P&O upgrade bidding - any good?

[Purdey16]

Hi da.h@ntlworld.com  I’m sorry you were unfortunate to get your upgrade but we also didn’t get ours and I bided 460 so I guess more pocket money 😉 it’s not the end of the world for us and I’m happy where we got , this was my very first time we ever bid .

[Purdey16]

11 hours ago, da.h@ntlworld.com said:

Hi Selbourne as you may have guessed I have not been successful in my bid for an upgrade ☹️but still have my £450 in my back pocket 😂😂😂.Only 2 balcony cabins left and just found out I’m in E123 deck 6.

Did you get a email to confirm this? I haven’t yet but I’ve now got my assigned cabin so guess unsuccessful.

[da.h@ntlworld.com]

6 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

Did you get a email to confirm this? I haven’t yet but I’ve now got my assigned cabin so guess unsuccessful.

Hi Purdey16 have not received an email but looks like the ship 🚢 only has 2 balcony cabins available to book at present ,can’t print anything yet so may be a very small chance 🤞🤞🤞.

[da.h@ntlworld.com]

Hi Selbourne just 4 weeks to go been a long time since my last cruise (2019)so can’t wait just hoping for good crossing in the BoB.

[da.h@ntlworld.com]

1 hour ago, Purdey16 said:

Hi da.h@ntlworld.com  I’m sorry you were unfortunate to get your upgrade but we also didn’t get ours and I bided 460 so I guess more pocket money 😉 it’s not the end of the world for us and I’m happy where we got , this was my very first time we ever bid .

Hi Purdey16 as you say more pocket money 💴 this will be very handy as have no OBS,we just booked a cheap inside cabin no frills so nothing lost.

ps only 4 weeks till we go .

[da.h@ntlworld.com]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Sorry to hear that but I’m sure that you will still have a lovely cruise, especially with your extra spending money!

Will do thanks.

[Cathygh]

I can confirm that complementary upgrades still exist. Just had my GF moved to GD and someone I know has been moved from HF to GF. But if I wanted a super deluxe I would have had to bid for it

[Selbourne]

8 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

I can confirm that complementary upgrades still exist. Just had my GF moved to GD and someone I know has been moved from HF to GF. But if I wanted a super deluxe I would have had to bid for it

I can’t remember what ship you are going on Cathy, but are those ‘proper’ upgrades (I.e. to a better cabin type - e.g. inside to outside, outside to balcony) or what P&O calls an upgrade, which can be an identical cabin but just in a slightly more midships location which may bring problems that you wouldn’t have had in the original cabin? 🤔

[yorkshirephil]

11 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

I can confirm that complementary upgrades still exist. Just had my GF moved to GD and someone I know has been moved from HF to GF. But if I wanted a super deluxe I would have had to bid for it

We had a complimentary upgrade on our recent Aurora cruise from GF to GB.

[Cathygh]

17 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I can’t remember what ship you are going on Cathy, but are those ‘proper’ upgrades (I.e. to a better cabin type - e.g. inside to outside, outside to balcony) or what P&O calls an upgrade, which can be an identical cabin but just in a slightly more midships location which may bring problems that you wouldn’t have had in the original cabin? 🤔

I'm on Britannia and I would call it a P&O upgrade. However I'm happy as I have moved from deck 8 forward  (above the theatre) to deck 9 aft (cabins above and below). 

[bobstheboy]

My TA gets me a cabin I want so no upgrades.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I can’t remember what ship you are going on Cathy, but are those ‘proper’ upgrades (I.e. to a better cabin type - e.g. inside to outside, outside to balcony) or what P&O calls an upgrade, which can be an identical cabin but just in a slightly more midships location which may bring problems that you wouldn’t have had in the original cabin? 🤔

HF  to GF, will be from a non sofa balcony to a sofa balcony, I think.

[Josy1953]

We always book select fares and say no upgrade because we like to be sure that we are in a position on the ship that we know is likely to quiet.  For me there is nothing worse than being mid-ship where people may be talking very loudly when walking past our cabin late at night.  We always book an aft cabin with  wake view.

[Purdey16]

We normally do book select and request no upgrades but this is our first saver fare cruise just a inside cabin and I thought I’d give the bidding a try , but the cabin we have been given now we are happy with.

[Selbourne]

14 hours ago, Cathygh said:

I'm on Britannia and I would call it a P&O upgrade. However I'm happy as I have moved from deck 8 forward  (above the theatre) to deck 9 aft (cabins above and below). 

A definite improvement Cathy. Well done. 

[Coast To Coasters]

Heard mixed experiences with bidding with P&O! Some people seem to be quite successful, others havent ever had an upgrade! Doesn't even seem to correlate with the price bidding, I've heard of lowest bids being achieved, and others haven't got anything with the highest so sometimes it just appears to be luck!

[yorkshirephil]

31 minutes ago, Coast To Coasters said:

Heard mixed experiences with bidding with P&O! Some people seem to be quite successful, others havent ever had an upgrade! Doesn't even seem to correlate with the price bidding, I've heard of lowest bids being achieved, and others haven't got anything with the highest so sometimes it just appears to be luck!

I think there are so many variables thrown in plus P&O technology (or lack of) that it was always going to be a mishmash. Exactly the same thing is happening on other lines. A so called better grade cabin is not always better for some people if it is in the wrong place. You win some you lose some.

[Selbourne]

44 minutes ago, Coast To Coasters said:

Heard mixed experiences with bidding with P&O! Some people seem to be quite successful, others havent ever had an upgrade! Doesn't even seem to correlate with the price bidding, I've heard of lowest bids being achieved, and others haven't got anything with the highest so sometimes it just appears to be luck!

For us, location is critical so we always say no to upgrades. We had a deluxe balcony cabin on Iona that was in the perfect location. We would have absolutely hated a Conservatory Mini Suite on the Promenade deck and the sole accessible suite is in a poor position directly above the aft Sunset Bar. Both would have been a negative move for us, even though deemed upgrades!

Edited November 4, 2023 by Selbourne

[Josy1953]

We just received the upgrade offer for our next cruise we have decided  we are not going for it.  We like where we are currently at the rear with cabins above and below and don't want to risk being in a cabin in noisy position.  We spend a lot of time choosing our cabin  looking carefully at what is above and below whether it is close to the stairs and lifts where people may be chatting as they make their way back to their cabins late at night and could wake us up.

We had marked our booking as no upgrade so it looks like P&O have ignored that.

[molecrochip]

Do remember that whilst you may be able to bid for an upgrade - it doesn't necessarily mean that the cabin is available. By the time the bids are ready to be considered, someone may have actually bought that suite for full price.

[Winifred 22]

3 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

We just received the upgrade offer for our next cruise we have decided  we are not going for it.  We like where we are currently at the rear with cabins above and below and don't want to risk being in a cabin in noisy position.  We spend a lot of time choosing our cabin  looking carefully at what is above and below whether it is close to the stairs and lifts where people may be chatting as they make their way back to their cabins late at night and could wake us up.

We had marked our booking as no upgrade so it looks like P&O have ignored that.

They have not really. You ticked you didn’t want a free upgrade from P & O for all the reasons you started. This is different this is an opportunity to chose and bid on cabin /grade / position that you may have considered but not thought it worth the extra money. A possible bid may get you a better cabin at a price you are more comfortable with. If you don’t bid on anything, nothing changes. No upgrade. Can’t see P & O have ignored your request. 

[tring]

On 11/6/2023 at 2:02 PM, Winifred 22 said:

This is different this is an opportunity to chose and bid on cabin /grade / position that you may have considered but not thought it worth the extra money. A possible bid may get you a better cabin at a price you are more comfortable with. 

 

From what I had understood, you can only bid for a specific type of cabin, (i.e. outside, balcony, deluxe balcony, type pf suite).  Am I wrong on that, so you can actually bid on a specific grade within the type of cabin and even the position of a cabin you wish to bid for?  Or is your post incorrect about that? 

 

Would be interesting to know if you can indeed choose a position of a cabin when bidding for an upgrade, as it may make a difference on our thoughts about paying full price for an upgrade on a cruise we have booked.

 

I do agree that someone who has ticked "no automatic upgrade" should still be given the option to go into the upgrade bidding system.  The "no upgrade" request has not been ignored unless they move someone to another cabin without their wish.

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by tring

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

From what I had understood, you can only bid for a specific type of cabin, (i.e. outside, balcony, deluxe balcony, type pf suite).  Am I wrong on that, so you can actually bid on a specific grade within the type of cabin and even the position of a cabin you wish to bid for?  Or is your post incorrect about that? 

 

Would be interesting to know if you can indeed choose a position of a cabin when bidding for an upgrade, as it may make a difference on our thoughts about paying full price for an upgrade on a cruise we have booked.

 

I do agree that someone who has ticked "no automatic upgrade" should still be given the option to go into the upgrade bidding system.  The "no upgrade" request has not been ignored unless they move someone to another cabin without their wish.

 

You are correct. You can only bid on better cabin types. The movement between grades within the same cabin type, which in reality aren’t upgrades in the way that most people would define them, come under the free ‘upgrades’ that P&O can make to those who haven’t opted out of upgrades.
 

There always used to be an option to allow P&O to make a free upgrade but only to a different cabin ‘type’ (I.e. a ‘proper’ upgrade) but I don’t know if that has survived the implementation of the bid to upgrade system. 

[Capella Black]

Do we know how late allocations happen? For example, what's the latest anyone's been emailed? And do you get an email to say you've been unsuccessful, or only if you have been upgraded?

[Son of Anarchy]

21 minutes ago, Capella Black said:

Do we know how late allocations happen? For example, what's the latest anyone's been emailed? And do you get an email to say you've been unsuccessful, or only if you have been upgraded?

We are booked to go on 05 December.  Only booked last week.  Got the upgrade offer email yesterday.

 

We have booked a Superior Deluxe Balcony, the only higher grades therefore being suites.

 

On a previous cruise (October) we got the upgrade knockback email about a week before departure.  No surprise as at the time we bidded all cabins above our grade were sold out.

 

Had a quick look on another social media site.  Lots of people posting that their upgrade bids had been accepted in the last few days.

 

Doubt our upgrade will be accepted as it would rely on a late cancellation, and there's probably more people who've bidded (or should it be bade?) more that the paltry amount I've offered.  Like our previous cruise, I expect to find out in two weeks.  Happy with the cabin we've allocated anyway, though won't turn me nose up if our offer is accepted.