Strange Upsell Offer - Mariner 15 Oct

[mrlevin]

Received Regent offer via my TA for upsell to SS, Horizon, or Penthouse suites.  The curious thing was that the offer was exactly the same as the current difference in cost between my current Cat G and each of the larger suites; i.e., absolutely zero cost saving over me just changing cabins via my TA (and TA getting additional commission and me getting additional rebate).

 

This is really strange; all upsell offers in the past had been discounted from what it would have cost for me to upgrade on my own.  Have others experienced this?  Is this a new way of doing business?

 

thanks,

 

Marc

[gnomie1]

We have also experienced this and on one cruise we had booked during a promotional period so the upsell would have cost more than if we had booked that level of suite initially.

 

Maybe they think people will not look at the original prices and jump on the chance of an upsell.

 

We are always curious about upsells because in approaching 400 nights, never received a "real" upsell offer, while others seem to get them all the time - and yes, we have one of Regent's top performing TA's.

 

gnomie

[Gcto]

as they say: YMMV  or in this case...theirs.... :-)

We have taken advantage of the up-sales a few times, but only when it made sense to us. 

 

[Hambagahle]

 We tend to stay with what we have booked OR set a mental limit to pay for an upsell.  In fact we once made a couple of counter-offers on a cruise when offered an upsell but the cruise line (in this case Oceania) didn't budge so neither did we!

[DeepFreeze63]

Marc:

We received an up-sell offer yesterday for our 9/23 Explorer cruise - "SAVE more than 40% on a SUITE UPGRADE". The $2599 p.p. would be more than 40% of the PRESENT price differential between our E Concierge cabin and an A Penthouse but only about 30% for a C. The offer was apparently being made to only Concierge and Superior (F?) suite holders. We didn't even respond as we love our F-type layout.

The odd thing to me is that the Penthouses on this cruise have been listed as "Wait List" for months!

This Thread reminded me of the considerations that I should make before accepting an up-sell. We have taken 2 up-sells in the past without a lot of thought - a G to a B on Voyager and a F2 to an Explorer on the Explorer.

Best,

Jim C

[wripro]

No surprise from a cruise line that still show brochure prices on its website and catalogues. The reason is simple....out there there must still be people who fall for this kind of stuff.

[blacksmith]

We are on this cruise and received an up-sell offer just as mrlevin has described. After doing the math I called our TA and asked her if she and Regent were nuts. She said she needed to contact Regent to see what was going on. She called me the following day and let’s just say the explanation was weak. I told her to identify future up-sell offers as either bargains or just “opportunities “.

We have taken advantage of many up-sells over the years (mostly with Oceania and some with Regent) and generally speaking they are significant discounts from their brochure prices.

 I would like to have been a fly on the wall when Regent was putting this offer together .

[UUNetBill]

1 hour ago, blacksmith said:

I would like to have been a fly on the wall when Regent was putting this offer together .

Bet it went something like this:

 

”Well, time to start buying the artwork for Splendor.”

”Man, those are some expensive pieces.”

”Yeah, after that TV special about how expensive everything was on Explorer we needed to up the game.”

”True dat.  But still...expensive.”

”Any ideas how we can raise some extra cash?”

”Maybe a Kickstarter?  Go fund me?  Bake sale?”

”No, no, and hell no.  Any other ideas?”

”How about if we offer upsells to current passengers...but we make the upsell more expensive than if they’d just booked the higher cabin in the first place?”

”What the hell, let’s throw it out there and see if it sticks...”

”Glad that’s take care of.  More Clicquot?”

Edited September 23, 2019 by UUNetBill
Autocorrect

[blacksmith]

Brilliant 👏

[Travelcat2]

17 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

Bet it went something like this:

 

”Well, time to start buying the artwork for Splendor.”

”Man, those are some expensive pieces.”

”Yeah, after that TV special about how expensive everything was on Explorer we needed to up the game.”

”True dat.  But still...expensive.”

”Any ideas how we can raise some extra cash?”

”Maybe a Kickstarter?  Go fund me?  Bake sale?”

”No, no, and hell no.  Any other ideas?”

”How about if we offer upsells to current passengers...but we make the upsell more expensive than if they’d just booked the higher cabin in the first place?”

”What the hell, let’s throw it out there and see if it sticks...”

”Glad that’s take care of.  More Clicquot?”

 

That was absolutely brilliant!

[JMARINER]

From what I have heard your voyage is fairly empty.  You will probably get a much better offer in a few days.

 

J

 

[flossie009]

This recent CC article is of relevance to this topic: Cruise Cabin Upgrades