Info on Upsales

[Carnevale]

I hadn't heard of upsales until reading about it on CC (thanks for that info). I'm wondering if anyone can give me an idea of approximately when they are offered. We've asked our TA to look for them but we are working with a new TA who seems on top of things but as we don't really know for sure about that yet I'd like to keep a little watch on things. Thanks!

[Mura]

I don't think there is any specific time. It depends upon your sail date and how sold it is or not.

 

Back in November 2005 we got an upsell to an OS from a PH (on Regatta) at virtually the last minute (i.e., no more than 2 weeks before sale date as I recall).

 

OTOH, after final payment for an Alaska cruise last August (this wasn't an upsell, it was a bribe) we were booked in a PH and were offered an upgrade to a Vista on one of 3 cruises in the fall. We opted for a Marina cruise (the other two possibilities were on "R" ships).

 

The best bet is to let your TA know you are interested in an upsell, and to give him or her your limits. For example, you are willing to pay x-dollars to switch to whatever level, and then authorize your TA to accept immediately because these offers tend to disappear pretty quickly. But if you don't want to do that, just ask your TA to notify you immediately if there is a possibility and then do NOT write to CC and ask if it's a good deal! Take it or don't, but there isn't much time to decide if you want to do it.

 

It can happen after final payment or just before departure date, or any time inbetween.

 

It pays to be flexible if you are really interested.

 

Mura

[Gangway]

We were just offered a upsale from an oceanview to a balcony 18 days before our cruise on the Marina for a nominal amount. We were very happy to move up. It was about 10 per cent of the difference charged on the O website. I called the TA back 5 minutes after the offer since it was a no brainier. My TA called and sent me an email. Another example of the value of a good TA.

[swissyrescue]

"...10 per cent of the difference charged on the O website..."

 

Since most people won't have a clue which cruise you were on or how much the "difference" was, it would be easier if you just listed the amount. Helps to give people an idea of what the upsales cost. :)

[JimandStan]

"...10 per cent of the difference charged on the O website..."

 

Since most people won't have a clue which cruise you were on or how much the "difference" was, it would be easier if you just listed the amount. Helps to give people an idea of what the upsales cost. :)

 

Bad assumption swissyrescue, as the upsale offers vary very widely, and there are just too many variables involved to make those kinds of comparisons possible. :)

 

More lucrative upsells are also offered to passengers who have sailed more often, as a kind of loyalty reward.

 

Mentioning dollar amounts would only cause confusion and hard feelings.

[Gangway]

"...10 per cent of the difference charged on the O website..."

 

Since most people won't have a clue which cruise you were on or how much the "difference" was, it would be easier if you just listed the amount. Helps to give people an idea of what the upsales cost. :)

 

The upsale, I do not know if this is real word as my spellchecker keeps trying to change it to upscale, was $200 to go from an ocean view to a B1 balcony. The difference if you booked it would be $1800. We are traveling to Iceland, Ireland, Norway and Denmark so I didn't think it was worth the extra $1800 when I booked it two months ago since the weather could be chili and rainy. I understand The Marina and Riviera only have 20 ocean view rooms and over 200 balconies. If they have many unsold rooms in the higher category the upsale is probably offered to sell more of the lower rooms if they are in demand and fill the upper category. It also might be a way to fill up the ship without annoying people offering last minute price drops to people booking later. Just might thoughts and only speculation.

[Mura]

Well, "upsell" is a real word in the cruise industry but it may not be in any dictionary!

 

To show the difference between your "upsell" and "mine", it really does depend on the category of the room changes, among other things. I think the last upsell we took advantage of was in November 2005 when we had a chance to move from a PH to an OS on Regatta on what we call the "non-Libya" cruise. That was $1,000pp as I recall. That sum turned out to be very well worth it for us, but at the time I accepted the upsell, I didn't know that I was going to be in a wheelchair on that cruise! In the end we really needed to be in the OS as opposed to a PH.

 

It has seemed to me, from posts I've seen, that when you are talking about upsells from suites to higher suites (e.g., a PH to a VS or OS) that the $1K we paid is a reasonable number. Even after all this time.

 

But also, your upsell from an ocean view to a B1 for $200 seems eminently reasonable as well! It does depend on what people want to pay. And if you are willing to wait for the chance of an upsell, not spending that $1800 makes a lot of sense.

 

The last offer we couldn't refuse was to change itineraries entirely for an upgrade from a PH on Regatta to a VS on Marina, with no cost to us, plus they threw in more on-board credit. This was a no-brainer to us since the price we'd paid for the PH was HALF the list-price for the VS on the cruise we took on Marina.

 

You just have to be prepared to move FAST, as others have said very often.

 

Mura

[Gangway]

Mura,

 

We have cruised with Celebrity and Princess often and have been happily surprised by the "upgrade fairy" many times. We probably have been upgraded more since we have upper tier loyalty. I'm sure JimandStan are correct in the loyalty priority given to good customers. NCL sold us an upsell to a Penthouse suite from a regular balcony for $900 per person and it was difficult to go back to steerage after that wonderful experience. We had never had a personal butler or concierge before. It is smart marketing to offer upsells to fill the ship and entice us into booking higher categories in the future. I think the higher category is appreciated even more when the marginal cost is less.

Only 15 days till Marina,

 

Greg

[swissyrescue]

@Gangway, thank you for providing the actual amounts. That's a very big savings and sounds like you got a magnificent deal.

 

Personally, seeing the actual amounts people paid versus the amount they would have paid if they just bought the upsale outright is helpful to me. Gives me an idea on how much the cruiseline is willing to discount the price in order to fill an empty room. Some cruiselines are more generous than others.

 

As an example, we were once offered an "upgrade" by Carnival from our booked suite to the next sized suite. They wanted $700 - it would have been $1,100 if we just paid for the upgrade. That's about a 36% savings... not enough for us to upgrade. We were looking for at least a 50% savings, but they weren't negotiating or offering anything lower, or anything else (like OBC).

 

Anywho... thanks for the details. Much appreciated. :)

[Carnevale]

Thanks everyone for sharing all of this info! It is very helpful both to get a sense of the range of when upsales might be offered (with rather close to the cruise date sounding like the more common experience) and the price ranges. We'll be ready to act fast if something is offered.

[dorisis]

We have never been offered an upgrade or an upsell on any of our past Oceania cruises. Right now I have 4 Oceania cruises booked but will be happy just to be onboard. Maybe our luck will change. An upgrade is always welcome and an upsale would probably work well for us too.

 

~Doris~

[rgastin]

We were just offered an upsell from B4 to Concierge class for $200 pp. We declined it as we have the extended balcony. Now if they want to offer us a suite ...that would be a different mattter!

 

Our cruise is August 18th to the Baltics so you can get an idea of when it was offered - we're about 7 weeks out.

[TERRIER1]

We have never been offered an upgrade or an upsell on any of our past Oceania cruises. Right now I have 4 Oceania cruises booked but will be happy just to be onboard. Maybe our luck will change. An upgrade is always welcome and an upsale would probably work well for us too.

~Doris~

 

 

We will going on our 6th Oceania cruise this Spring and have only been offered an upsell once from a B4 balcony to a Concierge level balcony of the same size. The upsell price was not competitive and offered little incentive to switch.

[pacheco18]

We will going on our 6th Oceania cruise this Spring and have only been offered an upsell once from a B4 balcony to a Concierge level balcony of the same size. The upsell price was not competitive and offered little incentive to switch.

 

Upsell from B4 to Concierge is pretty meaningless. The cabins are identical and the concierge "perks" are fairly worthless. Unless you are getting a far better cabin location, I cannot see any reason to switch.

[klscaz]

We were just offered an upsell from B4 to Concierge class for $200 pp. We declined it as we have the extended balcony. Now if they want to offer us a suite ...that would be a different mattter!

 

Our cruise is August 18th to the Baltics so you can get an idea of when it was offered - we're about 7 weeks out.

 

Interesting! We have a B4 with the extended balcony too. My husband likes the fact that you get to use an iPad with the Concierge suite but I'm told the internet doesn't work too well at sea. And you still have to buy the minutes--correct?

[TERRIER1]

Upsell from B4 to Concierge is pretty meaningless. The cabins are identical and the concierge "perks" are fairly worthless. Unless you are getting a far better cabin location, I cannot see any reason to switch.

 

I agree totally. In fact, if anything it was a downgrade since the concierge cabin was up in the front of the ship and I would be giving up an extended balcony. My TA was even embarassed communicating the offer to me :o.

[hondorner]

Interesting! We have a B4 with the extended balcony too. My husband likes the fact that you get to use an iPad with the Concierge suite but I'm told the internet doesn't work too well at sea. And you still have to buy the minutes--correct?

 

Assuming the upsell is around the previouasly reported $200 per person, refuse the upsell and use the $400 to buy your own iPad -- the iPad2 (not the newest model, but perfectly adequate) is available at Sams Club for $388, anywhere for $399. And, you get to bring the iPad back home!

[Balliett]

Ragistan writes "We were just offered an upsell from B4 to Concierge class for $200 pp. We declined it as we have the extended balcony. Now if they want to offer us a suite ...that would be a different mattter!"

 

We just got the same offer from a B-4 extended balcony to an A-3 concierge for $200. A 12 day 8-31 cruise. After thinking, we took it.

Why? Hot breakfast in suite, concierge lounge (like HAL Neptune) on the same deck, exclusive spa deck area and a few other minor things. Close call but we took it.

[YoHoHo]

Upsell from B4 to Concierge is pretty meaningless. The cabins are identical and the concierge "perks" are fairly worthless. Unless you are getting a far better cabin location, I cannot see any reason to switch.

It depends on the ship's class. On the R-ships, Concierge & above are allowed twice the number of reservations in the specialty restaurants vs. lower stateroom categories. To me that is not fairly worthless. List price differential is too much but a reasonable upsell may be worthwhile.

[LAexNY]

Ragistan writes "We were just offered an upsell from B4 to Concierge class for $200 pp. We declined it as we have the extended balcony. Now if they want to offer us a suite ...that would be a different mattter!"

 

We just got the same offer from a B-4 extended balcony to an A-3 concierge for $200. A 12 day 8-31 cruise. After thinking, we took it.

Why? Hot breakfast in suite, concierge lounge (like HAL Neptune) on the same deck, exclusive spa deck area and a few other minor things. Close call but we took it.

 

And don't forget the bottle of champagne and the tote bag...

[james j feller]

They should give tote bags to everyone,it's good advertisement.

 

JIM

[Jancruz]

Assuming the upsell is around the previouasly reported $200 per person, refuse the upsell and use the $400 to buy your own iPad -- the iPad2 (not the newest model, but perfectly adequate) is available at Sams Club for $388, anywhere for $399. And, you get to bring the iPad back home!

 

ROTFL

Jancruz1

[Mura]

That's actually a marvelous suggestion because you can also customize your iPad to have what YOU want on it ... as opposed to nothing on Oceania's!

 

Mura

[TERRIER1]

They should give tote bags to everyone,it's good advertisement.

 

JIM

 

Everyone on our recent June 5th Riviera cruise got a tote bag and we were in a B4. I thought that perhaps they had too many since the the first three cruises was cancelled so they gave them to the steerage folks as well.

[klscaz]

Assuming the upsell is around the previouasly reported $200 per person, refuse the upsell and use the $400 to buy your own iPad -- the iPad2 (not the newest model, but perfectly adequate) is available at Sams Club for $388, anywhere for $399. And, you get to bring the iPad back home!

 

We actually have the iPad 3. I think he thought the minutes were free!