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Upgrade bid experiences


Grandma Cruising
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3 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

If it's mainly the option to take or reject a winning bid, then maybe they will tweak it upon suggestion.  That seems reasonable.  I thought the larger objection was that newer passengers or passengers with high volume travel agents were getting the opportunities.  

I was advised this was not under consideration despite the suggestion

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1 hour ago, Tom47 said:

Plus 1

 

3 hours ago, uktog said:

 

Re point 2 compared to other cruise lines past cruisers get pretty poor perks the upgrade was the only good one. 

 

If you stay within the RCI family of cruise lines, I don't think any are particularly generous when it comes to loyalty perks.

 

 

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I am elite plus/discoverer plus.  I never got the email from Azamara with info on the change to bidding nor did I get the invitation to bid. My TA was told that Invitations to bid were sent out by email 60 days before the cruise. That never happened. Loyalty seems to be forgotten by Azamara. Never did get an email about the bidding.  Took the cruise, had a good time, and after returning home got an email from LCV asking about my cruise.  I wrote back and got a response stating that they were very interested in my comments. It stated that they would review my concerns.  That was 2 weeks ago.  Still waiting for a response addressing my concerns.........

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16 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

I am elite plus/discoverer plus.  I never got the email from Azamara with info on the change to bidding nor did I get the invitation to bid. My TA was told that Invitations to bid were sent out by email 60 days before the cruise. That never happened. Loyalty seems to be forgotten by Azamara. Never did get an email about the bidding.  Took the cruise, had a good time, and after returning home got an email from LCV asking about my cruise.  I wrote back and got a response stating that they were very interested in my comments. It stated that they would review my concerns.  That was 2 weeks ago.  Still waiting for a response addressing my concerns.........

Our cruise is in two weeks time, but our experience mirrors yours, I didn’t know when we booked a guarantee cabin that we wouldn’t have the option of the $399 upgrade, then I was hoping  be able to bid for an upgrade but that wasn’t offered to us either, I also suspect now that when you book guarantee cabins they are the worst available at least that has been my experience for my first booking under the new system. 

 

After having to cancel our last Azamara cruise, due to ill health we are still determined to enjoy every minute of our next one 😀

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12 minutes ago, Jem 12 said:

Our cruise is in two weeks time, but our experience mirrors yours, I didn’t know when we booked a guarantee cabin that we wouldn’t have the option of the $399 upgrade, then I was hoping  be able to bid for an upgrade but that wasn’t offered to us either, I also suspect now that when you book guarantee cabins they are the worst available at least that has been my experience for my first booking under the new system. 

 

After having to cancel our last Azamara cruise, due to ill health we are still determined to enjoy every minute of our next one 😀

Gty cabins can be good. I have booked them on other lines and have never been in a bad location. I only book gty if there is significant savings.  Regardless of where your cabin is located, you will have a good time. At first, I was somewhat disappointed that we were in a standard veranda with the small bathroom. The price for a suite was too high. After unpacking and finding lots of storage for my stuff, I  enjoyed the cozy cabin. By the end of the cruise, my spouse and I agreed that we would book that size cabin again. We booked a similar cabin on Oceania. Have a great cruise.

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37 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

Gty cabins can be good. I have booked them on other lines and have never been in a bad location. I only book gty if there is significant savings.  Regardless of where your cabin is located, you will have a good time. At first, I was somewhat disappointed that we were in a standard veranda with the small bathroom. The price for a suite was too high. After unpacking and finding lots of storage for my stuff, I  enjoyed the cozy cabin. By the end of the cruise, my spouse and I agreed that we would book that size cabin again. We booked a similar cabin on Oceania. Have a great cruise.

Thank you, we never really book anything more than a balcony, we spend very little time in our cabin, but breakfast on the balcony is rather nice, but I will think long and hard before booking a guarantee in future. 

Enjoy Oceania, we haven’t tried them yet. 😀

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You have a choice, book a guarantee and save money or book a cabin that you like and pay more. Frankly, I think it would be fair to give the pax who booked the higher fare priority in the bidding process. Why should last minute bookers at bargain rates  or persons who booked a guarantee get an additional financial  advantage over other pax who paid much earlier at higher fares.

Edited by dabear
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As I understand it guarantee cabins are not included in the upgrade bidding process.

We only booked a guarantee once, on HAL. It was a guarantee Verandah and we got a De Luxe Verandah which gave us some benefits such as the use of a very nice lounge just for those in a De Luxe Verandah, which served a nice continental breakfast, nice coffee with cakes & biscuits, afternoon tea and canapés. We were very happy with that.

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18 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

As I understand it guarantee cabins are not included in the upgrade bidding process.

We only booked a guarantee once, on HAL. It was a guarantee Verandah and we got a De Luxe Verandah which gave us some benefits such as the use of a very nice lounge just for those in a De Luxe Verandah, which served a nice continental breakfast, nice coffee with cakes & biscuits, afternoon tea and canapés. We were very happy with that.

 

I did have a conversation with somebody from the CEO’s office, she did say we couldn’t get an upgrade offer as we booked under a special fare, we booked through Azamara Uk on an advertised fare she didn’t mention a guarantee fare being the reason.  I have been unable to find this in writing, if anyone has I would love sight of it. Perhaps Bonnie could help? 

 

Interestingly we are going on a Celebrity cruise in October on a guarantee basis we have just been offered an upgrade for a fee??? 

If I had spent a lot of time choosing a cabin and location I for one would be reluctant to go into a potluck upgrade programme. 

 

I’m sure we will book guarantee cabins in the future, financially they make more sense to us, but we will have no expectation of getting anything better than the worse cabin in the grade on Azamara in future. 

 

We wish everyone else the very best of luck with their upgrades though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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These are the terms and conditions.  A guarantee is not a full fare or general market place promotion.  The current terms and conditions have not been updated to reflect the new name of the programme so on a technicality you could argue you should be able to bid.  

 

To be eligible, the following requirements must be met:

Booking must be after final payment and made under full fare or general marketplace promotions only.

*Please note that in order to receive an email invitation from us and make an offer on a stateroom upgrade, you must be on our mailing list. To opt-in to receive emails you can sign up on our website or within My Account.

Only guests who are named on an eligible booking for a selected sailing may participate in the Programme.

Invitations to guests to make an offer for an upgrade, and acceptance by Azamara of offers or allocation of upgraded accommodation shall be at Azamara’ sole discretion, and Azamara does not warrant or imply that every booked guest will receive an invitation to upgrade, or that any offer for an upgrade by an eligible guest will be accepted by Azamara.

 

1.8 What is a ‘Guarantee’ (GTY) booking?

We may (at our discretion) offer you the option of making a Guarantee (GTY) booking. This means you may book a guaranteed minimum category type, on your chosen sailing. However, the exact location of the stateroom on the ship will be allocated by us (at our discretion) and at any time up until 48 hours before............

Note: GTY is not eligible for our Le Club Voyage Upgrade Programme.

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We are booked into an Oceanview room on Pursuit in October and were invited to bid for an upgrade, but only to a balcony room. There was no opportunity to bid for a suite although there are quite a few still on sale. Does anyone know if there might be the opportunity to bid for a suite at a later date if they are not sold?

Lynne🤔

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1 hour ago, Literary Lynne said:

We are booked into an Oceanview room on Pursuit in October and were invited to bid for an upgrade, but only to a balcony room. There was no opportunity to bid for a suite although there are quite a few still on sale. Does anyone know if there might be the opportunity to bid for a suite at a later date if they are not sold?

Lynne🤔

 

In looking at the upgrade chart, it appears that you can only bid on the next grade up, not 2 grades up. Thus, an OV can only bid on a veranda, not a suite.

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1 hour ago, uktog said:

And here is the link from the launchpost that said guarantees were not included. 

 

1 hour ago, uktog said:

 

Thank you uktog for taking the time to post the detail above. 

 

So looking forward to our cruise in our booked guarantee room. 😀😀

 

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Enjoy Jem 12 - we always book the category we will be happy in - saves anguish and we know on board we only sleep and shower in the room, we are out enjoying ourselves all the rest of the time

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20 minutes ago, uktog said:

Enjoy Jem 12 - we always book the category we will be happy in - saves anguish and we know on board we only sleep and shower in the room, we are out enjoying ourselves all the rest of the time

Thank you uktog, we will, so glad to be sailing from Southampton on this cruise, otherwise I would be worrying about air strikes, IT issues etc. 

 

Jean 

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1 minute ago, Jem 12 said:

Thank you uktog, we will, so glad to be sailing from Southampton on this cruise, otherwise I would be worrying about air strikes, IT issues etc. 

 

Jean 

The LHR strike is off they are back to ballot, we join in Lisbon so just need to get a few more days along to clear and BALPA issues as we have both legs out booked on BA.  Sounds hopeful as the pilots and BA are back at ACAS.

 

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1 hour ago, dabear said:

 

In looking at the upgrade chart, it appears that you can only bid on the next grade up, not 2 grades up. Thus, an OV can only bid on a veranda, not a suite.

Thank you dabear - We are very happy to stay in our Oceanview room then. No point in upgrading to a balcony in mid October in the Med. A suite, for the extra room, perks etc might have been worth it.

Lynne 😀

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24 minutes ago, boco010 said:

We booked a guarantee inside and we can bid for an upgrade outside and balcony.......

If your post is correct, it makes my blood boil, I love the onboard experience but everything before stinks, I make all the bookings, I’m the lead person on our bookings and yet I receive emails on my email account addressed to my husband, I have cruised with my sister on Azamara I also get emails addressed to her. 

 

I have tried to book cruises with Azamara Uk, requested quotes for back to back received nothing, requested call backs nothing, a complete lack of information about changes to upgrade system and loss of perk to loyal members. 

 

I have been been wanting to book another cruise with Azamara for later this year, but I have now decided to wait until I have been on our next cruise, in case the onboard experience is as bad as the service before.

 

Good luck with your bids boco010, you must be on a winning streak as you at least managed to get an offer. 😀

 

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11 minutes ago, Jem 12 said:

If your post is correct, it makes my blood boil, I love the onboard experience but everything before stinks, I make all the bookings, I’m the lead person on our bookings and yet I receive emails on my email account addressed to my husband, I have cruised with my sister on Azamara I also get emails addressed to her. 

 

I have tried to book cruises with Azamara Uk, requested quotes for back to back received nothing, requested call backs nothing, a complete lack of information about changes to upgrade system and loss of perk to loyal members. 

 

I have been been wanting to book another cruise with Azamara for later this year, but I have now decided to wait until I have been on our next cruise, in case the onboard experience is as bad as the service before.

 

Good luck with your bids boco010, you must be on a winning streak as you at least managed to get an offer. 😀

 

Not bidding, from $200 pp for outside and $1200 pp for balcony. Dit not receive an email but went to the Azamara site and just tried

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2 hours ago, uktog said:

Enjoy Jem 12 - we always book the category we will be happy in - saves anguish and we know on board we only sleep and shower in the room, we are out enjoying ourselves all the rest of the time

That's exactly what we do....a suite on most cruises, sometimes a balcony ...and even an ocean view for Suez a couple of times (opening balcony doors not recommemded).but always a stateroom that we will enjoy. Over the years, we have had some  benefit from the old upgrade system, but on our most recent cruise we were not eligible??????

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6 minutes ago, Lookyboy said:

That's exactly what we do....a suite on most cruises, sometimes a balcony ...and even an ocean view for Suez a couple of times (opening balcony doors not recommemded).but always a stateroom that we will enjoy. Over the years, we have had some  benefit from the old upgrade system, but on our most recent cruise we were not eligible??????

I keep trying to convince myself that we haven’t been offered an upgrade offer because we got such a fabulous deal in the first place.😀

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1 hour ago, Jem 12 said:

I keep trying to convince myself that we haven’t been offered an upgrade offer because we got such a fabulous deal in the first place.😀

That is probably the case. Agencies that offer deep discounts don't opt into the program. Also GTY bookings (guarantees) are not eligible for the program.

For whatever reason, I hope you are happy with your stateroom and looking forward to your cruise Jem12!

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1 minute ago, BBMacLaird said:

That is probably the case. Agencies that offer deep discounts don't opt into the program. Also GTY bookings (guarantees) are not eligible for the program.

For whatever reason, I hope you are happy with your stateroom and looking forward to your cruise Jem12!


Bonnie, then how did Boco010, with an inside guarantee, have the ability to bid on an oceanview and a balcony cabin, if a) guarantees are not eligible and b) you can supposedly only bid on the cabin category one level above your booked category?

Although Boco010 did say he/she didn't plan to bid, so maybe if a bid was placed, it might have been rejected based on the guarantee cabin?

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