1 category upgrade

[Islandbuoy]

Has anyone been able to verify that we can now get the 1 cat upgrade on balconies?

[rucrazy]

Has anyone been able to verify that we can now get the 1 cat upgrade on balconies?

 

One-category upgrade requests must be made at the time of booking and apply only for upgrades within the supercategory, depending on availability.

[dkjretired]

Has anyone been able to verify that we can now get the 1 cat upgrade on balconies?

 

Here's what they did and they could use clarifying it on the web site. It is listed under the classic benefits, one category upgrade through Aqua Class. On the Select benefit area they say you get many of the benefits of Classic. The same wording appears all the way up to Zenith. I can't see them giving it to Classic members and not the higher members so I think its pretty safe to say it is there. Basically they are just bringing the old 1 category inside to inside and outside to outside into this Century where there are balconies, concierge and Aqua cabin.

 

As the previous poster said this benefit must be made at time of sailing and it appears it is only an upgrade within a category.

[dorisis]

The upgrade has never been available on any of the Celebrity cruises I have taken.

[Lsimon]

The upgrade has never been available on any of the Celebrity cruises I have taken.

 

Have you ever tried? Prior to yesterday it has never been offered on veranda category, or above, staterooms.

I've never heard of anyone being denied this on an inside or outside booking as long as the related categories were available.

Note that the way this has worked has been that you book once category and at the time of booking get the rate on the next lower category. Both must be available and it does not apply to guarantees nor specials. These can not be combined with most promotions or other discounts.

 

One-Category Upgrade

 

One-category upgrade requests must be made at the time of booking and apply only for upgrades within the supercategory, depending on availability. Example of a supercategory upgrade in AquaClass: A2 to A1. Category 11, C1 and suites are excluded. This offer cannot be used with certain restricted fares including but not limited to Exciting Deals, ChoiceAir® specials, Reduced Air, interline, travel agent, Travelzoo, and employee rates. Upgrades apply for one stateroom per cruise. Stateroom assignments only. Not valid on holiday sailings or Reunion Cruises. Upgrades available from categories 11-A1 on all Celebrity ships except Celebrity Xpedition®. Offer valid for members who are Classic Level or higher at the time of booking.

Edited November 26, 2013 by Lsimon

[iandjm]

Hi,

 

I booked yesterday and paid for a 2D and got a 2C Balcony, so yes you can if available.

 

Ian

[CruisingChick]

Since we usually book insides cabins we have used the upgrade feature many times. Booking cat 11 or 10 and getting 10 or 9.

 

Our last cruise there was a special on cat 11s. We booked it and were upgraded to a 10 which was not on special. Saved us about $400 per person.

Edited November 26, 2013 by CruisingChick

[chamima]

Now if only the A1s were in a better place than the A2s in Aqua! :rolleyes:

[wwcruisers]

Hope this works as advertised. We've always loved RC's Diamond Balcony Discount. But, we could never use the "one category upgrade" on X, since we don't sail in OV or inside cabins. Just to make sure I have this right -- in theory, I could book a particular C-1 cabin that I wanted, and only pay the C-2 rates -- right? If that's the case, I'm starting to feel a little perkier about this "new" Captain's Club, after all! ;)

[Lsimon]

... Just to make sure I have this right -- in theory, I could book a particular C-1 cabin that I wanted, and only pay the C-2 rates -- right? If that's the case, I'm starting to feel a little perkier about this "new" Captain's Club, after all! ;)

 

The verbiage in the fine print says that "C1 and suites are excluded".

 

I included the fine print from the Captain's Club website in post #5 above.

This comes from a link on the Captain's Club page listing the benefits under "Captain's Club Terms And Conditions".

 

I think it is a nice perk for those situations where there are no promos or deals since the upgrade doesn't seem to be combinable with most. But since Celebrity has had some sort of a promo or deal almost all of the time over the past year, at least for USA customers, that in most situations passengers will be better off with the general promotional special or discount.

Edited November 26, 2013 by Lsimon

[CruisingChick]

One-Category Upgrade

 

One-category upgrade requests must be made at the time of booking and apply only for upgrades within the supercategory, depending on availability. Example of a supercategory upgrade in AquaClass: A2 to A1.

Category 11, C1 and suites are excluded.

This offer cannot be used with certain restricted fares including but not limited to Exciting Deals, ChoiceAir® specials, Reduced Air, interline, travel agent, Travelzoo, and employee rates. Upgrades apply for one stateroom per cruise. Stateroom assignments only. Not valid on holiday sailings or Reunion Cruises.

Upgrades available from categories 11-A1 on all Celebrity ships

except Celebrity Xpedition®. Offer valid for members who are Classic Level or higher at the time of booking.

 

First it says Category 11 are excluded then it says Upgrades available from categories 11-A1.

 

Huh?:confused:

Edited November 26, 2013 by CruisingChick

[Lsimon]

One-Category Upgrade

 

One-category upgrade requests must be made at the time of booking and apply only for upgrades within the supercategory, depending on availability. Example of a supercategory upgrade in AquaClass: A2 to A1. Category 11, C1 and suites are excluded. This offer cannot be used with certain restricted fares including but not limited to Exciting Deals, ChoiceAir® specials, Reduced Air, interline, travel agent, Travelzoo, and employee rates. Upgrades apply for one stateroom per cruise. Stateroom assignments only. Not valid on holiday sailings or Reunion Cruises. Upgrades available from categories 11-A1 on all Celebrity ships except Celebrity Xpedition®. Offer valid for members who are Classic Level or higher at the time of booking.

 

First it says Category 11 are excluded then it says Upgrades available from categories 11-A1.

 

Huh?:confused:

 

Good point. Clearly one place or the other is a typo but I wonder what they intended to say. I can see why they'd exclude C1 cabins as those typically carry a much higher premium over the next level down but excluding category 11 doesn't really make sense since they typically only run $50 more than the next category and they've never been excluded before.

 

Personally, I don't think the upgrade is too big of a deal anyways unless they were to let people combine it with other promotions and discounts. Seems more like a perk designed to get people hooked on booking which provides little or no benefit in the end. Kind of like the $50 Birthday coupons they sent out a while back which were not combinable with any other offer.

[koolforkatz]

I asked my TA yesterday and she said I wouldn't be able to combine this upgrade with the drinks package promo :( Oh, well....

[wwcruisers]

Good point. Clearly one place or the other is a typo but I wonder what they intended to say. I can see why they'd exclude C1 cabins as those typically carry a much higher premium over the next level down but excluding category 11 doesn't really make sense since they typically only run $50 more than the next category and they've never been excluded before.

 

Personally, I don't think the upgrade is too big of a deal anyways unless they were to let people combine it with other promotions and discounts. Seems more like a perk designed to get people hooked on booking which provides little or no benefit in the end. Kind of like the $50 Birthday coupons they sent out a while back which were not combinable with any other offer.

 

Very strange, Larry, that they would exclude C-1,-- since Aqua (a more popular and usually expensive category) is included. Oh well, if it really works, it's better than it was, before they included any balcony categories. :cool:

[Lsimon]

Very strange, Larry, that they would exclude C-1,-- since Aqua (a more popular and usually expensive category) is included. Oh well, if it really works, it's better than it was, before they included any balcony categories. :cool:

 

While it does vary quite a bit, on most cruises there is about a $100 difference between A1 and A2 but usually at least a $300 or $400 difference between C1 and C2 - maybe less on 7 night or shorter cruises. This statistic changes as sales progress and the level of supply and demand on a given cruise changes, but it usually starts out that way. I think this is because C1's tend to be in more desirable locations and on the M class ships most have verandas which are much larger than average.

Edited November 26, 2013 by Lsimon

[RealDeal]

The verbiage in the fine print says that "C1 and suites are excluded".

 

I included the fine print from the Captain's Club website in post #5 above.

This comes from a link on the Captain's Club page listing the benefits under "Captain's Club Terms And Conditions".

 

I think it is a nice perk for those situations where there are no promos or deals since the upgrade doesn't seem to be combinable with most. But since Celebrity has had some sort of a promo or deal almost all of the time over the past year, at least for USA customers, that in most situations passengers will be better off with the general promotional special or discount.

 

Interesting....I booked the Equinox in April 2015 under the Natl Cruise Week promo. Booked a 2A & today my agent changed it to 2B pricing with an upgrade to 2A. I also used the onboard booking bonus, so apparently you can use it with certain promos.

[ghstudio]

The fatal catch is not combinable.....usually the one category upgrade would cost you less than free gratuities or whatever other upgrade celebrity is offering at the time. It sounds good...but it's not very useful....likely by design.

Edited November 26, 2013 by ghstudio

[Lsimon]

Interesting....I booked the Equinox in April 2015 under the Natl Cruise Week promo. Booked a 2A & today my agent changed it to 2B pricing with an upgrade to 2A. I also used the onboard booking bonus, so apparently you can use it with certain promos.

 

I think Celebrity has changed their policy on the on board booking recently and that it is now explicitly combinable with many promos. If you look at the Captain's Club benefits listing the one category upgrade is footnoted on that page to a note that says: "***The Captain's Club One Category upgrade is combinable with Celebrity Passages."

 

But I think it's great that you were allowed to keep your other promo pricing! Perhaps this will be a more substantial benefit than I thought!

[ocngypz]

Sat through a webinar this am with our Cel rep.

 

Yes, one Cat upgrade up to Aqua. I wanted further clarification.. especially with the different balcony categories. You've never been able to jump from an inside to oceanview on the one category upgrade. So my thinking was Cat 2 type of balcony to Cat 2 type of balcony, Cat 1 type to Cat 1 type, CC type to CC type and then A2 to A1.

 

However, since it was pre-recorded I couldn't ask any questions.

 

I'm just happy to have the upgrade back.