Upgrade Invitation with No Vacancy...Why?

[Georgia_Peaches]

excuse me?????

BAM!! A picture is worth a thousand words. Nice!

[bmwman]

Maximizing revenue, yield management. As said above; NCL is better off with a bunch of cabins paying extra to move up then leaving one cabin empty. If they end up with an empty inside instead of a suite that's the upgrade model in all her perfection.:)

 

edit: perfection would be selling the inside too btw!

 

That's it - that is the EXACT reason. In the industry the YM model they use is streets ahead of even the airlines.

 

As to sold out you have no idea if a cabin is held for an agent yet to be released to the market

[bmwman]

excuse me?????

 

Excellent and thought provoking.

[havenfan]

Disagree ... we are within 40 days on a sold out cruise. The cruise is no longer available to book on NCL’s site. No one is holding back cabins - the cruise is sold out. Nonetheless, the 3rd party is still offering bidding for the primary purpose of collecting pricing and demand data. Sure, if they get a late cancellation then they can fill that cabin, but that is a lot of effort for a few hundred more. NCL still gets paid due to cancellation policy.

 

We were on a cruise where the last Garden Villa had disappeared from the system about four months before sailing, but both of them reappeared about one month before sailing. I was able to call and get an upsell (this was about 18 months ago when bidding for upgrades was still being rolled out fleetwide but hadn't reached our ship yet). I met the people in the other Villa; they got their upsell a couple of days after I did.

 

At minus-30 days the penalty should have been 75% of the fare. I consider it quite unlikely that both GVs should have been cancelled by ordinary customers. I'm guessing that they were being held by some (senior?) NCL employees or other VIPs who might have had different deadlines.

Edited September 3, 2018 by havenfan

[Georgia_Peaches]

We were on a cruise where the last Garden Villa had disappeared from the system about four months before sailing, but both of them reappeared about one month before sailing. I was able to call and get an upsell (this was about 18 months ago when bidding for upgrades was still being rolled out fleetwide but hadn't reached our ship yet). I met the people in the other Villa; they got their upsell a couple of days after I did.

 

At minus-30 days the penalty should have been 75% of the fare. I consider it quite unlikely that both GVs should have been cancelled by ordinary customers. I'm guessing that they were being held by some (senior?) NCL employees or other VIPs who might have had different deadlines.

You make an interesting point. My sailing is over a holiday so I guess it's quite possible that the highest level cabins are being held by some senior exec.

Can you please explain what you mean by "At minus-30 days the penalty should have been 75% of the fare" This is all still very new to me and I've actually learned a lot by following this thread.

[havenfan]

Maximizing revenue, yield management. As said above; NCL is better off with a bunch of cabins paying extra to move up then leaving one cabin empty. If they end up with an empty inside instead of a suite that's the upgrade model in all her perfection.:)

 

edit: perfection would be selling the inside too btw!

 

I was on the Pearl a few weeks ago and met a couple who lived in Seattle and had booked a Sail Away Inside the day before the cruise for $499pp, down from $999pp the previous week. So NCL must have gotten it pretty close to perfect on that cruise!

Edited September 3, 2018 by havenfan

[Son of a son of a ...]

excuse me?????

 

Again ... I disagree. Where is your proof that it was sold out when you called? They are not holding back inventory 10 days before sailing.

[havenfan]

Can you please explain what you mean by "At minus-30 days the penalty should have been 75% of the fare" This is all still very new to me and I've actually learned a lot by following this thread.

If you cancel a cruise far enough in advance you won't be charged any penalty (n.b., this is true in the US, but I don't think it is true if you book through some other country websites, e.g., NCL UK). As you get closer to sailing, you will be charged larger penalties if you cancel. For the cruise I was referring to, the penalties for cancelling suite bookings should have been:

 

Greater than 120 days prior to sailing: $0

119-90 days: 25%

89-56 days: 50%

55 days or less: 100%

 

I was confused when I wrote "the penalty should have been 75% of the fare"; I was looking at the non-suite table. Actually, at the time the Garden Villas reappeared on the system, the cruise was in 100% penalty for a US booking, i.e., a US retail customer would have received none of the cruise fare back from NCL if they cancelled their booking at that time.

 

Btw, an earlier poster mentioned that travel agents who make block bookings might have later cancellation deadlines than retail customers. But I'd be surprised if they were allowed to do that on Garden Villas.

Edited September 3, 2018 by havenfan

[Starry Eyes]

We were on a cruise where the last Garden Villa had disappeared from the system about four months before sailing, but both of them reappeared about one month before sailing. I was able to call and get an upsell (this was about 18 months ago when bidding for upgrades was still being rolled out fleetwide but hadn't reached our ship yet). I met the people in the other Villa; they got their upsell a couple of days after I did.

... I'm guessing that they were being held by some (senior?) NCL employees or other VIPs who might have had different deadlines.

Interesting story.

Another thought besides an executive:

A (presumably large) wealthy family could have reserved both villas, then had to cancel (maybe for an insured reason like a serious illness or maybe for an uninsured reason...the ultra wealthy are different from the rest of us). Glad you got the experience.

[TiiiSailor]

My wife and I had to cancel our last cruise four days prior to sailing due to a broken leg. Someone must have received a nice upgrade when they arrived for boarding. Fortunately for us, we did purchase travel insurance.

[BirdTravels]

they must losing out on me, i always bid on the " poor" side and never get upgraded..LOL, i refuse to bid the amount they want :D:cool:. LOL

Their not losing out on you. You've been profiled. You have given them exactly what they want to know about you.

 

And you're very proud that you have 3 outstanding bids on your cruise in 3 weeks from now and are anxious to see if you will win them.

Edited September 4, 2018 by BirdTravels

[buoycruiser]

They are collecting data under the name of bidding.

[spanishguy1970]

Their not losing out on you. You've been profiled. You have given them exactly what they want to know about you.

 

And you're very proud that you have 3 outstanding bids on your cruise in 3 weeks from now and are anxious to see if you will win them.

 

anxious? naaaaa, curious maybe but never anxious. I leave anxiety to those who actually feel special in being upgraded, I choose the stateroom i want where i want, and never disappointed :D:cool:

[MabryD]

On 9/2/2018 at 5:32 PM, Son of a son of a ... said:

Oh my ... just saying that in a sold out cruises that the primary purpose of encouraging bids is to collect data, filling unexpected vacancies is second. Further, NCL is not holding back cabins to release for bidding after final payment.

Your cruise is not sold out. Calm down.

[cmjars]

10 minutes ago, MabryD said:

Your cruise is not sold out. Calm down.

Thank you for the laugh! I realized the thread is from almost 4 years ago.

[Son of a son of a ...]

I just received an email that someone quoted my post from 4+ years ago.  I haven’t been on CC for a while and I can’t remember if the cruise ever sold out.  Just wanted to say “Hi all!”

[The Shrike]

I have a very humorous response that I'll be posting in 2026.

😜