Complimentary Upgrade List

[hoopman]

Our TA recommended that we book an SY and get put on their Complimentary Upgrade list. She said that since they book so many cruises with HAL that there is a good possibility of being upgraded to an SC, SB or SA. Has any one had experience with a TA's complimentary upgrade list?

[kakalina]

Never heard of it. I have heard of complimentary upgrades. Perhaps she is just putting you on the list of those willing to take an upgrade?

[lvtotrvl1]

Never heard of it. I have heard of complimentary upgrades. Perhaps she is just putting you on the list of those willing to take an upgrade?


That's what it sounds like to me also...

[fann1sh]

There are a lot of good travel agents out there, and a few...not so good. I hope I'm wrong, but my first reaction was, "This agent is baiting a hook with an unlikely upgrade".

[sail7seas]

Never heard of it.

We like to stay in "SA" cabins so we book and pay for them. That is the best (only) way to know we will have the cabin we want.


Never heard of it. I have heard of complimentary upgrades. Perhaps she is just putting you on the list of those willing to take an upgrade?



This is the only thing that makes any sense. Possibly she worded it in a way which led to possible misunderstanding?

[pms4104]

Personally, I would ask the T/A exactly how many/what percentage of her clients are upgraded from SZ to a Deluxe Verandah Suite.

We always select and pay for the cabin and category we desire. We do not book one thing and hope for anything different.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

This is what I think your TA is saying.... You can either have your cabin listed that you would be willing to take an upgrade if one is available or you would not. This really is NOT saying you will be upgraded it just means that they could move you without your consent to a higher category or offer you an upgrade to pay for. You may not even find out till you check in at the pier that they changed you. The problem with having an SY (at least in the 4 Vista Class ships and not so on the Eurodam) is that at least my opinion the SY cabins are in a far better location than the next category up which is a SS. Be very careful an upgrade to the SS could actually be a less desireable location than what you currently have as an SY. Now if you had an SS then the next category up is an SC and of course that would be an upgrade but not always likely to get. I have seen many people that had a SY Guarantee that ended up with the SS, actually almost all SY/SZ Guantees end up with SS only because those better location SY get booked. Now some may argue with me about the locations of the SS and some are not bad locations it is just that the SY are really slightly better locations with no problems from loud noises at night from the Lido deck which is why they changed these category locations on the new Eurodam.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Our TA recommended that we book an SY and get put on their Complimentary Upgrade list. She said that since they book so many cruises with HAL that there is a good possibility of being upgraded to an SC, SB or SA. Has any one had experience with a TA's complimentary upgrade list?

Do you mean the agency's Complimentary upgrade list!!!??? If so -- I have never heard of an agency that has a "Complimentary" upgrade list.

I love to know the name of that company!! (I know we can't mention agency names here.) -- But Boy we could possilby get upgraded EVERY cruise from an SA to a PS!! :D

[hoopman]

Thanks. That makes sense. You always have valuable posts. I may just bite the bullet and book an SC or SB.

[Williebill]

Every time I book a cabin; I am asked if I would be willing to take an upgrade. I always say yes to an upgrade but have never received one. That's the reason that I always book the category that I know my DW and I will be happy with.
Bill

[Sea Island Lady]

My TA was able to get my parents an upgrade from their suite, to a larger suite, by calling her rep a week before the cruise, and requesting the upgrade if there was a suite not booked. ;)

[kakalina]

My TA was able to get my parents an upgrade from their suite, to a larger suite, by calling her rep a week before the cruise, and requesting the upgrade if there was a suite not booked. ;)

That would be a upsell or a paid upgrade, No TA/PCC can get HAL to upgrade for free.

Virgil

[jtl513]

That would be a upsell or a paid upgrade, No TA/PCC can get HAL to upgrade for free.

VirgilThere may be another possibilty: I saw a post by a TA that said they are often encouraged to "take the credit" for something HAL has done. So: it may be possible that the TA called and learned that a free upgrade had been given, and told the client that it was their call that did the trick! :)

[JimVrhovac]

Have never heard of such a thing and neither has my TA.

In all our cruising we have been upgraded once from a B verandah to an A Verandah and it was such as mess we stayed in the B cabin

If we weere you we would not plan on an upgrade.

Most socalled upgrades are with Guranteed reservation on inside cabins.

Generally the suites and the inside sell out first so the chance of getting moved to an outside is pretty good but getting upgraded to a suite is not ver common

Ruth & Jim

[Sea Island Lady]

That would be a upsell or a paid upgrade, No TA/PCC can get HAL to upgrade for free.

Virgil
No, my parents didn't pay for an upgrade and I am sure the TA didn't. That would have been another $3000 total for the two of them.

jtl513 - What would be the purpose of the TA taking credit? Where did you see this thread you speak of?

[jtl513]

jtl513 - What would be the purpose of the TA taking credit? Where did you see this thread you speak of?Sorry, I can't tell you specifically what thread ... or even what TA/poster said it. It was two or three weeks ago. And she didn't elaborate on why it might be done ... just that it was.

[chrismch]

On a past cruise where we upgraded near to sailing, I checked in with the people who took our cabin. They had booked about 2-3 wks before the cruise and their TA told them that if you book late you always have a great chance of being upgraded for free. It just didn't happen in their case. They got the room they paid for.

[Sea Island Lady]

Sorry, I can't tell you specifically what thread ... or even what TA/poster said it. It was two or three weeks ago. And she didn't elaborate on why it might be done ... just that it was.

I found it!
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=835710&page=2

It still doesn't make sense why HAL would encourage a TA to take credit. You would think that HAL would want to take credit to get passengers to sail with them again.

Before we sailed on the Noordam, I asked my TA if she could check on an "upsell" upgrade for the two cabins of us (we had 3 cabins total) that did not have a suite. She checked with HAL and came back saying that they wanted an X amount. The amount was more than we wanted to spend to upgrade from VF to a suite, so we declined. When we arrived at the pier, we found out that my parents were upgraded from their booked suite, to a larger suite. :) When we returned home, my TA said that she had spoken to her rep about upgrading my parents if something were available, (my parents had also asked about an "upsell") and my TA was thrilled that my parents were indeed upgraded for free. ;)

[jtl513]

I found it!
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=835710&page=2

It still doesn't make sense why HAL would encourage a TA to take credit. You would think that HAL would want to take credit to get passengers to sail with them again. Maybe it's to encourage the TAs to "prefer" HAL (or whatever line does it) and steer more business their way.
... and my TA was thrilled that my parents were indeed upgraded for free. Since it was surprise to the TA, I think it was simply a coincidence. I still believe that TA's have zero influence on the upgrade selection process ... unless they are somehow secrectly funding an upsell.

[RuthC]

I found it!
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=835710&page=2

It still doesn't make sense why HAL would encourage a TA to take credit. You would think that HAL would want to take credit to get passengers to sail with them again.
Try this theory:
TA's are HAL's bread and butter, and a happy TA can mean a happy HAL. If the TA takes credit they are more likely to get a repeat customer. That means more income for the TA. TA income creates happy TA. Creates happy HAL.

[Sea Island Lady]

I said that my TA was thrilled that the upgrade request went through...not that she was surprised. :rolleyes:

I have no reason to doubt my TA, and really don't care. However the upgrade came about, it made my parents happy. :) Although they may never cruise again, I will remember the great service that HAL gave them/us and I will cruise again with HAL one day.;)

[ekerr19]

I've never heard of this either. Our TA does a huge amount of business with HAL and we've spent tons of money booking through them for the past 8-9 years.

The best deal we got was booking an SC GTY and getting a nice SA, which ending up saving us thousands. Normally, I don't like to take chances and I'm not really sure why I did it at that time, other than it was only a 7-day cruise and we didn't really want to spend over $5K to book the SA off the bat. The SC GTY was half the price of the SA, and we decided to give it a try, and got very lucky.

HAL will continue the upsell practice because so many people are willing to pay for it - especially as the cruise gets closer.

[1cruiselvr]

It's my personal opinion that TAs say things like that as a selling tool. They know better but do it to motivate the customer and make them feel like they are booking with an agency that can do special things for them or that they will get more than what they paid for in an upgrade from the CL. I get so xasdkjflakjdsf off when I read this stuff. It's misleading to the cruiser, especially if they are newbie and don't know better. I wish TAs would stop making statements like that. Happy Sailing!