Thoughts on bidding for upgrade...

[AllAmericanAmy]

so I'm trying to figure this out.  Read thru some of the pages of the first (closed) post about upgrades and then thru some of the 2nd  post.  Trying to take it all in - I understand there are some folks happy with this concept, many not-so-happy, and quite a few confused.  lol   

 

Here's my situation... we are going to cruise on Breakaway 1/6/19 Western Caribbean from NOLA.  Need to keep this trip inexpensive, so have been planning to book an inside sail-away or whatever they call it where they pick the cabin (not concerned with location).  As of couple days ago they still have over 300 cabins not sold. I went thru every category and counted open cabins --- many categories show "15" cabin numbers which I realize means they have something in excess of 15 actual cabins, so very likely they are well in excess of 300 cabins unsold.  I plan to wait several weeks to actually book as I anticipate substantial price reductions for a couple of reasons:   I realize that the week we are cruising is considered a "slump" week in the industry since people are just finished with Holiday celebrations/expenses whatever.  I've also been watching pricing for 11/24/18 sailing with same itinerary/ship and their prices are substantially lower than 1/6/19 and both of these 2 sailings are notoriously slow weeks for cruising and good bargains to be had. The 11/24 sailing still has many cabins avail too and continue to reduce prices (didn't add them up, but several categories showing 15+ avail).  Yes, I realize that by waiting it could backfire and prices could go up... I feel it's kind of unlikely, but could happen.  I'm going either way!

 

Seems like the bidding situation is ideal for someone like me.... happy to take the cheapest cabin anywhere on ship since I'm seldom in it and I won't be traumatized if I don't get a bid on better cabin category accepted.  Once I book my cheap cabin I can put in a low bid for a balcony and maybe get it, maybe not.  Either way I'll have a good trip.

 

Seems like the other scenario where bidding is a good plan is someone that is booked into a suite and is hoping to score a Haven cabin.  That person is happy with the suite they booked and if they get the upgrade to Haven wooohooooo.  If not, they're still going to be happy.

 

The people that are gambling the most with this bidding stuff are the people that have specific cabins booked for a particular reason (avoiding noisy area of ship, lower deck preferred for less motion, needing connecting cabins, etc).  They give up their carefully chosen cabin and roll the dice and may find themselves in a location they definitely didn't want, paid more for it and didn't gain any additional perks.

 

Whatcha think?   Am I on the right track here?

 

Counting down....

Amy

[Rafa]

Nailed it! You are correct, as it was for me too, bidding is ideal for you in this case, now' the how much are you willing to bid' is the next question.

[BirdTravels]

We cruise multiple times a year and place a bid on every cruise (Haven or suites). We have been awarded an upgrade once with a bid in the high “poor” range. 

 

Upgrades from insides are a lot cheaper and easier to get. 

 

NCL has offered upsell a for a long time. It use to be manual by calling the upgrade desk. With NCL launching one or more mega ships a year, the manual system could not keep up, so they automated it. 

Edited October 24, 2018 by BirdTravels

[AllAmericanAmy]

7 minutes ago, Rafa said:

Nailed it! You are correct, as it was for me too, bidding is ideal for you in this case, now' the how much are you willing to bid' is the next question.

If only you knew how many pages I read to "nail it"  lol    So you've done the bidding and it worked out well?

Dunno how much I'll be willing to bid - depends on what I end up paying for my cheapie cabin  :)   Hubby and I talked about it and agree it might be kind of fun doing this .... seems like we might get a decent cabin on the cheap.

[AllAmericanAmy]

8 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Upgrades from insides are a lot cheaper and easier to get. 

 

Oh Bird, you say the nicest things!  Music to my ears

And regarding the automation.... just THINK of the labor dollars they've saved!!!

[Rafa]

10 minutes ago, AllAmericanAmy said:

If only you knew how many pages I read to "nail it"  lol    So you've done the bidding and it worked out well?

Dunno how much I'll be willing to bid - depends on what I end up paying for my cheapie cabin  :)   Hubby and I talked about it and agree it might be kind of fun doing this .... seems like we might get a decent cabin on the cheap.

Yes, I've done the bidding thing and it worked!! -from an inside cabin to balcony. It is kind of fun and all that but figuring out what to bid to win it is different for every one situation.

[MaryZ]

What might happen could work against you.

1.  They remove the single supplement on insides, oceanviews and balconies to help sell the ship
2.  Many casino players get free cabins   There are lots of casino players in NO

 

Otherwise I agree, moving from an inside to a balcony is easier than going from balcony to Haven.     Lots of times 45 days out is a good time to book. 
Have fun on your cruise! 

 

[heelfan94]

For what it’s worth we are sailing on a slump week (Nov. 25) and we won our upgrade bid over a month out because the ship has so many available cabins.  We booked inside GTY and bid on ocean view and balcony and got the balcony.  Your reasoning seems sound.  Best of luck.

[newmexicoNita]

We have twice bid and neither time were we successful. I think we will give it a try again this upcoming cruise. We are in a min port hole cabin for our Feb cruise and on deck 4; We will bid the top or the poor rate and see what happens. It does seem that, more on the larger ships get upgraded. We only knew of one person on our Dawn ship that was successful last time. Good luck!!! 

[EllieinNJ]

We were booked in an IA for our SA cruise in Feb.  Then the sailaway rate came down to $500pp less than what we were paying so we re-booked.  Didn't have a cabin # for about a month, but then, ironically, got another IA cabin assigned.

 

At that time, there were plenty of balconies available and we were hoping to bid.  Now it says all balconies are sold out.  Our ship, the Sun, doesn't have a Haven.  The only bids the balconies have are minis and some suites.  Doesn't look good for us.  And I do not want to bid on an Oceanview and get stuck with a small porthole on deck 4.

[MCC retired]

Where does one go to Modify or Cancel a Bid ? Can't seem to find it on My NCL ?

[ziggyuk]

5 minutes ago, MCC retired said:

Where does one go to Modify or Cancel a Bid ? Can't seem to find it on My NCL ?

 

Click through from the same email link you made the bid from or the link in the confirmation of bid email.

[awreaper]

We are 80 days out from our sailing on the Bliss and just received a bid offer today.  We currently have a mini-suite booked. It was for 6 different Haven rooms.  I put in a bid on each but they were all rated poor so I don't anticipate having any accepted.  I would pay some extra for a Haven room but not full price.  I would rather take 2 or 3 cruises in a mini-suite or balcony than pay for one cruise in a Haven room. 🙂  The funny thing is that all Haven types except one are showing as not available on the website.  

[dcipjr]

AAA, I think you've got the ideal setup for a bid situation—if you win, you're happy, and if you don't, it's fine.

 

Watching inventory can help guide you to the right quantity to bid. Lots of cabins available? Bid lower. Only a few? Bid higher. 

 

I've only gone through the bidding process once, but I was successful. I took into account what I had paid already for my existing cabin, and researched other sail dates to get an idea of how cheap NCL would let my desired cabin go for. There were plenty cabins in my desired category available, so I bid the difference between my current cabin and what my desired cabin would go for on a "cheap" sailing. I got the upgrade!

 

 

Try to think like NCL and you'll help your chances! Good luck!

 

[JJAuckland]

I would love to receive an option to bid!  This will be my third cruise & I am yet to receive an offer to bid. I am not sure you receive an option to bid for an upgrade on each cruise, but if I am wrong..please let me know as, although I am happy with my current cabin on my up coming cruise (similar to how the OP will feel if they don't win a bid) I would love to "give it a go"

[AllAmericanAmy]

13 hours ago, heelfan94 said:

For what it’s worth we are sailing on a slump week (Nov. 25) and we won our upgrade bid over a month out because the ship has so many available cabins.  We booked inside GTY and bid on ocean view and balcony and got the balcony.  Your reasoning seems sound.  Best of luck.

That's great to hear... and congratulations!  I'm thinking slump weeks are MADE for happy upgrade bidding... many other weeks not so much.   Did you bid lots for the upgrade?  Or did you submit a "poor" bid and got accepted?  I

[AllAmericanAmy]

4 hours ago, JJAuckland said:

I would love to receive an option to bid!  This will be my third cruise & I am yet to receive an offer to bid. I am not sure you receive an option to bid for an upgrade on each cruise, but if I am wrong..please let me know as, although I am happy with my current cabin on my up coming cruise (similar to how the OP will feel if they don't win a bid) I would love to "give it a go"

I believe I had read in other posts that everyone has the option to bid.  If you didn't get an email invite, log onto your NCL account and see if you can find it there.... assuming you're within 80 days of sailing date which is the earliest it opens up to bidding, I think.   I'm sure others will chime in with better info

[AllAmericanAmy]

7 hours ago, dcipjr said:

AAA, I think you've got the ideal setup for a bid situation—if you win, you're happy, and if you don't, it's fine.

 

Watching inventory can help guide you to the right quantity to bid. Lots of cabins available? Bid lower. Only a few? Bid higher. 

 

I've only gone through the bidding process once, but I was successful. I took into account what I had paid already for my existing cabin, and researched other sail dates to get an idea of how cheap NCL would let my desired cabin go for. There were plenty cabins in my desired category available, so I bid the difference between my current cabin and what my desired cabin would go for on a "cheap" sailing. I got the upgrade!

 

 

Try to think like NCL and you'll help your chances! Good luck!

 

I absolutely LOVE your phrase "try to think like NCL and you'll help your chances".  Brilliant.   My husband and I were discussing that very thing and trying to figure out WHO gets the upgrade and WHY.  In a nutshell, NCL and their stockholders  care about ONE thing in the bidding process.... How Much Money Will YOU Pay For This Cabin.   Nothing else matters.  Not when you booked the cruise, how much you paid initially compared to Joe Cruiser that paid half the price you did - nothing else. This is ADDITIONAL revenue for them & money already collected is not relevant in any way. Just like a real live auction.... top bidder wins no matter what.  If I'll pay $350 for a balcony and Joe Cruiser offered $325 --- I win.   I'm sure if the bids are identical and only 1 cabin avail, then they might possibly have criteria they review such as Latitude Points, etc.  Very possible NOT though.  lol

 

And great advice to watch the # of cabins available (though we both know that is in constant flux as others get upgraded, etc).  It's a strong possible indicator of how strong bid needs to be.  Especially if MANY categories you are not interested in have a lot of availability showing lots of unsold rooms.  That's even better for us  :) 

[AllAmericanAmy]

11 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

We were booked in an IA for our SA cruise in Feb.  Then the sailaway rate came down to $500pp less than what we were paying so we re-booked.  Didn't have a cabin # for about a month, but then, ironically, got another IA cabin assigned.

 

At that time, there were plenty of balconies available and we were hoping to bid.  Now it says all balconies are sold out.  Our ship, the Sun, doesn't have a Haven.  The only bids the balconies have are minis and some suites.  Doesn't look good for us.  And I do not want to bid on an Oceanview and get stuck with a small porthole on deck 4.

Lots can change before Feb, keep hoping! People may be cancelling as they get near to the final deadline for that.   I'm thinking travel agents will soon be giving up their held inventory as it gets close to 90 day mark, won't they?  That can change things.    Best of luck... 

[tomservo]

If you already have a Haven suite, will they offer a bid on a better Haven suite?

[HBCcruiser]

Yes, they will.

[BirdTravels]

51 minutes ago, tomservo said:

If you already have a Haven suite, will they offer a bid on a better Haven suite?

Yes 

 

And on the big ships, they have been offering balconies to bid on Spa Balconies. And Minis to bid on Spa Minis.  (Something they hadn’t been doing in the past). 

[smurf1635]

I'm booked on this cruise, so far at 73 days out, there have been no offers to bid on upgrades.  Also, at this time shows are not available to book on line.

 

Patiently waiting for both,

Robin

[heelfan94]

12 hours ago, AllAmericanAmy said:

That's great to hear... and congratulations!  I'm thinking slump weeks are MADE for happy upgrade bidding... many other weeks not so much.   Did you bid lots for the upgrade?  Or did you submit a "poor" bid and got accepted?  I

My bid was right in the "fair" zone.  There are still so many cabins available for this sailing.  I hope anyone interested will take a chance.  NCL seems ready to deal.

[newty25]

I've been skimming after the OP but I didn't think you could bid if you booked a sailaway rate?

 

And, since you can be upgraded without paying with the SA rates (to the same class or higher), why not just book the SA rate and be done with it?