Received an Upsell Offer

[WCAB]

I received an e-mail today offering an upgrade from a balcony cabin to a mini suite.  It specified to respond back by e-mail, if you were interested

I did reply that I would like to accept the offer.   For those who have accepted such an offer, do you normally hear back quickly regarding an

assignment to a new cabin?

[WatchHill]

I went through my TA when I got the offer. He immediately contacted Princess and sent me the updated invoice showing the specific cabin.

 

Darcy

[voljeep]

1 minute ago, WatchHill said:

I went through my TA when I got the offer. He immediately contacted Princess and sent me the updated invoice showing the specific cabin.

 

Darcy

again, with the upsell email - did you get to select the cabin ?

 

this seems to be new, at least to me, as our upsell was an email with a phone number to contact, leave info, and Princess would call you back to discuss available cabins ...

[WatchHill]

I discussed this with our TA and told him what I expected, and where I wanted to be.....mid ship, not way aft or fwd.  I've heard horror stories of upgrades under or above a late night music venue. He got us a cabin on Caribe, slightly fwd of mid-ship but close to central elevators and about 5 cabins away from laundry. Perfect for us.

 

Darcy

 

 

[BigGuy25]

We usually hear pretty quickly when we accept an up-sell. We accepted the offer on a transatlantic last year and moved from a mini-suite to a full suite. It was awesome ... especially with so many sea days!

[LreedCA]

I just sent off an email this morning accepting an upsell offer and I got an email reply about 6 hours later stating that it had been completed.  There was no discussion of location.  They just assigned us a new cabin.  

[bapaleg]

I received an email yesterday and asked for room location before I would accept. The next day they sent me a list of 8 rooms. I was to choose which are my top picks. Waiting to hear back which room I got

[Nebr.cruiser]

We got one too; balcony to mini.  It was $229 for 10 nights, pp.  Not worth it to us--not much of a bargain over what it was priced at when we booked.

 

I only want a mini for the tub anyway!

 

[Hlitner]

Marketing is a wonderful thing.  There are many folks getting paid a lot of money to develop strategies that get folks to spend more money on things they want, or to even spend money on things they do not want by convincing them that they really do want :).  And such is the world of upsells (and yes, we have taken some upsells).  If you book the cabin or category that you want,  then why pay more money for something you never wanted in the first place.  Its like the person that has 4 expensive vacuum cleaners (they only use one).  When you ask them why they have all those vacuums they will say "because I liked the door to door salesman."  

 

If you want a mini (and I do), then book the mini!  If you are happy with a regular balcony and do not feel the need to book a mini, then why would you agree to suddenly pay more money for the mini (you could have done that when you booked).   We have seen some amazing deals on upsells, but they were usually to the highest category suites (I guess nobody wanted to pay the really big bucks).    But getting back to the minis, one good reason to want a mini is that actually have places for 2 persons to sit!

 

I think that Princess has hired some very skilled marketing folks.  We are seeing all kinds of offers that are carefully crafted (but still not good deals).  For example, Princess now has their "Best Price Guarantee" on excursions.  As long time cruisers (over forty years) and travelers we seldom to ever consider cruise line excursions.  But today we joined with some others to book a private tour for a Japanese port.  The Private small group tour was $120.  The comparable Princess tour was $238!  The only difference was that the Princess tour included lunch ( a lunch for 60 persons in a large tourist restaurant that caters to big buses).  Because Princess has that lunch, they will say that no other tour is "the same" so their guarantee is meaningless.  So, if we booked the Princess tour we would be crammed-in with 60+ cruisers and have a cheap lunch for which we paid $118 per person!  Are you kidding me?   The other trick that Princess (and others) use is that they contract with land tour providers who are not permitted (by contract) to sell that same tour directly to cruisers.  Any other tour provider would not have the "exact" same tour.

 

 

Hank

[blu-ice]

We received the same upsell offer. We went from premium balcony with queen bed to the handicap room with two twin beds. Princess is unable to change it back.

 

[Thrak]

36 minutes ago, blu-ice said:

We received the same upsell offer. We went from premium balcony with queen bed to the handicap room with two twin beds. Princess is unable to change it back.

 

 

Why can't the new room have the beds put together as a queen? My son has sailed in a HC inside with the beds as a queen. We have sailed in a HC balcony with a queen. Unless it's a very unusual cabin the beds can be configured as a queen. If your personalizer is showing double beds just change it. That happened to us when we moved from a Premium OV to a balcony. I noticed they had listed the beds as two beds so I just changed the preference in the personalizer. If I boarded and found two beds I'd just tell the steward to change it to a queen. They do it all the time.

[CruzeQueen2]

I have received upsell offers with instructions to phone a specific number . You leave a message with your details, and they call you back in queue. I have generally received call backs within 24 hours. If the memo did not specify the price, then you may be getting a complimentary upgrade. Call the Princess line directly and see what you got. Or, look at your cruise personalizer to see your current assignment. Happy travels!

[rdsqrl]

On 10/9/2019 at 7:55 PM, WCAB said:

I received an e-mail today offering an upgrade from a balcony cabin to a mini suite.  It specified to respond back by e-mail, if you were interested

I did reply that I would like to accept the offer.   For those who have accepted such an offer, do you normally hear back quickly regarding an

assignment to a new cabin?

I got one this very week.  They do it all via email; no more phone calls.  I emailed back to the specific person listed on the email saying I would be interested but wanted to know where the new cabin would be.  She emailed me back decks but not specific cabins and  I looked up available cabins on the Princess website, then replied with my top two choices and a general preference (aft and nothing above Aloha Deck).  I got my first choice.  It took awhile for her to get back to me -- three hours for the initial response and then overnight for the second response. 

 

[Thrak]

9 minutes ago, rdsqrl said:

I got one this very week.  They do it all via email; no more phone calls.  I emailed back to the specific person listed on the email saying I would be interested but wanted to know where the new cabin would be.  She emailed me back decks but not specific cabins and  I looked up available cabins on the Princess website, then replied with my top two choices and a general preference (aft and nothing above Aloha Deck).  I got my first choice.  It took awhile for her to get back to me -- three hours for the initial response and then overnight for the second response. 

 

 

I can't imagine not asking for choices. What Princess considers an upgrade and what I might consider an upgrade may be two very different things.

[rdsqrl]

Just now, Thrak said:

 

I can't imagine not asking for choices. What Princess considers an upgrade and what I might consider an upgrade may be two very different things.

I know, right?!  I didn't used to be so picky, but after a few cruises with cabins convenient to the places that I seemed to go most often, it's hard to just leave it up to the luck of the draw.  And once upon a time, having a balcony cabin was such a treat, location didn't matter . . . now I've sailed in enough balconies that I've become a big spoiled baby about location.  🙂

[caribill]

5 hours ago, blu-ice said:

We received the same upsell offer. We went from premium balcony with queen bed to the handicap room with two twin beds. Princess is unable to change it back.

 

 

If I understand you correctly you paid extra (the upsell) to get into a cabin you really do not want.

 

Correct?

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, rdsqrl said:

I know, right?!  I didn't used to be so picky, but after a few cruises with cabins convenient to the places that I seemed to go most often, it's hard to just leave it up to the luck of the draw.  And once upon a time, having a balcony cabin was such a treat, location didn't matter . . . now I've sailed in enough balconies that I've become a big spoiled baby about location.  🙂

 

Princess will "upgrade" you from your aft Caribe balcony to a different deck mid-ship balcony because, to them, mid-ship is "better". Bite me. No freaking way.

[Fat Tuesday]

We have never received an upsell offer with Princess yet. Is it because we mark our cabin for NO upgrades? Has anyone received an upsell offer before with cabin marked with a no upgrade?

Thanks

[azbirdmom]

The upsell offer that I received a little over two weeks ago still required a phone call to confirm.  This was an offer to upgrade from a mini suite to a full suite.  I hadn't checked emails much the day I got the offer so I called a bit late and missed out which was fine as we are happy with what we have, but it's hard to pass up a heavily discounted suite upgrade.  This offer by the way came before the final payment date which I mentioned was unusual.  I was told that this was something new they were trying.  And maybe using the email approach for upsells to the other categories is something new as well?

[LMADAMS91]

13 hours ago, Fat Tuesday said:

We have never received an upsell offer with Princess yet. Is it because we mark our cabin for NO upgrades? Has anyone received an upsell offer before with cabin marked with a no upgrade?

Thanks

Yes, twice.

[Wichard]

23 hours ago, Fat Tuesday said:

We have never received an upsell offer with Princess yet. Is it because we mark our cabin for NO upgrades? Has anyone received an upsell offer before with cabin marked with a no upgrade?

Thanks

 

I have received three upsell offers and my travel agent has entered a "no upgrade but will consider an upsell" on my Princess bookings.

[Steelers36]

On 10/9/2019 at 7:55 PM, WCAB said:

I received an e-mail today offering an upgrade from a balcony cabin to a mini suite.  It specified to respond back by e-mail, if you were interested

I did reply that I would like to accept the offer.   For those who have accepted such an offer, do you normally hear back quickly regarding an

assignment to a new cabin?

 

On 10/9/2019 at 8:14 PM, WatchHill said:

I went through my TA when I got the offer. He immediately contacted Princess and sent me the updated invoice showing the specific cabin.

 

Darcy

 

On 10/10/2019 at 8:45 PM, LreedCA said:

I just sent off an email this morning accepting an upsell offer and I got an email reply about 6 hours later stating that it had been completed.  There was no discussion of location.  They just assigned us a new cabin.  

 

On 10/10/2019 at 9:53 PM, bapaleg said:

I received an email yesterday and asked for room location before I would accept. The next day they sent me a list of 8 rooms. I was to choose which are my top picks. Waiting to hear back which room I got

 

Would you all mind sharing what the upsell offer was, along with the length of your cruise?  Thanks.

 

[Nebr.cruiser]

As I noted earlier, our upsell offer was $229 pp for an upsell from a balcony to a mini on a 10 night Island Princess cruise.  That wasn't much if any different from buying the mini outright when we booked, so didn't follow up on it.  

 

Response was to be made by email if we wanted it.

[SeaLaRae]

On 10/12/2019 at 10:33 PM, rdsqrl said:

I got one this very week.  They do it all via email; no more phone calls.  I emailed back to the specific person listed on the email saying I would be interested but wanted to know where the new cabin would be.  She emailed me back decks but not specific cabins and  I looked up available cabins on the Princess website, then replied with my top two choices and a general preference (aft and nothing above Aloha Deck).  I got my first choice.  It took awhile for her to get back to me -- three hours for the initial response and then overnight for the second response. 

 

Does Princess send the email directly to you or to your TA?

[SharkieRools]

On 10/12/2019 at 4:11 PM, Hlitner said:

Marketing is a wonderful thing.  There are many folks getting paid a lot of money to develop strategies that get folks to spend more money on things they want, or to even spend money on things they do not want by convincing them that they really do want :).  And such is the world of upsells (and yes, we have taken some upsells).  If you book the cabin or category that you want,  then why pay more money for something you never wanted in the first place.  Its like the person that has 4 expensive vacuum cleaners (they only use one).  When you ask them why they have all those vacuums they will say "because I liked the door to door salesman."  

 

If you want a mini (and I do), then book the mini!  If you are happy with a regular balcony and do not feel the need to book a mini, then why would you agree to suddenly pay more money for the mini (you could have done that when you booked).   We have seen some amazing deals on upsells, but they were usually to the highest category suites (I guess nobody wanted to pay the really big bucks).    But getting back to the minis, one good reason to want a mini is that actually have places for 2 persons to sit!

Because that's not how it works in the real world for most people.  Not everyone has the $$$ laying around to purchase higher level accommodation at full price, or perhaps they just don't feel paying the full price for better accommodations is worth it.  So if offered better accommodations at a reduced price it might now be within their budget, or what they perceive to be worth the cost now.  Much like many people would like to fly first class but don't have the money budgeted to do so.  However if the airline were to offer them a discount to do so, it might now be within their means.