Upgrade Fairy - When and Why Will She Call?

[sfs2001]

We got an upsell email a few months ago for our Sept 2018 cruise. We were in a balcony cabin on deck 10 and the email was for an ocean suite on deck 7 for 430 dollars. There are 4 people in our cabin, myself, my husband and our 2 children (ages 5 and 8) We decided to take it for more room. We had debated getting the OS in the first place but the difference was 1100....so for the price asked for the upgrade it felt like a deal to us. We figured 100 dollars extra per person for 4 people was reasonable and we will enjoy the extra room. The kids are excited to be in a “suite” because to them it sounds fancy (our daughter is obsessed with fancy Nancy so she thinks everything with big words sounds fancy lol) Hope everyone has a great cruise! 💜

[Uhfolks]

Has anyone ever heard of anyone calling to ask for an upgrade & having any luck? Our cruise departs in about a month & there are still multiple spa balcony rooms available. We're currently in an interior spa room, all of which are sold out. I could definitely see them starting to offer upgrades to try to open up some of the cheaper, easier to sell rooms. But I don't really know how their system works, so it could be a total waste of time to try too.

[mom2tcdx2]

I truly believe most of the upsell calls are people who are telling a fib because they booked the higher cost cabin and are covering so cheapo spouse doesn't find out. Then cheapo spouse starts telling everyone "we got upgrades for $1.00"!

 

Our sailing on the Pride in Baltimore has gotten me 2 emails to upgrade from my 4K to a balcony, another in my group was emailed to move their balcony to a suite, and I got a phone call on two of our interior cabins to be switched to a balcony. They however take the offers away rather quickly. On the one I clicked on it, wanted to see the cost, spoke to my husband about it when back later that day to look at it again and it was already taken away. They don't give you much room to think on it.

 

Woman who called had a list of people to call, as I have 6 cabins in total - when she called me about the one interior, I told her I had other cabins booked with it. She came back and said she had an offer to call the other interior, but the other two 4k cabins I had she didn't have any offer for.

[Titan_Cruiser]

We have gotten the call twice in 19 cruises.

 

First was cruise number 12 on the Dream. We received the call the morning of embarkation. They offered to move us from an interior on the bottom deck to a balcony on deck 7. There was no cost, they just wanted to move us. My guess is they had someone who wanted to sail but insisted on the cheapest interior room so they wanted to free ours up. My teenage sons were in the cabin next to us and they were not offering to move us all so we had to decline.

 

Second was just this week for cruise 19. We sail August 6 on the Conquest and received the call Monday July 30. We were in an interior on deck 7 and were offered a Premium Vista (aft-wrap) balcony on deck 6 for $300 more. We took it this time. I searched some other cruises on the Conquest to see what that room normally books for. Of course the prices varied by cruise but it was consistently $700-800 more than what I paid total.

 

I don't know how they decide who or when to call, I'm just glad to have benefited from it.

[1lizette1]

Is it possible that in order to receive an upgrade offer you have to have selected a price where one of the stipulations was "2 category upgrade" (or worded something like that)? Just like there's also stipulations like "great vacation guarantee" or "half off your deposit" etc and different prices for different options.

[avenger71]

Has anyone ever heard of anyone calling to ask for an upgrade & having any luck? Our cruise departs in about a month & there are still multiple spa balcony rooms available. We're currently in an interior spa room, all of which are sold out. I could definitely see them starting to offer upgrades to try to open up some of the cheaper, easier to sell rooms. But I don't really know how their system works, so it could be a total waste of time to try too.

 

I have actually called because friends of ours who were going on the same cruise received a call from Carnival to upgrade so I figured, what could it hurt. So I called and they put me in contact with the woman who gave them the upgrade and she offered us one as well. We went from an inside to an aft extended balcony for $200 each on a 7 day cruise.

[crbnlvr]

As others have said, it is based on a lot of variables. I've got the call several times and really chatted up the rep that calls with the offers.

 

Here is what I know...there are upsell agents, thats all they do, and they are assigned certain ships. This is not based on 'luck' Carnival knows exactly what they are doing and use experience to determine how the lists are generated - one for email the other phone calls.

 

Emails are sent earlier than phone calls, but timing depends on how much upselling they need to do based on the availability of cabins closer to departure.

 

In the rare event that a ship isn't sailing full, this tactic is used to ensure that the cheapest cabin sail empty. In other cases, a class of cabins is 'oversold' and some lucky passenger could end up in a suite instead of their 'we will pick your room' cabin.

 

The agent gets a price list from revenue control. These are the prices that they can sell the cabins for. This will usually be a different (lower) price that you'll see online. Your offer is the difference between the new price and what you paid. If you paid $2000 for a balcony and they can sell the OS for $2500 your upgrade price offer will be $500. This is the reason rates are all over the board. They do not haggle, the price is the price. If you turn it down they call the next person on the list. They have great success upselling, it is just a matter of how many phone calls they need to make and how much money they make from the upsell. They don't need to haggle.

 

They also get a passenger manifest of who to start calling. From what I was told this is quite a process to establish this list. It is based on price paid, past cruise history, cabin types they may need, and other factors. The list is based on an algorithm run against the passenger manifest at a given time before sailing based on occupancy.

 

Now comes the fun part...assuming the cabin that they just upsold is not needed for a guaranty cabin, they will now start upselling those cabins. So, if they get someone booked in an OS to move to a GS they upsell that OS to someone else until they are down to the last IS cabins on the lower decks.

 

Usually people will get a call of one or two cabins above what they booked. I think it is rare for someone with an IS cabin to get an offer for an OS. I know there are probably times it does happen and someone will respond that in "1986 their cousin's best friend was upgraded from the morgue to a cabin so elaborate it isn't even bookable by a common person", but for the most part, I would anticipate only a class or two offer.

 

If you really have too much time on your hands, you can tell when the upsell calls start occurring because cabins will quickly start disappearing from the list if you do a trial booking for your sailing.

 

If you're lucky enough to get the call, then you have to come out here and post it and get beat up by people or get praised for the deal you get...responses will vary to how unfair it is I didn't get a call, how crazy you were to spend your own money, you got the best deal eva, I'd rather spend that money on 12 extra Dods, why didn't you just book the class you wanted and so on...again and again every day...then about once a week we get a posting asking how it works, and for some reason unknown to me, people like myself continue to respond.

 

So with all that being said, don't expect the call, but if it comes, consider the offer based on your situation.

 

Godspeed.

 

 

This —- 😂😂😂

 

“I know there are probably times it does happen and someone will respond that in "1986 their cousin's best friend was upgraded from the morgue to a cabin so elaborate it isn't even bookable by a common person", but for the most part, I would anticipate only a class or two offer.”

[Homosassa]

I have never been offered an upsell in 40+ years of cruising. I have, however, received numerous free upgrades that are real upgrades (such as an interior cabin to an amidship balcony).

[floridabum]

We were just offered a upgrade to a ocean suite for $149. Im all about firsts so we jumped on the deal..... Our upgrade offer came in email and it was our second upgrade offer in about 5 years, the first came by phone and we passed on it.

[vettprincess]

This —- 😂😂😂

 

“I know there are probably times it does happen and someone will respond that in "1986 their cousin's best friend was upgraded from the morgue to a cabin so elaborate it isn't even bookable by a common person", but for the most part, I would anticipate only a class or two offer.”

 

Your upgrade post has me laughing out loud-.Thank you-Needed that.

We have cruised for 46 years on 5 lines and never got a free upgrade or call to pay for one. I am still laughing about the morgue. Most people would not know about a morgue or jail on board.

[jordanaire]

We were offered our very first upgrade (after 22 cruises with Carnival) back in April...but it couldn't have come at a worst time. After checking in at Port Canaveral and heading towards the ship to board, my phone rings. It's a Carnival rep offering us an upgrade from an inside cabin to a balcony cabin for ONLY $395! Well, needless to say, we said "no". First of all, it was too much to pay last minute and, secondly, our luggage was already headed to our original cabin. I've read too many reviews where someone's luggage never showed up. We weren't having any of that! Probably never see an upgrade offer again. Oh well.

 

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Forums mobile app

[evandbob]

Had a few upgrades in my cruising history, probably less than 5. Best one was an upgrade from the inside cabin I had for the 1st part of a 21 day B2B Journeys cruise to a balcony for the 2nd half.

 

Yesterday, I received and accepted an upsell from balcony #6283 to an ocean suite # 6175 with the double sized balcony for our cruise tomorrow on the Miracle. Obviously I thought the upsell was reasonable, about 1/4 the difference in cabin fares.

[maynovmom]

We have cruised with Carnival 17 years in a row. We had sailed inside cabins the first three years. On our 4th cruise we had an inside cabin and were upgraded (not a penny paid) to a balcony. I couldn’t believe it and was obviously very excited. Smart sales move on Carnival because after that we have always sailed in a balcony. Sometimes a freebie can be the best marketing strategy around.

[Silent Penguin]

We have cruised with Carnival 17 years in a row. We had sailed inside cabins the first three years. On our 4th cruise we had an inside cabin and were upgraded (not a penny paid) to a balcony. I couldn’t believe it and was obviously very excited. Smart sales move on Carnival because after that we have always sailed in a balcony. Sometimes a freebie can be the best marketing strategy around.

 

 

Agree. This happened to us on our very first cruise, which was on DCL. To save money, we booked two adjacent OV rooms, but when we checked in at the port, we found out we had been upgraded to two connecting balcony rooms. Every cruise since, no matter what the cruise line, it's been balcony rooms for us.

[sgttami]

In March I had booked an inside cabin on Pride....casino offer.

 

The day before sailing someone called and said, "we'd like to offer you a balcony...FREE."

 

Said yes and thank you...LOL

 

Had a great Premium Balcony...one of the best cabins I ever had.

 

Sometimes I get calls for upsells but that was my first freebie...:D:D

[Shaded Lady]

Never gotten an upsell call- anxiously waiting!

 

We did get a free upgrade once... our TA upgraded us from a really low OV (I don't remember what floor originally) to a mid-ship deck 8 for both our cabins. He didn't say a word to us (this was before the internet- YES I'm that old!) so we hadn't seen anything about our room until we reached the port... we got onboard and expected to head down.... the Carnival 'Fun' person who greeted us told us to head up... and up... and up! Very pleasant surprise!

[SoontobeMrsRatliff]

We just accepted an upgrade call last week, we went from a Porthole room on deck 1 to 1 of only 2 6K grand Oceanview rooms on deck 9 (350 sq feet and 3 floor to ceiling windows) on the Sunshine for $500 ($250 pp). As its our honeymoon cruise we were hopeful for the call and luckily had the money on standby. We looked into that particular rooms cost and it was about 2k per person more than what we paid for the entire cruise, almost as much as the captains suite, so we were all over it!! Only thing that could be better for us would be a suite offer but hey, we still have time!

[LuckyStar]

Hello,

 

So, almost everyday, I get on here, and I see a thread "Upsell Fairy Called Today!" or "Accepted my Fairy Offer" or in a review, someone will say "I had an interior, but the upsell fairy bumped me up to a balcony". So I was wondering...

 

What are some ramifications that you have to follow to get the Upsell call? About how close to the cruise will they call? If you have an inside room, will you be offered an oceanview, a balcony, or a suite, or all three? Usually, hoe much are the upgrades?

 

I would imagine that the Upsell fairy cannot bump people up to nicer rooms if there are no rooms available, so obviously the cruise has to not be selling well in order to receive the call. But how do they determine what is and what isn't selling well? I know that when prices drop a couple hundred or they have your cruise on a sale list often, then it's probably in need of some filling. But when will they make this decision? We are 7 weeks out from our 4 night on Splendor, and I am secretly hoping for an upsell call to a balcony. We booked 7242, a standard inside room, and there are many balconies left. Actually, a strange amount.

 

Also, what are some typical upsell offers? Are they really specific, like "would you like to upgrade to balcony room 8360 for $30 per person?", or will they offer a few room numbers to you where you can choose? Has anyone ever been offered a suite?

 

Have you ever accepted an upsell offer? Were you happy with the turnout? Has anyone ever declined an offer? Why?

 

Thanks to anyone who can help!

 

Happy Cruising! :D

 

You can always call them and find out if they are giving any special deals on upgrades. All they can say is no. I did on one of my last cruises. We had an oceanview and I saw quite a few balconies and they upgraded me for a total of $100. It was a good deal. Had they said no, I would have just kept my oceanview, no problem.

[LuckyStar]

Has anyone ever heard of anyone calling to ask for an upgrade & having any luck? Our cruise departs in about a month & there are still multiple spa balcony rooms available. We're currently in an interior spa room, all of which are sold out. I could definitely see them starting to offer upgrades to try to open up some of the cheaper, easier to sell rooms. But I don't really know how their system works, so it could be a total waste of time to try too.

 

All they can say is no.