Celebrity MoveUp

[Luvcrusn]

Thanks for the update TFree. I'll be watching for a response. 

[Les43]

We have 2 days to go until our cruise on Infinity. Still no news on the Moveup bid 😞. Assume it will be rejected. Anyone had their’s accepted at this late date or had no news either way before boarding? 

[Bruin Steve]

1 hour ago, Les43 said:

We have 2 days to go until our cruise on Infinity. Still no news on the Moveup bid 😞. Assume it will be rejected. Anyone had their’s accepted at this late date or had no news either way before boarding? 

On our Southeast Asia Millennium cruise this past Christmas/New Year’s, we were booked in an OV.  We put in a bid of $10 pp over the minimum for a Veranda.  2 days prior, we received notice our bid had been rejected.  When we checked in at the pier in Hong Kong, we were surprised to find we were upgraded to a midship handicapped (not that we needed it, but it’s a larger cabin than standard) veranda...FOR FREE....not part of the MoveUp thing...they close the books on that with 2 days to go.   This opening was, apparently, a last minute cancellation.

[Cruise a holic]

14 minutes ago, Bruin Steve said:

On our Southeast Asia Millennium cruise this past Christmas/New Year’s, we were booked in an OV.  We put in a bid of $10 pp over the minimum for a Veranda.  2 days prior, we received notice our bid had been rejected.  When we checked in at the pier in Hong Kong, we were surprised to find we were upgraded to a midship handicapped (not that we needed it, but it’s a larger cabin than standard) veranda...FOR FREE....not part of the MoveUp thing...they close the books on that with 2 days to go.   This opening was, apparently, a last minute cancellation.

While the Handicapped cabin is bigger, the bathroom shower isn't good for those who are  not disabled.  The shower has no rim, and water gets all over the floor.  Best to build a towel dam around the shower.  Also the sink is lower which is great if you are in a wheel chair, but not necessarily comfortable for tall people.  The closet rods are also lower down.

 

I think these cabins are perfect for those in a wheel chair- as a friend of mine enjoyed it- but for those not handicapped not necessarily so.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Cruise a holic

[spiritkat090909]

2 hours ago, Les43 said:

We have 2 days to go until our cruise on Infinity. Still no news on the Moveup bid 😞. Assume it will be rejected. Anyone had their’s accepted at this late date or had no news either way before boarding? 

YES.  We booked last minute (4/1, 5 days prior to sail date) with a casino offer that was a free outside stateroom.  We got a move up bid email at the last day they were closing the offers.  I was a day late noticing but submitted a bid anyway thinking no way... and I REALLY overbid.  $500pp for AQ.  It was the max offer.  I was sent notice everything was declined on the fourth,  day prior to sailing at 8:10am.  Checking email at airport, I noticed another email sent at 8;12am, saying we HAD been successful and to pick up documentation at the airport in MIA (we were flying FLL).  We just showed up at the check-in, after printing new luggage tags/docs/boarding passes at our hotel airport.  Of course, the cabin steward did not have notice of our Elite status & we missed a few benefits by not knowing this, but didn't make a fuss. He realized when I put our laundry bag with 'free Elite laundry' noted on bag.  Apologized and put the flower vase in room.  We also had an invite to a different person in the room (not unexpected) for something and I'm pretty sure our old cabin had a few things intended for us.  But again... no biggie, we enjoyed our first Aqua Class stateroom and one of us was very happy with Blu.

 

Bottom line:  I think if you are offered a Moveup and overbid, you go to the front of the bid line and increase your chances.

 

We went from a free room to one we paid $500pp for.  We were happy to have balcony and Celebrity had a income on a room that was previously dependent on casino losses.  Which numbered in the thousands. 😞

Edited June 8, 2019 by spiritkat090909

[LovetheSea]

For what it is worth , we got and Move Up offer last week for our July 12, 2019 Millennium Alaska cruise. We bid just above the minimum. We don't have high hopes that we will get the Balcony cabin we bid for. But why not play? We booked our cruise directly with the cruise line, as usual.  

[Redtravel]

On 6/7/2019 at 3:32 PM, TFree said:

Just to follow up on this, we are back now.  I think I misspoke in the prior post, because I think that my Customer Service message was sent to Celebrity, not to Big Box Store (because now I can't find any email link or place on their system to send a message).

So I called Big Box Store Travel Customer Service today.  The agent on the line was not too helpful, since she is not familiar with the Move Up program, much less what the reasons are why they don't participate, or whether they are giving any consideration to participating.  She said that would be the Cruise Buying Department that would make such decisions, and no, there is no way to contact them directly.  But sure, she would pass on feedback about this. 

I wasn't satisfied with that, or convinced that any human will actually read my feedback, so I decided to send a letter to Big Box Travel, ATTN: Cruise Buying Department, at the address listed for mail on the Big Box Travel website.  Here is the text of the letter, with identifying information removed:

Dear Cruise Buying Department:

 

I am xxxxx, [Big Box] Member number xxxxxxxxxx.  We have just returned from our first cruise where [Big Box] Travel was the agent on the reservation, [Big Box] Booking Number xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.  The cruise was great, and we look forward to receipt of our Cash Card in the mail.

 

As the last month or two before the cruise approached, I learned that [Big Box] Travel does not participate in any way in Celebrity’s Move Up Program, under which passengers can put in bids on higher level cabins, and then if the bid is accepted, pay extra and move up to the higher level cabin.  (https://www.celebritycruises.com/bid-on-cruise-room-upgrade)  In the case of this particular cruise, we were actually able to upgrade from a Sky Suite to a Celebrity Suite for no additional cost, because the Celebrity Suite cabin cost dropped so much in price.  But the more typical situation would be where it will cost, let’s say, $1,000 per person to upgrade directly, but maybe the minimum bid to make the same move would be $400 per person.  If the bid is accepted, the passenger gets an upgrade for a much lower cost. 

 

I talked to Customer Service about this, but the service agent was not even familiar with the program, much less be in a position to say whether [Big Box] Travel is considering participating in this program or not.  She said she would pass on my feedback to the Cruise Buying Department, but I thought I would send this letter to explain in a bit more detail.

 

To me, this can be a significant benefit to the passenger (your client), and as far as I can tell, there is no cost to [Big Box] Travel.  In fact, I have read that a Move Up under this program is considered a commissionable event, and if so it seems [Big Box] Travel would actually make money if the passenger successfully bids and Moves Up. 

 

I have become aware that most other national travel agencies do participate in the Move Up program, which (as you can tell) I consider a plus.  We booked another cruise while onboard last week, and because of this issue I will be shopping the booking around before deciding whether to transfer it to [Big Box] Travel.  It may be hard to match the [Big Box] Travel benefits (in the form of the Cash Card), but if other travel agents can come close and participate in the Move Up program, I would have to consider that option.

 

I don’t know if you are willing to contact me back about this inquiry, but if you are, I would appreciate it.  I would love to know two things: (1) if there is some reason that is not apparent to me why [Big Box] Travel does not participate (such as a hidden cost); and (2) if there is any chance that [Big Box] Travel will reconsider participation in the Move Up Program.  If you are willing to contact me back, I can be reached at (xxx) xxx-xxxx, or at xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com, or at the address shown on the first page.

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

I will post here if I get any kind of response.  I urge other customers of the Big Box to write to them as well.  In the meantime, I will be attempting to decipher the veiled references to other travel agents I have found on these boards, and contact several of them to shop this booking around.

Tom & Judy

It is the same now on Azamara.  Azamara used to sell off suite upgrades for $398 per suite. Priority was date of booking( August 2018) filed upgrade form, and club status. In March, there was postings on CruiseCritic that Azamara was following Celebrity’s upgrade bidding procedure. I did not get an upgrade email.  Could my TA from a big online agency be excluded?  There are still several open suites with 3 weeks till embarkation. Just wondering if I was excluded based on the above posting.

[LINGBER]

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 8:18 AM, hvbaskey said:

Tweaked the “order” of the columns (left to right) - questionnaire updated April 20, 2019
Note:  I have put in a date calculator formula for # of days when offer is received prior to sail date, and # of dates of bid notification (accepted/rejected) prior to cruise.  These dates are automatically calculated by the spreadsheet and do not need to be mentioned below 🙂
 

CELEBRITY MOVE UP TRACKER (effective April 19, 2019; but can back-fill data, if available)

• Ship:  
• Length of Cruise:
• Cruise Sail Date:
• Date email offer received:
• Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: 
• Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: 
• Current Cabin:
• Bid?  Yes/No:

If YES -  Bidding Details:

• Cabin Category: place winning category, if accepted (all category offers, can be mentioned in comments)
• Bid Offer:
• Notification Date:
• Accepted / Rejected

General Comments (offer details, etc.)

 I wish we could get this pinned to the top of the forum. Its a great way to share info!

[hvbaskey]

13 minutes ago, LINGBER said:

 I wish we could get this pinned to the top of the forum. Its a great way to share info!

 

The Tracker has actually been moved to its own thread (to filter out the noise):
 

 

[TFree]

11 hours ago, Redtravel said:

It is the same now on Azamara.  Azamara used to sell off suite upgrades for $398 per suite. Priority was date of booking( August 2018) filed upgrade form, and club status. In March, there was postings on CruiseCritic that Azamara was following Celebrity’s upgrade bidding procedure. I did not get an upgrade email.  Could my TA from a big online agency be excluded?  There are still several open suites with 3 weeks till embarkation. Just wondering if I was excluded based on the above posting.

Redtravel: I have read in the past that the three companies in the family all use the same third party vendor for their versions of the Move Up program.  At least on the Celebrity side, even if you don't get an email invitation you can still go to the Move Up page directly to put in your info and see if you are eligible.  This can only be done within 30 days of the cruise.  It was when I went there within 30 days that I knew I could not participate, even manually, in the Move Up program.

Azamara's corresponding page is here: https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/azamara-upgrade-program.  You might go there and see if it treats you as eligible to bid.  Let us know if you get a chance?

 

Tom & Judy

[enclavian]

We are sailing on Equinox 6/22/19

We booked it on 6/2/19

2A balcony cabin for $829.00 per person

Received bid upgrade offer 5 days later 

Did not bid as we are certainly content with what we have

😊

Also booked a 12 day Ultimate Southern Caribbean on Equinox for next May with a group of friends.

 

[LINGBER]

On ‎6‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 10:05 AM, hvbaskey said:

 

The Tracker has actually been moved to its own thread (to filter out the noise):
 

 

Happy to see that the Celebrity Move -up Tracker has now been pinned to the top of the Celebrity board! But where are all the move up offers? Are they fewer and farter between because its summer and the ships are going out full? Are the upgrade offers just too high so no one is bidding? Or are folks just not posting their experiences? Thoughts? 

[hvbaskey]

11 minutes ago, LINGBER said:

Happy to see that the Celebrity Move -up Tracker has now been pinned to the top of the Celebrity board! But where are all the move up offers? Are they fewer and farter between because its summer and the ships are going out full? Are the upgrade offers just too high so no one is bidding? Or are folks just not posting their experiences? Thoughts? 

 

My thoughts are that experiences are not being shared; as many are unaware that they can.  Maybe, with the “pin”, it will be easier to share notes (vs. trying to find the thread amongst hundreds).

[Lastdance]

For me, the BB Company is a disappointment in many ways...too many layers of people working, along with too many ifs, ands or buts...I never received my Move Up offer, but did not expect to either...never saw the suite available, and had a great price!

Edited June 15, 2019 by Lastdance

[Xcelsior]

Second cruise I have done MoveUp bids for several categories - and both times all bids were not successful.  Both times, emails saying I was not successful came through 2 days before sailing at exactly 2:41pm.  I'm disappointed, but our balcony cabin is still a good one and I figure I have extra money to gamble with now. haha

[LovetheSea]

I remember the good old times when there was an "Upgrade Fairy". Everyone knew that there was a slim chance she would visit you. But we all had hopes. We were lucky enough to get free upgrades a couple of times on Celebrity. We are Elite members. So not a high percentage. I think the Move Up offers are not accepted very often at all! Looking at the "Move Up Tracker" The company is making a lot of people frustrated waiting to hear, hoping to hear, to the last days before they sail, if their offer was accepted. I can only imagine the bad feeling towards the company this is generating. We have an offer in and I am almost sure we wont get it. There are so few cabins left on the sailing.  But just the thought we might is frustrating. Because we wont know until the last minute if there will be a large charge on our card. Hard to budget for the trip. 

Edited June 17, 2019 by LovetheSea

[GlennaRoseGoes]

I got upgraded today from Veranda 2C to Concierge for a 14 night cruise departing next week. I placed only a “weak” bid of $100pp

[musik07]

Does it seem like there is a particular time of day that you get acceptance or rejection e-mails? Someone posted they got rejection at 2:41pm two days before the cruise. Do they do the same with acceptances? 

[Cruise a holic]

23 minutes ago, musik07 said:

Does it seem like there is a particular time of day that you get acceptance or rejection e-mails? Someone posted they got rejection at 2:41pm two days before the cruise. Do they do the same with acceptances? 

All can vary- we got an acceptance two weeks before the cruise-

[wrk2cruise]

I suspect acceptance can come at any time as they are managing inventory to maximize cabins in categories they find easier to sell last minute.  Then there's the possibility of last minute cancellations so they leave the bids open.  Then when they close the sailing to bookings and turn remaining inventory over to the ship they bulk email the rejections.

 

As to making people frustrated.  I don't think there is any excuse to get frustrated.  They have never made promises that X number of cabins will be available or exactly how their proprietary algorithms work.  It's obviously a way to maximize revenue and in my opinion brilliant.  The bidding aspect encourages people to bid high for a good chance.

[Andy&Mary]

About 10 days ago, I submitted a bid on a cruise leaving in 2 weeks and then I went back in on Sunday and increased it slightly.  Today, some people in my roll call said they got another email about bidding.  Out of curiosity, I went back to see if I could increase my bid.  It is still showing as "Pending" but I can't edit it.  Does that mean they may be in the process of accepting it?

 

wait... breaking news, DH said there is a new pending charge on the cc.

 

thanks!

 

[gprentice]

Our upcoming cruise is on the Celebrity Silhouette in Feb. 2020.  We are a party of three booked into a veranda cabin.

Received a moveup letter from our TA about 60 days before the cruise:

upgrade to royal suite 
min:$1500 
max:$4000

upgrade to celebrity suite
min:$1000
max:$2250

upgrade to sky suite
min:$750
max$1750

upgrade to concierge class
min:$100
max:$400

upgrade to family veranda
min:$100
max:$500

After thinking about it, the idea of a Family Veranda sounded really good for the three of us. (separate bedrooms).

There were only two cabins available for our sailing, so I thought I'd have to bid the max. to win ($500/ea x2 = $1000).

However, I sent our TA an email asking how much extra to pay for an upgrade, and it was $1000, but it came with $300 shipboard credit reducing the cost to $700.  So we paid for the upgrade and declined the moveup offers.  If we really didn't care if we got it our not, we would have used the moveup process at a lesser amount.

 

Edited December 19, 2019 by gprentice

[canderson]

Wow -- still haven't waded through all 22 pages, but did notice there were questions about who gets the MU emails and who does not.  The web site makes the following note:

 

" To receive an email invitation to bid on a stateroom upgrade guest must be opted-in to Celebrity Marketing e-mails. To opt-in, to receive emails guests can sign up on our website, opt-in through the online check in process or within My Reservations section of website. "

 

So while it's always possible to go directly to the MU pages here https://www.celebritycruises.com/bid-on-cruise-room-upgrade

if you are hoping for an email as well, be sure you've opted in.

[lizinindy]

Has anyone else ever gotten the “we can’t confirm your upgrade but we’ll check when you board” message from the move-up offer folks? When we got onboard, I went to guest services and asked whether I needed to be in my room at a certain time if they called about an available move-up upgrade and the desk person had no idea what I was talking about. Never did get a call. Maybe I should have gone and checked with the CC concierge but I didn’t think of that until after we’d unpacked. It did kinda keep your hopes up, although falsely. It was OK because we LOVED our original first off the hump cabin with the gigantic balcony on the same floor as he pool!

[wrk2cruise]

Yes received it once for a suite upgrade.  I checked with the suite concierge when boarding who told me all suites were full.   I believe you get this response if you are the high bidder but no cabins are available.  If someone doesn't show they may offer you the upgrade.   I've learned to not hold my breath.