Celebrity Move Up Program

[sfboston]

As a 12 time cruiser on Celebrity (Elite Captain's Club Member) I was surprised to learn about this Move Up Program - lottery offered to select cruisers for upgrades.  As loyal Captain's Club Members, this was not offered.  When I called the CC number, Jenny stated it is a "revenue department program" and they are "in charge of the stateroom assignments."  Escalated to Sonia, who said it is "capacity controlled."  She could get me "an added stateroom amenity" for my loyalty (i.e. bad champagne).  Has anyone else encountered this?  It seems like the sales department is totally disconnected from the customer experience.  If Celebrity/Azamara wants to establish a loyal following, I think their strategy is off.  

[Essiesmom]

Your best info about this is on the Celebrity board here.  It is a relatively new program for Celebrity.  It is not offered on all cruises.  Yes, it would be a revenue dept. program, and probably only offered to guests in cabin categories they can easily resell.  And you are bidding to upgrade to a higher level.  Highest bidder wins.  Loyalty status has nothing to do with it.  EM

Edited December 12, 2018 by Essiesmom

[CruiserBruce]

The Celebrity board is here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/16-celebrity-cruises/

[Curious Couple]

It is surprising if this is truly new in the cruise industry as the revenue potential is significant. 

Offering a program like this when there are existing high premium priced cabin vacancies can create a chain: low priced suite holders bid to move to high priced suites, their suites in turn become available to high end non-suite stateroom holders, etc.  At each level of the chain, the bids reflect the incremental price each cabin holder is willing to pay for somewhat more room and comfort.  At the upper end of the chain with less price sensitive passengers, the increments are larger and these diminish as the chain moves down to the holders of lower priced staterooms.  Taken as a whole, however, the chain holds the potential of creating some significant added revenue for a cruise.  Even if there really aren’t any cabins available for upgrades, conducting upgrade bids like this provide the cruise lines with insight into the price sensitivity of booked passengers which is useful for revenue planning and future pricing purposes.   Airlines have employed sophisticated techniques like this for decades and if the cruise lines are not recruiting revenue/pricing modelers from that industry, I’d be surprised.  Get ready for all those things you love about airline fare policy on your future cruises!

[Beachdude]

33 minutes ago, Curious Couple said:

It is surprising if this is truly new in the cruise industry as the revenue potential is significant. 

Offering a program like this when there are existing high premium priced cabin vacancies can create a chain: low priced suite holders bid to move to high priced suites, their suites in turn become available to high end non-suite stateroom holders, etc.  At each level of the chain, the bids reflect the incremental price each cabin holder is willing to pay for somewhat more room and comfort.  At the upper end of the chain with less price sensitive passengers, the increments are larger and these diminish as the chain moves down to the holders of lower priced staterooms.  Taken as a whole, however, the chain holds the potential of creating some significant added revenue for a cruise.  Even if there really aren’t any cabins available for upgrades, conducting upgrade bids like this provide the cruise lines with insight into the price sensitivity of booked passengers which is useful for revenue planning and future pricing purposes.   Airlines have employed sophisticated techniques like this for decades and if the cruise lines are not recruiting revenue/pricing modelers from that industry, I’d be surprised.  Get ready for all those things you love about airline fare policy on your future cruises!

Get Ready? LOL, you mean a major cruise line is implementing another gimmick to earn a few extra dollars, while poking the eyes of loyal followers. Curious Couple is right, In their effort to keep prices low and ships full, cruise lines are less concerned about loyalty than finding ways to nickel and dime ALL the passengers for those few extra dollars. But funny enough, it seems most passengers today are ok with the subtle changes here to keep their low cost vacation.

 

The best way to respond to these gimmicks is to shop for the best deals, rather than stick with one cruise line. We shopped for a good deal for a New Years cruise and ended up on Celebrity this time. Hey, maybe we will be upgraded to a suite. LOL

 

Beary

[MicCanberra]

I think Princess have had this for a while except there they call it the upgrade fairy as it is for no cost.

[yaduck]

You just need to understand though not clearly stated through the Celebrity upgrade process is that all you get with paying for this upgrade is the extra room in the new stateroom category, no extra perks, no additional cc points for higher category, and really not much else for what they used to give for free on room available basis.

[OzKiwiJJ]

On 12/14/2018 at 5:48 PM, MicCanberra said:

I think Princess have had this for a while except there they call it the upgrade fairy as it is for no cost.

 

The Princess upgrade fairy is rarely seen these days. They offer upsells instead now and, in our part of the world, they aren't good value.

[MicCanberra]

On ‎12‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 5:23 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

 

The Princess upgrade fairy is rarely seen these days. They offer upsells instead now and, in our part of the world, they aren't good value.

No, not great .