RoyalUP? (Bid for stateroom upgrade)

[jgoodm]

FWIW, I have a Grand Panoramic Suite booked on Oasis (Star) and I was offered $500 pp minimum bid for the Royal Loft with no other room upgrade categories offered.  Owners Panoramic would be an upgrade (though a very small one).  Star Loft might be considered an upgrade but I have seen those rooms sell for both more and less than the Grand Panoramic I did book so I don't know if RC thinks about them as upgrades or not from my room category.

 

My original booking was approximately $10,500 and at the time, the Royal Loft Suite was approximately $15,500.

 

A few things I can tell you:

 

1.  The original upgrade offer allowed me to start with a $500 pp bid with the next increment higher being $1,000 pp.  I offered the $500 pp immediately after getting the offer.  However if I try to modify now, the minimum bid is $1,200 pp.  I assume this means that I have already lost my bid (however they calculate the value of these things) and there is no notice or warning about it.  I do assume though this is a way to figure out whether you have already lost and can decide to increase your bid accordingly.

 

2.  As part of learning about how these things price, I have checked the pricing on Star Class suites for this cruise very often for about 12 months.  The Royal Loft sold within a few weeks of my booking and has never been offered for sale again.  It remains showing as unavailable.  So, I assume this pretty much guarantees that Royal is offering suites that are not actually vacant.

 

Still would love the RLS if someone cancels... 😉

Edited December 2, 2018 by jgoodm
Typo

[A&L_Ont]

2 hours ago, jgoodm said:

Do you mind me asking which room you are in. 

 

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

CLS

 

Guessd wrong John.🙂

 

joodm, not at all. A Sky Loft Suite. Have had it booked since March 2017.

Edited December 2, 2018 by A&L_Ont

[tabchoir]

How do I change or cancel my bid?  I haven't received anything from them letting me know that they have my offer.

[A&L_Ont]

8 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

 

Guessd wrong John.🙂

 

joodm, not at all. A Sky Loft Suite. Have had it booked since March 2017.

 

Autocorrect got me. A Star Loft Suite is what I meant to type. 

[A&L_Ont]

6 hours ago, tabchoir said:

How do I change or cancel my bid?  I haven't received anything from them letting me know that they have my offer.

 

You should have gotten an email confirmation of your bid.  From that you can go in and see you bid and adjust it higher/lower or cancel it. It sounds as though you might not have successfully bid or your confirmation email could be in your junk folder. 

 

If you go into you orginal email and “log in” you could/might be able to see if you have bid already.  If you are uncertain you could always do a new lower bid wait for your confirmation and then cancel your bid. Just a suggestion, it would be the way I’d go about it especially if I didn’t get the email confirmation.  

[Gail & Dan]

18 hours ago, sdear said:

I just got an email stating both my royal up offers were declined.  So I guess they do let you know.  

Interesting they let you know at least  

 

Edited December 2, 2018 by Gail & Dan

[Biker19]

11 hours ago, jgoodm said:

 

1.  The original upgrade offer allowed me to start with a $500 pp bid with the next increment higher being $1,000 pp.  I offered the $500 pp immediately after getting the offer.  However if I try to modify now, the minimum bid is $1,200 pp.  I assume this means that I have already lost my bid (however they calculate the value of these things) and there is no notice or warning about it.  I do assume though this is a way to figure out whether you have already lost and can decide to increase your bid accordingly.

 

I mentioned this in an earlier post - the min pricing is dynamic but does not mean your bid is invalid nor does it mean you lost. The only feedback you get is acknowledgement of the bid (right away), winning bid (anytime between bid and 24 hrs out) and losing bid (24 hrs out).

[Wilson]

On ‎11‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 7:20 AM, Wilson said:

 

We received an offer for the Royal Suite which has not been available for as long as I can remember. My agent reached out to a “contact” who confirmed that the RS has been booked for over a year. 

 

Ok, so I just learned the person in RS is on our roll call and they booked it April 2017. Glad we cancelled our bid instead of sitting back thinking our offer might get accepted.

[twangster]

An OS and some lesser cabins have appeared in the available inventory for Navigator 12/7.  It  had been sold out for a bit.  

 

Perhaps we'll have an OS winner on this sailing and the ripple effect will kick in.   I can only bid on GS/JS.  

[A&L_Ont]

2 minutes ago, Wilson said:

 

Ok, so I just learned the person in RS is on our roll call and they booked it April 2017. Glad we cancelled our bid instead of sitting back thinking our offer might get accepted.

 

Thats why I backed my bid out on the RLS as well. False hope wastes my time. 

[Pratique]

4 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

Thats why I backed my bid out on the RLS as well. False hope wastes my time. 

I think a set-and-forget approach makes sense. Bid once (if at all) and then forget about it. If it happens, nice surprise. Otherwise, no loss. You never know if someone has to cancel at the last minute and the cabin opens up.

[groveml]

2 hours ago, Pratique said:

I think a set-and-forget approach makes sense. Bid once (if at all) and then forget about it. If it happens, nice surprise. Otherwise, no loss. You never know if someone has to cancel at the last minute and the cabin opens up.

Agreed - why does it matter if you're already booked in a cabin you're happy with?  You're not getting charged for making the bid and until three days ago you were going to be cruising in that cabin no matter what.  I'm in a cabin I'm pretty happy with already - but if I can get an awesome deal for a better cabin I wouldn't normally be able to afford, that would be pretty sweet.  But I'm not going to sit around panicking about whether or not I get this upgrade.  I'm just excited as hell about my trip in 91 days!

Edited December 2, 2018 by groveml

[Cayman1]

I wonder if this could have a negative affect on RC... if people start booking lower in hopes of getting a cheap upgrade. I could see it going both ways.

 

As others have stated, it costs us nothing unless you win, so no harm no foul in my opinion.

 

 

[LB_NJ]

1 hour ago, Cayman1 said:

I wonder if this could have a negative affect on RC... if people start booking lower in hopes of getting a cheap upgrade. I could see it going both ways.

 

As others have stated, it costs us nothing unless you win, so no harm no foul in my opinion.

 

 

 

I doubt it will cause that problem.  Since 99.9% of people won't get an upgrade they bid on people will soon learn that the only good way to get the cabin class that they want is to book it initially.

[The_Big_M]

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 12:01 AM, A&L_Ont said:

 

RC wants a line of folks to pay the highest value in case someone backs out, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, Royal should be a bit more forthcoming with its true availability of cabins.  IMO if the cabin was truly available they should have an eBay style auction, with a “buy it now” button.  If someone wants to pay a higher price for the “guarantee” let them. If the cabin might be available, it should be advertised that way and let people bid in this Royal Up format. 

 

They can't do that as it's not reserved. Further, bids are taken a month out, when availabilitiy may only be provisioned a week out for example. Essentially they're building a waiting list of people willing to take an upgrade at a set price, just before departure. In the airline industry, it's known as standby upgrades.

 

If they have capacity on sailing, you may get lucky. If they don't, you don't. But availability is not known at the time the bidding starts.

[The_Big_M]

3 hours ago, Cayman1 said:

I wonder if this could have a negative affect on RC... if people start booking lower in hopes of getting a cheap upgrade. I could see it going both ways.

 

As others have stated, it costs us nothing unless you win, so no harm no foul in my opinion.

 

 

 

Given pricing to date hasn't been markedly cheaper, and that there is only a slim chance and you may not be even able to bid, I doubt that many would want to take that risk once they've experienced it (and wouldn't be booking with that mindset if they hadn't experienced it).

[jgoodm]

Probably doesn’t need to be said here but the rule of upgrades, loyalty or not, paid for or not, is always to book the minimum you can accept and then just hope for better. RC will do everything to maximize profit, that’s all. 

[mac_tlc]

21 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

Thats why I backed my bid out on the RLS as well. False hope wastes my time. 

Until we start hearing about some actual “winners”, sounds like there is a lot of false hope so far. 

 

mac_tlc

[Ourusualbeach]

Not sure it's really false hope....just false expectations. 

[A&L_Ont]

5 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Not sure it's really false hope....just false expectations. 

 

You stated it better.  I like it.

 

[mringenoldus]

58 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Until we start hearing about some actual “winners”, sounds like there is a lot of false hope so far. 

 

mac_tlc

Today we move into our GS - minimum bid on a free cruise won in about 6 hours after bidding. Just shows there is no way to predict the process.

[Pratique]

32 minutes ago, mringenoldus said:

Today we move into our GS - minimum bid on a free cruise won in about 6 hours after bidding. Just shows there is no way to predict the process.

You're right, no way to predict it. It might even have something to do with the fact that you were already on the ship. Who knows.

[A&L_Ont]

34 minutes ago, mringenoldus said:

Today we move into our GS - minimum bid on a free cruise won in about 6 hours after bidding. Just shows there is no way to predict the process.

 

That's great news.  Are you boarding today?

[rlawson084]

I leave on Anthem of the Seas on Dec 10th, looking forward to my large balcony cabin, if I score an upgrade GS, or OS for just in the "fair" lol pricing then that is a nice plus for our first anniversary. I am not counting on it and didn't tell my wife I bid on it so she isn't disappointed if we don't get it. 

 

We got married on board NCL Breakaway last year in the Bahamas. It was fantastic and now I have an excuse to book a cruise each year for our anniversary.

Edited December 3, 2018 by rlawson084

[louv2000]

I went in to modify my bids today--and the  minimums are now crazy high.  So without receiving an e-mail I can already know that I'm not a winner.