Timeline for Upgrade Offers

[FlaMariner]

Any intel as to how many days prior to your cruise does an upgrade offer come floating into your email box?

 

We are T minus 40 days and the TA is aware we are interested.  Nothing thus far.  

[Gigi1977]

Usually 2/3 weeks out.  But if sold out in upper categories- it’s not happening.  

[CruiserBruce]

Not sure why people think this is so absolutely predictable. There are many variables...among them what level cabin you are booked at, what level they need to fill, how full the ship is, etc.

 

Go with the flow. If it happens, it happens. If not...just enjoy the cruise.

[msmayor]

When we sailed Zuiderdam two years ago, our first offer came at about 22 days out.  We passed on the first and jumped on the second which came at 12 days out.

[josumello]

 Does HAL initiate the upgrade offer or does one have to apply for an upgrade?

TIA

[Gigi1977]

12 minutes ago, josumello said:

 Does HAL initiate the upgrade offer or does one have to apply for an upgrade?

TIA

HAL initiates either direct (if you booked direct) or through TA.  

 

We always book a cabin that we are perfectly satisfied with and never expect anything.  If an upgrades comes along - great.  If not, we are just fine.  These days most upgrades in our experience are not really upgrades but upsells. 

Edited September 18, 2019 by Gigi1977

[caribill]

The cruise lines used to give free upgrades to fill up higher priced cabins that were not selling well and to make the lower priced cabins available for resale.

 

They they discovered that passengers would almost beg for the opportunity to pay for what used to be a free upgrade. So HAL now gets extra money for an upgrade that once was free and can then still resell the lower priced cabin.

[Alphen]

There is no way in telling when, in 2016 we had upgrade offers 13, 9 and 7 days out, for this weeks cruise we had upgrade offers 29, 20, 17 and 5 days out.

[FlaMariner]

Good info.  The experience seems to be  ~ 30 days out up until a few days before. 

 

We've got a great verandah cabin for our upcoming TA but I see that Neptunes are still available so very curious about how those will be filled.....and we are eager to snag one if the price is right. 

 

Have fun cruising........

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

3 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

Good info.  The experience seems to be  ~ 30 days out up until a few days before. 

 

We've got a great verandah cabin for our upcoming TA but I see that Neptunes are still available so very curious about how those will be filled.....and we are eager to snag one if the price is right. 

 

Have fun cruising........

 

 

You can't tell how many Neptunes (or any other category, in fact), as you can't see how many guarantee bookings there are. For example, it might look like there are 10 Neptunes left, but if there are 9 Neptune guarantees out there, there is really only 1 Neptune left, and as soon as one person books a Neptune, the Neptune category will change to full.

 

There is a significant difference between "available" and "unassigned".

[trk_koa]

We got an up-sell email 4 weeks out to go from SS to Neptune for $539 USD per person. We declined. 

[CruisinNana]

We booked a Neptune SA.  38 days out was offered a Pinnacle for $799 pp.  I took it.  If I had booked the Pinnacle at first, the price would have been about double what I ended up paying for it; however, still a chunk of change, but we are celebrating 55 years of marriage so we splurged.  Looking forward to experiencing it.  I hope it doesn't spoil me so much that it ruins the lovely Neptune SA experience as we have enjoyed so many times.

[FlorenceItaly]

6 minutes ago, CruisinNana said:

We booked a Neptune SA.  38 days out was offered a Pinnacle for $799 pp.  I took it.  If I had booked the Pinnacle at first, the price would have been about double what I ended up paying for it; however, still a chunk of change, but we are celebrating 55 years of marriage so we splurged.  Looking forward to experiencing it.  I hope it doesn't spoil me so much that it ruins the lovely Neptune SA experience as we have enjoyed so many times.

This seems like a good deal.  We were once offered it at over $1200 pp(7 day Alaska), this plus the cost of increased insurance was more than we could justify at the time.  This was June 2018 and I don't recall the timeline.  We did love our Neptune so no regrets.  I think it will be a wonderful way to celebrate your 55th anniversary.  Congratulations!

 

Thanks to ALL for sharing their timelines!

Edited September 18, 2019 by FlorenceItaly