Upgrades on Royal Caribbean

[webecruzin2]

We were upgraded from a D1 to a JS on the second of our four cruises. We learned about it at check-in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While it's true that free upgrades would be a great perk for Frequent Sailors, I suspect RCCL's marketing strategy is usually to upgrade those who are fairly new to the line so as to help make them regulars.

 

The airlines seem to do that, from my experience. I've flown quite a bit but had only two automatic upgrades on airlines in my life: One was my first trip on British Airways and the other my first trip on Airtran.

 

Something that seems to perplex, if not bother, most people (as evidenced by this thread) is the unpredictability of upgrades.

 

Okay I'm taking a chance by admitting I work for an airline. Please don't bombard me with your airline opinions. I'll just give you the facts about upgrades on my airline. ( Sorry can't say which it is, against regs)

 

The airline I work for does not upgrade newbies just to get them to fly us again. We give comp upgrades for various reasons; the flight is full in the back and we will upgrade the highest tier member on down to open up seats. A passenger is not happy with his seat in coach so if he whines too much we'll search again for a top tier member and move him to first and give the whiner a better coach seat. Off schedule operations require us to book a passenger on another flight and all that is left is first class. We are overbooked and a passenger volunteers to go on a later flight so we'll some times upgrade them to say thankyou.

Now we are Platinum members on RCCL and we have never been given a comp upgrade, only very good cabins when we booked a guarantee.

I can't figure out how they decide who gets what but I suspect it's what you actually paid for your cruise. Being in the travel industry we sometimes get very low cruise rates and I have a feeling when the cruise line sees what we actually paid we are passed over for comp upgrades.

And that is what the airlines will do if you aren't a top tier frequent flier. Those first class seats are our product and they have a value to them just as a JS or GS or Os have values to them. We certainly want you to fly with us again but we also like to show our appreciation for our most frequent fliers and those that paid the most for their tickets. Just my two cents. As I said please don't start slamming me with your airline stories. After 20 years in the industry I've heard it all before.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

We have only received one upgrade, on our very first cruise on the Big Red Boat. On that trip, many years ago, we were told that if you booked very early you had a better chance of getting an upgrade and it worked for us! We were upgraded from a basic OV to a JS. Even a JS didn't have a balcony on that ship, but we saw the "other" rooms and ours was huge in comparison.

 

We've never been upgraded since, even in booking very early.:( I guess I have to keep on booking cruises to see if it can happen again!;)

[Carol4158]

One upgrade only -on our first ever cruise in 1999. Booked an outside (window)cabin for four and got upgraded on checkin to the royal family suite. It was like winning the lottery!! I keep on hoping but it's never happened again.