Possible Upgrade - when will I see it

[schattenfell71]

Hello from Germany!

 

I´ve contacted Cunard yesterday for some questions. Beside this I´ve asked (just for fun) about a possible upgrade. They asked me if I have choosen the upgrade option when booking (Premium). I did not do that so they marked the option for me now.

 

I have already a cabin number so when would I see an upgrade and is this the usually form?

 

Thanks,

Thorsten

 

As always....sorry for my English😇

[s.s.France]

A free upgrade is not very probable if you have already your cabin number. It can happen up to the point of check-in at the pier. Usually in the last 1-2 weeks before sailing.

But I wouldnt count on it.

[BigMac1953]

They are being sold now, so the chances of a free upgrade have all but disappeared.

[Pushpit]

Yes so there about 4 upgrade mechanisms:

 

- you buy a Saver / Early Saver or similar fare not for a specific stateroom, but for a category - say "outside". Then around 1 to 3 weeks beforehand you get told your stateroom number, via my.cunard.com. It can however be as late as the check-in on the day. Usually this would be the "outside" grade but it can be a higher grade. No cost involved.

 

- you buy a specific stateroom and you leave the flag for upgrades set to Yes: rarely you get an upgrade, again it can be 1 to 3 weeks ahead, or on the day of departure. But it's also free of charge.

 

- you keep a careful eye on prices, and one day you notice that fares have dropped (a good period is around 80 days to departure. If so you call up Cunard and though they won't necessarily give you the full benefit of the drop in fares, they may still give you a good price. For this (a) you must pay more money - sometimes fare reductions can be rather large and  even going from Outside to Balcony can't be done because you paid  more for Outside than Balcony today. And (b) this assume buying direct from Cunard. If you use a travel agent, well I don't have experience of that, but I suspect it's a similar process.

 

- Plusgrade - this is a paid for invitation to bid for an upgrade at or around 80 days to departure. There are a number of threads on this, search Plusgrade. This is handled by a separate company to Cunard but is done with Cunard's blessing. You would get an email for this.

 

I have been told the German market is the least flexible about upgrades on a number of points, they tend not to allow prices to go outside certain parameters. And there is nothing wrong with your English, I'm sure it's better than my English!

[ExArkie]

11 hours ago, s.s.France said:

A free upgrade is not very probable if you have already your cabin number. It can happen up to the point of check-in at the pier. Usually in the last 1-2 weeks before sailing.

But I wouldnt count on it.

My experience was different. Prior to the upgrade bidding process, every free upgrade I received (there were several) was when I had a cabin number assigned. Some were a few months prior to sailing, often at or just after the final payment due date.
 

My last Cunard trip was December 2022, so I have no expectation any of my experience is relevant after the bid for upgrades program was launched shortly thereafter. 

[LittleFish1976]

17 hours ago, schattenfell71 said:

Hello from Germany!

 

I´ve contacted Cunard yesterday for some questions. Beside this I´ve asked (just for fun) about a possible upgrade. They asked me if I have choosen the upgrade option when booking (Premium). I did not do that so they marked the option for me now.

 

I have already a cabin number so when would I see an upgrade and is this the usually form?

 

Thanks,

Thorsten

 

As always....sorry for my English😇

 

Prior to the 'bid-for-upgrade' system having been introduced, I once received an upgrade (free of cost and unasked for) from a Q5 to a Q3 which occurred a couple of weeks, from memory, prior to sailing at which point I was assigned a new cabin number. Because I had allowed for automatic upgrades I was not consulted about the change and the first I knew of it was when I saw the new cabin number.

 

I have recently made a 'bid-for-upgrade'. I received an email from the company mentioned above and after a week or so put in a bid which I then revised after a day or so and had almost immediate confirmation that my bid had been successful. This occurred about 5 weeks prior to sailing. The links for bidding to upgrade were also visible to me via my booking page via My Cunard on their website. It seems some people are not being invited to bid and no-one seems to have deciphered the logic behind who does and who doesn't receive the invitation.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Interesting about the invitations. For QA in May, I did receive an invitation and also saw the notice on "my Cunard." I bid to move from Britannia balcony to PG. I had four options--Club, PG, QG and QG penthouse (don't remember the specific categories of QG listed).

 

I bid on PG. QG was more than I wanted to spend, and I chose not to bid on Club because the only upgrade I wanted was PG. I don't think Club's improvements over Britannia are worth the price differential, although many people do. And I thought, what if they liked both bids and decided to give me Club when I could have had PG??? Of course, I'd never know. Just as when i didn't have my bid accepted on QV, I would never know how much more I might have bid to be successful. That's what makes it so intriguing.

 

Cut to the chase--my bid was accepted! This is about 6 weeks out, for the May 24. I bid about 40% of the range of prices. 

 

Not surprisingly, the cabin is starboard side. There was much more availability on starboard, probably because people are hoping for nice scenery from portside as we sail anticlockwise around Scotland. But given that we'll likely be in shipping lanes, I'm not bothered. Because I got a PRINCESS GRILL cabin!!! (oops, do I say "suite" now?)