Cabin Upgrade Bids

[GE65]

Hi,

I’ve seen a few posts here about the opportunity to bid for cabin upgrades.

We’re booked into one of the lifeboat restricted view cabins for Valiant in August and might change for a decent deal; when and where does the chance of upgrading appear?

Thanks.

[cantgetin]

You will get an email about 30-60 days before cruising with info about bidding.  You will learn whether your bid was accepted about 2-5 days before sailing as they try to sell cabins at full price as long as they can.

[Lustate]

8 hours ago, GE65 said:

Hi,

I’ve seen a few posts here about the opportunity to bid for cabin upgrades.

We’re booked into one of the lifeboat restricted view cabins for Valiant in August and might change for a decent deal; when and where does the chance of upgrading appear?

Thanks.

As a heads up, I would not count on getting one no matter what you bid. They have a structure where they work through various matrix first like when you booked, what you paid, if you had any good offers etc and eventually get to us "normal" folk. We bid on more than the going rate for a cabin upgrade last year (as in more than the cabin sells for) as it was sold out but accepting bids. Never got any of them, but people who paid less, bid less, but just struck it lucky got them on the cheap. 

[GE65]

Thanks for the comments.

200 days to go, so will see what happens in a few months.

 

Thanks

[cantgetin]

We were on a sailing that was only about half full and lots of people got upgrade bids accepted for moves to better views or inside to sea terrace.  The suites were sold out early on, but VV still accepted bids on them--no one canceled so no one got moved to a suite as far as the large FB group could tell.  Bottom line, VV wants to maximize their income on each sailing.  It doesn't cost them more to have you in a better view or sea terrace vs. oceanview or inside.  So, if they get an extra $125 from you, that's to the good for them.  One hint...bit an "uneven number."  If the minimum bid is $100, bid something like $107.  First, you're identified as bidding higher than the minimum and secondly, it triggers something in the algorithm to improve your chances.

[GE65]

Many thanks 🙏 

[CineGraphic]

I think one of the reasons they take bids on suites that are already sold-out is to see what folks are willing to pay.

[Lustate]

18 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

I think one of the reasons they take bids on suites that are already sold-out is to see what folks are willing to pay.

Yep, helps with with a massive data capture and a flavour of the market pricing for the suites. 

[karmamule]

One other thing to keep in mind with upgrades is that no single upgrade lives in isolation. The cruise line (or 3rd party company managing the upgrades) will want to string together a chain of upgrades that make them the most money. Sometimes that can mean someone with a lesser bid will win a cabin because their original cabin is an upgrade for someone else who did bid a lot of money, and the two bids combined will more than make up for the fact that they bid less than someone else.

[cantgetin]

Another point, there are relatively few "big" upgrades  on the Virgin ships.  They have 1400 cabins total, of these over 1000 are sea terraces and 78 are suites.  So there are not a lot of people in oceanview or inside cabins  to begin with.  With the ships only half full on many sailings, if you bid on an upgrade from one of these, you will probably get it.   There is a fair amount of bidding to upgrade from a limited view sea terrace making these bids less likely to happen, but again, on sailings that are not full your chances are good.  The XL sea terraces and suites are very popular and are often sold out before the bidding process starts.  However, there are always situations where people need to cancel, so nothing is impossible.

[_tacocat_]

also your "biddable pool" seems to be limited by what you initially book.  when i've been in a suite, i've been able to bid all the way up to massive, but when i've been in an XL, my bids top out at gorgeous

[cantgetin]

I don't know whether VV sells upgrades at the terminal or not.  Some other lines have this option available. There is a specific desk or person who has a chart showing what is available and what the cost would be to move from each cabin type to these available cabins. The nice thing about that is that the person will have exact room numbers, so you will know where you are going AND that opens this option to people who need an accessible cabin but might want an upgrade.  If you don't get your bid, it may be worth asking at the terminal.

[aviators99]

4 hours ago, cantgetin said:

I don't know whether VV sells upgrades at the terminal or not.  

They do.  There is an "Upgrade Desk" right after you check-in, on your way to security. (In Miami)