Travel Agent who knows nothing about Upsells

[TylerMan]

I have posted a couple of issues I was having with trying to obtain an upsell though my TA. I suspected that she was unclear what an upsell was because she called me back two times with prices that were exactly the same price as they would have been if I would have asked to move categories...no discounts whatsoever. I tried to explain to her as nicely as possible that there is a distinct difference between an upgrade and an upsell. Rather than try to help me or even attempt to call back on my behalf (NCL will not talk to me since I have an TA) she continues to tell me that she has been in the TA business for 23+ years and her expertise is cruising and there is no such thing as upsells. The man who helped put our group together stated he had been a TA for 20+ years and been on 30+ cruises and he has never heard of upsells. I know I am not crazy but.....is NCL the only line that offers upsells? I have cruised with other lines and have been upgraded, at no cost. I am so frustrated that my husband is now going to try and get NCL to talk with him and may possibly even ask for a supervisor to try and get the upsell. There are several cabins open that we would like and we are less than 30 days out from sailing. How do you deal with a TA who doesn't even know what is available and won't admit she doesn't know. Any suggestions???

[cruisingfromMN]

I have posted a couple of issues I was having with trying to obtain an upsell though my TA. I suspected that she was unclear what an upsell was because she called me back two times with prices that were exactly the same price as they would have been if I would have asked to move categories...no discounts whatsoever. I tried to explain to her as nicely as possible that there is a distinct difference between an upgrade and an upsell. Rather than try to help me or even attempt to call back on my behalf (NCL will not talk to me since I have an TA) she continues to tell me that she has been in the TA business for 23+ years and her expertise is cruising and there is no such thing as upsells. The man who helped put our group together stated he had been a TA for 20+ years and been on 30+ cruises and he has never heard of upsells. I know I am not crazy but.....is NCL the only line that offers upsells? I have cruised with other lines and have been upgraded, at no cost. I am so frustrated that my husband is now going to try and get NCL to talk with him and may possibly even ask for a supervisor to try and get the upsell. There are several cabins open that we would like and we are less than 30 days out from sailing. How do you deal with a TA who doesn't even know what is available and won't admit she doesn't know. Any suggestions???

 

Have you given her the direct phone number to the upsell desk?

[cruisingfromMN]

Better yet, give her a link to this site... Tons of information here as we all know. Good luck!

[seahorse]

I have posted a couple of issues I was having with trying to obtain an upsell though my TA. I suspected that she was unclear what an upsell was because she called me back two times with prices that were exactly the same price as they would have been if I would have asked to move categories...no discounts whatsoever. I tried to explain to her as nicely as possible that there is a distinct difference between an upgrade and an upsell. Rather than try to help me or even attempt to call back on my behalf (NCL will not talk to me since I have an TA) she continues to tell me that she has been in the TA business for 23+ years and her expertise is cruising and there is no such thing as upsells. The man who helped put our group together stated he had been a TA for 20+ years and been on 30+ cruises and he has never heard of upsells. I know I am not crazy but.....is NCL the only line that offers upsells? I have cruised with other lines and have been upgraded, at no cost. I am so frustrated that my husband is now going to try and get NCL to talk with him and may possibly even ask for a supervisor to try and get the upsell. There are several cabins open that we would like and we are less than 30 days out from sailing. How do you deal with a TA who doesn't even know what is available and won't admit she doesn't know. Any suggestions???

 

First of all, you may not get an upsell if you have group rates.

 

Most other cruise lines do give upgrades for free, Princess and Carnival especially. IMO I think the reason is they have so many categories on their ships.

 

NCL does call TA`s to ask if we want to upsell a client, or they call a client. Not every category is available for an upsell on every sailing. There is no guarantee.......EVER.

 

It has been said that CC members are abusing the upsell desk and I believe so too. It has shut down before and I feel that it may again.

 

Always book the cabin that you want and if the fairy taps you on the shoulder, take advantage.

[Welove2cruise2]

According to the rep I spoke with at the "upsell desk" they are no longer accepting phone calls and keeping "lists" of passengers who are interested in an upsell. BTW, I booked directly thru NCL. She said if she took my name and booking info she'd get in "big trouble" if her call was being monitored...:(

[beachchick]

First of all, you may not get an upsell if you have group rates.

 

Most other cruise lines do give upgrades for free, Princess and Carnival especially. IMO I think the reason is they have so many categories on their ships.

 

NCL does call TA`s to ask if we want to upsell a client, or they call a client. Not every category is available for an upsell on every sailing. There is no guarantee.......EVER.

 

It has been said that CC members are abusing the upsell desk and I believe so too. It has shut down before and I feel that it may again.

 

Always book the cabin that you want and if the fairy taps you on the shoulder, take advantage.

 

I just wanted to mention that Royal Caribbean is not one of those cruise lines. They very rarely give free upgrades, and there is usually no particular pattern to them when they do. Instead, they do pier upgrades (basically like an upsell except done at the pier on the cruise day and at flat rates to upgrade from one type of cabin to another). This is pretty uncommon these days because most of the ships do seem to be sailing full.

 

beachchick

[DaisyL]

NCL does call TA`s to ask if we want to upsell a client, or they call a client. Not every category is available for an upsell on every sailing. There is no guarantee.......EVER.

 

It has been said that CC members are abusing the upsell desk and I believe so too. It has shut down before and I feel that it may again.

 

Always book the cabin that you want and if the fairy taps you on the shoulder, take advantage.

Ann, I'm cruising in 3 weeks, so can I ask my TA for an upsell from NCL? I was never thinking of calling NCL directly. Are upsells for those with a specific cabin booked or will they upsell a GTY to a specific cabin, also? Thanks,

[TylerMan]

First of all, you may not get an upsell if you have group rates.

 

Most other cruise lines do give upgrades for free, Princess and Carnival especially. IMO I think the reason is they have so many categories on their ships.

 

NCL does call TA`s to ask if we want to upsell a client, or they call a client. Not every category is available for an upsell on every sailing. There is no guarantee.......EVER.

 

It has been said that CC members are abusing the upsell desk and I believe so too. It has shut down before and I feel that it may again.

 

Always book the cabin that you want and if the fairy taps you on the shoulder, take advantage.

I think being part of group may also be hurting my chances of an upsell as well. We received no discounts by being part of this group because we booked a balcony room and the discounted cabins for the group was inside and outside cabins only. I did not realize being part of a group would preclude me from being considered for an upsell and the agent certainly did not advise me there was no benefit in being part of the group....I know now for the future.

We booked the cabin we wanted and will be happy in it but thought for the right price we would look at an upsell. I guess it just is not in the cards for us on the trip. No big deal. My frustration is with our TA...not NCL. I know NCL has policies in place for a reason and we have to live with it. As I am writing this I have just decided I will not pursue an upsell. Not worth the aggravation. We are going to have a fabulous time cruising Alaska sitting on our balcony in our pajamas on sea days!!! Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions.

[electricron]

How do you deal with a TA who doesn't even know what is available and won't admit she doesn't know. Any suggestions???

 

Next time, don't use that travel agent. :mad:

 

Then in the future, when you do get an upsell, politely rub it in about the great deal you arranged. :D

[Nilla]

We were booked into a group with our TA, no one notified us of that until a later time. I was able to get an UPSELL by calling the upsell number! So I think you can this was back in January!

[jerhardt]

My TA on my last cruise knew nothing about UpSells either. I gave her the number and she came back with the same information the OP got from their TA. Basically a Deer-In-Headlight look - duh! Anyway, I called NCL directly and asked about an upsell. They made me believe that I was put on this "magical" list of people who wanted upsells and told me to wait for a callback. I waited for about 5 days with no callback. I told my TA this, and she still didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I called NCL back on the 6th day and was told that they were only offering BB Balconies on the Star for the upsell (at $125/pp). I said that it was a deal, but they couldn't book it for me over the phone because I was in a contract with my TA.

 

I got on the phone to my TA immediately after talking to NCL and conferenced called NCL with her on the line and within 1 hour I had an upsell from a KK to a BB for an extra $225, which is amazing.

 

Needless to say, I released my TA from NCL (had to sign a letter stating so) and will now book directly with NCL (or any other cruise line) from this time on.

 

I asked about upsells just recently when booking my latest cruise and NCL said that so long as you call within 30 days of sailing, there's a pretty good chance that you COULD be upsold - not always mind you.

[smoothdancer]

I just received a very good upsell last week, so they are still available, at least on the cruise I am going on. The reservation dept gave me the name of the NCL rep who was in charge of the upsells for my cruise. I left a message with her and told her I had an interest and left her the name and telephone number of our on-line agent.

 

NCL called the agent directly and made the offer. Now when the agent called me she said that NCL has called her with an "upgrade" offer!, yet from these boards I knew we were talking upsell. This large agency also did not know what an upsell was.

 

I think it all comes down to supply and demand. I was in a category that was sold out. After I took the upsell the cabin was back on the internet site for about one day before it was gone again. I think all you can do is express an interest and then wait and see. If the upsell offer benefits the cruise line it will come, otherwise it wont, and all the phone calls in the world wont change anything.

[seahorse]

Ann, I'm cruising in 3 weeks, so can I ask my TA for an upsell from NCL? I was never thinking of calling NCL directly. Are upsells for those with a specific cabin booked or will they upsell a GTY to a specific cabin, also? Thanks,

 

Do you have a cabin # now? If you do you have a specific cat. booked.

Call your TA and ask. Won`t hurt to try.

 

The upsell price is based on so many things.......what you paid in the first place......do they need your cat........is the ship sold out? etc. etc.

[Log42]

I'm sorry to inform you all, but effective this week, NCL has adopted a strict policy of not accepting any requests for upsells. Any requests received will not even be considered. The upsell department (a part of the revenue department) has been relocated to Arizona. This department insists on making the initial contact with the guest, and therefore can not respond to those guests who choose to call requesting an upsell. Hope this helps.

[Dorothy]

I called the Arizona line a couple weeks ago and was able to get an upsell without using my TA. I guess I got lucky and got my upsell just in the nick of time. I hope they start taking the calls again because I'd like the same opportunity should I sail with NCL again.

 

BTW, my TA said NCL is the only cruiseline that sells to upgrade passengers. Other cruiselines just give upgrades when they have extra cabins. I sailed with Princess once and was upgraded the first time with them.

[beachchick]

I must chime in again that not all cruise lines give away extra cabins as free upgrades. I do know that Princess and Carnival are known for being generous with them; RCI and Celebrity are known for NOT being generous with them, and will happily sell you an inexpensive upgrade at the pier if cabins are available.

 

I hope that by fall the upsells will be available again. I was considering trying it (and no, I wouldn't call every day or bug them, and I wouldn't call until it was within 30 days of the cruise). We'll see...not that I'm unhappy with my plain old balcony cabin mind you, but there's no way we could budget for a suite at the regular fares. OTOH, as long as we have a balcony, I'm a happy chick.

 

beachchick

[tinkerbelldee]

We booked through a local TA and NCL called her to offer us the upsell. I had mentioned that we would love an upsell when we made the final payment and she said that she would take care of it.

She certainly did, we got the upsell to an AC penthouse for a great deal.

I will always book with a travel agent that knows NCL.

[TylerMan]

I know I said yesterday I was going to let this die but....today I open my e-mail and I have a message from the gentlemen who put our group together. He is trying very hard to make excuses for the TA and prove to me that I am wrong. He said he spoke with an NCL representative in Houston and was told "NCL does not offer upsells and will not offer upsells in the future. NCL only offers upgrades." Kinda strange IMO.

[Cruise_More_Often]

We were offered an upsell this week for our upcoming repo cruise (less than 2 weeks away). This is the third time we have received an offer for an upsell (we passed on this one), and we have never called to request one. 'Tis a mystery, but we sure love it.

[seahorse]

"NCL does not offer upsells and will not offer upsells in the future. NCL only offers upgrades." Kinda strange IMO.

 

:confused: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: What have I been doing all of these years.

[kirstie101]

I called on Monday and was able to get an upsell. The gal was very helpful, I was able to make a counter offer, she countered back and I took it. She then called my TA and my TA called me. Upsell desk had called our TA a few weeks prior with an offer but we had turned that offer down. Don't know if that made any difference on. What we ended up paying did fit perfectly with the "half the difference" formula I've read about on the boards. Can't beat that. We now have an aft balcony for our upcoming Alaskan cruise and I'm thrilled.

[jerhardt]

I'm sorry to inform you all, but effective this week, NCL has adopted a strict policy of not accepting any requests for upsells. Any requests received will not even be considered. The upsell department (a part of the revenue department) has been relocated to Arizona. This department insists on making the initial contact with the guest, and therefore can not respond to those guests who choose to call requesting an upsell. Hope this helps.

 

Just curious where you came about this information? I know that the Arizona Call Centre is a more preferable approach, but just wondering how you came about the knowledge of not calling the reassignment desk?