Upgrade Special Offer

[CarolRoy]

I just got an offer to upgrade my cabin on the Oosterdam for our cruise on Sept. 26, 2023.  Not sure how this will work.  Do they tell you the cabin you will get.  Do they put your original cabin up for grabs before they assign you a new cabin.  Once before they gave me an upgrade which I felt was not an upgrade. Now when I make a booking I request no upgrade.  Any thoughts.

[FlaMariner]

Call the number with your credit card and the deck plan ready....They will tell you what cabins you can upgrade to and you can decide if it is a good thing or not.

 

Yes, when you buy the upgrade cabin, the original cabin you had goes back in the pot.  

 

Good luck and come back and tell us how you did.

 

 

 

 

[CarolRoy]

6 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

Call the number with your credit card and the deck plan ready....They will tell you what cabins you can upgrade to and you can decide if it is a good thing or not.

 

Yes, when you buy the upgrade cabin, the original cabin you had goes back in the pot.  

 

Good luck and come back and tell us how you did.

 

 

 

 

So I assume they will not put your original cabin back in the pot until you buy the upgrade cabin.  

[FlorenceItaly]

Just now, CarolRoy said:

So I assume they will not put your original cabin back in the pot until you buy the upgrade cabin.  

Right.

[Mary229]

These offers disappear quickly so don’t hesitate 

[asebastian]

4 hours ago, CarolRoy said:

I just got an offer to upgrade my cabin

I recently got an upgrade to a Neptune which I turned down, and a day later got another upgrade offer for a Signature Suite. I accepted on the proviso that I get a cabin from a list I provided to my TA, and she came and said yes, 2 were available from the 6 that I provided. We are particular on the Port or Starboard side of the ship depending on destination, also particular to the decks (don't want any cabins that may be under Lido for example). This is on the Westerdam, sailing is just over 3 weeks from now.

[vswan]

Unlike many other cruise lines, this is not a auction or bidding process - unless things have changed that I'm not aware of. There is a phone number you call and you are assigned a cabin while on the phone, there may be a number of choices. If you don't like the cabins available, keep what you have. Sometimes you may be able to switch to a "different" class of upgrade, example an upgrade from interior to OV could be one price and inside to balcony a different price.

 

Not sure if this is still the case, and it probably depends on how full the ships are at this point, but I started receiving upgrade offers nearly as soon as I booked (we generally book close to sailing) and the offers went down in price the closer we got to sailing.

[rodndonna]

Let us know how it turns out. We are on your cruise and called in to upgrade (interior to Obstructed OV) for a nominal fee a couple of weeks back to get a sofa in  the room. Maybe we should have waited? 🙂

 

Good luck and see you next week! 

[albingirl]

I do a little gamble on these paid upgrades.  I don't take the first one, since I generally receive another, much better, offer a week or so later.  This depends on how well the ship is selling.  Once, I declined all offers and got placed in the upgrade for free.  My lucky day!  I wouldn't count on it again but it was fun while it lasted.

[Gunther1]

I have sailed 21 times with HAL and always book an interior room.  19 of these 21 times I was able to purchase an upgrade for much less than the original asking price…..that’s a a 90.47% success rate.

 

The other 9.53 % ?…..Im still on a cruise, so still quite happy.

[cate54]

I just got my second upgrade offer on my  26 day transatlantic October 20th. The first offer I refused and the second came in, and I accepted. Got the exact one that I had my eye on. There are 5 left but the web side shows them as sold out. Very weird. Can't wait to be back at sea.

Edited September 26, 2023 by cate54

[FlorenceItaly]

1 minute ago, cate54 said:

I just got my second upgrade offer on my  26 day transatlantic October 20th. I first offer I refused and the second came in, and I accepted. Got the exact one that I had my eye on. There are 5 left but the web side shows them as sold out. Very weird. Can't wait to be back at sea.

Congratulations!  They are sending the offers out sooner than typical.  What category did you upgrade from and to?

[cate54]

Just now, FlorenceItaly said:

Congratulations!  They are sending the offers out sooner than typical.  What category did you upgrade from and to?

I upgraded from Balcony to a Signature Suite, the Neptune price was still too high. 

[dfrohman]

Does HAL contact you directly with an upgrade offer? Is that true if you use a TA as well? Or would it have to go to the TA and the TA contact you? We have never been offered one. We book directly with HAL but usually transfer our booking to a "big box" TA.

[asebastian]

25 minutes ago, dfrohman said:

Does HAL contact you directly with an upgrade offer?

I received both my offers through my TA. HAL has never contacted me directly about the upgrades.

[cruise101]

To the best of my knowledge the “big box” TA opts out of upgrade offers, so you are unlikely to receive an upgrade offer if your booking is with that TA.

[cate54]

My TA received the offer. Because I go thru a TA I have never received an offer thru email.

[Ellencruise]

I received my first and so far only upgrade, which was great, notified through my TA. BTW it was free!

[PointsNerd]

Has anyone received these upgrade offers without using a TA?  I booked directly and was looking forward to some offers ...

[Dobby36]

1 hour ago, PointsNerd said:

Has anyone received these upgrade offers without using a TA?  I booked directly and was looking forward to some offers ...

yes, ive booked directly and have received offers to upgrade.  Also, if you can in to ask about upgrades too early (30+days prior to sailing, or so) you may be told you can be put on a waitlist for specific room categories of upgrades that may open up.  I’ve done that, but haven’t yet gotten a call, as sailings remained full.   But yes, I’ve got regular upgrade offers booking directly.  

[asebastian]

My TA told me that it's a complicated way HAL determines to offer you an upgrade - depends on several factors such as where you booked it, category and price of original fare, ship occupancy, your own number of sailings and days at sea, Mariner status, how close are you to the next level up and so on - probably an algorithm running to spit out potential upgrade candidates for marketing. May look random but I'm sure there's a method in the madness. She also said that it excludes offers made to "losers" at the casino...😃

[PointsNerd]

8 minutes ago, asebastian said:

My TA told me that it's a complicated way HAL determines to offer you an upgrade - depends on several factors such as where you booked it, category and price of original fare, ship occupancy, your own number of sailings and days at sea, Mariner status, how close are you to the next level up and so on - probably an algorithm running to spit out potential upgrade candidates for marketing. May look random but I'm sure there's a method in the madness. She also said that it excludes offers made to "losers" at the casino...😃

Well, I was booked on a free cruise offer through a casino status match ... so sounds like I'm out of luck on an upgrade offer?

[asebastian]

6 minutes ago, PointsNerd said:

so sounds like I'm out of luck on an upgrade offer

Always a roll of the dice with HAL upgrades (pardon the pun)

[KAKcruiser]

The offers to upgrade for a fee go out to everyone.  If you booked through a TA it will go through them.  They may or may not decide to forward the information to you.

[crystalspin]

On 9/27/2023 at 7:25 AM, PointsNerd said:

Has anyone received these upgrade offers without using a TA?  I booked directly and was looking forward to some offers ...

My one and only upgrade (paid) was in 2014 on the Zaandam 14-day So.America. Booked directly with HAL. Upgrade from OV to VS (Vista Suite is the lowest cabin with a balcony on the class Zaandam is in). Subsequently, we moved to booking through a PCC and paying for the cabin we want -- marking them NO UPGRADES, so I can't help with more recent experiences.