Upgrade question

[beachchick]

Upsell, upgrade - potato, patato :rolleyes:

 

No, on NCL it is not.

 

On NCL, an upgrade initiated by NCL is complementary (and rare).

 

On NCL, an upgrade initiated by the passenger is paid at the going rate.

 

On NCL, an upsell is almost always initiated by NCL and is offered to specific passengers at a discounted rate because NCL wants to resell the original cabin, wants the original cabin for a specific reason, or any number of things that benefit the cruise line's bottom line.

 

As a note, it used to be that the Upsell dept accepted incoming calls all the time. Unfortunately, the tiny dept couldn't handle the volume of hundreds to thousands of passengers calling to ask for a discounted "upgrade" in the form of an upsell. The Revenue dept also was not happy because so many savvy passengers (including many of our own CC members) were booking categories much lower than they wanted and then starting in months in advance calling daily to ask for a cheap upsell.

 

beachchick

[dumbth]

I was woken at dawn with an NCL offer to upsell pretty darn cheap. I lunged for the phone when I heard the machine speaker implying "last chance". It was such a surprise that I failed to remember I had carefully chosen the other side of the ship for best viewing reasons.

 

Oh well, it should a small sacrifice for better comfort. I did book the original from NCL web site because they claimed to be having a one day half price sale. I later found this was still slightly above the TA discounted price, but now I am probably comfortably below.

[sjnyc323]

I have no problem with my TA. I paid much less through him for my current AD suite and know I will be happy with that. If I would have booked with NCL directly it would have cost me almost $1000.00 more for the two of us for the 13 night Transatlantic voyage so I will continue using my TA.

 

 

 

Yes, I made the mistake of booking my latest cruise through a travel agent and saved hundreds of dollars off the price NCL would have charged me.

 

I've made that same money-saving mistake many times in the past, and I'll continue to make the same mistake in the future. Some of us are just slow learners.

[Thatsright]

Assuming that the TA gave up 10% of their 12-16% commission (average), your cruise must have cost you $10,000 in order for you to have saved $1000. Most of us aren't purchasing suites of that nature. More like $2000 so the savings is around $200, tops. Now if I can negotiate an upsell from a balcony to a penthouse suite for a total of $400 (and I have), I'd much rather be able to do that than save $200.

 

Peter

 

NCL's price has fluctuated a bit since I made my booking with a TA two months ago - but the price difference has been anywhere between $380 to $580 per person for my mini suite. I don't know what the comission is ... It seemed like a waste of money to book direct.

[ubdkjrb]

I have no problem with my TA. I paid much less through him for my current AD suite and know I will be happy with that. If I would have booked with NCL directly it would have cost me almost $1000.00 more for the two of us for the 13 night Transatlantic voyage so I will continue using my TA.

 

If you're talking about the 11/29 transatlantic from Barcelona to New York, this would be impossible. At $2100 pp the $1000 savings would be close to 25% which is almost double what the discretionary commission would be. Can't discount that much!

 

Peter

[insidecabin]

If you're talking about the 11/29 transatlantic from Barcelona to New York, this would be impossible. At $2100 pp the $1000 savings would be close to 25% which is almost double what the discretionary commission would be. Can't discount that much!

 

Peter

 

Remember it is not always just a straight deal for regular commission some TA do blocks at much reduced rates and discount those out or still have the cheap allocations when NCL start to raise the prices.

 

We have had a cabin with one TA at around 50% of NCL basic prices so still 40% cheaper than the normal on-line discounters could do.

 

It does happen.

[sjnyc323]

Sorry to disagree with you but i only paid $1600.00 per person.

 

 

If you're talking about the 11/29 transatlantic from Barcelona to New York, this would be impossible. At $2100 pp the $1000 savings would be close to 25% which is almost double what the discretionary commission would be. Can't discount that much!

 

Peter

[sunny54]

We have been given upgrades several times. We are cruising 8/2 through CAS and were given an upgrade at no additional cost from a K inside to a D ocean view. All I did was call and ask, wait a day or so for a callback and was given the option of the no additional cost ocean view or $188 per person additional for a balcony. We took the oceanview at no additional cost. I was polite, they were polite and we are very happy! It can happen. Don't bank on it but when it does it is very nice. By the way, we are not high rollers. This is our first booking with CAS and we got the typical 17% discount. I did not even get any comped dollars off on our last cruise 16 months ago.

Hi, what is CAS?

[MrLee]

Hi, what is CAS?

 

 

CAS - Casinos at Sea.