Guaranteed Stateroom Experiences

[Moriah]

1 minute ago, *Miss G* said:

 

No no.  There is always the possibility you can be changed to a higher category.  The only time you won’t be is if you mark your reservation as “Do not upgrade”.

 

I see, but presumably you would be asked first if you wanted that upgrade, whereas with a guarantee where you did not choose a cabin, they don't ask you, they simply assign you.

Edited July 6, 2019 by Moriah

[*Miss G*]

2 minutes ago, Moriah said:

 

I see, but presumably you would be asked first if you wanted that upgrade, whereas with a guarantee where you did not choose a cabin, they don't ask you, they simply assign you.

 

I doubt they’d bother asking.  When you book a guarantee you’re agreeing to take your chances whether you’ve chosen a room or not.  Unfortunately (fortunately?) I have never gone through the entire process because I have always taken an upsell or upgraded the class. 

[DaveOKC]

3 minutes ago, Moriah said:

 

I see, but presumably you would be asked first if you wanted that upgrade, whereas with a guarantee where you did not choose a cabin, they don't ask you, they simply assign you.

In my experience, HAL does not offer you the option for a free upgrade.  You just get it and you may not know about it until you board the ship!  I have heard stories where some people have noticed it early enough and complained and were then able to get it reversed, but you cannot count on this.  HAL does not have the time to call everyone getting a free upgrade to ask if they want it, especially since these free upgrades often occur at the last minute.

 

[Moriah]

3 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

I doubt they’d bother asking.  When you book a guarantee you’re agreeing to take your chances whether you’ve chosen a room or not.  Unfortunately (fortunately?) I have never gone through the entire process because I have always taken an upsell or upgraded the class. 

 

Okay... so we've learned that not all guarantees start with no room assignment.  You might get the guarantee price and STILL be able to choose your cabin, and then unless you say "do not upgrade", they might change you to a different cabin anyway, just like a normal guarantee.  Got it!

 

[Moriah]

6 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

In my experience, HAL does not offer you the option for a free upgrade.  You just get it and you may not know about it until you board the ship!  I have heard stories where some people have noticed it early enough and complained and were then able to get it reversed, but you cannot count on this.  HAL does not have the time to call everyone getting a free upgrade to ask if they want it, especially since these free upgrades often occur at the last minute.

 

 

Exactly.  My understanding was always that if you bought a "guarantee", you would be upgraded or assigned a cabin in the category you purchased and you had no say in it at all. So I was trying to understand how someone got a "guarantee" but still chose their cabin AND might get upgraded unless they specified "do not upgrade".  LOL... I think we're going to have earned a PhD in cabin assignments and categories on this thread.

 

Edited July 6, 2019 by Moriah

[DaveOKC]

1 minute ago, Moriah said:

 

Exactly.  My understanding was always that if you bought a "guarantee", you would be upgraded or assigned a cabin in the category you purchased and you had no say in it at all.

True on a "guarantee".  However, if you book a specific cabin in that same  category you might get a free upgrade UNLESS you mark your reservation DO Not Upgrade. 

[Moriah]

3 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

True on a "guarantee".  However, if you book a specific cabin in that same  category you might get a free upgrade UNLESS you mark your reservation DO Not Upgrade. 

 

Okay, so this is different.  We were talking about guarantees before.. but now you are saying you've heard of upgrades just happening without the person's knowledge? I have never heard of this and it would greatly upset me if it happened to me, because as I said before, if I go to great trouble to choose a particular cabin, that's the cabin I expect to get unless I'm OFFERED an upgrade with the option of turning it down.... glad that never happened to me.  As I mentioned, there are some SCs that i like better than SAs and some SZs that I like better than SSs and I would not be happy if HAL just moved me after I'd chosen a cabin... hmmmm

[Moriah]

Just now, Moriah said:

 

Okay, so this is different.  We were talking about guarantees before.. but now you are saying you've heard of upgrades just happening without the person's knowledge? I have never heard of this and it would greatly upset me if it happened to me, because as I said before, if I go to great trouble to choose a particular cabin, that's the cabin I expect to get unless I'm OFFERED an upgrade with the option of turning it down.... glad that never happened to me.  As I mentioned, there are some SCs that i like better than SAs and some SZs that I like better than SSs and I would not be happy if HAL just moved me after I'd chosen a cabin.. unless it was a "guarantee", in which case it was understood that they could do that. hmmmm

 

[KroozNut]

3 hours ago, Moriah said:

 

Okay, so this is different.  We were talking about guarantees before.. but now you are saying you've heard of upgrades just happening without the person's knowledge? I have never heard of this and it would greatly upset me if it happened to me, because as I said before, if I go to great trouble to choose a particular cabin, that's the cabin I expect to get unless I'm OFFERED an upgrade with the option of turning it down.... glad that never happened to me.  As I mentioned, there are some SCs that i like better than SAs and some SZs that I like better than SSs and I would not be happy if HAL just moved me after I'd chosen a cabin... hmmmm

 

Simple solution to this dilemma as was mentioned: Have your booking tagged as 'Do Not Upgrade'... problem solved. No surprise automatic 'upgrades', but you still can and often do receive 'upsells'..

[kazu]

12 hours ago, Moriah said:

I have never heard of this and it would greatly upset me if it happened to me, because as I said before, if I go to great trouble to choose a particular cabin, that's the cabin I expect to get unless I'm OFFERED an upgrade with the option of turning it down.

 

An upgrade can happen and no, you aren’t offered it.  It is just done unless you have your booking marked “Do Not Upgrade” as Krooznut suggested.

 

Upsells (which cost $) can be offered and you can choose to turn it down or accept it.