How is the bidding system doing? Any comments?

[1cruiselvr]

4 hours ago, TAW1963 said:

Here is an experience I am going through currently regarding a bid and a counter offer.   I have an upcoming sailing to Hawaii on the Discovery Princess, for 15-days, that leaves this Saturday (3 days from now).  We have been booked in a forward-facing Mini-Suite, which we are happy with.   A couple months ago, I put in a bid for one of the 4 forward-facing Reserve Class Mini-Suites.  I put in the maximum bid, for we really wanted to get one even though the chances were slim.   Yesterday afternoon I get an email saying that they could not accept my bid, but they gave me a counter offer for a Window Suite, which there are only two of them, that was even less than I had bid previously for the Reserve Class Mini-Suite.   I had seen some videos of these cabins, but hadn't looked at them much.  We needed to get home, from running errands, and investigate these Window Suites before we accepted.  We did accept their counter offer after about 1.5 hours from receiving the email with the offer.  I get acknowledgement that the counter bid was accepted and it shows up online as being pending.   So from late afternoon yesterday, until this morning, we have not heard back from Princess (or the sub-contractor doing the bidding).  We have probably gotten our hopes up too high, but after reading some of this thread, the few discussing counter offers many had received their upgrade acceptance email.  Does anybody have any experience on how long it takes to hear back?  Should I lowered our hopes?  Again, we sail on Saturday and this is Wednesday morning.   Thanks in advance.

Did you check your booking online with Princess to see if your cabin # has changed? Has your cc been charged?  I've never been notified beyond acceptance of my bid. I had to go to Princess website to see new cabin assignment. 

[TAW1963]

9 minutes ago, 1cruiselvr said:

Did you check your booking online with Princess to see if your cabin # has changed? Has your cc been charged?  I've never been notified beyond acceptance of my bid. I had to go to Princess website to see new cabin assignment. 

Great suggestions!  Yes, I think I am obsessed.  I check my cc and Princess accounts way too often.  We still have 3 days before sailing.  Hopefully I won't wear out my keyboard! 

Edited March 13 by TAW1963

[1cruiselvr]

9 minutes ago, TAW1963 said:

Great suggestions!  Yes, I think I am obsessed.  I check my cc and Princess accounts way too often.  We still have 3 days before sailing.  Hopefully I won't wear out my keyboard! 

I don't understand. If you got an acceptance email, then the cabin reassignment should have happened already. 

[TAW1963]

12 minutes ago, 1cruiselvr said:

I don't understand. If you got an acceptance email, then the cabin reassignment should have happened already. 

Unfortunately, I haven't received an acceptance email yet.  I just received a counteroffer email, which I accepted.  

[1cruiselvr]

4 minutes ago, TAW1963 said:

Unfortunately, I haven't received an acceptance email yet.  I just received a counteroffer email, which I accepted.  

Oh sorry I got it wrong. I thought they accepted your counter offer. Good luck. Hope it happens for you. 

[Danny H]

I know there are a ton of pages to scroll through and my question might be listed.  We are on Regal Princess British Isles May 15th of this year.  WE have been ineligible to bid an upgrade until now and NO ONE at either Princess or my travel agent is willing to just tell me why we are not elilgible.  Very frustrating

[fishmom]

5 hours ago, shakuyi said:

by "weak offer" do you mean less than the "from" price listed in the email? or slightly above it? I noticed the slider does not start at the "from" value.

Just slightly above the 'from' price in the email.  I pushed the slider all the way to the least price, and then just went slightly above it.  It was a gamble to go that low.  But with these early sailings on the Sun I think the odds were in my favor more.  

[Billabongi]

I got an “you’ve been outbid” email today and it wants me to nearly double my bid price. 
 

2 questions, first has anyone held at their bid and still won? Second, the web page won’t accept an incremental bid price, I assume it’s trying to force people into that double price bid amount. Has anyone been able to update their bid price between their original offer and the princess “suggestion”? 
 

Be nice if the page told you what it was doing as opposed to just “sitting there” 

[jagoffee]

2 hours ago, Danny H said:

I know there are a ton of pages to scroll through and my question might be listed.  We are on Regal Princess British Isles May 15th of this year.  WE have been ineligible to bid an upgrade until now and NO ONE at either Princess or my travel agent is willing to just tell me why we are not elilgible.  Very frustrating

Did you book via the “Big Box” store?

[flying boat]

4 hours ago, Danny H said:

I know there are a ton of pages to scroll through and my question might be listed.  We are on Regal Princess British Isles May 15th of this year.  WE have been ineligible to bid an upgrade until now and NO ONE at either Princess or my travel agent is willing to just tell me why we are not elilgible.  Very frustrating

Sometimes the bids don’t open right after final payment.  We had a similar situation and the bids didn’t open until about 60 days out if I remember correctly.  Keep checking!

[kamelia]

7 hours ago, Billabongi said:

I got an “you’ve been outbid” email today and it wants me to nearly double my bid price. 
 

2 questions, first has anyone held at their bid and still won? Second, the web page won’t accept an incremental bid price, I assume it’s trying to force people into that double price bid amount. Has anyone been able to update their bid price between their original offer and the princess “suggestion”? 
 

Be nice if the page told you what it was doing as opposed to just “sitting there” 

I chose not to respond to the "you've been outbid" email I received this past December and did not receive the upgrade.  Just by way of information, the original offer was in the good range.

[Billabongi]

2 hours ago, kamelia said:

I chose not to respond to the "you've been outbid" email I received this past December and did not receive the upgrade.  Just by way of information, the original offer was in the good range.

Thank you, my original offer was in the good range too. Interesting. 
 

I did figure out the page issue it would only take $5 increments. Be nice if the page said that but princess IT is lol. 

[TAW1963]

So it is 1 day before embarkation and I haven't heard anything on my counter-offer bid that I received on Tuesday.  Both my original bid, and my new counter-offer bid (which they fixed the price), show as pending still.  There are no indications that they are moving forward with my bid (cc charge, status change, etc.).  I am assuming at this point it is unlikely that they are going to take my counter-offer bid, or the original bid (different cabin category). They say that the bids can be accepted up to 1-day before departure in the terms and conditions, but I am not holding my breath.   The problem I am experiencing is the extra anxiety that this causes. I am happy wth my original cabin, but the counter-offer to a Window Suite, from my forward-facing Mini-Suite, was appealing to us for 10 sea-days out of 15 on a roundtrip to Hawaii.   I keep checking my phone for emails, cc charges, and my Princess account way too often.   I am not sure this is worth it.  For reference, attached is my counter-offer, which I accepted.

Edited March 15 by TAW1963

[20165]

I know this question has a lot of variables, but i wanted to get others thoughts that have gotten upgraded in the past on our chances... We have a S5 forward suite, but are bidding on a owners and Penthouse aft balcony suites.  Max bid on both.  However, the cruise is showing sold out.  April 20th on the enchanted.  I know people cancel, but has anyone been in a similar situation and if so, were there any upgrades?

We like our current cabin, but we prefer one of the aft cabins with the large balconies.  Our current cabin has a small balcony so we would most like opt for a cabana which means we have to get on early and make the mad dash to the sanctuary  We would rather get on the ship later in the morning or early afternoon and not have to deal with that.

Thx

 

[TAW1963]

4 hours ago, TAW1963 said:

So it is 1 day before embarkation and I haven't heard anything on my counter-offer bid that I received on Tuesday.  Both my original bid, and my new counter-offer bid (which they fixed the price), show as pending still.  There are no indications that they are moving forward with my bid (cc charge, status change, etc.).  I am assuming at this point it is unlikely that they are going to take my counter-offer bid, or the original bid (different cabin category). They say that the bids can be accepted up to 1-day before departure in the terms and conditions, but I am not holding my breath.   The problem I am experiencing is the extra anxiety that this causes. I am happy wth my original cabin, but the counter-offer to a Window Suite, from my forward-facing Mini-Suite, was appealing to us for 10 sea-days out of 15 on a roundtrip to Hawaii.   I keep checking my phone for emails, cc charges, and my Princess account way too often.   I am not sure this is worth it.  For reference, attached is my counter-offer, which I accepted.

I received rejection emails for both my original bid and my counter offer bid.   I don’t understand why they counter offer in the first place.  It can work out I suppose, but it feels like they baited me for an undue let down.   We will have a great cruise and love our cabin, but for today we are left disappointed.    

[rheathslc]

1 minute ago, TAW1963 said:

I received rejection emails for both my original bid and my counter offer bid.   I don’t understand why they counter offer in the first place.  It can work out I suppose, but it feels like they baited me for an undue let down.   We will have a great cruise and love our cabin, but for today we are left disappointed.    

Bummer! I'm sorry. I understand being disappointed. I've read several similar accounts of the counter offer ending up this same way. Enjoy your cruise! If you're on the Discovery take care of her for us. We're on the next one! Still no news on our upgrade bids for that one. 

[TAW1963]

13 minutes ago, rheathslc said:

Bummer! I'm sorry. I understand being disappointed. I've read several similar accounts of the counter offer ending up this same way. Enjoy your cruise! If you're on the Discovery take care of her for us. We're on the next one! Still no news on our upgrade bids for that one. 

Thanks  so much! We are going to have a great cruise and we’ll definitely take care of the lovely Discovery.   Best of luck to you on your bid and happy sailing on the Discovery.  

Edited March 15 by TAW1963

[SpareBrew]

3 hours ago, 20165 said:

I know this question has a lot of variables, but i wanted to get others thoughts that have gotten upgraded in the past on our chances... We have a S5 forward suite, but are bidding on a owners and Penthouse aft balcony suites.  Max bid on both.  However, the cruise is showing sold out.  April 20th on the enchanted.  I know people cancel, but has anyone been in a similar situation and if so, were there any upgrades?

We like our current cabin, but we prefer one of the aft cabins with the large balconies.  Our current cabin has a small balcony so we would most like opt for a cabana which means we have to get on early and make the mad dash to the sanctuary  We would rather get on the ship later in the morning or early afternoon and not have to deal with that.

Thx

 

We also bid the max for an Aft Penthouse and Owners Suite on Enchanted.  1 day to go and we’re not hearing anything one way or the other.  Don’t think it’ll happen. 🙁

[20165]

35 minutes ago, SpareBrew said:

We also bid the max for an Aft Penthouse and Owners Suite on Enchanted.  1 day to go and we’re not hearing anything one way or the other.  Don’t think it’ll happen. 🙁

Darn and oh well.  Like i said, we are good with out current cabin, but the balcony isnt great so we will probably do the early morning thing on saturday and race to the sanctuary.  Are you guys also on the april 20th cruise? 

[1cruiselvr]

1 hour ago, SpareBrew said:

We also bid the max for an Aft Penthouse and Owners Suite on Enchanted.  1 day to go and we’re not hearing anything one way or the other.  Don’t think it’ll happen. 🙁

These cabins are usually booked. I guess they offer a bid on them in case someone cancels last minute but at this late date, I think you are right that it's not going to happen. Happy cruising in whatever cabin you are in. 

[LN1Casey]

This is the first time I have a cabin I was willing to put in an upgrade for, but I don't know how to tell if the bid is appropriately priced.

 

I compared what I had to what the upgrade could have cost initially (the sailing I have is sold out to price check), it seems like it'd have been cheaper to initially buy the upgrade than bid for it. Is this common, or am I missing a detail?

[1cruiselvr]

2 minutes ago, LN1Casey said:

This is the first time I have a cabin I was willing to put in an upgrade for, but I don't know how to tell if the bid is appropriately priced.

 

I compared what I had to what the upgrade could have cost initially (the sailing I have is sold out to price check), it seems like it'd have been cheaper to initially buy the upgrade than bid for it. Is this common, or am I missing a detail?

Nobody knows. It's a guessing game. You bid what you are comfortable paying and then wait. There's no right or wrong way to bid. I believe they include sold out categories just in case somebody cancels which misleads folks to think they are available.

[LN1Casey]

5 minutes ago, 1cruiselvr said:

Nobody knows. It's a guessing game. You bid what you are comfortable paying and then wait. There's no right or wrong way to bid. I believe they include sold out categories just in case somebody cancels which misleads folks to think they are available.

Thanks for the heads up!

[rheathslc]

17 minutes ago, LN1Casey said:

This is the first time I have a cabin I was willing to put in an upgrade for, but I don't know how to tell if the bid is appropriately priced.

 

I compared what I had to what the upgrade could have cost initially (the sailing I have is sold out to price check), it seems like it'd have been cheaper to initially buy the upgrade than bid for it. Is this common, or am I missing a detail?

Sometimes even the minimum bid is more than the cost would have been to just buy the upgrade but sometimes it's not. I think the 3rd party that handles the bidding system probably has a complex set of criteria they use to determine what they set the bid range to. 

 

For example on our upcoming cruise on March 31st on the Discovery there were still cabins available in every category when bidding opened about 68 days out. I bid on a mini-suite (original cabin was standard balcony) but then noticed the cost to just buy the upgrade outright was less than the minimum bid so I just had our TA do that.

 

After the dust settled on that I then bid for a club class mini-suite. I bid the max of $80 per person but it would have cost about $250 per person to buy that cabin upgrade.

 

From our end it may seem to have no rhyme or reason but they know what will net the highest profit and design the system accordingly. 

Edited March 15 by rheathslc
Typos

[1cruiselvr]

11 minutes ago, rheathslc said:

Sometimes even the minimum bid is more than the cost would have been to just buy the upgrade but sometimes it's not. I think the 3rd party that handles the bidding system probably has a complex set of criteria they use to determine what they set the bid range to. 

 

For example on our upcoming cruise on March 31st on the Discovery there were still cabins available in every category when bidding opened about 68 days out. I bid on a mini-suite (original cabin was standard balcony) but then noticed the cost to just buy the upgrade outright was less than the minimum bid so I just had our TA do that.

 

After the dust settled on that I then bid for a club class mini-suite. I bid the max of $80 per person but it would have cost about $250 per person to buy that cabin upgrade.

 

From our end it may seem to have no rhyme or reason but they know what will net the highest profit and design the system accordingly. 

Did you win your cc minutes suite bid?