Ithikan Posted July 17 #1251 Share Posted July 17 Yesterday I checked the Azamara Upgrades menu under Booked Guests. I listed my name and reservation number for our October cruise, and found the form to bid for an upgrade. Which I then filled in and clicked. It surprised me because while following the pricing for the cruise, I had thought CCs to be no longer available. Yet, the offer to upgrade was there. We shall see. And I'll update here if our bid is successful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carebeau Posted July 17 #1252 Share Posted July 17 Hi there -.so I have cruised with Azamara when they were part of RCI and since they have been independent. I usually do receive an email from them several weeks before my sailing - and when the balance of the cruise has been fully paid. The email provides a link - which clearly shows the different category staterooms which you can upgrade to. You can bid on as many categories as you wish - this increases your chances of getting an upgrade. There is a sliding scale next to each category & you can choose to bid as little or as much as you feel is reasonable (I find working out the cost pppn to upgrade is helpful). Also double check the current price for the staterooms you are bidding on - it is not always a bargain !!!! if you DON’T receive an invitation to bid - then I usually ‘google’ ‘Azamara Stateroom Upgrade Bid’ (or similar) - click onto the relevant ‘hit’ & it will usually take you to their page where you can hit ‘upgrade now’ - you are then able to enter your surname & Azamara (not TA) reference number - if your booking is eligible for you to bid for the upgrade - your options will appear - if not - the page will give you a message saying you cannot. You are required to enter your credit card details before submitting your bid. You can cancel your bid(s) at any time should you change your mind - or increase or decrease the amount. You always receive a confirmation email. The bidding process is something only you can do & not your TA on your behalf. Please be aware that despite several options being available to place a bid on - not all or any of the different staterooms may be available at that time (i.e the cruise or that category of stateroom may currently be sold out) - however I think Azamara still offer the process in case of cancellations etc. I have previously had successful bids with no problems whatsoever - I only bid slightly over the minimum & always ensure that IF I was to be successful in the bidding process - the extra(s) I would be receiving would be value for money. I have just returned from a cruise in Italy with my Mum - we were in a CCS - it was truly wonderful Hope this is helpful to some …. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitmachine Posted July 17 #1253 Share Posted July 17 Today Mrs Fruitmachine received an email offering the opportunity to bid for an upgrade on cabins one and/or two categories higher than our current booking for a 13 September sailing (that's 58 days away). I'm the lead name and email address on the booking and didn't receive one. The link in the email takes you to a third party site (https://www.plusgrade.com/) The wording on that site is as follows: Azamara Upgrade Welcome to Azamara Upgrade. In just a few steps, you can submit an offer to upgrade your stateroom on your upcoming cruise. Browse through the stateroom options below and select the amount you’re willing to pay for an upgrade to each. Making offers on multiple rooms will increase your chances of getting upgraded, but you'll only ever pay for one upgrade. We'll notify you via email if your bid has been accepted and you'll receive a courtesy phone call. You'll have 72 hours to complete the payment. If not, you'll keep the stateroom assigned and you will not be billed for any additional amounts. Offers are priced per person based on two occupants per stateroom for the entire duration of the cruise - only the first and second guest will be charged. And the Ts & Cs in the email read: TERMS & CONDITIONS Please see our Terms and Conditions that apply to offers made under our Azamara Upgrade program. Important Information Azamara reserves the right to not accept any offer regardless of offer amount or stateroom availability. Availability of upgrades is limited and is made at the sole discretion of Azamara. Azamara reserves the right to accept any offer from the time it is submitted to the departure date and time. Offers are based on double occupancy. Only the first and second guests on the reservation will be charged. Once your bid is accepted, the upgrade amount paid is final and non-refundable. The upgrade does not include any additional promotions. Current promotions on the reservation will not be altered. Azamara cannot guarantee a specific stateroom number assignment within the upgraded category. Your stateroom number will depend on space availability and cannot be changed. Upgraded category stateroom assignment is subject to space availability. This includes, but is not limited to: accessible staterooms, stateroom location and bathroom attributes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toronto Guy Posted July 18 #1254 Share Posted July 18 (edited) Also booked on Sept 13th sailing and then a B2B 4 nighter on Sept 26th. Did not receive an email, but clicked on the Upgrade link on the website today and entered my booking number. An upgrade offer is there for the Sept 26th Sailing with some outrageous bidding amounts (a minimum weak bid for the 4 night upgrade from a Cat 5 oceanview to a balcony is the same amount as what I paid for the cruise already). No thanks. Edited July 18 by Toronto Guy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
excitedofharpenden Posted July 18 #1255 Share Posted July 18 11 hours ago, Toronto Guy said: Also booked on Sept 13th sailing and then a B2B 4 nighter on Sept 26th. Did not receive an email, but clicked on the Upgrade link on the website today and entered my booking number. An upgrade offer is there for the Sept 26th Sailing with some outrageous bidding amounts (a minimum weak bid for the 4 night upgrade from a Cat 5 oceanview to a balcony is the same amount as what I paid for the cruise already). No thanks. It's all about supply and demand. I am not sure how revenue decide upon the bid amounts. I've had some good ones and some not so good. Depends on what is left on the inventory. You can't blame Azamara for high bids on some. They are a business after all. Phil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toronto Guy Posted July 18 #1256 Share Posted July 18 8 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said: It's all about supply and demand. I am not sure how revenue decide upon the bid amounts. I've had some good ones and some not so good. Depends on what is left on the inventory. You can't blame Azamara for high bids on some. They are a business after all. Phil Phil, I could purchase a veranda cabin at exactly half the minimum bid amount they are offering right now (under the same promotion I booked the saiiling under)....so this is just a way to swindle money out of customers who haven't checked the current pricing. That's more than a supply/demand thing...and I think that is rather shady. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgg Posted July 18 #1257 Share Posted July 18 Wanting to learn more about this bidding process, I followed the link that fruitmachine helpfully posted: https://www.plusgrade.com What an interesting business they've developed: revenue enhancement.😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toronto Guy Posted July 18 #1258 Share Posted July 18 I don't have any issue with them bringing in more revenue at all - I'd gladly give them some more to upgrade to cabins that they haven't sold. But giving me an opening bid that is DOUBLE the current going rate is unbelievable and doesnt' reflect well on the company. After this upcoming cruise is done, it's time for me to move on. They won't be getting an onboard booking reservation that I always take out and I'll watch to see if this company survives or not. I'm betting "not" at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandma Cruising Posted July 19 Author #1259 Share Posted July 19 9 hours ago, Toronto Guy said: I don't have any issue with them bringing in more revenue at all - I'd gladly give them some more to upgrade to cabins that they haven't sold. But giving me an opening bid that is DOUBLE the current going rate is unbelievable and doesnt' reflect well on the company. After this upcoming cruise is done, it's time for me to move on. They won't be getting an onboard booking reservation that I always take out and I'll watch to see if this company survives or not. I'm betting "not" at this point. It’s all about the market - when they have very few empty cabins they don’t need to sell them off cheaply, but when they have a lot of higher level cabins left they will sell them off cheaply to open up cheaper cabins that they can sell more easily. I have no problem with that. I make sure I book a cabin that I am happy with - if I can get a cheap upgrade, that’s great, but if not I’m happy! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandma Cruising Posted July 19 Author #1260 Share Posted July 19 We’ve just got the upgrade bid offer. We’re in a CC Suite and to upgrade to a Spa they want a minimum of £1160 a head. The current difference between a CC Suite and a Spa Suite is over £2000 a head, so that sounds reasonable. We’re not bidding as we’re very happy with the cabin we have. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgg Posted July 19 #1261 Share Posted July 19 4 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said: We’ve just got the upgrade bid offer. We’re in a CC Suite and to upgrade to a Spa they want a minimum of £1160 a head. The current difference between a CC Suite and a Spa Suite is over £2000 a head, so that sounds reasonable. We’re not bidding as we’re very happy with the cabin we have. How many days is the cruise? (Guess I'm just a per diem kind of cruiser.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandma Cruising Posted July 19 Author #1262 Share Posted July 19 (edited) 19 minutes ago, tgg said: How many days is the cruise? (Guess I'm just a per diem kind of cruiser.) 13 days I’ve added the details to the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pEoojQ5-EPmD4cI3gw1dVcYfYTXfZePdDXxU09l0H3M/edit Edited July 19 by Grandma Cruising 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtagirl Posted July 19 #1263 Share Posted July 19 I got the upgrade offer yesterday for our cruise, October 12, 12 days, port intensive cruise. We have a outside cabin and to upgrade to a veranda they want a minimum of $900 a person and to a veranda plus $1500 a person. We are not bidding, as it would cost us more than the veranda would have when we originally booked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtagirl Posted July 19 #1264 Share Posted July 19 (edited) Sorry, upgrade to veranda plus was $1000 a person. We are discoverer plus. Edited July 19 by dtagirl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitmachine Posted July 19 #1265 Share Posted July 19 For the spreadsheet... We aren't likely to bid. Neither of these categories nor our present one are currently available, so there is not a 'market rate' that I can compare against. Bid Date 17 July 2024 Cruise Date 13 September 2024 Cruise Length (Nights) 13 Loyalty Level Adventurer Minimum bid per stateroom USD 899 Cabin Type Booked Ocean View Cabin Type Bid For Club Balcony Minimum bid per stateroom USD 995 Cabin Type Booked Ocean View Cabin Type Bid For Club Balcony Plus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandma Cruising Posted July 19 Author #1266 Share Posted July 19 Thanks dtagirl & fruitmachine. Both sets of information added to the spreadsheet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Miggins Posted July 20 #1267 Share Posted July 20 2 days ago received an offer to upgrade our September booking - we are B2B and the offer was for the second leg of 7 days - BCN to Monaco. Submitted offer just above minimum for CC. Offer accepted, and if successful they would inform later. However today had email saying the offer had ben cancelled "due to a change in your reservation". We have not made any changes. Just followed a link "Azamara Upgrades" and after entering surname and booking reference another list of possible upgrades were shown. This time for the first 4 day cruise of our B2B. The minimum price per person is listed as £385. This is exactly the same as the previous minimum price quoted on the 7 day cruise. I have only one booking number - so can't explain any of the above. The process has obviously been outsourced. Disappointed at the moment but will phone on Monday. Not expecting anyone in the UK to be able to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare uktog Posted July 20 #1268 Share Posted July 20 48 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said: 2 days ago received an offer to upgrade our September booking - we are B2B and the offer was for the second leg of 7 days - BCN to Monaco. Submitted offer just above minimum for CC. Offer accepted, and if successful they would inform later. However today had email saying the offer had ben cancelled "due to a change in your reservation". We have not made any changes. Just followed a link "Azamara Upgrades" and after entering surname and booking reference another list of possible upgrades were shown. This time for the first 4 day cruise of our B2B. The minimum price per person is listed as £385. This is exactly the same as the previous minimum price quoted on the 7 day cruise. I have only one booking number - so can't explain any of the above. The process has obviously been outsourced. Disappointed at the moment but will phone on Monday. Not expecting anyone in the UK to be able to help. It’s been reported on another thread you cannot bid on b2b cruises on a single reservation number. It’s a bug the outsourced provider cannot work around. Evidently the advice is to enquire once onboard. Personally I’ve given up on the upgrade “benefit” a long time ago when they outsourced it and weren’t transparent on whether loyalty counted or not. I book the best I can afford from the outset and leave it at that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgg Posted July 20 #1269 Share Posted July 20 21 minutes ago, uktog said: It’s been reported on another thread you cannot bid on b2b cruises on a single reservation number. It’s a bug the outsourced provider cannot work around. Evidently the advice is to enquire once onboard. Personally I’ve given up on the upgrade “benefit” a long time ago when they outsourced it and weren’t transparent on whether loyalty counted or not. I book the best I can afford from the outset and leave it at that. AMEN. There comes a time when the pain of banging your head against the wall outweighs any possible upgrade benefit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anchor Light Posted July 20 #1270 Share Posted July 20 1 hour ago, uktog said: Personally I’ve given up on the upgrade “benefit” a long time ago when they outsourced it and weren’t transparent on whether loyalty counted or not. I book the best I can afford from the outset and leave it at that. Totally understand. My recollection of the outsourced system on inception is that the only time loyalty came into play was in the event of bids that were the same, then highest loyalty level prevailed. Hardly a benefit. The prior manual system, while labour-intensive, did indeed offer an upgrade of good value. I too gave up on it when they went to the outsourced system. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toronto Guy Posted July 21 #1271 Share Posted July 21 17 hours ago, tgg said: AMEN. There comes a time when the pain of banging your head against the wall outweighs any possible upgrade benefit. No kidding. They have really got to get their crap together. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackdogmolly Posted July 21 #1272 Share Posted July 21 On 7/20/2024 at 12:53 PM, Mrs Miggins said: 2 days ago received an offer to upgrade our September booking - we are B2B and the offer was for the second leg of 7 days - BCN to Monaco. Submitted offer just above minimum for CC. Offer accepted, and if successful they would inform later. However today had email saying the offer had ben cancelled "due to a change in your reservation". We have not made any changes. Just followed a link "Azamara Upgrades" and after entering surname and booking reference another list of possible upgrades were shown. This time for the first 4 day cruise of our B2B. The minimum price per person is listed as £385. This is exactly the same as the previous minimum price quoted on the 7 day cruise. I have only one booking number - so can't explain any of the above. The process has obviously been outsourced. Disappointed at the moment but will phone on Monday. Not expecting anyone in the UK to be able to help. I got an offer to bid on the second part of my B2B as well. I didn’t bid, which was just as well, I guess! 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExArkie Posted July 29 #1273 Share Posted July 29 Just to add my experience - Date of cruise: 3 October 2024 (9-night transatlantic on Journey) Booked cabin: Club Continent Suite - booked during their Flash Sale, well below what appears to be the usual pricing Final payment date: 23 May 2024 Upgrade bid offer received: 28 July 2024, which is 67 days before embarkation Minimum bid per person: Club Spa Suite $1200 Club Ocean Suite $1350 Club World Owners Suite $1500 Current pricing on upgrade cabins: Unknown, since all higher grades are showing Sold Out at this time. Club Continent Suite is being sold for approximately $900 per person more than we paid, which is still a reasonable discount from what I have seen as their typical pricing. (I accounted for the fact that taxes/fees are now included in the listed fare, but were not when we booked.) We do not plan to offer a bid. Seems like a lot more money just for a larger cabin. There did not seem too be any additions to suite perks with the higher grades. The Club Continent Suite should be an adequate size for our needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandma Cruising Posted July 29 Author #1274 Share Posted July 29 Thanks, all added to the spreadsheet. You don't mention your loyalty leve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExArkie Posted July 29 #1275 Share Posted July 29 1 hour ago, Grandma Cruising said: Thanks, all added to the spreadsheet. You don't mention your loyalty leve? Sorry about that. This is my first trip on Azamara, so the lowest level. I think that is Adventurer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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