Upgrade offer prices more than the cost of upgrading direct? What's the point of that.

[BertieRulesOK]

I've been debating upgrading from inside to balcony on an upcoming 2 week cruise.  It'll cost me around £500 to change this via P&O.  The upgrade bidding starts at £550 per room.  Ridiculous! 

[molecrochip]

Are you looking in the website? As the actual ‘direct’ upgrade price will be based on prices on the day you booked.

[BertieRulesOK]

Yup.  That's the £500 I have been quotes.  The upgrade email started at £550... Hence my shock.

[terrierjohn]

9 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Are you looking in the website? As the actual ‘direct’ upgrade price will be based on prices on the day you booked.

Which if booked at launch prices could be 50% or less of the bid price.

[majortom10]

We have today received email from P&O for paid upgrades for our cruise on Arvia in April and all prices quoted are per person not per stateroom.

 

[smilesonfaces]

We did really well on an upgrade bid last year. This time the minimum bid was £200 each. To upgrade an inside to balcony direct with P & O no bidding mpneeded was £150 pp And when their bid is successful people seem to think they’ve “won” something😂😂

[BertieRulesOK]

51 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

We have today received email from P&O for paid upgrades for our cruise on Arvia in April and all prices quoted are per person not per stateroom.

 

That's what I have received too.  But as you have to pay for two people whether you are solo or not, it's less misleading to say what the total cost is (or per room in other words).

[tring]

Oh dear we were a little hopeful that we may get a reasonable minimum bid price for our 19 night Med on Aurora in April.  A paid upgrade from top grade sea view to a mid fore/mid aft balcony would cost £2,000pp and just a tad less than that for the lowest grade of balcony. So more like £2,500pp or above for a deluxe balcony.  If we hear about upgrade bids I will report back, but may not be offered for our cruise as fairly well booked. 

 

At what stage do you get invited to make a bid?  We have just paid our balance last week.

 

Edited January 23 by tring

[Slugsta]

@tring I think we must be on the same cruise as you - 19 nights on Aurora, departing 8th April? We had an upgrade email a few days ago but are not interested as we need an accessible cabin. I'm afraid that I don't remember prices - although I do remember being unimpressed!

[tring]

1 minute ago, Slugsta said:

@tring I think we must be on the same cruise as you - 19 nights on Aurora, departing 8th April? We had an upgrade email a few days ago but are not interested as we need an accessible cabin. I'm afraid that I don't remember prices - although I do remember being unimpressed!

 

No we are in the 26th April departure, which starts as yours returns I think, so perhaps we will get something within a couple of weeks.  Thanks for mentioning it.

 

When you say you were unimpressed, do you mean the minimum bid prices were very high?  I am expecting that to an extent, but may still be lower than we would need to pay for a full price upgrade.  We are still a bit uncertain if we would bid though.

[Slugsta]

I just glanced at the prices and it seemed to me that P+O were not offering any amazing deals. However, I could be wrong in this as I don't know what the full price upgrade might cost.

[Andy24v]

Bear in mind that if "successful" in your bid, you don't have the option to refuse it and revert to your original cabin.

IMO, the process is a way for P&O to fill the cabins that no one else wants.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Andy24v said:

Bear in mind that if "successful" in your bid, you don't have the option to refuse it and revert to your original cabin.

IMO, the process is a way for P&O to fill the cabins that no one else wants.

I dont think that is true, if you dont want the upgrade presumably you dont pay.

[Andy24v]

Sadly it's true, it is in the terms and conditions:

IMPORTANT: We will automatically allocate you an upgraded cabin if your upgrade offer is accepted. You may not reject the upgraded cabin we allocate to you and revert to your cabin once your upgrade offer is accepted. The programme may not be suitable for you if you have booked your cabin because it has certain features or is in a particular location onboard.

[tring]

48 minutes ago, Andy24v said:

Sadly it's true, it is in the terms and conditions:

IMPORTANT: We will automatically allocate you an upgraded cabin if your upgrade offer is accepted. You may not reject the upgraded cabin we allocate to you and revert to your cabin once your upgrade offer is accepted. The programme may not be suitable for you if you have booked your cabin because it has certain features or is in a particular location onboard.

 

Thanks for that wording.  Someone has said though, that it said if he did not pay for the upgrade, he would revert to his original level, just not the same cabin exactly. Stall a risk, no matter how you look at it.

[tring]

3 hours ago, Slugsta said:

I just glanced at the prices and it seemed to me that P+O were not offering any amazing deals. However, I could be wrong in this as I don't know what the full price upgrade might cost.

 

We asked and for us to upgrade from a top grade outside to a mid fore balcony would be £2,000pp and just a tad less than than that for the cheapest balcony.  A deluxe balcony would cost at least £2,500pp, so another £5,000 for the two of us.  If we can get a good reduction on that, may take a gamble.  Hopefully will know soon.

 

Edited January 27 by tring

[cruising.mark.uk]

18 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Thanks for that wording.  Someone has said though, that it said if he did not pay for the upgrade, he would revert to his original level, just not the same cabin exactly. Stall a risk, no matter how you look at it.

If I remember correctly, it may not be as easy as merely 'not paying' for the upgrade.  I can't access the T&Cs at the moment, but I'm pretty sure all of the upgrades for Carnival brands are outsourced to the same company and the rules state that the card with which you originally paid for the cruise will be charged automatically immediately your upgrade bid is successful (i.e. without you having the option to say whether or not you accept the upgrade).  So, I don't think you can not pay.  Rather, you would have to contact your card issuer to dispute / remove the charge.  I guess that would take some time; hence, you will probably not get the same cabin back if you do it.

[tring]

14 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

If I remember correctly, it may not be as easy as merely 'not paying' for the upgrade.  I can't access the T&Cs at the moment, but I'm pretty sure all of the upgrades for Carnival brands are outsourced to the same company and the rules state that the card with which you originally paid for the cruise will be charged automatically immediately your upgrade bid is successful (i.e. without you having the option to say whether or not you accept the upgrade).  So, I don't think you can not pay.  Rather, you would have to contact your card issuer to dispute / remove the charge.  I guess that would take some time; hence, you will probably not get the same cabin back if you do it.

 

Same cabin certainly would be lost from what I had heard, but any cabin in our current grade would be a acceptable to us.  We would not risk that though anyway.  We had upgraded with Azamara and could not go back. 

 

If I get access to T&C's, will post here.

[Dobbers]

Upgrades are available now on our next cruise. We’re in an inside cabin in a location which is good for us so will be sticking with what we have. Upgrades are starting at £140. each for a larger inside up to £480. each for a deluxe balcony.

Found this on the upgrade page.

Edited January 27 by Dobbers

[Andy24v]

2 hours ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

If I remember correctly, it may not be as easy as merely 'not paying' for the upgrade.  I can't access the T&Cs at the moment, but I'm pretty sure all of the upgrades for Carnival brands are outsourced to the same company and the rules state that the card with which you originally paid for the cruise will be charged automatically immediately your upgrade bid is successful (i.e. without you having the option to say whether or not you accept the upgrade).  So, I don't think you can not pay.  Rather, you would have to contact your card issuer to dispute / remove the charge.  I guess that would take some time; hence, you will probably not get the same cabin back if you do it.

P&O have this covered:

1.3. Upgrade offers are legally binding offers from you to pay us the amount you select when making an upgrade offer. When you make an upgrade offer you are agreeing to pay us this amount if your offer is accepted.

[Slugsta]

I had another email about this today.

For our 19 day cruise an upgrade to deluxe balcony (we are currently in an inside), minimum bid £910.

Standard balcony £490

Large seaview £430

Seaview £180

Larger inside £260.

All prices per person.

 

I don't know how these compare with prices when we booked.

[tring]

9 hours ago, Slugsta said:

I had another email about this today.

For our 19 day cruise an upgrade to deluxe balcony (we are currently in an inside), minimum bid £910.

Standard balcony £490

Large seaview £430

Seaview £180

Larger inside £260.

All prices per person.

 

I don't know how these compare with prices when we booked.

 

Thanks for that, interesting to see the numbers.  Our cruise may be similar, so those minimum bid prices look pretty good to me.  If you ask to pay for an upgrade, then they charge you the price you would have paid on booking (not that balconies were available when we booked.  That £2,000 we were quoted to upgrade from a sea view to a balcony makes the £490 only 25% of that cost and we may get a better offer as in a sea view at present.  Whether we would want to take the risk of a bad cabin and actually pay for that privilege will make us think hard though. After all we will still get the same cruise in every other way and there are a good number of the basic balconies directly under pool deck which I understand can be a problem.

 

I see that there are no deluxe balconies available on our cruise at present and on your cruise no balconies of any sort, nor any sea views.  May always become available though.

 

We should here fairly soon now.

 

[Eglesbrech]

We have made a bid on a deluxe balcony and if we get it it will be about 50% of the price difference for the upgrade at time of booking so a bit of bargain. That said we made a minimal bid so probably won’t get it but no cheek no chance.
 

As we are on a saver / guarantee anyway we are not precious about cabin location and aware we could get the steel fronts but then we could have got that anyway..

 

This time it was worth bidding, another time it may not be depending on ship, prices asked etc.

 

We have used the bid ups successfully on other lines and got some real bargains. The trick is to only book a cabin you will be very happy to sail in anyway and if a bid is successful enjoy the extra space or amenities.

 

numbers

 

in larger in £110 pp

seaview  £110 pp

seaview larger £220 pp

Balcony £210pp

deluxe £320pp

 

 

Edited February 1 by Eglesbrech
Add numbers

[tring]

9 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

We have made a bid on a deluxe balcony and if we get it it will be about 50% of the price difference for the upgrade at time of booking so a bit of bargain. That said we made a minimal bid so probably won’t get it but no cheek no chance.
 

As we are on a saver / guarantee anyway we are not precious about cabin location and aware we could get the steel fronts but then we could have got that anyway..

 

This time it was worth bidding, another time it may not be depending on ship, prices asked etc.

 

We have used the bid ups successfully on other lines and got some real bargains. The trick is to only book a cabin you will be very happy to sail in anyway and if a bid is successful enjoy the extra space or amenities.

 

numbers

 

in larger in £110 pp

seaview  £110 pp

seaview larger £220 pp

Balcony £210pp

deluxe £320pp

 

 

 

Thanks for that information, I think you are right in everything you said.  We only did a bid once and was on an Azamara cruise when we bid for a balcony from an outside.  The balcony was a tad nearer to the front than we would have chosen, but not right at the pointy end and we were sailing in the Med for a week with ports every day, so no real risk there anyway.  We were surprised to find their room service breakfast meant the waiter brought the tray out to the balcony, put a white table cloth on the dining sized table and proceeded to set everything out on the table.  They are largely American of course.  We tipped, but having been to the US since, suspect we must have given him less that the going rate.

 

We do have a well placed sea view on a select fare, which we booked on Aurora last September, since there were  no balconies available.  We have got a massive obc, parking for the 19 nights and our dining choice, which we will keep, so not bad at all and we would be happy to stay there.

 

Edited February 1 by tring

[tring]

On 1/31/2024 at 9:58 PM, Slugsta said:

I had another email about this today.

For our 19 day cruise an upgrade to deluxe balcony (we are currently in an inside), minimum bid £910.

Standard balcony £490

Large seaview £430

Seaview £180

Larger inside £260.

All prices per person.

 

I don't know how these compare with prices when we booked.

 

Received our upgrade bid invite this morning.  Standard balcony minimum bid prices are quite a bit higher for our 19 night Med cruise on Aurora, compared to prices you have been given for your 18 night Med cruise on the same ship, and we are in a sea view cabin at present (select price).  Not such a big difference on the deluxe balcony though - not that any deluxe ones are available at present anyway.

 

These are all the minimum prices we have been given:-

 

Suite (aft)  £3,740

Mini Suite £2,080

Deluxe Balcony £990

Standard Balcony £670

Sea View (larger) £290  

 

Prices seem to have been maintained on both our cruises and not much availability now, so probably not a big chance of an upgrade and we would not pay a high price for a cabin in any location.  We have put in a low bid for a deluxe balcony and very near the minimum price for the standard balcony.  Both still a fair bit less than half of what it would cost us to upgrade, if we paid for a specific cabin, though depends how much you paid initially as that is what is charged to upgrade.  I am quite wary of the standard balconies though as there are so many badly placed ones on deck A, (under open decks), which can be noisy.  We ay get cold feet and withdraw our offer on that as uncertain about it.  We can access links to withdraw or change our offers.

 

 

 

Edited February 16 by tring