How is the bidding system doing? Any comments?

[Shelly97060]

8 hours ago, shiner6 said:

Be aware. My sister and I had inside rooms next to each other on the Crown.  I bid $15 over minumum for Obstructed OV and was accepted. She bid $60 over minimum for obstructed OV and $200 for unobstucted OV and $945 for Balcony. The only winning bid was for the Balcony.  Needless to say--she declined! Do not place multiple bids all at once! 

 I have placed multiple bids on 3 cruises and have had a winning bid in all three - always the highest category I bid on ( which made me happy). I think the real message when placing multiple bids is only bid on the types  of cabin you really want, and only bid the amount you are willing to pay.😄

 

I am not sure but maybe your sister can place another bid on the obstructed OV that was originally declined? 

[shiner6]

4 minutes ago, Shelly97060 said:

 I have placed multiple bids on 3 cruises and have had a winning bid in all three - always the highest category I bid on ( which made me happy). I think the real message when placing multiple bids is only bid on the types  of cabin you really want, and only bid the amount you are willing to pay.😄

 

I am not sure but maybe your sister can place another bid on the obstructed OV that was originally declined? 

 Unfortunately, No, only 1 bid per cabin type permitted.

[shiner6]

6 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Why would you say that?  If she would not be pleased with a balcony for $945, why would she bid for it at all?  $63 a person for a balcony from an inside seems like a reasonable deal.

 

How did she decline?  Did she have that option or did she just not pay for it when billed?

 

Congratulations to you.

 

Obviously if you would not be pleased with by winning any of your bids, do not make the bid.

 

I wonder if they would allow her to submit another bid after defaulting on her winning bid?

 

Did she get her original cabin back?

I don't know where you got the $63 from?  The balcony bid was for 2 x the $945 in addition to what she had already paid for her room,  soooo quite a bit more than she thought she was paying. She is very new to this.

[jagoffee]

2 hours ago, shiner6 said:

I don't know where you got the $63 from?  The balcony bid was for 2 x the $945 in addition to what she had already paid for her room,  soooo quite a bit more than she thought she was paying. She is very new to this.

15 day cruise.  $945/15 =  $63 a day pp.  that is the amount per person over what she paid for her inside cabin.

 

Did I make an error or misunderstand.  

Edited January 14, 2023 by jagoffee

[Nelsj099]

I was in an obstructed view cabin window guarantee, and bid 130$ for a balcony and won my bid. This was for the Grand out of Australia January 22nd.  The price per day was 52 dollars for my upgrade (short cruise).  

[ldubs]

32 minutes ago, Nelsj099 said:

I was in an obstructed view cabin window guarantee, and bid 130$ for a balcony and won my bid. This was for the Grand out of Australia January 22nd.  The price per day was 52 dollars for my upgrade (short cruise).  

 

I'm new at this.  When you bid, is the amount of the bid the total for the cruise?   

 

Additionally, I read there are minimum bids. I assume those vary by cruise booking, meaning I would have to look inside current bookings to see the minimum bids? 

 

Thanks. 

[Nelsj099]

I only booked this cruise last week sometime maybe the 4th or 5th of January.  I was able to log in and view the bid to upgrade feature on 5th or 6th.  I placed 2 minimum bids 130$ for a balcony and 160$ for a premium balcony.  

 

The bids do very for sure so just look at what is available for your cruise by logging in to that trip.   

 

I was just happy to be getting out of China for the first time in years and going on holiday it didn't matter if I booked an obstructed view I was happy with that room too but.  I am happy to have a balcony next week!  

 

I travel solo so the total price of my upgrade was 260$   I will have a great trip to Southern Australia! 

[racj846]

1 hour ago, ldubs said:

 

I'm new at this.  When you bid, is the amount of the bid the total for the cruise?   

 

Additionally, I read there are minimum bids. I assume those vary by cruise booking, meaning I would have to look inside current bookings to see the minimum bids? 

 

Thanks. 

The bid amounts are per person for the entire trip, not per day. At the 85 day point prior to sailing you should receive an email from Princess outlining the possible category bids and each bid allows you to chose the amount you want to bid.

[caribill]

17 hours ago, shiner6 said:

Be aware. My sister and I had inside rooms next to each other on the Crown.  I bid $15 over minumum for Obstructed OV and was accepted. She bid $60 over minimum for obstructed OV and $200 for unobstucted OV and $945 for Balcony. The only winning bid was for the Balcony.  Needless to say--she declined! Do not place multiple bids all at once! 

 

The bidding process is designed to provide maximum income to Princess.

 

Thus, accepting a $945 bid gives the most income to Princess from your sister's multiple bids.

 

[jwattle]

11 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

I'm new at this.  When you bid, is the amount of the bid the total for the cruise?   

 

Additionally, I read there are minimum bids. I assume those vary by cruise booking, meaning I would have to look inside current bookings to see the minimum bids? 

 

Thanks. 

It's on top of what you've paid for the cruise to upgrade, and the amount you bid gets multiplied by two.

[ringers0815]

I just got an email from Princess accepting my bid to move from an obstructed ocean view to a standard balcony. We bid the minimum amount for a 25 night cruise. Our cruise is in 23 days. But when I went on cruise personalizer to pay for the upgrade, they had double the amount to be paid! My bid confirmation and the email saying they had accepted the upgrade bid had the correct amount we bid per person and the total to be paid. Somehow they applied this total to each person doubling the amount that has to be paid. So now I have to phone Princess tomorrow to sort this out... 

[suzyed]

45 minutes ago, ringers0815 said:

I just got an email from Princess accepting my bid to move from an obstructed ocean view to a standard balcony. We bid the minimum amount for a 25 night cruise. Our cruise is in 23 days. But when I went on cruise personalizer to pay for the upgrade, they had double the amount to be paid! My bid confirmation and the email saying they had accepted the upgrade bid had the correct amount we bid per person and the total to be paid. Somehow they applied this total to each person doubling the amount that has to be paid. So now I have to phone Princess tomorrow to sort this out... 

The bid is per person, do you think that's why it was doubled?  Also you have to pay for the increase in the insurance premium if you purchased it

[ringers0815]

9 hours ago, suzyed said:

The bid is per person, do you think that's why it was doubled?  Also you have to pay for the increase in the insurance premium if you purchased it

I don’t think so. The bid is priced per person buts it’s the total of the 2 bids that has been applied to each passenger. Does not make any sense but will call them to sort it out. 

[ringers0815]

Well after speaking to 3 agents and spending 1h27m on hold the problem was finally solved. All the agents could see that there was an error (they had charged each passenger double the per person bid amount) and we had been overcharged for our upgraded cabin but the first 2 agents were unable to resolve it. They finally transferred me to guest services who were able to speak to the Revenue Department and resolve the issue. A long wait but problem resolved in the end. 

[voljeep]

without reading all 42 pages (again)😉 ... is/was there a consensus minimum bid on a 7 day upgrade from an interior cabin to a balcony cabin?  the current fares are $543 for the interior and $964 for the balcony - std fare, no perks - aft cabins - across the hall.🤑

[ringers0815]

5 hours ago, voljeep said:

without reading all 42 pages (again)😉 ... is/was there a consensus minimum bid on a 7 day upgrade from an interior cabin to a balcony cabin?  the current fares are $543 for the interior and $964 for the balcony - std fare, no perks - aft cabins - across the hall.🤑

Most of the posts I read offered minimum bid (or close to minimum). That is what we did, minimum bid for a standard balcony (from an obstructed ocean view).  Our bid was accepted but I think it really depends on whether the cruise is near capacity or not. Ours has lots of cabins available and we are 20 days away from sailing.

[Shelly97060]

7 hours ago, voljeep said:

without reading all 42 pages (again)😉 ... is/was there a consensus minimum bid on a 7 day upgrade from an interior cabin to a balcony cabin?  the current fares are $543 for the interior and $964 for the balcony - std fare, no perks - aft cabins - across the hall.🤑

Yes, minimum bids or slightly above seem to be having good success. 

[lbfluffy]

Since they have this now, do they offer upgrades when you board?

[bjkTX]

1 hour ago, lbfluffy said:

Since they have this now, do they offer upgrades when you board?

Did they ever really do that?  It never happened on any of our Princess cruises the last 20 years!

 

[voljeep]

11 hours ago, ringers0815 said:

Most of the posts I read offered minimum bid (or close to minimum). That is what we did, minimum bid for a standard balcony (from an obstructed ocean view).  Our bid was accepted but I think it really depends on whether the cruise is near capacity or not. Ours has lots of cabins available and we are 20 days away from sailing.

 

10 hours ago, Shelly97060 said:

Yes, minimum bids or slightly above seem to be having good success. 

I guess I was asking what that minimum bid amount might be. I know it's per person and you don't know the specific cabin at time of bid

[ringers0815]

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

 

I guess I was asking what that minimum bid amount might be. I know it's per person and you don't know the specific cabin at time of bid

The system sets the minimum bid. There is a scale with an arrow and you can move that arrow from the minimum up to the maximum amount indicated on the scale. For example, on an upcoming 9 days cruise in Japan, for an upgrade from an obstructed ocean view to a standard balcony the bids vary from a minimum of $400 per person to a maximum of $1,100 (all in Canadian dollars). It will vary from one cruise to the next depending on the fares for each cruise.

 

I noticed that the minimum bid set by the system can change over time. It won't change your bid but it can go down if there is a sale and the fare goes down. It happened to me on one cruise, I went back in the biding system to check when I noticed that there was a sale on and changed my minimum bid to the new minimum which was lower. so it pays to check fares and amend bids as required.

[Rudy888]

Five days before our cruise. Bid to upgrade balcony to mini suite. Bid over minimum, shows offer is still pending. Site did say cannot cancel or change. Not sure if that is good or bad. 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

I’m sure it’s user errors but I can’t figure out where/how to place a bid.  Will we receive an email?  Thank you for your helpful replies.  

[candy4040]

how do you know if your bid is still pending?  I bid a few months ago for an upgrade on cruise departing Feb 25.

[ringers0815]

2 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

I’m sure it’s user errors but I can’t figure out where/how to place a bid.  Will we receive an email?  Thank you for your helpful replies.  

Bidding opens after final payment and they usually send an email inviting you to bid. But you can also access the bidding system through your cruise personalizer. If you scroll down the summary page of the cruise you should see “Princess Upgrade” and you can click on the link to start the process.