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Celebrity MoveUp


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I booked our cruise through a TA. Checked in online with Celebrity and subsequently received the Moveup email invitation. I had already input my credit card on check in but was surprised to be asked again on registering for Moveup, when I had already entered it for Celebrity, as required, on check in. This has nothing to do with booking through a TA as Celebrity require a card at the online check in. Why ask for the card details again? And then hold on to the details in a department which seems to be running a bidding process for an upgrade that may never happen? They must get a lot of card details which don't get used and could be used for fraud at any point. Strangely I have had fraud on my card shortly after registering with them and have had to cancel the card. Coincidence?

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3 hours ago, Stuart2019 said:

I booked our cruise through a TA. Checked in online with Celebrity and subsequently received the Moveup email invitation. I had already input my credit card on check in but was surprised to be asked again on registering for Moveup, when I had already entered it for Celebrity, as required, on check in. This has nothing to do with booking through a TA as Celebrity require a card at the online check in. Why ask for the card details again? And then hold on to the details in a department which seems to be running a bidding process for an upgrade that may never happen? They must get a lot of card details which don't get used and could be used for fraud at any point. Strangely I have had fraud on my card shortly after registering with them and have had to cancel the card. Coincidence?

 

Coincidence - probably.

 

The details need to be entered again as the moveup program is handled through a third party. It wouldn't be good for Celebrity to pass your credit card details on, plus people may prefer to use, or have a different card then, plus as mentioned by others above, Celebrity won't even have your card details if you booked through a travel agent, as most customers do. They may get it through check-in, but again it's not compulsory, passengers may not have done it, and they may want to use a different card.

 

As such, the only solution is to enter credit card details for the move up program.

Edited by The_Big_M
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3 hours ago, Stuart2019 said:

I booked our cruise through a TA. Checked in online with Celebrity and subsequently received the Moveup email invitation. I had already input my credit card on check in but was surprised to be asked again on registering for Moveup, when I had already entered it for Celebrity, as required, on check in. This has nothing to do with booking through a TA as Celebrity require a card at the online check in. Why ask for the card details again? And then hold on to the details in a department which seems to be running a bidding process for an upgrade that may never happen? They must get a lot of card details which don't get used and could be used for fraud at any point. Strangely I have had fraud on my card shortly after registering with them and have had to cancel the card. Coincidence?

When I checked in on line I'm pretty sure I only had to put the last four digits of the credit card in.  Also when bidding for an upgrade the security code was encrypted.

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Yes you are correct. I recall just putting in the last four digits for the online check in now you mention it. I suspected as much that the Moveup program would be handled by a third party. I think they wanted the full card details as they tell you they charge your card straight away if you are 'successful'. Certainly a lot of opportunity for them to use card details fraudulently. Always is an issue when buying stuff over the internet. They always need card name, 16 digit number, cvc number and expiry date. All of which can be used elsewhere if a merchant wanted to do so. Must happen a lot and my bank was not that surprised. It certainly bothered me though. I also bought third party excursions online and they may have been the problem. Difficult to tell.

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They do charge your card immediately if your bid is accepted.  That's how I found out my bid was accepted, the message on my phone from AmEx.

 

As for worrying about fraud, do business with a reputable credit card company, keep an eye on your accounts, and dispute charges as necessary.  If shopping online, check that the site uses encrypted methods.  Actually, AmEx has caught potential fraud before I saw it and has called me to inquire about the potential transaction.

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Thanks Happy. I do all that. And I check all websites have the padlock and https, as this one does. :classic_cool:

The bank has reimbursed me immediately but it is unpleasant and has meant I don't have that bank's card for a couple of weeks while I'm away. Fortunately I have other cards.

 

Moveup can't charge me immediately now as the card has been cancelled. :classic_rolleyes: They would need to contact me or we'll just retain our current cabin, which is fine.

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I actually think it quite poor that they charge your card immediately. They should really contact you by email to say: "you're successful and could they charge your card?". I know it's in the T's & C's but it isn't good practice, especially from a third party.

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16 minutes ago, Stuart2019 said:

Thanks Happy. I do all that. And I check all websites have the padlock and https, as this one does. :classic_cool:

The bank has reimbursed me immediately but it is unpleasant and has meant I don't have that bank's card for a couple of weeks while I'm away. Fortunately I have other cards.

 

Moveup can't charge me immediately now as the card has been cancelled. :classic_rolleyes: They would need to contact me or we'll just retain our current cabin, which is fine.

 

If your card is refused since it was canceled I'm very sure you will be in your original cabin.  They won't be reaching out to you.

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8 minutes ago, Stuart2019 said:

I actually think it quite poor that they charge your card immediately. They should really contact you by email to say: "you're successful and could they charge your card?". I know it's in the T's & C's but it isn't good practice, especially from a third party.

 

That's not going to happen given this all happens automatically driven by computer.  Like everything if you don't like the T&C then don't participate.

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41 minutes ago, Stuart2019 said:

I actually think it quite poor that they charge your card immediately. They should really contact you by email to say: "you're successful and could they charge your card?". I know it's in the T's & C's but it isn't good practice, especially from a third party.

 

I can understand why they would charge immediately - otherwise everyone would be trying to see at what price they could get an upgrade even though they had no intention of booking it. 

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3 hours ago, citronella said:

 

I can understand why they would charge immediately - otherwise everyone would be trying to see at what price they could get an upgrade even though they had no intention of booking it. 

 

That's why is it? I think Celebrity should better protect their customers than allowing a third party company to collect credit card details which could be used without Celebrity being aware and apparently outside of their security protection. I could see issues happening with that.

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I guess if you don’t like the game don’t play. I love the game and have no issues with Royal Caribbean, Azamara or Celebrity using the same company for all three cruise lines. Game on. 

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Without sounding like a broken record, let me again remind bidders not to be confused if/when Celebrity accepts bids for categories that appear to be sold out. 

 

We are currently on Millie, and for a good 8 weeks prior to departure there were no publicly available Celebrity Suites (CS). Yet onboard we have become acquainted with two separate couples who report winning MoveUp bids to CS and were notified 5 days before departure. 

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On 4/26/2019 at 4:32 PM, dollydosh said:

We  have  just received our 2nd email  offering move up for our cruise on Constellation.

 

  • Ship:      Constellation
  • Length of Cruise:     10 days
  • Cruise Sail Date:     21May 2019
  • Date email offer received: 17th April and 26th April 2019
  • Captain’s Club Tier     Elite plus
  • Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA:  Direct 
  • Current Cabin:   Concierge Class
  • Bid?  Yes/No:            No. we didn't bid as we are happy with our chosen cabin.

If YES -  Bidding Details:

  • Cabin Category : Royal Suite $1800pp.    Celebrity Suite  $1300pp.  Sky Suite $1000pp.  AQ $150pp
  • Bid Offer:
  • Notification Date:
  • Accepted / Rejected

We are on this sailing and also Elite plus in a concierge cabin.

On May 3, we received the THIRD move up offer.

We normally sail in sky suites, so perhaps this is the reason we are receiving the offers.

We would love to have one of the two higher suites, but not unless the minimum bid is reduced to an amount we are willing to pay.

Don’t think this will happen, so wish they would stop tempting us😊

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7 hours ago, BEAV said:

Without sounding like a broken record, let me again remind bidders not to be confused if/when Celebrity accepts bids for categories that appear to be sold out. 

 

We are currently on Millie, and for a good 8 weeks prior to departure there were no publicly available Celebrity Suites (CS). Yet onboard we have become acquainted with two separate couples who report winning MoveUp bids to CS and were notified 5 days before departure. 

...but were the  Royal Suites and Penthouse Suites also sold out (publicly)?  

 

People should keep in mind: 

 

1) Celebrity will move people up to those suites (either via MoveUp or free upgrades) if there are people waiting in the wings to give them more money for CS.  

 

2) don't think of the program as so linear and directly related to actual occupancy of any single given category.  Celebrity is looking for everyone to input as many bids as possible to as many categories as possible.   They can then apply a simple algorithm to determine who to shift where for maximum profit.  CS occupants moved up vacate cabins for CS bidder...etc.  Think of the potential complexity here: let's say you're in a C2 and bid $500/person to upgrade to a CS and someone in an A2 has bid $300 to upgrade to a CS....you might think the C2 person gets the upgrade. But what if there's someone in a regular balcony who's bid $250 to upgrade into an A2 (and not bid anything to upgrade into a C2)?  Celebrity would bump the A2 into the CS and then the balcony into the A2 to collect a total of $550 in overall upgrade fees.  Extrapolate that over the number of people and cabin types and a quite complex picture emerges....with the only thing clear that Celebrity gets as many of us to tell them what we're willing to pay for any sort of an upgrade so they can crunch the numbers to shift all the puzzle pieces most profitably. 

 

3) finally,  Celebrity want to collect these bids on even completely sold out cruises (whether there are cancellations or not).  This program gives them an incredible amount of data that can help them refine future cabin pricing and even cabin planning on new ships to help them maximize return. Over time it will produce incredible insight into what people willing to pay for extra space, views and amenities. 

Edited by ocdb8r
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For what it's worth, I actually just bid on an upgrade using this system today. 

 

I booked an ocean view 7-night cabin to Alaska three days ago, having to pay it in full since the sailing was only 3 weeks away. We saw a great deal and went for it. Yesterday, I saw that I'd gotten a Move Up offer (you must be opted in for emails to get these) and it offered us to bid to move to a veranda for as little as $200 total, or $100 per person. The guarantee veranda is currently $400 total above our amazing oceanview deal if we just had paid the price on the website, so I did bid! We have never been to Alaska, and even if the balcony is on the wrong side of the ship for our direction, I still think we will enjoy it. 

 

Wish me luck! I'll try to remember to come back to post what happens later to let you know. 

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16 hours ago, ocdb8r said:

...but were the  Royal Suites and Penthouse Suites also sold out (publicly)?  

 

Yes, from the time we began watching/monitoring the sailing in early January, RS/PS was never publically available.

 

We booked a S1 on February 1. At that time there were 6 (of 😎 publically available CS (and again, no RS/PS). Around the 3rd week of February when the price of CS dropped, we upgraded to one. For a few more weeks 5 CS continued to display available. Seemingly we were the only ones who upgraded to CS following the price drop. Then one day around Mar 1 all of a sudden those 5 CS were gone from availability, and never returned.

 

Its pure speculation on my part, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at that time Celebrity took those 5 CS out of inventory with the intention of liquidating them through the MoveUp program. From January to March, those 6 CS never budged, except for the one we upgraded to. Being a sailing that required long international air  (Tokyo to Vancouver), combined with limited ports and the fact that CS inventory wasn’t moving, the chances of them selling them outright was dwindling. Contrast this to a 7 day Caribbean sailing where it’s much easier for millions of people to book closer to departure, many without air.

 

BTW, we did place unsuccessful bids to RS/PS once we upgraded to CS. The 2 people who reported to us winning bids to CS, one had bid the minimum amount allowed, and the other $10 above minimum.

 

 

Edited by BEAV
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8 hours ago, snackcracker675 said:

I booked an ocean view 7-night cabin to Alaska three days ago, having to pay it in full since the sailing was only 3 weeks away. We saw a great deal and went for it. Yesterday, I saw that I'd gotten a Move Up offer (you must be opted in for emails to get these) and it offered us to bid to move to a veranda for as little as $200 total, or $100 per person. 

 

Good luck on your bid!

 

And just a reminder if you don’t receive an email invitation to bid you can click the link on the Celebrity home page to access the MoveUp program.

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On 5/5/2019 at 4:41 AM, Stuart2019 said:

I booked our cruise through a TA. Checked in online with Celebrity and subsequently received the Moveup email invitation. I had already input my credit card on check in but was surprised to be asked again on registering for Moveup, when I had already entered it for Celebrity, as required, on check in. This has nothing to do with booking through a TA as Celebrity require a card at the online check in. Why ask for the card details again? And then hold on to the details in a department which seems to be running a bidding process for an upgrade that may never happen? They must get a lot of card details which don't get used and could be used for fraud at any point. Strangely I have had fraud on my card shortly after registering with them and have had to cancel the card. Coincidence?

Yes.

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On ‎4‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 11:13 AM, TFree said:

Thanks, Luvcrusn.  I tried that, and it still does not work for me.  So maybe participation by clients of the Big Box is really disabled.  I have sent an email to the move up program, we will see if they respond.

 

Tom & Judy

Curious if you've received a response yet.  A friend of mine asked one of their reps why they do not participate.  Their reply is because it gets sent to their 'general' email account and they cannot monitor that account sufficiently to handle all of the emails.  Tacky excuse imho!

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On 5/11/2019 at 1:29 PM, LuvCruzn4Evr said:

Curious if you've received a response yet.  A friend of mine asked one of their reps why they do not participate.  Their reply is because it gets sent to their 'general' email account and they cannot monitor that account sufficiently to handle all of the emails.  Tacky excuse imho!

Not yet.  The system advised me that it might take 3 or 4 weeks for a response.  We are approaching 3 now.  If I don't hear by the time I get back from my trip I will certainly try to call them.

 

Tom & Judy

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I'm a little confused by some of the posts in this thread. I've received move up offers directly to my email and I book through a range of TA's. However, I haven't bid on any of the offers to date. For those of you who received an offer and booked through a TA, when you submitted your bid did the system involve your TA in any way? From what I read on the Celebrity website, you place a bid online (not through your TA), if your bid is accepted then your credit card is automatically charged and you get notified of the move up and new cabin. How does this impact the TA and is the TA even notified that you moved up and changed cabins? 

Edited by kathynorth
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5 hours ago, kathynorth said:

I'm a little confused by some of the posts in this thread. I've received move up offers directly to my email and I book through a range of TA's. However, I haven't bid on any of the offers to date. For those of you who received an offer and booked through a TA, when you submitted your bid did the system involve your TA in any way? From what I read on the Celebrity website, you place a bid online (not through your TA), if your bid is accepted then your credit card is automatically charged and you get notified of the move up and new cabin. How does this impact the TA and is the TA even notified that you moved up and changed cabins? 

No, the Move Up bidding does not involve the TA.

Some of the discussion here relate to the fact that a particular big box  wholesaler will not allow Celebrity  to offer their clients a Move Up bidding offer. Probably a contact stipulation?

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