Question about free upgrade from ocean view to balcony

[dave.s]

One of the deals that Holland America is currently offering is an up to 40% discount and a free upgrade from an ocean view to balcony (verandah) cabin. For the free upgrade, do you book an ocean view and they move you to a balcony cabin, or do you book the balcony and pay the ocean view price? I would want to pick the balcony cabin rather than having HAL do it for me.

[daisy-mae]

Your best bet would be to try a dummy booking. I could be mistaken, but I suspect that the upgrade would be to a "guaranteed" balcony cabin chosen by the cruise line

[ORTravelGal]

Walk through the process online and you'll see that you choose balcony & it will let you know that you can do a "free" upgrade from ocean view and display the applicable pricing.  You do get to choose the stateroom you want.  I've looked at it several times this week and it doesn't really appear to me to be any less expensive than it was prior to this promotion.  Also, note that you have to purchase the HIA package in order to take advantage of the offer.

Edited January 6 by iluvzbeach
Added sentence to answer one of the questions.

[Real NHDOC]

It’s just a scam. There’s no “free upgrade”. They just make the price of the veranda the same as the OV (usually by raising the price of the OV). And yes, you need to get the HIA package to get the “upgrade”. 

Edited January 6 by Real NHDOC

[POA1]

6 hours ago, dave.s said:

One of the deals that Holland America is currently offering is an up to 40% discount and a free upgrade from an ocean view to balcony (verandah) cabin. For the free upgrade, do you book an ocean view and they move you to a balcony cabin, or do you book the balcony and pay the ocean view price? I would want to pick the balcony cabin rather than having HAL do it for me.

The verandah rooms will have the ocean view pricing. The 40% thing means that the fare is 40% less than it was at some point. When we first cruised with the dinosaurs in the 1990s, the discount was off full fare or tariff rates. The names have changed.

 

The upgrade is a pretty good deal now, though.