Multiple bids

[Crazy planning mom]

I received an upgrade email yesterday.  It gave me two different category staterooms to bid on.  Can I bid on both?  If so, how are the bids decided?

[dexddd]

5 minutes ago, Crazy planning mom said:

I received an upgrade email yesterday.  It gave me two different category staterooms to bid on.  Can I bid on both?  If so, how are the bids decided?

Supply, demand, computers maxing revenue.

[raitch]

Yep you can bid on both.  Nobody truly fully knows how the bids are decided but it stands to reason that they’re structured to make the most additional profit possible.  Bid what you would be comfortable paying.  

You can also do a mock booking on your sailing and see how many Haven rooms are available.  They will solicit bids even if rooms aren’t open so this will give you a little better idea of whether you should get your hopes up. 

[The Traveling Man]

On 6/30/2022 at 6:11 AM, Crazy planning mom said:

I received an upgrade email yesterday.  It gave me two different category staterooms to bid on.  Can I bid on both?  If so, how are the bids decided?

Yes you may bid on multiple staterooms.  If your bid is accepted, your bank card will be charged at once, your original stateroom will be released, and your reservation will be moved to a new room of NCL's choosing.  You will not be able to make your own room selection and you will not be able to decline the move.  If you have bid on multiple upgrades, your other bids will be cancelled automatically once one of your bids is successful.  If the bank card that you registered with your bid changes or expires prior to NCL allocating the upgrades, your bid will be skipped and you may receive a notice that your card could not be processed.  Usually, though, by the time you receive such a notice, NCL will have continued allocating the upgrade rooms and you will be passed by before you can respond.  So be sure to keep your bank card information current on any outstanding bids.  NCL can allocate the upgrades at any time after you place your bid right up until the sailing date.  Usually, though, they are allocated about two days before sailing.

[jetact]

I just got an upgrade for two different rooms and one room (deluxe owners suite) is sold out and the other is a 2 bedroom. I am figuring beings the DOS is sold out there is not reason to bid as we dont want or need a two bedroom with just 2 of us. I have bid on multiple rooms before and got one usually. 

[BirdTravels]

44 minutes ago, jetact said:

I just got an upgrade for two different rooms and one room (deluxe owners suite) is sold out and the other is a 2 bedroom. I am figuring beings the DOS is sold out there is not reason to bid as we dont want or need a two bedroom with just 2 of us. I have bid on multiple rooms before and got one usually. 

In general, everyone moves up during the upgrade process. So, just because a room shows "sold out" doesn't mean that someone may be giving up the room when they move up. In your case, the DOS would only be released if the room cancels. We have cancelled week of cruise several times due to other commitments. While we have released a Haven room before, we have never released a DOS. 

[jetact]

17 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

In general, everyone moves up during the upgrade process. So, just because a room shows "sold out" doesn't mean that someone may be giving up the room when they move up. In your case, the DOS would only be released if the room cancels. We have cancelled week of cruise several times due to other commitments. While we have released a Haven room before, we have never released a DOS. 

Did you have travel insurance to be able to cancel that close to sailing and does that give you all of your money back?

[BirdTravels]

7 minutes ago, jetact said:

Did you have travel insurance to be able to cancel that close to sailing and does that give you all of your money back?

We have cancel for any reason policies, that don't necessarily give you a 100% refund. We have also got "special treatment" to move a cruise date once. 

[KiddieKruzer]

If you’ve booked a (inside) sail away room, does NCL give you an opportunity to bid on an upgrade?  This is my First time reserving a sail away. 

[Sailing12Away]

On 7/2/2022 at 4:00 PM, jetact said:

I just got an upgrade for two different rooms and one room (deluxe owners suite) is sold out and the other is a 2 bedroom. I am figuring beings the DOS is sold out there is not reason to bid as we dont want or need a two bedroom with just 2 of us. I have bid on multiple rooms before and got one usually. 

Don't be deterred by rooms being listed as 'sold out'. Our most recent trip on the Star there were several suites listed as sold out for the last 2 months before sailing. The night before we flew to Barcelona I got an alert from my credit card for a massive charge from NCL. I thought it was an error and they were recharging me for our cruise... nope, they just processed our winning bid for the 3 bedroom garden villa. 

 

So even though it was sold out for months, the 2 of us ended up in the 3 bedroom garden villa for a 9 day cruise. Just wish we had more time to find last minute friends to tag along. But yeah, you can potentially win a bid for any room you bid on regardless of current sold out status.

[2boyzmom]

How far in advance do these emails arrive?

[rbxlady]

7 minutes ago, 2boyzmom said:

How far in advance do these emails arrive?

It looks it varies when you look at older posts talking about this, but lately the trend has been to receive an e-mail invitation to upgrade on Day 110. I am cruising in October and got mine at 8PM Eastern on Day 110, which for me was July 4th. I was expecting this based on others' experiences shared on this forum.

 

Now bids' being accepted is a different story. They can be accepted within a few days or a week of bidding or as late as a day or two before your sailing date. I've seen people on here say they were in their pre-cruise hotel when they were notified that their upgrade bid was successful (and then I guess you have to get new luggage tags at the port). One trend I've noticed is that people who say their bids were accepted early tend to be booked on European cruises. Those of us cruising the Caribbean from US ports tend to get notice at the last minute. Of course anything is possible!

Edited July 8, 2022 by rbxlady
.

[2boyzmom]

5 minutes ago, rbxlady said:

It looks it varies when you look at older posts talking about this, but lately the trend has been to receive an e-mail invitation to upgrade on Day 110. I am cruising in October and got mine at 8PM Eastern on Day 110, which for me was July 4th. I was expecting this based on others' experiences shared on this forum.

 

Now bids' being accepted is a different story. They can be accepted within a few days or a week of bidding or as late as a day or two before your sailing date. I've seen people on here say they were in their pre-cruise hotel when they were notified that their upgrade bid was successful (and then I guess you have to get new luggage tags at the port). One trend I've noticed is that people who say their bids were accepted early tend to be booked on European cruises. Those of us cruising the Caribbean from US ports tend to get notice at the last minute. Of course anything is possible!

Thanks so much. I am in an aft cabin for a 14 night cruise so not even sure I would bid on the Haven. We have been in Haven when kids sailed and had a 2 bedroom which was great but for the 2 of us not sure...

[rbxlady]

5 hours ago, 2boyzmom said:

Thanks so much. I am in an aft cabin for a 14 night cruise so not even sure I would bid on the Haven. We have been in Haven when kids sailed and had a 2 bedroom which was great but for the 2 of us not sure...

We're cruising with our two sons, so we would really appreciate the space in the Haven (and that's really why we're bidding, as opposed to the other Haven perks). If it were just me and my husband, and we had a great aft balcony cabin, I probably would not upgrade for just the two of us.

[cassie55]

On 7/2/2022 at 8:36 PM, The Traveling Man said:

Yes you may bid on multiple staterooms.  If your bid is accepted, your bank card will be charged at once, your original stateroom will be released, and your reservation will be moved to a new room of NCL's choosing.  You will not be able to make your own room selection and you will not be able to decline the move.  If you have bid on multiple upgrades, your other bids will be cancelled automatically once one of your bids is successful.  If the bank card that you registered with your bid changes or expires prior to NCL allocating the upgrades, your bid will be skipped and you may receive a notice that your card could not be processed.  Usually, though, by the time you receive such a notice, NCL will have continued allocating the upgrade rooms and you will be passed by before you can respond.  So be sure to keep your bank card information current on any outstanding bids.  NCL can allocate the upgrades at any time after you place your bid right up until the sailing date.  Usually, though, they are allocated about two days before sailing.

I've just realised I may have got a new credit card since I've bid. I can't remember which one I used.  How can I check? I can't see it on any bid. 

[The Traveling Man]

1 hour ago, cassie55 said:

I've just realised I may have got a new credit card since I've bid. I can't remember which one I used.  How can I check? I can't see it on any bid. 

One simple solution would be to cancel all your bids, then resubmit them using your new credit card number.  Otherwise, just call NCL and ask to speak to someone about changing your info on file.

[tetleytea]

I'm sure a human arbitrates the multiple bids.   Maximizing the revenue with a machine would be a hard software algorithm to write, and I doubt the cruise lines employ the top machine scientists.  

 

A human would probably look at the top bids for the top suites first, since the bid amounts would be the highest there.  And then they would work their way down the cabin grades.  Which would mean your top tier-level winning bid would be the one.

[cassie55]

52 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

One simple solution would be to cancel all your bids, then resubmit them using your new credit card number.  Otherwise, just call NCL and ask to speak to someone about changing your info on file.

Thanks. I've cancelled and rebid. 

[spanishguy1970]

good luck on your bids. We have a transatlantic in November 118 days to go and we still have not received the upgrade bidding system, some people say it comes at 80 days out others say at 110 days out. We have placed bids before, for the Haven, and even other categories and never been successful thankfully we always pick the cabin we want no matter what. 

[Sailing12Away]

18 hours ago, tetleytea said:

I'm sure a human arbitrates the multiple bids.   Maximizing the revenue with a machine would be a hard software algorithm to write, and I doubt the cruise lines employ the top machine scientists.  

 

A human would probably look at the top bids for the top suites first, since the bid amounts would be the highest there.  And then they would work their way down the cabin grades.  Which would mean your top tier-level winning bid would be the one.

It's not about the top bid, it's about the total cost paid.

 

So if I paid $3K for my balcony cabin and put in a bid of $2K to move into Haven = $5K

But if my neighbor paid $4K for their mini suite and put in a lower bid of $1500 for Haven = $5500 = they win, not me.

 

Other things that I've heard go into effect is the demand for your current room. So if I'm giving up a mini suite that there are 500+ bids on, they'll bump me and then bump someone else to my mini suite. Which then bumps the regular balcony to the mini, and the inside to the outside, etc.

[The Traveling Man]

On 7/9/2022 at 11:25 AM, Sailing12Away said:

It's not about the top bid, it's about the total cost paid.

 

So if I paid $3K for my balcony cabin and put in a bid of $2K to move into Haven = $5K

But if my neighbor paid $4K for their mini suite and put in a lower bid of $1500 for Haven = $5500 = they win, not me.

 

Other things that I've heard go into effect is the demand for your current room. So if I'm giving up a mini suite that there are 500+ bids on, they'll bump me and then bump someone else to my mini suite. Which then bumps the regular balcony to the mini, and the inside to the outside, etc.

NCL always has been pretty tight-lipped about the methodology they use to determine whose bid gets accepted.  I suspect, though, that their potential incremental revenue is the deciding factor.  If they already have your $3K in their pocket, as well as your neighbor's $4K, those amounts likely do not figure into their thinking.  That's water under the bridge.  NCL is simply trying to add as much revenue today as they can, so your $2K bid looks tastier on first blush than your neighbor's $1.5K.  OTOH, if NCL can take your neighbor's $1.5K, then get substantially more from someone else's bid for your neighbor's room than they might get on an upgrade offer for the room you would vacate if you got updated, then NCL's total additional revenue might be even more.  As I said, it's complicated, NCL is not inclined to reveal the method to their madness, and that just leaves us guessing.

[tetleytea]

If they already have your $3k, that's water under the bridge, but they also get your cabin back, to backfill--and that's not water under the bridge.  It's like having a Mercedes for trade-in vs. a 1978 Camino. 

[billslowsky]

On 7/9/2022 at 12:25 PM, Sailing12Away said:

So if I paid $3K for my balcony cabin and put in a bid of $2K to move into Haven = $5K

But if my neighbor paid $4K for their mini suite and put in a lower bid of $1500 for Haven = $5500 = they win, not me.

 

If you "win" the bid the company collects $5,000 from you and $4,000 from the other person.  Total $9,000.

 

If the other person's bid is accepted, the company collects $3,000 from you and $5,500 from them.  Total $8,500.

 

Company wants $9,000 more than $8,500.

[BirdTravels]

On 7/8/2022 at 5:58 PM, spanishguy1970 said:

good luck on your bids. We have a transatlantic in November 118 days to go and we still have not received the upgrade bidding system, some people say it comes at 80 days out others say at 110 days out. We have placed bids before, for the Haven, and even other categories and never been successful thankfully we always pick the cabin we want no matter what. 

Our most recent upgrade offer (in April) came out 110 days prior to departure. 

Edited July 10, 2022 by BirdTravels

[BirdTravels]

On 7/9/2022 at 12:25 PM, Sailing12Away said:

So if I paid $3K for my balcony cabin and put in a bid of $2K to move into Haven = $5K

But if my neighbor paid $4K for their mini suite and put in a lower bid of $1500 for Haven = $5500 = they win, not me.to the outside, etc.

If you paid $3K and bid $2K, when you win, your credit card will be charted $4K (e.g., $2K each for passenger 1 and passenger 2). So your total cost for your cruise is $7K.