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Grandma Cruising
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7 minutes ago, screen-gem said:

@Host Grandma Cruising

Another data point for your spreadsheet:

-  May 28, 2019 sailing of Azamara Pursuit (10 days).

- cabin booked: DV2

- many months ago (shortly after booking), I submitted the request form under the 'old' upgrade system ($395USD/cabin), and received an acknowledgement back from Azamara.

- in March, thanks to CC I learned the old program had been cancelled, replaced by the new bid-what-you-will system. Like others have reported here, attempts to submit a bid were refused ('you are not eligible', etc).  After several emails back and forth with a "team leader" at AZ, the upgrade page suddenly came alive for me.

- Mar 22: submitted bid of $200USD/pp (=$400 per cabin), essentially the same as what we would have paid under the old system. This bid was judged as "weak".

- May 26 (2 days before sailing), AZ sent an email notifying that my bid was not successful. 

 

This was not a surprise. Unlike many who have posted on this forum, we are near the bottom of the priority list, having only sailed on AZ for a total of 5 weeks (plus one short Celebrity cruise). LCV level is Adventurer.

Thanks for the information. I’ve added this to the spreadsheet.  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pEoojQ5-EPmD4cI3gw1dVcYfYTXfZePdDXxU09l0H3M

I’m not sure your LCV level made any difference. You’ll see on the spreadsheet that many successful bids were made by ‘Adventurers”. Money seems to talk louder than loyalty!

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2 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

I’m not sure your LCV level made any difference. You’ll see on the spreadsheet that many successful bids were made by ‘Adventurers”. Money seems to talk louder than loyalty!

I think most of us have worked that one out some time ago before this even started.

 

Phil 

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Adventurer

cruise date 17 July 2019, 12 nights, originally OV

Minimum bid $200, actual bid $250 pp about 90 days before cruise, then increased a week later to $275.  Both bids “weak.”

upgrade confirmed 30 days before cruise to VERANDA 2

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24 minutes ago, Cool Fool said:

Adventurer

cruise date 17 July 2019, 12 nights, originally OV

Minimum bid $200, actual bid $250 pp about 90 days before cruise, then increased a week later to $275.  Both bids “weak.”

upgrade confirmed 30 days before cruise to VERANDA 2

Thanks -added to spreadsheet

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Discoverer Plus

July 2 Quest  original stateroom  V1

Minimum bid $200,  bid $220 on May 18

modified bid to $360 on June 10

Upgrade confirmation to a N1 received June 18

 

I had actually decided to cancel my bid this coming weekend if it had not been accepted as I was very happy wth the original cabin location. I am having a bit buyers remorse knowing that we were upgraded on Pursuit TA for $398 under the old program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, lovecruzin said:

Discoverer Plus

July 2 Quest  original stateroom  V1

Minimum bid $200,  bid $220 on May 18

modified bid to $360 on June 10

Upgrade confirmation to a N1 received June 18

 

I had actually decided to cancel my bid this coming weekend if it had not been accepted as I was very happy wth the original cabin location. I am having a bit buyers remorse knowing that we were upgraded on Pursuit TA for $398 under the old program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for posting the information. Can I just check, were the $200 minimum and the bids of  $220 & $360 per person or for the stateroom? 

Edited by Host Grandma Cruising
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Hi all, 

Booked a V2 veranda cabin on Azamara Journey for a 13 night Baltics Capital cruise leaving Stockholm June 22nd 2019 on May 17th 2017. We are now 3rd tier loyalty members (over 300 points - ? Discoverer level) but were 2nd tier at time of booking. Applied under the old system (paying $395 USD per stateroom) for upgrade on May 17th 2017 and received a confirmation email from Azamara re the same. We also used 2 free nights when we became 2nd tier loyalty members (Explorer) when booking this cruise, if that makes any difference.

Found out via cc that the old system was now defunct and placed my bid on March 13th 2019 for an upgrade to a cc suite and placed a bid of $300USDpp. Received confirmation of bid from Azamara at that time.

Email received 20th June 2019 ( 2 days prior to sail date) that my bid was unsuccessful. This was not surprising as feel any real benefits of being loyal and booking early are lost as far as Azamara goes. Makes it easier, as I don't feel I am so locked in now with choices. Didn't even bother putting in a bid for our next cruise on July 1st 2019.

Hope that this is the info you require! See you in a few weeks!

Karyn

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31 minutes ago, KazLoudspeaker said:

Hi all, 

Booked a V2 veranda cabin on Azamara Journey for a 13 night Baltics Capital cruise leaving Stockholm June 22nd 2019 on May 17th 2017. We are now 3rd tier loyalty members (over 300 points - ? Discoverer level) but were 2nd tier at time of booking. Applied under the old system (paying $395 USD per stateroom) for upgrade on May 17th 2017 and received a confirmation email from Azamara re the same. We also used 2 free nights when we became 2nd tier loyalty members (Explorer) when booking this cruise, if that makes any difference.

Found out via cc that the old system was now defunct and placed my bid on March 13th 2019 for an upgrade to a cc suite and placed a bid of $300USDpp. Received confirmation of bid from Azamara at that time.

Email received 20th June 2019 ( 2 days prior to sail date) that my bid was unsuccessful. This was not surprising as feel any real benefits of being loyal and booking early are lost as far as Azamara goes. Makes it easier, as I don't feel I am so locked in now with choices. Didn't even bother putting in a bid for our next cruise on July 1st 2019.

Hope that this is the info you require! See you in a few weeks!

Karyn

Thanks Karyn, can you remember what the minimum Bid was? I assume your $600 would be classified as weak?

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17 minutes ago, janerlve said:

So far it seems that you have to bid $70 (per night) or more to successfully upgrade from verandah to CC Suite.

 

 

AZ_V2CC_bid.JPG

Great analysis that’s the most useful table I have seen.  And confirmed the limited if any impact of loyalty. 

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Hello! 

Thank you to everyone sharing their upgrade experience. This thread really helped with our decisions for our bids and we are so happy to have an upgrade to a suite! This appears to be a popular cruise and at the original time of booking, the price of the CC suite was well over twice the price of what we paid for our veranda stateroom, so in my opinion the price for this upgrade is well worth it! 

 

May 2nd received the upgrade email, my travel agent was CC’d on the email but I was the one that filled out the upgrade information and set my bids. My travel agent was also CC’d on my final success email. 

 

Tier: Adventurer (2nd cruise with Azamara) 

Cruise: 12 Night Baltic Cruise 

Date: July 29, 2019 

Original room: Club Veranda Stateroom 

Upgrade to: Club Continent Suite ($400 per person minimum bid, $800 for cabin) 

Bid Strengths: All Weak 

Initial Bid May 2nd: $500 per person ($1000 cabin ) 

May 3rd increase bid to $600 per person ( $1200 cabin ) 

June 10 increase to $680 per person ($1360 cabin) 

June 21: Success email! Final price $1360 ( At the time I received my success email,  on the Azamara website all cabins on this sailing are shown to be sold out except the club world owner’s suite) 

 

We are excited for our Baltic cruise and even more thrilled to have a suite 🙂 

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48 minutes ago, Natalie914 said:

Hello! 

Thank you to everyone sharing their upgrade experience. This thread really helped with our decisions for our bids and we are so happy to have an upgrade to a suite! This appears to be a popular cruise and at the original time of booking, the price of the CC suite was well over twice the price of what we paid for our veranda stateroom, so in my opinion the price for this upgrade is well worth it! 

 

May 2nd received the upgrade email, my travel agent was CC’d on the email but I was the one that filled out the upgrade information and set my bids. My travel agent was also CC’d on my final success email. 

 

Tier: Adventurer (2nd cruise with Azamara) 

Cruise: 12 Night Baltic Cruise 

Date: July 29, 2019 

Original room: Club Veranda Stateroom 

Upgrade to: Club Continent Suite ($400 per person minimum bid, $800 for cabin) 

Bid Strengths: All Weak 

Initial Bid May 2nd: $500 per person ($1000 cabin ) 

May 3rd increase bid to $600 per person ( $1200 cabin ) 

June 10 increase to $680 per person ($1360 cabin) 

June 21: Success email! Final price $1360 ( At the time I received my success email,  on the Azamara website all cabins on this sailing are shown to be sold out except the club world owner’s suite) 

 

We are excited for our Baltic cruise and even more thrilled to have a suite 🙂 

Thanks for the information. I’ve added it to the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pEoojQ5-EPmD4cI3gw1dVcYfYTXfZePdDXxU09l0H3M

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Hi all!

 

Received an upgrade last week; completely flabbergasted as we were 38 days away from sailing and I had only put the bid in (aka was only offered it) 3 days before getting the happy email. Plus we've never sailed on Azamara before, and I put in a weak bid (converting US to CAN currency is brutal). Details:

 

Tier: Adventurer (1st cruise with Azamara) 

Cruise: 12 Night Baltic Cruise 

Date: July 29, 2019 

Original room: Oceanview 

Upgrade to: Veranda (turned out to be V2, mid-ship after being way forward in OV!) ($? per person minimum bid; I just don't remember, sorry) 

Initial Bid June 21st: $200 per person ($400 per cabin )  

Bid Strength: Weak 

June 24: Success email! Final price $400

 

I'm not sure why we were successful, given our particulars, but it goes to show that there's no reason not to put in a bid, even a weak one, and with no previous sailings on Azamara.  You just never know.  Needless to say, we're thrilled.

 

Robin

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1 hour ago, salseros2003 said:

Hello,

 

it looks like I'm not eligible for bidding upgrade, maybe because final payment still due?

 

thanks

Massimo

I think you’re right. You can’t bid before 90 days before your cruise and I think you have to have made the final payment.

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19 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

I think you’re right. You can’t bid before 90 days before your cruise and I think you have to have made the final payment.

...which quite effectively puts us out of the race because final payment for us is 4 weeks prior to cruise. Of course I could pay in full earlier! But not sure I'd want to do that.

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36 minutes ago, grayjay said:

...which quite effectively puts us out of the race because final payment for us is 4 weeks prior to cruise. Of course I could pay in full earlier! But not sure I'd want to do that.

You could still bid at the 4 week stage. Some people haven’t been notified about successful bids until a couple of days before the cruise.

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We are approx 60 days away from our cruise I have tried to apply for an upgrade at the moment we have an outside cabin, they are still selling Balconies, but i am getting a message to say not eligible for upgrade, does anybody know what the reasons are likely to be, we have paid in full, we are discovery plus, not that makes any difference now.

 

I did send an email to the link on the upgrade website a few weeks ago but I have not had any response.

 

thanks for any suggestions you may give .

 

Elizabeth 

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