Celebrity MoveUp

[bEwAbG]

Just back from a HAL cruise and booked a guarantee. They don't start doling out room assignments until a week or two before the sail date because they're offering upsells to other passengers up until that time. With the roll-out of the MoveUp program, it will be interesting to see if Celebrity changes their guarantee room assignment process, too.

[lnuzzo]

I received a MoveUp email this morning for our Western Caribbean leaving on Saturday. Since I booked through a TA, I knew I had to work through the TA, called him this AM.

 

we only booked last week, and had a GTY Veranda, our cabin assignment was made over the weekend - deck nine. Our last Celebrity cruise was in an AquaClass cabin, and after discussing, we figured, why not, let's try for AquaClass upgrade - but checked the website link before calling the TA. the site was looking for a min of 350pp to upgrade (not the 150pp in the email) which was just way to much to go to a AquaClass IMO from a 1A Veranda.

 

I called my TA, and told him what we'd be willing to spend on top of what we've already paid, we'll see how it pans out.........

Edited May 29, 2018 by lnuzzo

[ORV]

One couple in our group of ten got an email today for an upgrade, we board Friday. They are obviously taking them up to the last minute.

 

Oddly enough this couple is Classic, another in our group that got it is Select. We're Elite and didn't get an offer. Hard to figure.

[Want2Cruise 701]

One couple in our group of ten got an email today for an upgrade, we board Friday. They are obviously taking them up to the last minute.

 

Oddly enough this couple is Classic, another in our group that got it is Select. We're Elite and didn't get an offer.

Hard to figure.

I

 

We received an offer on May 1 for our June 9 cruise. We did not bid. I received a reminder email this morning to bid. The initial offer was 1,000/pp for either a RS or PH.

 

I noticed the email this morning now stated a RS for $400/pp and now the PH for $800/pp. Soooooo.....we did end up bidding now. We'll see how it plays out. We placed pretty much the minimums. I'm not expecting to get notified either way until next week which will be 3 days out. I'm happy with our CS if we are rejected.

[cangelmd]

Out of curiosity, have any TA sailings turned up on the Move Up program? I know the program was just rolled out a few weeks ago, maybe too late for the spring TAs.

[ORV]

One couple in our group of ten got an email today for an upgrade, we board Friday. They are obviously taking them up to the last minute.

 

Oddly enough this couple is Classic, another in our group that got it is Select. We're Elite and didn't get an offer. Hard to figure.

 

So I got a reminder today to bid. Apparently I got an offer on 5/21 for my 6/1 sailing, but it went into my spam folder and got deleted. If I hadn't of seen the reminder I wouldn't have know it. I made an average offer, we'll see what happens. I'm in an OV and made offers on the Veranda and FV.

[Want2Cruise 701]

So I got a reminder today to bid. Apparently I got an offer on 5/21 for my 6/1 sailing, but it went into my spam folder and got deleted. If I hadn't of seen the reminder I wouldn't have know it. I made an average offer, we'll see what happens. I'm in an OV and made offers on the Veranda and FV.

 

Since you don't have the initial email, I guess you won't know if they kept the initial bid price for you or not. I'm just curious as to why they lowered the RS to $400. Yes, the 1K was ridiculous so I can only speculate they didn't get an offer. If they did, then no need to lower it that much or are they just messing with us.

 

I guess I'm just more curious as to anything. Is it based on solely on the highest bid? Is it based on how much you paid for your current cabin plus your upgrade offer for a total bid on that category? Are they having people bid even if there is no cabin available in case someone gets upgraded or cancels and they need to fill?

 

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when it comes down to selection time. :D

[Bruin Steve]

I'm still not sure I am getting what all the excitement is about...

You've always been able to move up from whatever cabin you've booked to a higher category cabin, if available, by paying a whole lot of extra money...Just call Celebrity or your TA and say "Yeah, I booked a Concierge cabin and now I want to move to a Sky Suite". They will gladly take extra money from you any time and let you do that. You don't have to wait for an invitation...and you don't have to sit around hoping you "win"...

 

My answer is that, if I wanted to pay more and get a higher category cabin, I would do it when I initially book the cruise. Otherwise, I would be happy to cruise in whatever I've booked. Of course, I always watch the pricing all along, and, if a higher category comes down in pricing to where I would have booked it initially, I call my TA and switch...

 

As I noted, on my upcoming Alaska cruise, we did just that--moved from an inside to a Concierge class--no bidding, no waiting. And, with about a month to go, there are only about 10 unsold/unassigned cabins on the ship...and half of those are inside--no Aqua, concierge or veranda left. Maybe they'll start "bidding" on the 3 or 4 suites left...but I'm guessing Celebrity is not worried...

[ivrrn]

Does anyone know if they send an email regardless of getting the upgrade or not? We're technically <72 hours now and I still haven't see anything since the bid.

[FreesiaE]

Does anyone know if they send an email regardless of getting the upgrade or not? We're technically <72 hours now and I still haven't see anything since the bid.

 

I’d sure think so. Can you log into your reservation and see?

[ivrrn]

I’d sure think so. Can you log into your reservation and see?

 

Still the same room we've always had there.

[ORV]

I bid halfway and was rejected.

[ORV]

I’d sure think so. Can you log into your reservation and see?

 

Uh no, half the population can't log in anymore since they screwed it up today.

 

I'm going on a cruise tomorrow, I can't waste time with that nonsense.

[ryansmousehouse]

I bid halfway and was rejected.

Did you receive an email with the rejection immediately or had you've been waiting several days

 

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[ORV]

Did you receive an email with the rejection immediately or had you've been waiting several days

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

It was the same day.

[ryansmousehouse]

I put in bid for slightly above minimum last week ...my cruise next week..no news

 

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[The_Big_M]

I'm still not sure I am getting what all the excitement is about...

You've always been able to move up from whatever cabin you've booked to a higher category cabin, if available, by paying a whole lot of extra money...Just call Celebrity or your TA and say "Yeah, I booked a Concierge cabin and now I want to move to a Sky Suite". They will gladly take extra money from you any time and let you do that. You don't have to wait for an invitation...and you don't have to sit around hoping you "win"...

 

Sure. The difference here is that in your scenario to move up there was only one price and that was based on the difference in price between a) your booking and b) the current existing bookings advertised price for the new cabin.

 

That option still remains.

 

However, there is now a new option, and the price is not the same as in your scenario. Where the alternative bid price is less than your option, the excitement comes from some that would be willing to pay that lesser amount, though not the price of the existing option. And then see whether they "win" the bid, should availability remain.

 

Perfectly understandable.

[ggo85]

To me, this is about one thing and one thing only -- maximizing revenue. In the past, if there were open cabins at the higher end, what would X do? Either give a free upgrade or continue to discount the cabin until someone eventually bought it. Neither of those increases revenue.

 

Now they sell the cabin to the highest bidder. Thus, I wouldn't expect to see the upgrade fairy visiting any of the MoveUp ships in the future.

 

It's a business and the way the CEO keeps his job is to make money. This is yet another way to do that.

[go.without.you]

I think it's a great idea. They don't want the suites to be empty as it looks bad and if you can upgrade for $1000 instead of paying $3000, why not? Plus I'm pretty sure they save a few suites on every cruise just in case a bigwig comes along (high level exec of company or whatever). Plus that opens up the cheaper rooms so maybe someone wanted to get on last minute but didn't want to pay for a suite. I think it's good business.

[Bluemymind]

So 13 days ago we received the move up option to bid on one of our cabins then today we got the move up option to bid for our other cabin. I’m pretty sure we will get the official “nope” this week since we board on Friday.

[hvbaskey]

This is very similar to the bid upgrade offered by major airlines. We have bid on those and have never been accepted - LOL! Actually, on one flight, the “upgrade at the gate” was less than the minimum bid upgrade via email.

 

It will be interesting how long this new “move up” system lasts.

[The_Big_M]

All the airline ones have remained in place for a while.

 

As long as this brings in incremental revenue, and no reason to think it won't, I'd expect it also to remain. It certainly makes the management a lot easier than their previous approach of having to contact passengers and TAs, and then one on one effort to process upgrades.

 

Here the system handles the initial contact, and also payment details, and the processing of upgrades is also much easier to administer. I'd suggest "get used to it."

[jagoffee]

All the airline ones have remained in place for a while.

 

As long as this brings in incremental revenue, and no reason to think it won't, I'd expect it also to remain. It certainly makes the management a lot easier than their previous approach of having to contact passengers and TAs, and then one on one effort to process upgrades.

 

Here the system handles the initial contact, and also payment details, and the processing of upgrades is also much easier to administer. I'd suggest "get used to it."

 

I agree. In theory it is a more efficient and balanced than random calls. Those that are offended can just delete the e mail.

Someone had a great idea.

[Bluemymind]

So 48 hours before boarding we received our "NO" upgrade for you email. Which is no big deal, we knew with about 99% that we wouldn't be getting a upgrade to a Royal Suite which is the only cabin we bid on. The bidding option was between $900-$4000 per person. We put in a bid for $2000 per person I don't think it mattered on bit what we bid since I haven't seen a Royal available for sale in 3 or 4 months.

 

The only think I didn't like about the bidding process is I couldn't place bids on both my cabins at the same time. We have 2 Aqua cabins together so it didn't make sence to us to bid on only one Sky or Celebrity Suite. I think if they told us in their email that they had so many of such and such cabins and would have let me bid on say 2 Sky suites I would have placed strong bids on them.

 

Good luck to everyone and Happy Sailing.

[Want2Cruise 701]

We sail in 2 days on Saturday and haven’t heard anything. Someone on our roll call hasn’t heard either. Most likely it’s a “NO”.

 

Probably won’t do this again if offered. I know they want to maximize revenue by waiting to the last minute, but I don’t like finding out 2 days before.