AZ Upgrade Program - NEW - effective 3/12/19!!

[CA Oceanfront]

I think it would be fun and informative if the moderators of this forum were to start a “sticky” thread where people would post their successful upgrade bids with all pertinent information such as as loyalty tier, current booking category, category that was bid, and the amount of the bid. I’ve seen this type of thread on hotel bookings, car leases and others. Thoughts?

[Grandma Cruising]

I’m happy to do that for a while. I’ll set one up.

[excitedofharpenden]

14 hours ago, DebbieMacG said:

I requested an LCV upgrade when I booked my cruise, I’m discoverer level and would like to bid the minimum amount as suggested but I’m concerned the cabin won’t be suitable. Until last week there were several accessible cabins left but they all vanished and I can’t risk getting any cabin if there’s no shower or room for my wheelchair. I don’t want to lose my accessible cabin for one that’s no good.

Debbie, as I said to you on another thread there are very few accessible cabins on Azamara ships and for this reason if you want a particular cabin you have to book it (as you have done with an inside) and resign yourself to the fact that the upgrade program was never going to be ideal for you. Even under the old scheme it was pot luck as to one being available to upgrade to. Be happy with your inside. You'll be fine. 

 

Phil 

[DebbieMacG]

53 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Debbie, as I said to you on another thread there are very few accessible cabins on Azamara ships and for this reason if you want a particular cabin you have to book it (as you have done with an inside) and resign yourself to the fact that the upgrade program was never going to be ideal for you. Even under the old scheme it was pot luck as to one being available to upgrade to. Be happy with your inside. You'll be fine. 

 

Phil 

Yes I realise that and I agree with you. I think because there were two OV accessible cabins left last week, I wondered if there may be a slim chance of getting one, yes I could have booked one at the time of booking but it was £1200 more which was a lot.

 

My point is now because you can’t decline an upgrade that there is no way I can bid at all really. I can and have managed on other cruise line such as Celebrity and Princess in non accessible cabins with showers and enough room to store the chair but it’s harder with Azamara as cabins are smaller.

 

Bonnie did say she had spoken to someone about adding something that made it easier for those requiring showers or accessible cabins to bid and if they can that would be fantastic, of course it’s still no guarantee.

 

I did three cruises last year and couldn’t get an accessible but this year I have my accessible inside on Azamara and an accessible mini suite on Sky Princess so I’m delighted with that.

[gymfreak]

I notice two people have already posted on the new thread their experiences and bid prices for upcoming cruises.

As I know these OP’s are are loyal Azamara cruisers and have high status on LCV, then I am staggered at the ‘strength ‘ of bid required to be in a strong position.

If as we are led to believe these are the levels for high status members then goodness knows the level of bid required at much lower staus

 It would be very interesting for to compare the bids required for the same cruise at different loyalty levels to actually see if as is suggested the strength of the bids is really customised to the persons loyalty level

Edited March 15, 2019 by gymfreak

[hiccups]

12 minutes ago, gymfreak said:

I notice two people have already posted on the new thread their experiences and bid prices for upcoming cruises.

As I know these OP’s are are loyal Azamara cruisers and have high status on LCV, then I am staggered at the ‘strength ‘ of bid required to be in a strong position.

If as we are led to believe these are the levels for high status members then goodness knows the level of bid required at much lower staus

 It would be very interesting for to compare the bids required for the same cruise at different loyalty levels to actually see if as is suggested the strength of the bids is really customised to the persons loyalty level

Yes--one thing that has not been made clear (and I commented upon yesterday) is that we don't know if the LCV status is taken into account on the slider, or if it's figured in later in the algorithm.  I agree that including the cruise and LCV status on the bidding thread would be useful.

Also, Azamara is probably going to hate that we are doing this 

[uktog]

I am not sure if our loyalty is factored in now or later on after we bid.  Thats the detail we do not have!

[marinaro44]

3 minutes ago, uktog said:

I am not sure if our loyalty is factored in now or later on after we bid.  Thats the detail we do not have!

The LCV-level multiplier is another missing detail.

[gymfreak]

11 minutes ago, uktog said:

I am not sure if our loyalty is factored in now or later on after we bid.  Thats the detail we do not have!

Exactly, therefore if it is not then how do we know if a ‘weak’ bid will turn into a fair or strong bid? I think we need to know this as Azamara are potentially loosing revenue as we are deciding to bid or not on incomplete information. As you rightly said on those figures you did not bid, but if loyalty level then bumps up the bid then you may have made a choice to submit a bid

[excitedofharpenden]

46 minutes ago, gymfreak said:

I notice two people have already posted on the new thread their experiences and bid prices for upcoming cruises.

As I know these OP’s are are loyal Azamara cruisers and have high status on LCV, then I am staggered at the ‘strength ‘ of bid required to be in a strong position.

If as we are led to believe these are the levels for high status members then goodness knows the level of bid required at much lower staus

 It would be very interesting for to compare the bids required for the same cruise at different loyalty levels to actually see if as is suggested the strength of the bids is really customised to the persons loyalty level

Vicki and it’s even worse for me as a single because I will have to pay double as it’s per person.  For a cabin location I don’t have any control of.  Sadly, in  its reincarnation this is an advertised perk that is no longer of any benefit to me.  However I will continue to book cabins I am happy with at a price point that is comfortable and forget the LCV loyalty for it.

 

Phil

[Belfastman]

18 minutes ago, gymfreak said:

Exactly, therefore if it is not then how do we know if a ‘weak’ bid will turn into a fair or strong bid? I think we need to know this as Azamara are potentially loosing revenue as we are deciding to bid or not on incomplete information. As you rightly said on those figures you did not bid, but if loyalty level then bumps up the bid then you may have made a choice to submit a bid

The strength of the bid is an indicator or how likely you would get an upgrade based on your bid. Loyalty is not taken into effect unless two people submit equal bids then the higher loyalty status will play a part. Having placed bids in the system I can see how it is working.

[uktog]

23 minutes ago, Belfastman said:

The strength of the bid is an indicator or how likely you would get an upgrade based on your bid. Loyalty is not taken into effect unless two people submit equal bids then the higher loyalty status will play a part. Having placed bids in the system I can see how it is working.

Not sure we are fully seeing how it is working.  Bonnie mentioned a multiplier - what we do not know is - is that applied to your bid behind the scenes before the numerical value of the bids is ranked for allocation of rooms or not.

 

 

[gymfreak]

24 minutes ago, Belfastman said:

The strength of the bid is an indicator or how likely you would get an upgrade based on your bid. Loyalty is not taken into effect unless two people submit equal bids then the higher loyalty status will play a part. Having placed bids in the system I can see how it is working.

Wow if that’s the case it’s worse than I thought

In that scenario if someone who has cruised only once on Azamara submits a bid of $1 more than a person who has cruised 30 times than the once only cruiser gets the upgrade!

[gymfreak]

33 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Vicki and it’s even worse for me as a single because I will have to pay double as it’s per person.  For a cabin location I don’t have any control of.  Sadly, in  its reincarnation this is an advertised perk that is no longer of any benefit to me.  However I will continue to book cabins I am happy with at a price point that is comfortable and forget the LCV loyalty for it.

 

Phil

Yes Phil, it’s certainly a very bad deal for single occupancy cruisers like yourself

I agree that under these circumstances you cannot include the possibility of this benefit when considering booking

Vicki

[uktog]

19 minutes ago, gymfreak said:

 

I agree that under these circumstances you cannot include the possibility of this benefit when considering booking

Vicki

Yes, and I think it again also reinforces if you want a special room for a special event or whatever you have to book that room and pay the  price.  

Edited March 15, 2019 by uktog

[CA Oceanfront]

Grandma Cruising, thank you for acting upon my suggestion to post bidding experiences on this forum under the new upgrade program. As I am highly suspicious (for a multitude of reasons) of the numbers associated with the various sliders, what I am really interested in seeing is the actual successful bid results, which obviously may not be available for some time. These are the numbers that will be most instructive for future bidding purposes, and not necessarily the numbers appearing on the sliders when one submits a bid. I also think it would be more helpful if each successful bidder also lists the ship and date of sailing. Let the games begin!

Edited March 15, 2019 by CA Oceanfront

[CA Oceanfront]

2 hours ago, hiccups said:

Also, Azamara is probably going to hate that we are doing this 

Truth be told, this is also one of the reasons I suggested it, just to emphasize to Miami how ridiculous this new program is. 

[grayjay]

This thread surely reminds me of other discussions going on about loyalty perks taken away on Celebrity as well as on Azamara cruise lines. It was one of the things that made us look to other cruise lines - and what a good idea it was - we discovered new menus and shows , new ports new ideas of cruise life. Now we are considering  coming back and booking another cruise on Azamara because we like the itinerary. Of course I have been hoping for the chance (!) of upgrading to a higher level which is gone now.

My actual question is the following - and perhaps Bonnie can help to answer that: The conditions for the bidding process are " 90 days out, voyage paid in full, invitation by e-mail " . For us, none of these conditions would work: I live in Europe and final payment is only 4 weeks before the actual cruise date, meaning I'd miss most of the bidding period. I never get any e-mails either. It's similar to the process in regard to Celebrity with their Move-Up bids - I can't access the Move-Up website page to start the bidding process and have stopped trying.

So far it seems to me that besides having been given a perk that is worthless to a loyal customer it's only accessible to customers in the US, Canada and the UK?

[nordski]

I really wish to thank those who have created excellent analyses  and hypotheses concerning this new programme. It would seem that in this case, despite the desire of many of us that multiple factors be considered, money may indeed be king.

 

As an aside, it has also interesting to see how others approached the probability of scoring an upgrade in the prior “system”.

 

I now realize that I was a real pessimist compared to the hopes expressed by others. Was that a result of being raised midst dour Presbyterians? 😄.

[uktog]

4 minutes ago, nordski said:

 

 

I now realize that I was a real pessimist compared to the hopes expressed by others. Was that a result of being raised midst dour Presbyterians? 😄.

Haha - and that Calvanism is why bidding is so alien to us.

[hiccups]

21 minutes ago, nordski said:

I now realize that I was a real pessimist compared to the hopes expressed by others. Was that a result of being raised midst dour Presbyterians? 😄.

Nah... I'm Presbyterian and always hoped for an upgrade   Didn't get it on our first cruise, got it on our second.  I had been really hoping for one on our upcoming third cruise, since for the first time we've booked a balcony and the upgrade would offer us a chance at a suite--a great perk for our anniversary!  But now that it will be under the new bidding system, well, perhaps I'll  become a dour Presbyterian 😉

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, CA Oceanfront said:

Grandma Cruising, thank you for acting upon my suggestion to post bidding experiences on this forum under the new upgrade program. As I am highly suspicious (for a multitude of reasons) of the numbers associated with the various sliders, what I am really interested in seeing is the actual successful bid results, which obviously may not be available for some time. These are the numbers that will be most instructive for future bidding purposes, and not necessarily the numbers appearing on the sliders when one submits a bid. I also think it would be more helpful if each successful bidder also lists the ship and date of sailing. Let the games begin!

Good idea to add ship and sailing date - and length of cruise might be helpful too.

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, hiccups said:

Nah... I'm Presbyterian and always hoped for an upgrade   Didn't get it on our first cruise, got it on our second.  I had been really hoping for one on our upcoming third cruise, since for the first time we've booked a balcony and the upgrade would offer us a chance at a suite--a great perk for our anniversary!  But now that it will be under the new bidding system, well, perhaps I'll  become a dour Presbyterian 😉

Even under the old system, the chances of going from balcony to suite was very small indeed. There are not very many suites and lots of balcony cabins.

[hiccups]

2 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Even under the old system, the chances of going from balcony to suite was very small indeed. There are not very many suites and lots of balcony cabins.

Oh, I know, but perchance to dream    We aren't sailing until October, but a couple days ago, doing a mock booking on the website, there were 20 suites available.  Of course as the date nears and prices drop, they will fill up.

[CA Oceanfront]

1 hour ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Good idea to add ship and sailing date - and length of cruise might be helpful too.

Agreed. And if we are trying to help the reader avoid having to look up the subject cruise, we might even ask to include the world region or general itinerary, such as Norway intensive or Westbound TA.