not know about this. The upgrade scheme is a product of a company called Plusgrade. It says:

 

Plusgrade’s market-leading solutions provide our travel partners with both substantial value-added incremental ancillary revenue and serve as a powerful merchandising strategy in helping our partners introduce new products, build brand loyalty and drive incredible improvements in customer satisfaction.

 

If X is reading this, then I think the 'building brand loyalty and.... improvements in customer satisfaction' flew out the window months, if not years, ago.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

Agree..the bid upgrade game is getting  out of control.

 

And now buzzers for mdrs on BEYOND.

Is this Modern Luxury?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

20 minutes ago, hcat said:

Agree..the bid upgrade game is getting  out of control.

 

And now buzzers for mdrs on BEYOND.

Is this Modern Luxury?

They have  had pagers 10 years ago on Celebrity, no big deal , it not like you have some place to go off the ship 😉😁

I could never understand fix seating , I never know what I will be doing and what time we will be ready for dinner 

if we having a good time with friends at the Sunset bar why would you want to leave to go eat ? 🤔🍹

[deliver42]

All the move up bidding, regardless of cruise line, is handled by third party.

[KurtMo]

Hmmmmm...  "other guests have made higher offers" - this would be true if 1 person bid higher than you.  And then there is the little issue of how many cabins are available for upgrade.  There could be 10 cabins available, and you could have the second-highest upgrade bid, and the statement above would still be true!  I agree, book what you need, bid what you are willing to pay for what you'd like to splurge on, and enjoy the results either way.

[LB_NJ]

In the real world there are 2 types of bidding, Sealed bids or Open (i.e., continuous) bidding.

 

Either can be fair however, Celebrity should clearly state it has one or the other.

 

 

[crusinthrough]

11 hours ago, RichYak said:

Sometimes you win by not playing their game. It all depends.

 I don't care about Move Up.  I  pick the stateroom I want and pay the price but I'm not knocking anyone who chooses to participate.  My point is that if you want to win, bid the max and you have your best chance.   If you don't win, maybe it wasn't for you on that sailing.  If you bid the minimum or slightly over the minimum someone will always bid more than you whether it's by an email invitation or their initial bid.  

[crusinthrough]

11 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

If you think the email about raising your bid is wrong then let Celebrity executive office know.

 Celebrity is a business in business to make money and keep stockholders happy.  I'm sure the executive know about the bidding system. This is probably wasted time and energy.  

4 hours ago, cublet said:

It is possible the X does not know about this.

If X is reading this, then I think the 'building brand loyalty and.... improvements in customer satisfaction' flew out the window months, if not years, ago.

 In every game there will be a winner and a loser.  The winner is typically happy and the loser not as much.  How does Move Up diminish brand loyalty or customer service?  

[prmssk]

1 hour ago, KurtMo said:

Hmmmmm...  "other guests have made higher offers" - this would be true if 1 person bid higher than you.  And then there is the little issue of how many cabins are available for upgrade.  There could be 10 cabins available, and you could have the second-highest upgrade bid, and the statement above would still be true!  I agree, book what you need, bid what you are willing to pay for what you'd like to splurge on, and enjoy the results either way.

It could also still be true if there were no cabins currently available in that category.  The MoveUp program regularly lets you bid on sold out categories in case of cancellations or others moving up.

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 hours ago, deliver42 said:

All the move up bidding, regardless of cruise line, is handled by third party.

 

While technically correct, X still sets the amounts, both min-max bid amounts and the amount of staterooms it deems eligible for bidding.  There was a thread where someone said they had an inside, bid on a balcony, was told they won a balcony yet once they received their room number it for a royal suite; for the record many of us, myself included, were highly skeptical.  However, someone chimed in who claimed they had insider knowledge and once PlusGrade completes the biddings, all they do is send X over a spreadsheet, X employees still have to change the cabins in their reservation system and therefore mistakes aren't unheard of.  No idea if either of those claims were true.

 

My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is that X can see the bid metrics at any time.  Based on the very limited sample of datapoints, the conclusion (which may change later with more datapoints) is that those who bid either the minimum or perhaps near minimum will receive an increase your bid email if they're expected to lose.  I do know that it isn't uncommon for the bid minimums to increase the closer you get to sail date which my WAG is because there's now less staterooms in that category available. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

6 hours ago, hcat said:

Agree..the bid upgrade game is getting  out of control.

 

And now buzzers for mdrs on BEYOND.

Is this Modern Luxury?

 

Don't like the MDR buzzer?  Book a suite and during peak times you'll be rewarded with a Luminae buzzer...

[Redtravel]

 Bidding to move up can pay off. Unfortunately more often it only makes people upset.  It adds stress.  Booking gty can also pay off.  While I have never bid to move up, I have had some good experiences booking gty.  I usually book a specific cabin and ignore move up bidding offerings.  Move up bidding is a great marketing way to increase revenue.  

[NutsAboutGolf]

13 hours ago, zitsky said:

Not an expert but seems the problem is pax thinking a cabin is “theirs” because they put a low bid on it while other people bid higher.  It was never your room.  Imagine if auctions went to the first bidder not the highest?

 

19 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

 Bidding to move up can pay off. Unfortunately more often it only makes people upset.  It adds stress.  Booking gty can also pay off.  While I have never bid to move up, I have had some good experiences booking gty.  I usually book a specific cabin and ignore move up bidding offerings.  Move up bidding is a great marketing way to increase revenue.  

 

Whether on here or once on board, I haven't experienced anyone who felt entitled to a stateroom they bid on or anyone upset or stressed.  I understand a WEAK bid doesn't mean much to us however it could be useful setting expectations for a first timer. 

[jwlane]

13 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

I wonder if pending has something to do with them charging the credit card 

If the card is charged---you got the upgrade.

[zitsky]

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Don't like the MDR buzzer?  Book a suite and during peak times you'll be rewarded with a Luminae buzzer...

I’m a little upset that there is no buzzer for Blu.

[Jim_Iain]

I think you may misunderstand how the bidding process work.    When you bid you are only bidding using the pricing for you cabin class and cabins you are working.   It is not like an regular auction where the first bid has to be outbid in order to win.

 

There are many factors involved and I don't believe any of us know the proprietary algorithm used by UpgradPlus.     

 

Some of the Factors involved may be:

 

1.  Added revenue by accepting a bid that triggers a chain of upgrades across many room classess.   Eg.   A RS wins a PS then a CS upgraded to RS etc etc.

 

2.  A bidder that bids the same as you but has a higher Captain's Club Status has an automatic multiplier added to their bid - 

 

MoveUp allows you to bid on a stateroom upgrade after you’ve purchased your cruise. As a valued Captain’s Club member your bid gets a bonus boost based on your tier. So, you get more value than what you bid. Classic members get an extra 1% multiplier, Select members get a 2% multiplier, Elite members get a 3% multiplier, Elite Plus members get a 4% multiplier, and Zenith members get a 5% multiplier.

[NutsAboutGolf]

3 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I think you may misunderstand how the bidding process work.    When you bid you are only bidding using the pricing for you cabin class and cabins you are working.   It is not like an regular auction where the first bid has to be outbid in order to win.

 

There are many factors involved and I don't believe any of us know the proprietary algorithm used by UpgradPlus.     

 

Some of the Factors involved may be:

 

1.  Added revenue by accepting a bid that triggers a chain of upgrades across many room classess.   Eg.   A RS wins a PS then a CS upgraded to RS etc etc.

 

2.  A bidder that bids the same as you but has a higher Captain's Club Status has an automatic multiplier added to their bid - 

 

MoveUp allows you to bid on a stateroom upgrade after you’ve purchased your cruise. As a valued Captain’s Club member your bid gets a bonus boost based on your tier. So, you get more value than what you bid. Classic members get an extra 1% multiplier, Select members get a 2% multiplier, Elite members get a 3% multiplier, Elite Plus members get a 4% multiplier, and Zenith members get a 5% multiplier.

I believe the rub many are feeling is that some targeted folks are receiving insider information emails that their current bid won’t win and to bid more by a specific amount.  We don’t have enough datapoints to clearly identify who is targeted and what “inside info”, if any, is being revealed as it could be nothing more than marketing

[Jim_Iain]

8 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

I believe the rub many are feeling is that some targeted folks are receiving insider information emails that their current bid won’t win and to bid more by a specific amount.  We don’t have enough datapoints to clearly identify who is targeted and what “inside info”, if any, is being revealed as it could be nothing more than marketing

 

It's possible -   I had one bid and when I looked later found the Minimum and Maximum bid amounts had been increased.   Thus those that bid at the minimum would then be below the new minimum.

 

Alternatively I saw another bid where both the Minimum and Maximum had decreased significantly.     I changed my bid to a lower amount and ended up winning. 

 

Good idea to periodically check you bid (using change bid and see where the slider shows Min and Max.)

[morfred]

19 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Great point.  Will be very difficult to determine if it's an actual scheme (will win with your current bid) or if its legit (will lose if you don't increase your bid).  Regardless, I'd imagine this email is very effective with getting people to increase their bids.  The OP and one other are claiming they didn't receive this "outbid" targeted email.  My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is if it was a scheme it would go out to everyone yet this doesn't appear to be the case; therefore who is X targeting with these emails?

Whatever it is my bidding days are over if this is the process. I do not mind bidding if it others are unaware of my bid. However I have no interest in getting in a bidding war.

[mtempelaar]

My last post got lost, so given that I am the one that posted the outbid email pic and there seems to be a desire to collect more data points I feel I can give a better view of my experiece.   
 

Facts going into this: 

1) I am a Captains Club member with Classic level, just shy of Select.  Bid Multiplier is 1.

2) I have not sailed Celebrity since 2003.  
3) I have an s2 sky suite booked for Beyond for Nov 13.   This was booked when Beyond showed up for reservations in 2020 and I applied Apex FCCs from pandemic.  All in $7100 (this was refundable fare prior to final payment date).   
4) We are perfectly happy with our cabin so if no upgrade, we are fine.

5) We are booked on Beyond again in 2024 in an S1, again at a steal of a price.

 

When we got initial Move Up email we reviewed the prices and said no thanks.

 

A few weeks later I decided, without telling my husband, to bid $400 pp for AQ Sky Suite.   We aren’t doing shore excursions so the thermal spa was enticing me as well as Blu.   This bid held for about 4 days and then I got the first outbid email.  By then my husband knew I had bid and the rationale.

 

I went in and did a $500 bid.  I IMMEDIATELY got an outbid email.   
 

After a few minutes calculating cost of thermal spa and whether value of that and Blu was worth it, I decided $600 was my max bid.   I submitted.   Again IMMEDIATELY got an outbid notification.  Note this was considered a strong bid.

 

I texted my husband.  I told him I was curious here.   Said I was going to roll the dice to see what happens at $700 pp but I was likely going to cancel after.   Kind of a test, but if it got accepted, I was kind of ok with it.   There were 6 AQ SS showing available at this time.   $700 was a very high strong big.   It stuck for a day.   Now I could have stood on that bid, knowing there were still cabins available and maybe only 1 person was ahead of me.   But I did more calculations and did cancel it.     This was a couple of weeks ago.

 

2 Days ago I bid, without telling my husband, as a lark $2k pp on a Royal Suite.   No outbid notification.  I texted my husband and told him.  He literally said “Cool go for it”.   So its still sitting there in pending. There are no RS available.  The chances are likely nil.  It was the minimum bid required.  So weak weak weak.

 

Given he said “Cool go for it”, I then went back in and put the same exact $2k pp bid on a Penthouse.  There is none available, its too big for us, but if we are submitting that for RS we might as well for PS since same minimum.    This has also NOT triggered an outbid email.   Yet.  Chances here likely nil.   But no outbid?  Really?  At 2 weeks out?    
 

so I sit here with RS and PS both in pending status.  If we get one, great.  If not, what my husband doesn’t know is I am going to like take that same money and bump up our category on the 2024 cruise.

 

I have a suspicion that outbid notifications are only going out for lower suites and not upper suites due to popularity.

 

Hope this helps people trying to figure it all out.   If I do pull off a surprise and get an upgrade, with let you all know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by mtempelaar

[jagoffee]

12 minutes ago, mtempelaar said:

My last post got lost, so given that I am the one that posted the outbid email pic and there seems to be a desire to collect more data points I feel I can give a better view of my experiece.   
 

Facts going into this: 

1) I am a Captains Club member with Classic level, just shy of Select.  Bid Multiplier is 1.

2) I have not sailed Celebrity since 2003.  
3) I have an s2 sky suite booked for Beyond for Nov 13.   This was booked when Beyond showed up for reservations in 2020 and I applied Apex FCCs from pandemic.  All in $7100 (this was refundable fare prior to final payment date).   
4) We are perfectly happy with our cabin so if no upgrade, we are fine.

5) We are booked on Beyond again in 2024 in an S1, again at a steal of a price.

 

When we got initial Move Up email we reviewed the prices and said no thanks.

 

A few weeks later I decided, without telling my husband, to bid $400 pp for AQ Sky Suite.   We aren’t doing shore excursions so the thermal spa was enticing me as well as Blu.   This bid held for about 4 days and then I got the first outbid email.  By then my husband knew I had bid and the rationale.

 

I went in and did a $500 bid.  I IMMEDIATELY got an outbid email.   
 

After a few minutes calculating cost of thermal spa and whether value of that and Blu was worth it, I decided $600 was my max bid.   I submitted.   Again IMMEDIATELY got an outbid notification.  Note this was considered a strong bid.

 

I texted my husband.  I told him I was curious here.   Said I was going to roll the dice to see what happens at $700 pp but I was likely going to cancel after.   Kind of a test, but if it got accepted, I was kind of ok with it.   There were 6 AQ SS showing available at this time.   $700 was a very high strong big.   It stuck for a day.   Now I could have stood on that bid, knowing there were still cabins available and maybe only 1 person was ahead of me.   But I did more calculations and did cancel it.     This was a couple of weeks ago.

 

2 Days ago I bid, without telling my husband, as a lark $2k pp on a Royal Suite.   No outbid notification.  I texted my husband and told him.  He literally said “Cool go for it”.   So its still sitting there in pending. There are no RS available.  The chances are likely nil.  It was the minimum bid required.  So weak weak weak.

 

Given he said “Cool go for it”, I then went back in and put the same exact $2k pp bid on a Penthouse.  There is none available, its too big for us, but if we are submitting that for RS we might as well for PS since same minimum.    This has also NOT triggered an outbid email.   Yet.  Chances here likely nil.   But no outbid?  Really?  At 2 weeks out?    
 

so I sit here with RS and PS both in pending status.  If we get one, great.  If not, what my husband doesn’t know is I am going to like take that same money and bump up our category on the 2024 cruise.

 

I have a suspicion that outbid notifications are only going out for lower suites and not upper suites due to popularity.

 

Hope this helps people trying to figure it all out.   If I do pull off a surprise and get an upgrade, with let you all know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for sharing this information.  Has anyone else had this kind of experience.

 

Do you think it is possible that the notice was some kind of Spam?  Did you go back to your original bid email, when you increased you bid for the Aqua Suite or did you do it via the outbid email?

 

Very interesting.  It would  be good to know if this is happening to others.

You might want to go back directly to the Celebrity bid site and resubmit you AQ suite bid at a comfortable amount and ignore the request to bid a higher amount. (Just in case it is not legit or misleading)

 

Best of Luck.