Celebrity's "Move Up Process" the old way of bidding for an upgrade!!

[wrk2cruise]

On 4/7/2022 at 8:58 AM, Maddie38 said:

If I'm understanding correctly, there are amenities and there are perks - Luminae and the butler are amenities and you would get those, but you wouldn't get additional "perks" like the premium drink package or premium internet ... hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong 🙂

This is exactly the way I explain it to people.   Unfortunately Celebrity sometimes use the words amenities and perks interchangeably.

[The_Big_M]

13 hours ago, Dirk_Pitt said:

We are booked in a Concierge Infinite Balcony on the Beyond for Jan 8th.  When I booked the options were $1299 nothing included and they pick the room or $2499 all included they pick the room.  You pick the room is more.  We are Elite so we get the happy hour and discount drink/Internet packages.  Obviously, the cost of all included is not worth the extra $1200 a person.  I went in after booking and was going to prepay Gratuities and they wanted to charge me another $2000, so I backed out and will pay on the ship.

  I was looking at doing the Move up to a Sky Suite or Aqua Sky Suite and bidding about $1000 a piece (Says it was a weak bid).  Reading the terms and conditions says

 

"by upgrading to a higher stateroom category, each guest in the booking may be subject to a higher gratuity amount. The Offer Amount does not include the higher gratuity. If the Offer is accepted, the difference between the originl and upgraded stateroom gratuities (if applicable) will be automatically applied to all guests (the "Additional Charges")."

 

In other words they could have added an amount and charged me without my having an opportunity to say no.  I was concerned by the vast difference the online system wanted to charge for just Gratuities.  

 

In the old Move up system, I do not recall potentially being charged for an amount you don't get to approve first.

 

Likely will call to ask a few question after Xmas and maybe go ahead or stick with our current cabin choice which was a nice deal.  

 

I was wondering if anyone else was in the same situation and what happened with their bid when approved

 

They don't mean they will automatically charge gratuities just because you book a move up bid. It's just saying the rate of gratuities is based on the cabin you are sailing in, so will be applied on the upgraded category when it is charged.

[The_Big_M]

...

Edited December 25, 2022 by The_Big_M

[dreamer321]

The gratuities for a Concierge stateroom should be $18 per person per day $18 x 2 x 7 = $252.  They must be trying to reprice the stateroom as if you were booking it today. That's absurd.  Just wait until you get on the ship.  (Suite gratuities would be $21 pppd)

[Dirk_Pitt]

6 minutes ago, dreamer321 said:

The gratuities for a Concierge stateroom should be $18 per person per day $18 x 2 x 7 = $252.  They must be trying to reprice the stateroom as if you were booking it today. That's absurd.  Just wait until you get on the ship.  (Suite gratuities would be $21 pppd)

Yup, that is why I backed out 

[wrk2cruise]

22 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

 

They don't mean they will automatically charge gratuities just because you book a move up bid. It's just saying the rate of gratuities is based on the cabin you are sailing in, so will be applied on the upgraded category when it is charged.

 

It does mean that you are responsible for the gratuity rate for the upgraded cabin.  I'm not sure the difference is always charged if you have AI and your gratuities were included in your original fare but they should be.   If you have cruise only and gratuities are posted daily on your seapass card it will be at the rate for the MoveUp category.

[Shiba_Lover]

Not sure why this would be poor "ethics" on Celebrity's part?  The bid is clearly stated, and it is very transparent.  You either accept the offer or you do not.  It is really a supply and demand pricing.  The price you originally paid for your room vs the price for a different room now is meaningless.  What was the Aqua class room cost when your originally booked?  Also, not everyone bidding paid your same price for the same cabin type.  Some paid a lot more, some paid less.  For some, this may be a very good offer, and they will choose to bid.  I recently got an offer to bid 1,000K per person to move from a Celebrity Suite to a Royal suite.  That was on a 4 night cruise.  It's not worth it to me as I think it's excessive, so I just ignored it.  I did not get upset at Celebrity.  Maybe someone else gets the same offer and thinks that is the best thing ever and bids on it.  Who knows?  If X can make some extra money - good for them.  If not - then their bidding algorithm will probably learn to adjust the minimum bids.