How is the bidding system doing? Any comments?

[cr8tiv1]

6 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

We had booked an obstructed OV

 

and got an offer to upgrade to an oceanview room for $45 pp.  Nope … our obstructed cabin is a really good one.  I could also bid on a standard balcony cabin for $105 pp … nope again because they could put me anywhere on the ship and we could be stuck in a noisy cabin for the whole cruise.  

 

But, then we saw that we could bid as low as $145 pp for. Premium balcony .. so midship on the caribe deck or any aft facing cabin … ding ding ding .. we found a winder.  I wouldn’t mind any of those locations so I bid the minimum.  If they don’t accept it, we are in a perfectly lovely handpicked cabin and we’ve stayed in that cabin just a couple of months ago so we know we like it.  Win win for us … either we will get a really nice balcony for approx $300 more or get a really nice obstructed oceanview for what we’ve already chosen and paid for.  

 

If the balcony cabins come down in price before we win a bid, we will simply upgrade with the current pricing, as we aren’t booked under any special promotion so don’t have anything to lose.  If we do win the offer with the minimum bid we made, even better as we love the locations of all the premium balconies on the ship.  Whatever happens … we will enjoy our cruise.  

 

I am into what ifs....So what if you place a bid AND decide to go with an upgrade.  What happens to your bid?  Can you rescind your bid?  Does your manual upgrade default to cancelling your bid?  Just curious.  

[caribill]

On 9/9/2022 at 1:07 PM, Wishing on a star said:

 

My decision to bid would be made after looking at availability.  Because, if the bid put me in a location that I didn't like, once I had that new cabin category, I could move to a cabin in that category in a better location if there were any available.

 

 

 

If I remember correctly, the rules basically say if your bid is accepted, you cannot switch cabins to another location in that category.

 

Even if you could, chances are they accepted a bunch of bids and there will be no other cabins available in your new category.

[caribill]

4 hours ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Nope.  We are on b2b2b in October Discovery and received emails for all three.  Categories are all sold out.  In fact, two of three cruises show sold out.  Makes no sense.

 

It makes sense in that if there are cancellations, bids could be accepted.

[vjmatty]

I wasn’t getting anywhere with the cruise planner site, so I tried through onesource since I’m listed as TA for our booking….this is what I got. So some of us on our 10/1 Regal sailing are definitely and deliberately “blacklisted” or precluded for some reason. And we’re not on a b2b. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[HBCcruiser]

1 hour ago, vjmatty said:

I wasn’t getting anywhere with the cruise planner site, so I tried through onesource since I’m listed as TA for our booking….this is what I got. So some of us on our 10/1 Regal sailing are definitely and deliberately “blacklisted” or precluded for some reason. And we’re not on a b2b. 🤷🏻‍♀️

What’s a PNR?

[vjmatty]

1 minute ago, HBCcruiser said:

What’s a PNR?

Lol I'm embarrassed to say I don't know and there is no one available to call yet. 

[PacnGoNow]

4 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

Lol I'm embarrassed to say I don't know and there is no one available to call yet. 

Passenger name record.  Means the same as booking number.

 

[vjmatty]

5 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

Passenger name record.  Means the same as booking number.

 

So as I suspected there are some bookings deliberately excluded, rather than sailings. 

[PacnGoNow]

28 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

What’s a PNR?

Passenger name record.  Same as a booking number. Airline computer talk.

[cruzsnooze]

Has anyone gotten an offer to bid if they have a GTY ? 

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, vjmatty said:

So as I suspected there are some bookings deliberately excluded, rather than sailings. 

If you’re on a TA rate, that’s probably why.

[HBCcruiser]

23 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

If you’re on a TA rate, that’s probably why.

I’m also wondering if the teacher discount is coming into play. 🤔 I used that when I booked.

[suzyed]

11 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

So here is a conundrum - We are booked on the Discovery Nov 5 cruise in the Sky Suite and doing a B2B. I am NOT in the Sky suite on leg 2 (going solo leg 2). I’m in a CC Mini leg 2. I have not gotten an offer to bid on leg 2. I get why no bid on leg 1 unless the Captain’s quarters are up for bid! 😂😂 I wonder if I’m not getting an offer because 1. The suites are sold out and/or 2. On the App it combines the 2 cruises into one, and the system assumes I’m still in the Sky suite? No idea. I’m happy with my mini on leg 2. Just curious. 

Such a conundrum...so sorry!

[suzyed]

3 hours ago, vjmatty said:

I wasn’t getting anywhere with the cruise planner site, so I tried through onesource since I’m listed as TA for our booking….this is what I got. So some of us on our 10/1 Regal sailing are definitely and deliberately “blacklisted” or precluded for some reason. And we’re not on a b2b. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wonder why?  Who can figure out this wacky system?

[ceilidh1]

4 hours ago, vjmatty said:

I wasn’t getting anywhere with the cruise planner site, so I tried through onesource since I’m listed as TA for our booking….this is what I got. So some of us on our 10/1 Regal sailing are definitely and deliberately “blacklisted” or precluded for some reason. And we’re not on a b2b. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Have you checked in your princess.com account that your email isn't suppressed? I'm a TA and haven't been getting anything from Princess - I went in to check and it was all set to "no marketing". I know for sure I never opted out of anything, but maybe it's an automatic thing if you do stuff as a TA. I changed it back and it seemed to stay that way for a few days but then switched back to "no marketing" again when I checked yesterday. Maybe that is why it's saying you aren't eligible? I get that same message (as a TA) when I plug in clients who are on non-eligible ships...

[suzyed]

Do we think most of those who were going to get offers for upcoming cruises have now already got them?
Now we need to know when/if anyone's offer has been accepted.   We don't necessarily need to know the dollar amounts but it would be nice to know where on the "bid scale" their accepted offer was..."weak--Strong".  May be helpful going forward although I am sure it will vary.

 

 

4 minutes ago, Coral said:

The education one lacked big time. It applied to only a few sailings when educators could actually cruise - if they had released it months earlier, educators could have actually taken advantage of it. It sounded good initially but when I went to use it, it wasn't the lowest price I qualified for. I thought it would be 25% off of the lowest price but we found a cruise with no single supplement that was much better.

 

I agree about first line workers! I think we all need a vacation!

That's too bad...but the single supplement sounds much better!  Bigger savings...good for you!!

I agree!  We all need a vacation! 

Edited September 11, 2022 by suzyed

[Wishing on a star]

I wonder if, for sure, that once a bid/upgrade has been done, that they would not allow a move to an equal category cabin.   I do not like the idea that they would take away the option of any equal/lateral move.  Doesn't make sense or ring right to me.   In most cases, an easy equal category move is no problem.

[Wishing on a star]

The thing is, even if it is possible to make an equal cabin change,  if they don't notify until the very last minute, the chances of any 'desirable' location being available is very very slim!  I am picky about location. So, bidding might not be the thing for me!

[Guest ldtr]

Just now, Wishing on a star said:

I wonder if, for sure, that once a bid/upgrade has been done, that they would not allow a move to an equal category cabin.   I do not like the idea that they would take away the option of any equal/lateral move.  Doesn't make sense or ring right to me.   In most cases, an easy equal category move is no problem.

Except the bidding process is done very close to cruise departure.  Other cabins in the same class would also be locked up, so odds of being able to move would be rather slim.  

[HBCcruiser]

12 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

The thing is, even if it is possible to make an equal cabin change,  if they don't notify until the very last minute, the chances of any 'desirable' location being available is very very slim!  I am picky about location. So, bidding might not be the thing for me!

This is the exact complaint on other boards - NCL and RCI. Unless you know that certain cabins you are bidding on are located on decks/areas you like, it’s best to not bid. This happens a lot with Jr. Suites on some of the Royal Caribbean ships. This is why I try to book the best cabin I can in a location I like. 

[suzyed]

20 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

I wonder if, for sure, that once a bid/upgrade has been done, that they would not allow a move to an equal category cabin.   I do not like the idea that they would take away the option of any equal/lateral move.  Doesn't make sense or ring right to me.   In most cases, an easy equal category move is no problem.

On our upcoming cruise, we can't even see what's available to switch to...our sailing has been listed as "unavailable to book? for at least a month now.

Edited September 11, 2022 by suzyed

[Dar & Bob]

31 minutes ago, suzyed said:

On our upcoming cruise, we can't even see what's available to switch to...our sailing has been listed as "unavailable to book? for at least a month now.

We were looking at several cruises in November for the Caribbean and were told they were basically sold out - waitlist only.  To be waitlisted you still had to pay the deposit!

It appears everyone wants to cruise and on the cruise we finally booked it is sold out for anything above a regular balcony.  I really wonder how much there is going to be to even bid on.  We have a deluxe balcony that we are happy with so no worries 🙂

 

[Cruise Raider]

19 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

I am into what ifs....So what if you place a bid AND decide to go with an upgrade.  What happens to your bid?  Can you rescind your bid?  Does your manual upgrade default to cancelling your bid?  Just curious.  

 

You can rescind your bid at any time before they accept it.  I don't know if anybody would know at this point if it defaults to rescinding it automatically.  If the prices drop, I will just rescind it manually. 

[Shelly97060]

On 9/10/2022 at 9:25 PM, cr8tiv1 said:

 

I am into what ifs....So what if you place a bid AND decide to go with an upgrade.  What happens to your bid?  Can you rescind your bid?  Does your manual upgrade default to cancelling your bid?  Just curious.  

you can rescind your bid, or change it, up until the time it is accepted.

[RKSue]

On 9/11/2022 at 7:10 AM, vjmatty said:

I wasn’t getting anywhere with the cruise planner site, so I tried through onesource since I’m listed as TA for our booking….this is what I got. So some of us on our 10/1 Regal sailing are definitely and deliberately “blacklisted” or precluded for some reason. And we’re not on a b2b. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So since you are a TA they have in theory already gave you a free or next to free gift. They want customers to get the upgrades. This is the concept. Not mine. The others traveling with you should be eligible. If however you never got either your comptd room or TA pricing I suggest you contact Princess directly to get this fixed.