Upsale possibility?

[workermom]

Has anyone been offered an Upsale when booking with a big box travel agency?

[Colo Cruiser]

Has anyone been offered an Upsale when booking with a big box travel agency?

 

 

 

CC policy says no discussing of travel agents. :(

[hpeabody]

AFIK any cabin is subject to a possible upgrade or upsell as long as the booking is not marked DO NOT UPGRADE. I do not think it makes a difference where the booking originated. Although, sometimes that marking has not made a difference it has been reported.

[Colo Cruiser]

AFIK any cabin is subject to a possible upgrade or upsell as long as the booking is not marked DO NOT UPGRADE. I do not think it makes a difference where the booking originated. Although, sometimes that marking has not made a difference it has been reported.

 

 

I agree.

 

It does make a big difference if you get notified in a timely matter or not of the upsell.

Its first come first served.

Some are good about that others are not. :(

Edited August 13, 2016 by Colo Cruiser

[BCCRUSINGCOUPLE]

I have been awarded upgrades both by cruise line and big box companies

 

 

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[easyboy]

I have been awarded upgrades both by cruise line and big box companies

Nice to know

[paul929207]

On our Alaska cruise last month, we booked a obstructed view guarantee. Got a cabin. Got an upsell for$250 to a balcony. Declined. Second upsell for $200 to balcony. Both per person. Declined. upgraded to mini which did not have a balcony. Loved it.

 

Booked thru large agency

[Lucky TGO]

I have been awarded upgrades both by cruise line and big box companies

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I did not think so. But good for you!! :) :)

Tony

[Pam in CA]

I'd never use a big box agency so I don't know if they make a difference. Probably not. I've received upsell offers through my high-volume TA that I've turned down. They weren't worth it.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Pam in CA

[TracieABD]

On our Alaska cruise last month, we booked a obstructed view guarantee. Got a cabin. Got an upsell for$250 to a balcony. Declined. Second upsell for $200 to balcony. Both per person. Declined. upgraded to mini which did not have a balcony. Loved it.

 

Booked thru large agency

 

You and Jeannie deserved it! Glad to hear it work out for ya'all!

[Cruise Raider]

I booked through a big box agency and had my reservation marked as meta upgrade only. I was in an inside cabin ...but midship on the Caribe deck and didn't want to be 'upgraded' to a forward cabin under the pool.

 

We received a call directly from Princess the morning before the cruise asking if we wanted a free upgrade to an oceanview room. We took it and it was a wonderful room in a great location. They did not offer it through my travel agency, we got the call directly from Princess. Maybe it was the timing ... seeing we were sailing the very next day.

 

So, in short -- yes!! We booked through a big box TA and received an upgrade (not an upsell) from Princess.

[Laurab23]

I booked through a big box agency and had my reservation marked as meta upgrade only. I was in an inside cabin ...but midship on the Caribe deck and didn't want to be 'upgraded' to a forward cabin under the pool.

 

We received a call directly from Princess the morning before the cruise asking if we wanted a free upgrade to an oceanview room. We took it and it was a wonderful room in a great location. They did not offer it through my travel agency, we got the call directly from Princess. Maybe it was the timing ... seeing we were sailing the very next day.

 

So, in short -- yes!! We booked through a big box TA and received an upgrade (not an upsell) from Princess.

What does " meta upgrade" mean? That is what our booking says.

[Cruise Raider]

What does " meta upgrade" mean? That is what our booking says.

 

A meta upgrade means you will only accept the next super category if an upgrade is given to you. You can book with 'any' upgrade, 'no' upgrade or a meta 'upgrade'. So, if you are in an inside cabin, they can only upgrade you to an oceanview or better ...not just another inside cabin which they deem to be a higher category. An oceanview would go to any balcony or better and a balcony to a mini-suite or better.

I book all my cruises this way on Princess but with nearly 2 dozen cruises on this line, I have only gotten the upgrade once ...the inside to an oceanview. I am not complaining, it was a very nice upgrade.

I have never been offered an upsell, though.

[Brisbane41]

I have been offered a paid upgrade from a balcony cabin to a full suite directly from Princess. The email from Princess stated they were targeting Elite passengers in the cabin category I chose. The email stated the suite would be mine for an additional $800 for a 10 night cruise. I accepted the offer as it looked a good deal and the online fare for the suite was more than twice what the balcony was worth.

 

The information I got at the time was that 1.) Princess was looking to clear a particular cabin category and upgrade those in it to make way for more sales and 2.) Princess was targeting loyal passengers first for such upgrades.

[caribill]

AFIK any cabin is subject to a possible upgrade or upsell as long as the booking is not marked DO NOT UPGRADE. I do not think it makes a difference where the booking originated. Although, sometimes that marking has not made a difference it has been reported.

 

Marked "will not accept upgrade" applies to free upgrades.

 

They can still ask you if you want to pay for an upgrade.

[easyboy]

I have been offered a paid upgrade from a balcony cabin to a full suite directly from Princess. The email from Princess stated they were targeting Elite passengers in the cabin category I chose. The email stated the suite would be mine for an additional $800 for a 10 night cruise. I accepted the offer as it looked a good deal and the online fare for the suite was more than twice what the balcony was worth.

Upsell is more common now.

[Brisbane41]

Upsell is more common now.

 

I think that is the best way to do it because I was very happy with the suite for the entire cruise.

 

Having said that in the past I have been upgraded to full suite from balcony for free for a two night sample cruise.

 

Being a veteran cruiser who knows my ships I don't plan on getting upgrades. I specifically book in areas of the ship I will be happy to sail in. Two years ago I had a inside cabin booked on Diamond Princess for a Japan cruise and had picked the location on Lido deck so that I had access to the upper decks for easy and quick access. I was sent and email a week before departure saying I had been upgraded from inside to outside and that it was an obstructed view outside on E deck. I was not happy with the location at all and the fact it was not close to my desired location so I rang up and asked to keep my original booked cabin. This request was met with a tirade of abuse from the Princess call centre operator who did not want to do it. In the end that operator got a serious complaint (which I hope she lost her job) and I ended up in my originally booked cabin. Not all cabin upgrades are upgrades and some are sneaky downgrades in order to dupe unsuspecting passengers.

 

I feel that the upsell offer is a more decent way of offering an upgrade as it gives the passenger the power to decide if it is an upgrade or not and whether to take it or leave it. I cannot complain about the upsell offer because I paid for it and I had a choice and time frame to make up my mind. With the automatic upgrades even if you tick no to upgrade you are at the mercy of the cruise line and it could be a sneaky way to fill up undesirable cabins that veterans recognise as inferior.

[Tak8]

My first Princess cruise was on the Golden and I was upgraded from a mini suite to a Vista Suite. That cruise I booked with a big box travel agency. I don't think it matters who you book with and I say this based solely on reading upgrade posts on this board and the circumstances surrounding the upgrade. No one has figured out the upgrade process.

[Grego]

I'd never use a big box agency so I don't know if they make a difference. Probably not. I've received upsell offers through my high-volume TA that I've turned down. They weren't worth it.

 

We have been booking directly with our favorite "Vacation Planner" at Princess for the last 3 years and have received upsell offers that we didn't accept because they didn't make sense to us at the time. My wife is still working on her "Upgrade/Upsell Doll" to get us moved from our favorite cabin to one with a bathtub.......do not see that happening this close to our embarkation in less than 2 weeks.

[cynbar]

Timing may be a problem for an upsell if you book through any travel agent, since I believe the agent is contacted first. We received an upsell offer by email for our May British Isles cruise. Instructions were to call and leave a message if we were interested, and calls would be returned in the order they came in. I happened to check my email about 10 minutes after the offer arrived (I don't check too often during a normal work day), called immediately and got a call from Princess about an hour later. We went from a mini suite to a penthouse suite---- I had been checking and there were about 4-5 suites available so obviously not an unlimited supply. We booked directly through Princess.

[Ron the Rev]

We have had a couple of upgrades in the past, one good and one not so good as for the second one, we were originally in a handicap balcony cabin on Caribe deck, this upgrade was to a mini suite which unfortunately only had a tub with overhead shower. DW is wheel chair dependant and only a feather weight, so we requested a set of steps to get into the tub. It looks now, that the up-sell marketing has taken over from the free upgrades from the upgrade fairy. On a further cruise we were offered an up-sell from a balcony to a full suite which we took advantage of, even though it wasn't an HC as they have separate tubs and walk in showers. At that time we had a further 3 cruises booked for 2017 and pretty well immediately got up-sell offers for all of them from HC mini-suites to Penthouse suites. We took up the offer on all 3 as the minor inconvenience of narrow doors could for us be accommodated. Glass of nice Camus-Special-Reserve please, for a very happy bunny. :):):)

[sunsetbeachgal]

You already got upsell offers for cruises in 2017? Wow, I'm surprised they are making offers so far in advance.

Edited August 14, 2016 by sunsetbeachgal

[Ron the Rev]

Yep that surprised us as well, they are for 22 April 2017 Med cruise, 06 May 2007 Spain/France and 17th June 2017 North cape. All from Southampton UK. Must be that us Brits are thinner in the wallet due to a hit on the exchange rates. Happy cruising.Blessings abound.:)

[LynnMW3]

Yep that surprised us as well, they are for 22 April 2017 Med cruise, 06 May 2007 Spain/France and 17th June 2017 North cape. All from Southampton UK. Must be that us Brits are thinner in the wallet due to a hit on the exchange rates. Happy cruising.Blessings abound.:)

 

Someone from our rollcall was also already offered an upsell for next year. We're doing a TA out of FLL in April of 2017. They were in an HC balcony, and were offered either an HC mini for 49 GBP pp or a suite for quite a bit more. They took the mini. I was also surprised at the offer so far out, and assume it was because someone needed an HC balcony stateroom.