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Bidding on an upgrade

babs135

By babs135,
in Cunard Line

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majortom10

majortom10

Posted
Posted
45 minutes ago, newbie202020 said:

I thought that you can't choose the stateroom number for upgrades. That's why I don't bid for upgrades or put myself down for free upgrades as I need mid ship to avoid motion sickness. If there's an upgrade program where I can choose the location, then I would definitely be interested.

 

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

That is correct just type of cabin, suite i.e. QG, PG, Club or balcony and then there is different pricing for grades of cabin/suite.

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Pushpit "Live from...." Rare

Pushpit

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, newbie202020 said:

I thought that you can't choose the stateroom number for upgrades.

I too am prone to motion sickness, but on QM2 it's not something I need to worry about, or on shorter trips across the Channel.  But if you were referring to my earlier post, I was offered a Plusgrade bid, but then saw the fares had fallen anyway (they have since gone back up again), so I just rang Cunard and asked them for a quote to the upgraded cabin. As it happen, Club staterooms are pretty much all midship, a few are Mid Forward. Anyway on the call to Cunard I was quoted for specific cabins, and at price higher than the opening bid slider on Plusgrade but a lot lower than when I first purchase and for a specific stateroom. But this wasn't Plusgrade, it was more a factor of the falling fare price.

 

But having rung Cunard, I'm now in a position to Plusgrade to the Grills for a very low cost, which I've done, but I'm quite relaxed about whether I get it or not. My general stance is to try to stick to £200 per night in a Balcony, including obstructed and sheltered, and to spend any excess over that on another voyage rather than play Cunard's enticement games.

 

With Plusgrade you can't specify staterooms or port/starboard etc. If that's a big deal then don't use Plusgrade, just watch the fares and call up. 

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bluemarble

bluemarble

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, Wagtail adventures said:

I am confused, what is 'Plusgrade' please? Many thanks 

 

Plusgrade is the company that manages the upgrade bidding process. When you receive the email from Cunard stating you are eligible to bid on any upgrade, the link they provide in that email takes you to "upgrade.plusgrade.com/offer/...".

 

The Plusgrade website states they partner with Azamara, Celebrity, Costa, Cunard, MSC, Norwegian, P&O, P&O Australia, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Uniworld and Virgin as their cruise clients. They have many more clients in other industries especially airlines (they list 77 airline clients).

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Pushpit "Live from...." Rare

Pushpit

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Wagtail adventures said:

Ah, thank you so much for your detailed reply. I had wondered if it was something in addition to the Cunard upgrades. 

Well in a way it is. Cunard upgrades 2 ways - complimentary upgrades, and paid upgrades. The latter is cheaper if there has been a price fall since booking, and instead of getting cross when you see your fare drop say £200 just after the deposit deadline, you can call up and ask for the cost of an upgrade - this will mitigate the pain since you will get into the higher stateroom more cheaply than at the time of initial purchase. We suspect complimentary upgrades are not that common, however I got one earlier a few months back (obstructed to unobstructed balcony).

 

I have a one-off anecdote there, when I bought - unusual for me - Oceanview, for what I thought was a low cost, and the balconies where expensive for a 7 nighter down to Lisbon. At 95 days to departure the prices across the board nearly halved! I would have been better to throw away my deposit. I rang up, and said "OK, I get that fares are dynamic, can I pay for an upgrade to Balcony". Tap, tap, tap; "No sir, the most expensive balcony is cheaper than your Oceanview fare and it has to be equal or more expensive".  How much cheaper is your expensive Balcony? £3. I said "oh come on now..." and the agent rapidly whispered "I don't quite believe it myself, let me talk to my manager". And I not only got the upgrade but Cunard refunded me £3!

 

Plusgrade is a Canadian outsourced model. It's used by airlines, as mentioned by @bluemarble, where it us used a lot by the Star Alliance group of airlines, TAP, Lufthansa, LOT and so on. For the few hundred that Plusgrade do for Cunard, they do hundreds of thousands of upgrades for Star Alliance. They know their stuff. They also handle railway upgrades, financial services, and hotels too. The also run Points international, which is a way of buying more Avios, Hilton Points and so on at a cut price. The model is "dear Cunard, give us a bit of your inventory, we will charge 20% for our services, you will get a heap of money from us, since we know how to haggle with your customers". And they do.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Pushpit "Live from...." Rare

Pushpit

Posted
Posted
On 10/26/2023 at 11:27 PM, Pushpit said:

I put in a low bid for P1, P2, if it works then I'll be in Princess for a total of £640 (solo traveller) rather than a more typical cost of around £850.

My low £50 per person (so £100 as a solo traveller) Plusgrade bid was accepted and I have been upgraded from Club to Princess.

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DeirdreTours

DeirdreTours

Posted
Posted

We have received a plusgrade offer for our 17 nights SFO-AUK cruise departing February 7 on Queen Victoria.   On Cunard, all cabins show as sold out and have for the last 3 months, except for  few days right after final payment when Q was showing available.

We are currently booked in a Guarantee Balcony  BD at $2970 all in, and were offered :

Q3-4- min bid $4895

Q-5,6- min bid $4745

P1-P2- min bid  $3250

Club- min bid $1160

 

We are not inclined to bid as I don't see $2300 in value in Club or $6500 in P1.   We can use that sum towards a lot of specialty dining and other little luxuries instead!

 

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  • 3 months later...
Pushpit "Live from...." Rare

Pushpit

Posted
Posted

I have another 2 night HAM-SOU coming up and the upgrade email came through today, some 11 weeks before departure. I'm in a QM2 Sheltered Balcony.

 

My offers - minimum bid - are

Balcony (instead of Sheltered Balcony): £40

Club Balcony: £50

Princess: £110

Queens Q5 / Q6: £160

Queens Q4: £360

Above offers being per person, so in my case as a solo passenger I would have to pay double these figures. Strangely, the voyage is shown as sold out except for Balcony so maybe the upgrades won't work here, at least at the lower prices.

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CubanIrish

CubanIrish

Posted
Posted

Yes, just had an inside cabin bumped up to a sheltered balcony for $5 more than the minimum bid. Our May 23 crossing appears to have plenty of room, as prices have dropped greatly since earlier this year.

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wetterthanwater

wetterthanwater

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Deafcruise said:

I have bid for Q2 and Q1 but I checked online and it said Queen Grill are sold out so not sure how bidding works?

I guess they overbook cheaper cabins. They are hoping to monetise the upgrades before having to upgrade people for free.

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laktex

laktex

Posted
Posted
On 4/24/2024 at 8:36 AM, Deafcruise said:

I have bid for Q2 and Q1 but I checked online and it said Queen Grill are sold out so not sure how bidding works?

Yes - I have bid for an upgrade to Q1 on Queen Anne  but I'm not feeling too hopeful, although I have had a Q1 upgrade before on the QE.  (Not a lot of Q1's to go around!!)

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NE John Great Review Rare

NE John

Posted
Posted

I got a call yesterday directly from Cunard offering, for a very reasonable upcharge, a move from PG to a Q6 for an upcoming Alaska trip. The only caveat is that it may be a handicap room, something I don’t need. While the bathroom is not as nice as a QG bathroom (no tub) I took up that offer because the price was very right and it gives us a discounted way to give us our first QG experience. If that room is needed for a disabled pax, we get upgraded from there. 
 

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MiguelST

MiguelST

Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

I've received an email regarding a Cunard upgrade, about a Cunard cruise I will do in 50 days, but it seems a bit scammy.

 

Can anyone forward me an Cunard Upgrade email, received in the past? I'm a bit suspect about clicking on the Links

My email: miguel.santos.teixeira@gmail.com

 

Thanks :)

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exlondoner

exlondoner

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, MiguelST said:

Hi,

 

I've received an email regarding a Cunard upgrade, about a Cunard cruise I will do in 50 days, but it seems a bit scammy.

 

Can anyone forward me an Cunard Upgrade email, received in the past? I'm a bit suspect about clicking on the Links

My email: miguel.santos.teixeira@gmail.com

 

Thanks 🙂

Does it say anything on my Cunard?

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bluemarble

bluemarble

Posted
Posted (edited)

@MiguelST, as @exlondoner has advised, log in to your booking in My Cunard. If you are eligible to bid for an upgrade, there should be a section under "My stateroom" called "Upgrade your stateroom" with a link to "View my upgrade options".

 

Edit to add: The link to "View my upgrade options" will take you to "upgrade.plusgrade.com". Plusgrade is the company that handles the upgrade bidding process.

Edited by bluemarble
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NE John Great Review Rare

NE John

Posted
Posted
33 minutes ago, MiguelST said:

Hi,

 

I've received an email regarding a Cunard upgrade, about a Cunard cruise I will do in 50 days, but it seems a bit scammy.

 

Can anyone forward me an Cunard Upgrade email, received in the past? I'm a bit suspect about clicking on the Links

My email: miguel.santos.teixeira@gmail.com

 

Thanks 🙂

Click on the email and make sure it’s from Cunard and not ending in an unknown email address. 
Also, here’s the link to use:

https://my.cunard.com/en-us/mycruise/login
This is the US site. 

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MiguelST

MiguelST

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

@MiguelST, as @exlondoner has advised, log in to your booking in My Cunard. If you are eligible to bid for an upgrade, there should be a section under "My stateroom" called "Upgrade your stateroom" with a link to "View my upgrade options".

 

Edit to add: The link to "View my upgrade options" will take you to "upgrade.plusgrade.com". Plusgrade is the company that handles the upgrade bidding process.

image.thumb.png.2dc77a02f487c9d8c02dd71dc8254206.pngIt only shows this on that section...

 

That's why I wanted the email, really seems funky 😕

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