RoyalUP? (Bid for stateroom upgrade)

[John&LaLa]

2 hours ago, boscobeans said:

 

Exactly..   And a lot more beneficial to the cruise line than just giving away the staterooms as the Upgrade Fairy did in the past.

 

Pretty sure there would be the same cascade of movement with the upgrade fairly.  Or am I missing something.🤔

[Pratique]

For the cruise line, all of those bids are guaranteed money on the table ready for the taking. Travel agents get their cut, an incentive to encourage other clients to bid. That's another cascade effect.

[itsmeagain]

17 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Pretty sure there would be the same cascade of movement with the upgrade fairly.  Or am I missing something.🤔

The upgrade fairy in the past did not charge, now all the upgrades that cascade pay for the upgrade.  

[John&LaLa]

1 minute ago, itsmeagain said:

The upgrade fairy in the past did not charge, now all the upgrades that cascade pay for the upgrade.  

 

Obviously,  I was referring to the multitude of happy people that get a better cabin.  You can be happy even if you pay a bit. 😉🤑

[jgoodm]

Yes but an RLS might sell for $25 to $50 thousand. Think the cascade will generate that much?  Seems like a lot to me. 

[boscobeans]

7 hours ago, jgoodm said:

Yes but an RLS might sell for $25 to $50 thousand. Think the cascade will generate that much?  Seems like a lot to me. 

 

I doubt the cruise line will get top dollar for the upper suites but they will get something unlike the nothing they used to get back when we all read about passengers getting outrageous free upgrades from lower categories to suites.

[bobmacliberty]

1 hour ago, boscobeans said:

 

I doubt the cruise line will get top dollar for the upper suites but they will get something unlike the nothing they used to get back when we all read about passengers getting outrageous free upgrades from lower categories to suites.

I imagine it would also depend on how far away the cancellation happened from the cruise date.  If it's still outside of final, put the cancelled RLS back on the market at full price and see what happens.  If there's less time left before the cruise date, trigger the auto upgrade cascade.  They now have flexibility either way.  I don't know how much the company that manages the bid process gets, but unless it's a flat fee, Royal keeps that money if they sell the cabin themselves.

[wytygr8]

So I guess this is actually legit? I was going to put some min bids for my cruise, but when they asked for a credit card and I looked and saw that the site was “plusgrade.com,” I figured there was a possibility of it being a scam and bailed.

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, wytygr8 said:

So I guess this is actually legit? I was going to put some min bids for my cruise, but when they asked for a credit card and I looked and saw that the site was “plusgrade.com,” I figured there was a possibility of it being a scam and bailed.

 

Yes, legit.  Maybe Royal expects this to be such a big money maker for them that they decided they could not risk leaving it the hands of their normal crack IT team, so they engaged a third party.

[lovelife]

6 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Yes, legit.  Maybe Royal expects this to be such a big money maker for them that they decided they could not risk leaving it the hands of their normal crack IT team, so they engaged a third party.

Good assumption!

[Ourusualbeach]

8 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I imagine it would also depend on how far away the cancellation happened from the cruise date.  If it's still outside of final, put the cancelled RLS back on the market at full price and see what happens.  If there's less time left before the cruise date, trigger the auto upgrade cascade.  They now have flexibility either way.  I don't know how much the company that manages the bid process gets, but unless it's a flat fee, Royal keeps that money if they sell the cabin themselves.

 

They put a JS and a Crown loft suite back in the website for our Christmas cruise on Allure 3 weeks prior to sailing.

[Biker19]

6 hours ago, wytygr8 said:

 but when they asked for a credit card and I looked and saw that the site was “plusgrade.com,” I figured there was a possibility of it being a scam and bailed.

Plusgrade is in use by a lot of airlines and a few cruise lines, like Celebrity.

[The_Big_M]

10 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Plusgrade is in use by a lot of airlines and a few cruise lines, like Celebrity.

 

Yes, and the modern world is about outsourcing to established providers rather than building your own.

 

When something is successful elsewhere they just adopt it rather than remaking the wheel.

[A&L_Ont]

1 hour ago, The_Big_M said:

 

Yes, and the modern world is about outsourcing to established providers rather than building your own.

 

When something is successful elsewhere they just adopt it rather than remaking the wheel.

 

It’s too bad RC wouldn’t do that with their website. 😂

[RFerrington]

On 12/8/2018 at 9:40 AM, bobmacliberty said:

I imagine it would also depend on how far away the cancellation happened from the cruise date.  

 

I agree with this.  If the cancellation occurs far enough out, they can probably try and resell it on the open market but if it's close to launch, I would think they would be better off taking the top bid and executing the entire cascade.

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

It’s too bad RC wouldn’t do that with their website. 😂

Maybe not on their web site but RCI does outsource some things:

 

Ernst & Young provided consulting services to Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., primarily related to its Excalibur technology platform, to the tune of approximately $52m from Jan. 1, 2018, to Dec. 1, 2018.

This was on top of approximately $18m in EY fees during 2017.

Currently Excalibur-related functionality is available on about 50% of the Royal Caribbean fleet.

During RCL's third quarter earnings call in October, CFO Jason Liberty noted that investments in significant technology projects, like Excalibur, were becoming a larger mix of capital expenditures.

[rlawson084]

At least they send out “Offer Unsuccessful” emails the day before. 

[lovelife]

4 hours ago, rlawson084 said:

At least they send out “Offer Unsuccessful” emails the day before. 

 

Thanks for posting that.

[FloridaMac]

8 hours ago, rlawson084 said:

At least they send out “Offer Unsuccessful” emails the day before. 

 

Thanks for posting.  What room class were you attempting to upgrade from?

[rlawson084]

44 minutes ago, FloridaMac said:

Thanks for posting.  What room class were you attempting to upgrade from?

 

Large Balcony. I put in bids for grand suite and owners suite. Both were declined. 

 

We we are looking forward to setting sail tomorrow morning and enjoying the 11 night vacation. 🙂 

[wytygr8]

Hmm... on 9 day Jewel if the seas. We booked inside for the first time with an inner cabin (previously ocean views) because it was so much cheaper. The following are the min bids to upgrade:

 

ocean view: $30

balcony: $50

no balcony 2b suite: $150

junior suite: $150

 

Current actual price differences from inner:

 

ocean view: $100

balcony: $573

 

suites are sold out.

 

Those seem pretty low compared to other mins posted in here.

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, wytygr8 said:

 

ocean view: $30

balcony: $50

 

Current actual price differences from inner:

 

ocean view: $100

balcony: $573

 

Those seem pretty low compared to other mins posted in here.

The min is proportional to the actual diff. They may assume folks are dumb, not look at real prices and hope they overbid, but they do start with reasonable mins.

[mworkman]

The down side to this program as i see it, if your in a balcony room and want to upgrade to higher catagory room..JS, OS ect...you don't get the perks of 2pts. per day sailing, like you would have if you booked that category room initially.  

[KiwiGal117]

44 minutes ago, mworkman said:

The down side to this program as i see it, if your in a balcony room and want to upgrade to higher catagory room..JS, OS ect...you don't get the perks of 2pts. per day sailing, like you would have if you booked that category room initially.  

True. So I guess the price needs to be right or the desire for more space and the other perks needs to be worth it.

[molly361]

1 hour ago, mworkman said:

The down side to this program as i see it, if your in a balcony room and want to upgrade to higher catagory room..JS, OS ect...you don't get the perks of 2pts. per day sailing, like you would have if you booked that category room initially.  

Not everyone cares about the double points.  For example we are so far from the next C and A level that the points are not the top priority, would rather have all the other suite perks