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My experience with new upgrade bidding system-status and bid don't matter

Vacationlover2
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Vacationlover2

Vacationlover2

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This was my experience. My family had 2 connecting inside cabins. My friends had 2 connecting inside cabins. This was our 7th cruise on NCL and we are gold. This was their 2nd cruise on NCL. We bid $100 per cabin, for a total upgrade price for both cabins of $400 for a balcony. Friends bid $50 per cabin for a total upgrade price of $200 per cabin.

 

My family got split, one midship balcony cabin on deck 12, one on deck 10. Friends who bid half as much and was only their 2nd cruise got side by side AFT cabins.

 

So, if you think your bid or status matters, think again. Weird, huh?

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wdsted

wdsted

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We've never upgraded our reservation but it is a little bizarre that there isn't some kind of upgrade preferential treatment for Latitude members at some status level. At least a better cabin assignment for identical bids. The airline we fly has been providing first class upgrades based on frequent flyer status for years.

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DMH15

DMH15

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2 different workers handling upsells?

 

Maybe the people in their new cabins upsold to suites? Maybe that happened after you were moved? Maybe? Maybe? Maybe?

 

Regardless, you take your chances. You bid. You got.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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BirdTravels "Live from...." Rare

BirdTravels

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Maybe it was alphabetical or reservation number order, or one NCL CSR does A-L and another does M-Z... and M-Z took the day off...

 

Life is random

 

Seriously? There is nothing manual in the process. Consider if a ship has 2000 rooms and the average room puts in 2 bids (we have 6 pending bids on our upcoming cruise), the humans aren't going to try and sort out which of the bids to accept and assign. NCL got rid of the humans when they slowly closed the upsell department. Talk to the computer.

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allison0523

allison0523

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How many people did you have in your 2 cabins vs what they had? It seems people are reporting that if they have less people, they are getting better upgrades. I'm not sure how that factors into things since only the 1st and 2nd passengers are charged but maybe it has something to do with the upgrade algorithm. We are in the same predicament right now. We have connecting balcony cabins and I don't want to chance being separated in an attempt to upgrade. We have 3 people in one and 2 in the other also.

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TowerOrchard

TowerOrchard

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This doesn't surprise me. If you bid enough to be accepted for an upgrade, the computer will randomly assign you to the upgraded cabin - the fact that your friends got the "better" upgrade (in terms of connecting rooms) is completely down to chance. The algorithm has been set, and no human is involved in these individual decisions.

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Vacationlover2

Vacationlover2

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I had two people per room. They had 2 in one and 3 in another. I only started this thread to let people know that there is no rhyme or reason to upgrades as many people asked this question. I am not looking for advice or am I complaining.

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Regguy

Regguy

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I had two people per room. They had 2 in one and 3 in another. I only started this thread to let people know that there is no rhyme or reason to upgrades as many people asked this question. I am not looking for advice or am I complaining.

 

Well, there is a reason, but we just don't know what the algorithm might be. In the end, it's revenue maximization. But it could be anything, including NCL needing or wanting your friends' cabins more than yours, wanting to prioritize open cabins for cabin steward assignments, or something else. Also, in assigning upgrades, whatever you might regard as a better cabin might not be better for NCL since better for NCL has a different meaning.

 

Also, it could be that at the time you were upgraded your upgrade processed first because you had bid more but NCL did not yet have the two aft cabins in its upgrade inventory for any number of reasons we don't know. Maybe the were still being held by the algorithm that decides when to release cabins because they won't sell. Maybe one of those cabins itself had someone trying to upgrade at a lower amount and that upgrade processed after yours freeing the cabin to be upgraded.

 

Last, it's a mistake to assume the upgrades are actually accomplished on the same day you get notice. There could be an assignment a month before or some kind of queue that changes as people change their bids or cabins sell. All you know is when your card gets charged, but a tentative assignment could have been weeks earlier.

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TowerOrchard

TowerOrchard

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Well, there is a reason, but we just don't know what the algorithm might be.

I think we know a lot of it. Whenever NCL closes the window to make upgrade bids, they accept the highest bids for the number of available cabins (i.e., if there are 7 available cabins, the top 7 bids get their bids accepted). I would assume if there are several bids of equal amounts, they are prioritized by who bid first, but I don't know that part for sure - there might be a different sorting mechanism at this step. Once the pool of accepted bids is finalized, the computer randomly assigns the winning bids to the available rooms - nothing else is taken into account. Not Latitude membership, not the amount of the bid (as long as it makes it into the "winning bid" pool), not number of people in the room, not how "good" the new room is. I've seen no evidence that there is anything more that gets considered than amount of bid and number of available rooms.

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kelmac

kelmac

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I had two people per room. They had 2 in one and 3 in another. I only started this thread to let people know that there is no rhyme or reason to upgrades as many people asked this question. I am not looking for advice or am I complaining.

 

Many cruise lines do this -- "give the newbies better upgrades; it builds loyalty".

 

Enjoy!

Kel:D

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macandlucy

macandlucy

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I would love it and appreciate it very much if NCL would at least take Latitudes status into consideration when assigning cabins (bid price being the same). I am only silver level and I realize that that will cause me to lose out sometimes, but even still, I think it's the right thing to do.

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  • 11 months later...
rtkenmore

rtkenmore

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How many people did you have in your 2 cabins vs what they had? It seems people are reporting that if they have less people, they are getting better upgrades. I'm not sure how that factors into things since only the 1st and 2nd passengers are charged but maybe it has something to do with the upgrade algorithm. We are in the same predicament right now. We have connecting balcony cabins and I don't want to chance being separated in an attempt to upgrade. We have 3 people in one and 2 in the other also.

 

Also likely depends on lifeboat capacity for certain muster stations and how many people they can move around without overcrowding a station.

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