Upgrade Bidding

[DeanUU]

On Upgrade Bidding...
 

OK, someone explain this to me as if I am 5 yrs old.

 

We paid in full for a sheltered balcony a while ago, QM2 Singapore-Southampton. Let's say the price for that was "x".

We received an email offering the opportunity to bid to upgrade...excellent!

Minimum bids to upgrade are (in AUD):

Britannia Club: $3385 per guest (so $6770/suite)

Princess suite: $7905 pg (so $15810/suite)

Queens Suite: $7100 pg ($14200/suite)

Condition is that we have no say in the suite we are offered in the upgrade. Fair enough. Nor can we change back to our original suite. 

 

Here's what I don't understand.

If I book and pay for a cruise today, so Late Saver Fare, the prices quoted with same condition ie no suite selection:

Britannia Club: "x" +$200/suite

Princess Suite: "x" + $6950/suite

Queens Suite: "x" + $13350/suite

 

You see where I am going with this...there is no benefit whatsoever in considering an upgrade. Why the hell would I pony up an additional $6770 (minimum) for an upgrade to Britannia Club when I can book a Late Saver for just $200 more than what was the original cost of my cruise? Even Princess Suite seems to be good value as a Late Saver fare.

 

The ONLY advantage I can see to booking & paying way in advance is that you can choose your stateroom, however the Britannia Club suites seem to be in their own section of the ship, Decks 12 & 13, forward & mid forward so you're going to have a good idea of where you are going to be.  

 

The smart play, going forward, is to snap up late fares from now on as they present much better value that choosing to upgrade later. As established Cunard cruisers I would have thought the better option for Cunard would be to offer really decent upgrade options to existing guests and open up the lower priced cabins as much as possible. 

 

[Fairplay]

Hi @DeanUU - is that from the original 'minimum bid' mail that was sent out a few weeks ago (i.e. before the reroute)? If so, they may be redundant now. When I spoke to Cunard last week their operative said that this bid programme had been frozen whilst they assess demand for the new route.

 

If it is a new 'bid' programme I'm wondering why I haven't received a new mail.

 

Of course, your logic is sound if your mail does represent an updated bid programme - why not cancel and rebook on the late saver fare?!

[DeanUU]

7 minutes ago, Fairplay said:

Hi @DeanUU - is that from the original 'minimum bid' mail that was sent out a few weeks ago (i.e. before the reroute)? If so, they may be redundant now. When I spoke to Cunard last week their operative said that this bid programme had been frozen whilst they assess demand for the new route.

 

If it is a new 'bid' programme I'm wondering why I haven't received a new mail.

 

Of course, your logic is sound if your mail does represent an updated bid programme - why not cancel and rebook on the late saver fare?!

I received the original upgrade email a few weeks back: when I logged in to MyCunard this morning the upgrade options appear to be unchanged. I noticed the nonsensical discrepancy between Late Saver fares and the options to upgrade when the email first came through. I was hoping the upgrade options might have been refined to be more competitive but…no.

 

Not sure if cancelling and rebooking is even an option given we supposedly lose a % of our paid amount this close to the cruise. 
 

I’d definitely consider an upgrade bid, but when the minimum bid is relatively exorbitant as compared to a Late Saver fare it just makes no sense. At the very least Cunard should make the upgrade bid process a competitive exercise!

[Fairplay]

2 minutes ago, DeanUU said:

I received the original upgrade email a few weeks back: when I logged in to MyCunard this morning the upgrade options appear to be unchanged. I noticed the nonsensical discrepancy between Late Saver fares and the options to upgrade when the email first came through. I was hoping the upgrade options might have been refined to be more competitive but…no.

 

Not sure if cancelling and rebooking is even an option given we supposedly lose a % of our paid amount this close to the cruise. 
 

I’d definitely consider an upgrade bid, but when the minimum bid is relatively exorbitant as compared to a Late Saver fare it just makes no sense. At the very least Cunard should make the upgrade bid process a competitive exercise!

OK. Probably worth a call to Cunard to check as to whether you can cancel or not as I was led to believe that it was an option (of course the loss of the onboard and future cruise credits need to be factored in if one does cancel).

 

Still seems to be a bit of confusion around whilst Cunard assesses how full the boat will be on the reroute. Would be interested to know if many World Cruisers have changed plans given that QM2 is coming back on the same route she went (e.g. will many get off the boat in Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore. 

[Pushpit]

For a lot of information on Plusgrade, and previous worked examples (including from me), have a look at this thread:

 

 

Having been through that thread you will pick up that Plusgrade is an independent (Canadian) company that is hired to shift inventory, and freeing up lower priced staterooms for new customers at elevated prices. Note in particular that if Plusgrade doesn't get any money out of you then it's game over for them but not you. Plusgrade works a lot with airlines, and it's sometimes easier to pretend you were flying and what would be needed to move you from economy to business class.

 

So to go back to your questions, the key thing missing here is that it is all automated using Plusgrade's algorithms, and the bit the robots don't know is that presumably you have the option of cancelling for a full refund due to the significant changes to your booking. That's not in the algorithm, and therefore the nonsensical pricing hasn't yet taken that huge factor into account. If someone in Plusgrade is looking at this, they will realise that what is known, perhaps scarily, as "sunk pricing" is not sunk in your case - you can pull out and start again. It's not that straightforward due to the OBC position since that's not normally refundable. But you do a simple calculation here - is refund plus rebook minus OBC better than "do nothing" or "do something with Plusgrade for extra money".

 

The main thread also gives you another option: simply ringing up Cunard and saying "interested in Club, how much extra would I have to pay to upgrade please". This may not be a quick answer, it may take a good 10 minutes for them to come up with a figure. Experiences are mixed but what I've seen so far is that you may get an offer roughly halfway between your "start from fresh" maths and Plusgrade, with the significant benefit of being able to know your stateroom. Complicated by the fact that actually you are delving between Saver and Cunard fares, but I'll leave that complexity out for now.

 

The underlying issue is that thanks to a relatively small bunch of hoodlums in Yemen and their paymasters elsewhere, Cunard has through force majeure ended up with a relatively big inventory of unsold cabins close to departure, and having to refund quite a lot of people. Hence the rather generous bribes offered to stay on board.  But the impact is that the market price of these staterooms has fallen markedly so your X figure is, well, depreciated. But hopefully the above gives you some clarity.

[Jim_Iain]

I've used the Upgrade using Plus Grade on Celebrity  and awarded upgrades about 8 times.

 

As many pointed out, one really need to understand the current price and the value of an upgrade.   Most of the time they include room categories that are sold out and use the Upgrade program to fill these cancellations.

The bid amounts will vary according to the level room you already have.

 

Like the OP I have found times when the bid amounts being offered were far higher than what could be obtained on the open market by upgrading for full price of the upgrade.  

 

Know you prices and bid accordingly.    Also with the bidding program you can change your bid or cancel anytime up until an upgrade has been awarded.

 

Recently the prices of a Royal Suite on my cruise dropped to $350 more than what I had paid for my Celebrity Suite.   I have to point out that after final payment the price of my Celebrity Suite had dropped by $8,000.    I had my agent upgrade for the $350 but in doing so I had to forfeit a on-board booking credit of $800.     The minimum bid started at $2,000  pp. To me upgrading by upgrading my room instead of using the auction made sense. 

[TowandaUK]

I know on Celebrity when you make an upgrade bid the strength of the bid increases if you are on a higher tier in their loyalty club. Does the same apply on Cunard - do you have a greater chance of obtaining an upgrade if you are a higher tier in the Cunard World Club?  

[Pushpit]

Plusgrade on Cunard is relatively new, so I don't think we've seen the evidence of this yet, either one way or the other. But Plusgrade only gets any money out of this if your bid is successful, so for them at least I don't see where being a Diamond would make any difference, it's totally transactional so why would loyalty affect it? It's not being run by Cunard but by a separate company.  But any bid has a good chance of success, otherwise it wouldn't be offered, and the experience in airlines is that putting about 10% on to the minimum amount will give you a good chance of success. As reported in the other thread, I and other passengers have been successful on the minimum bid.

[Jim_Iain]

On 2/4/2024 at 8:58 AM, TowandaUK said:

I know on Celebrity when you make an upgrade bid the strength of the bid increases if you are on a higher tier in their loyalty club. Does the same apply on Cunard - do you have a greater chance of obtaining an upgrade if you are a higher tier in the Cunard World Club?  

 

Yes PlusGrade does work with each client and builds in certain priorities if client requests.   

 

This is how Celebrity's Status affects bidding -

 

As a valued Captain’s Club member your bid gets a bonus boost based on your tier. So, you get more value than what you bid. Classic members get an extra 1% multiplier, Select members get a 2% multiplier, Elite members get a 3% multiplier, Elite Plus members get a 4% multiplier, and Zenith members get a 5% multiplier. 

 

So if all other things are equal -- If I bid $100 as a Zenith my bid is $105 (but only pay $100) and a person with Classic  bid $100 would be $101.  Thus the Zenith would be awarded the upgrade.