'Royal Up' on Allure OTS

[bgoff60]

Curious on how the RCI folks sort and prioritize the offers.  Do C&A members get more 'consideration'  based on their status.  Is it purely RCI starts with the highest dollar bid and works their way down thru the availability?  

Full disclosure we have a Central Park room (With the extra large 'hidden' balcony. )  The offer to move to a Junior suite has the lowers possible bid of $370 per person.  A friend of ours on same cruise has an ocean view balcony room and their 'royal up' price for a junior suite was at $290.

Just trying to understand their process...  

Thanks in advance.

[pasodancer]

I'm also trying to understand the process......if I had to guess (and trust me I'm probably incorrect) the process would be the "actual price paid for current cabin" and then some mysterious formula that would generate the minimum bid for an upgrade?  That way if I paid $100 for my cabin my minimum upgrade would be $500 whereas someone who originally paid $200 for a cabin then their minimum upgrade bid would be $400???

 

Someone posted on the Royal Up thread that it looked that the Royal Upgrade was only 1 level up.  No idea how they came to that conclusion?  

 

I'm positive there are others on this site who could enlighten us.  

(Also, don't know about others but it seems I'm checking my Royal Up bids and cabins remaining in possible upgrades several times a day  - especially as it gets closer to our sail date.)

[rs45thompson]

I actually sent an email to the royal up email asking these questions.  I haven't received an answer, probably won't.  We had the same situation.  I have a Central Park balcony and my mother has an oceanview balcony.  My royal up email said my minimum bid for the JS was $200 my mothers was $175.  A junior suite was the max that I could bid on.  My mother was able to bid on all of the suites.  Go figure?  I don't understand it.  There must be some sort of process or something.

[pasodancer]

We are in a Crown Loft and I was able to bid on all higher level suites - both the Royal Loft and the Ultimate Family Suite were a minimum of $1750 (x2 = $3500), maximum bid was $10K for both of these suites.  NOT HAPPENING for us, but I am sure there is someone who would want and be in the financial situation to bid on them.  I did bid on the Villa Suites & ATS 2 BR - $500 minimum ($1000 total).  I figured if I won the bid then I would be reimbursed the cost of the Deluxe Beverage Pkg (3 people - $1485) so I would be ahead of my original cost by $485.  Believe my bid is too low, but nothing ventured nothing gained!

[Biker19]

18 hours ago, bgoff60 said:

Is it purely RCI starts with the highest dollar bid and works their way down thru the availability?  

Plusgrade processes upgrades for RCI in the Royal Up programs and to my knowledge no one here knows what criteria is used.

[The Scurvy Pirate]

I thought I remember reading that if you had a balcony or lower, you could only bid up to a JS.  But, if you had a JS (whether initially or through an accepted royal up), you could then bid on higher room categories.  But, no matter how high a room you "win", your points are always based on your initial room class, before any royal up bids.  As to how they determine initial minimum bids amounts and how they determine "winning" bids is a complete mystery.

[molly361]

4 minutes ago, The Scurvy Pirate said:

I thought I remember reading that if you had a balcony or lower, you could only bid up to a JS.  But, if you had a JS (whether initially or through an accepted royal up), you could then bid on higher room categories.  But, no matter how high a room you "win", your points are always based on your initial room class, before any royal up bids.  As to how they determine initial minimum bids amounts and how they determine "winning" bids is a complete mystery.

I have an OV balcony on the Allure and Harmony and can bid up to an OS on both of them.  Yes your points are based on your originally booked cabin

[Sirap]

1 hour ago, molly361 said:

I have an OV balcony on the Allure and Harmony and can bid up to an OS on both of them.  Yes your points are based on your originally booked cabin

We had a OV balcony booked for Harmony out of Barcelona in August. We were able to bid up to the 2 bedroom grand suite. We only bid on the 1 bedroom grand and won it. We also received 28 points for this. 

 

[binro01]

35 minutes ago, Sirap said:

We had a OV balcony booked for Harmony out of Barcelona in August. We were able to bid up to the 2 bedroom grand suite. We only bid on the 1 bedroom grand and won it. We also received 28 points for this. 

 

That's pretty amazing! I thought a royal up won bid will not entitle you to the C&A suite point doubling if your original booking was not a suite. (from my reading of the fine print)

[bajathree]

27 minutes ago, binro01 said:

That's pretty amazing! I thought a royal up won bid will not entitle you to the C&A suite point doubling if your original booking was not a suite. (from my reading of the fine print)

It's not supposed to. Booked a balcony and won Royal Up for JS just a few weeks ago on Odyssey...only got 16 points for my 8 night sailing.

[bgoff60]

I called RCI today and one of the "other" questions I asked was specifically about the C&A points.  Their reply was:  If you originally booked a room and then you 'royal up', the points you earn are based only on the original room class.  With the scenario I presented, Our balcony room (on this 6 night cruise) would only get us 12 C&A points regardless of what room we might royal up to.  

-Solved-  (But as always and because it IS Royal IT and Web and marketing... your milage may vary...)

 

[karmamule]

I suspect it's not always the highest bid that wins, rather it'll be the chain of bids that nets the most money for Royal.

 

As an example, suppose two people are bidding on the same star class suite type. One is coming from an Aqua Theater Suite 1 bedroom and bids $800 per person for 2 people, and another comes from a Crown Loft suite and only bids $500 per person for 2 people.

 

BUT, suppose there's also someone in a balcony bidding $400 per person to upgrade to a Crown Loft suite. If Royal gives the star class suite to the person in the ATS, they'll only make $1600. If they give it to the person from the Crown Loft suite they'll get $1000 for those two people AND $800 for the people going from the balcony to the Crown Loft, for a total of $1800. It's in their best interest to let the lower bid win because it leads to a longer chain of upgrades and they'll make more money.

 

 

[ZoeyVictoria]

I received the Royal Up email today, for a November sailing of the Mariner.  There are five options, ranging from Junior Suite ($100 pp) to Royal Suite ($800 pp).  I won’t be bidding on any of them because I have one of the corner aft balconies (complete with stripper pole), and wouldn’t consider giving it up.  

[RCCL Fan]

I have been told by more than one person at Royal they have absolutely NOTHING to do with royal up.

 

It's basically a computer program run by an outside firm.

 

The computer looks at all the bids works out an upgrade plan that yields the maximum amount of money.  

 

The outside company gets a percentage of what the computer generates and Royal gets the rest.

 

 

It's easier to illustrate on a smaller ship.   Like the Vision class.

 

Lets say the Royal suite is empty.   

 

and there are 4 owners suites on board, all 4 are full.  Mike is in one of them, and he bid $600 for the Royal.

 

Then,  there are 8 grand suites and Ruth is in one of them.  She bid $400 for the Royal suite but didn't bid anything on the owners.  

 

Lastly, Mary is in a Junior suite and she bid $300 on a grand suite.  

 

The computer will ignore Mike,  give Ruth the Royal and Mary will get Ruth's old room  netting $700

 

Even though Mike bid more for it, they would have made only $600 because no one else bid on Mike's owners suite.

 

 

So all your scenarios don't really matter, it's honestly what shell game the computer adds us to make the absolute most possible amount of money and it's done.    

 

 

[binro01]

13 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

I have been told by more than one person at Royal they have absolutely NOTHING to do with royal up.

 

It's basically a computer program run by an outside firm.

 

The computer looks at all the bids works out an upgrade plan that yields the maximum amount of money.  

 

The outside company gets a percentage of what the computer generates and Royal gets the rest.

 

 

It's easier to illustrate on a smaller ship.   Like the Vision class.

 

Lets say the Royal suite is empty.   

 

and there are 4 owners suites on board, all 4 are full.  Mike is in one of them, and he bid $600 for the Royal.

 

Then,  there are 8 grand suites and Ruth is in one of them.  She bid $400 for the Royal suite but didn't bid anything on the owners.  

 

Lastly, Mary is in a Junior suite and she bid $300 on a grand suite.  

 

The computer will ignore Mike,  give Ruth the Royal and Mary will get Ruth's old room  netting $700

 

Even though Mike bid more for it, they would have made only $600 because no one else bid on Mike's owners suite.

 

 

So all your scenarios don't really matter, it's honestly what shell game the computer adds us to make the absolute most possible amount of money and it's done.    

 

 

This is pretty much how it goes. Do not think Royal Up is a silent auction from the top down. The software uses complex nodal-network matrix math to maximize the money to be made by both Royal Caribbean and by proxy, the company that administers the Royal Up program that gets paid on commission for the added revenue brought in to Royal.

 

Your bids are entered into a large matrix calculation. Just hope one of your bids is in the path that maximizes the monies brought in to Royal, and you win. Your bid amount has a bit of influence in the math, but its only one parameter in this vast equation.

Pro Tip: The more room options you bid on the more of a chance you will fall on an upgrade path. (This will actually increase your odds of getting an upgrade much more than increasing your bid on a single specific room type)

The other thing that will increase your chance of an upgrade is to be in a room currently that a lot of people are looking to upgrade to. (ie if you are in an oceanview balcony, you have a much better chance to be upgraded to a suite than say an oceanview, mainly because more people will be placing in bids for an oceanview balcony from those insides and oceanview rooms, giving you more of a chance to be on an Royal Up upgrade network path) So if you want to upgrade to a suite, do not book one of those Neighborhood Balconies, book an ocean view balcony. Your chances to upgrade to a suite will grow exponentially even with a much smaller bid then someone who wants to upgrade from a neighborhood balcony.

 

The math is part of the operational engineering discipline and has been used to create the best efficiencies in factory floors, power grids, or anything were there are multiple nodes with a common given parameter and a point of outflow. It was one of my favorite classes in college and I use it quite often in my AI software development work (No.. not Royal up) 

[bgoff60]

On 9/27/2021 at 6:48 PM, ZoeyVictoria said:

I received the Royal Up email today, for a November sailing of the Mariner.  There are five options, ranging from Junior Suite ($100 pp) to Royal Suite ($800 pp).  I won’t be bidding on any of them because I have one of the corner aft balconies (complete with stripper pole), and wouldn’t consider giving it up.  

Please send pictures!   😁