Curious about upgrading

[Jeal]

Regarding upgrade offers - are the upgrade minimum bids from Aurea to Yacht Club and Bella to Yacht Club the same? Or, because I initially paid more for Aurea the minimum upgrade offer is less? 
I hope this makes sense. 

[PTC DAWG]

3 minutes ago, Jeal said:

Regarding upgrade offers - are the upgrade minimum bids from Aurea to Yacht Club and Bella to Yacht Club the same? Or, because I initially paid more for Aurea the minimum upgrade offer is less? 
I hope this makes sense. 

It can vary sailing to sailing..   but generally the answer to your question is yes…that has been my experience on other lines..

 

Some lines limit how many “classes” of cabins you can move up, I’m not sure if MSC does this or not.  

[JamieLogical]

I would guess it depends on if you have a special cabin type associated with your experience. Since it's not possible to bid for an upgrade from a Bella balcony to just a normal Aurea balcony (not one of the balcony suites or anything), then I don't think whether your initially booked experience would matter at all. You have to think of upgrading as a "chain". Upgrading someone from one cabin type to another frees up the original cabin type for someone else to bid on.

 

How much you originally paid is completely irrelevant. MSC is going to accept the bids that net them the most NEW money. They already have the money you originally paid. If upgrading you at your bid amount + upgrading someone into your old cabin + upgrading someone else into that person's old cabin = more money than some other alternative chain, then that is what they will do.

[Até]

Someone recently posted an email from MSC/PlusGrade stating pre-cruise purchases of  drinks, spa and internet packages are considered when determining bid amounts to cabins where they are included.  But cabin category, inside/OV/balcony/suite, seems to mainly drive the minimum amounts more than experience level.  One odd case where this seems to apply is the typical minimum bid amount from YC inside to YC deluxe, usually higher than from a regular balcony to YC deluxe.

 

I do agree that in the case of the same cabin types with the same amenities only the bid amount matters, initial cost of the cabin does not matter.

Edited October 18, 2023 by Até

[Jeal]

Thank you for the responses. 

[Essiesmom]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

I would guess it depends on if you have a special cabin type associated with your experience. Since it's not possible to bid for an upgrade from a Bella balcony to just a normal Aurea balcony (not one of the balcony suites or anything), then I don't think whether your initially booked experience would matter at all. You have to think of upgrading as a "chain". Upgrading someone from one cabin type to another frees up the original cabin type for someone else to bid on.

 

How much you originally paid is completely irrelevant. MSC is going to accept the bids that net them the most NEW money. They already have the money you originally paid. If upgrading you at your bid amount + upgrading someone into your old cabin + upgrading someone else into that person's old cabin = more money than some other alternative chain, then that is what they will do.

I do t agree about what is not possible.  It’s going to be different for each situation.  Just depends on what’s available.  I haven’t received any offers for my December cruise, I think because it is 10 days, also sold as a 3 and a 7.  So no cabins available for the ten.  EM

[voyagerL]

My understanding of the Bidgrade system is that they find chains of upgrades which generate revenue. So they'll identify a chain of successive upgrades and then approve them. We sail 31 Oct 23 but got our bidgrade bid which we submitted last night, approved this afternoon. We actually bid for a YC Int which we normally book direct but this was a casino discounted cruise and the rubbish vouchers don't extend to YC anymore. However, we were very pleased to have been upgraded to a YC1 instead of an interior. 

 

For full context, we booked an interior bella with premium extra drinks. We received a comp upgrade to a Deluxe Balcony and then got a bidgrade email. 

[Preziosa]

How much did you pay VoyagerL