Any Upgrade Bids Accepted Recently?

[Nathan0490]

Has anyone that is sailing on the Encore to Alaska from Seattle on 8/28 been successful in upgrading via bid?

[NorthernJoey]

8 hours ago, Daddywrbucks said:

I haven't been bidding for our upcoming cruise and not sure if I will? In my opinion this seems like an open auction where NCL is trying to make best profit they can.

I have been open for upgrading our LH airline tickets with Qatar Airways, Icelandair and Finnair. This (sometimes) new feature with NCL seems somehow dodgy to me.

 

I would personally like it to be like: a service provider sends me a price quote, and if I will pay it I will get what they offer. End of story. Any of you guys think the same way?

[Daddywrbucks]

DISCLAIMER: My responses are purely based on my experience using the real time bidding system and may or may not represent the company's intensions.

 

Can you live bid on more that one category?

You can only live bid on the category/room which is bidding as a Live Bid. You don't have any control over which category/room will bid this way. Some rooms are still bidding the traditional way.

 

What if there are 5 of the same room, are you bidding on one or is it the top 5 are winning?

No idea.  This system is just as much of a mystery as the traditional way as far as who actually gets awarded.

 

If just one room, do they start again for the other 4 rooms?

There probably isn't enough time to do each room separately, I'm thinking it's all at once.

 

Can you live bid on one category and bid the other way on other rooms.

You probably could, but not simultaneously.  The system will automatically cancel whichever bid is active and force you to start a new one.  Or at least, this was my experience..  I had my bid going on for an H6, went back to the home page and started real time bidding on an H5.  It automatically cancelled my H6 bid, which was my 1st choice. So, it forced me to cancel the H5 bid and restart the H6.

[MoCruiseFan]

7 hours ago, 2boyzmom said:

I don't like the idea of the is real time bidding at all. Too stressful and feels cheesy.

Stressful?  Having MORE jnfo is stressful than not knowing where you stand? LOL

[RumRunner2021]

41 minutes ago, NorthernJoey said:

In my opinion this seems like an open auction where NCL is trying to make best profit they can.

I don't think it is in any way "open."  With an open auction, you know exactly what (and how many) are being offered and you can see and hear all other bids.  In this latest scheme/scam, you have no idea how many rooms (if any) will actually be "sold," and you have no idea what others are bidding.

[wolft927]

8 minutes ago, RumRunner2021 said:

I don't think it is in any way "open."  With an open auction, you know exactly what (and how many) are being offered and you can see and hear all other bids.  In this latest scheme/scam, you have no idea how many rooms (if any) will actually be "sold," and you have no idea what others are bidding.

I don’t believe it’s a scam, nobody is forcing anyone to participate in any bidding processes! I for one love to bid as it usually saves me thousands to stay in the Haven 

[RumRunner2021]

2 hours ago, wolft927 said:

I don’t believe it’s a scam, nobody is forcing anyone to participate in any bidding processes! I for one love to bid as it usually saves me thousands to stay in the Haven 

Many people are willingly scammed without anybody forcing them to do anything.  Fooling people into thinking that this is an actual fair/open auction is the scam part.

[MoCruiseFan]

27 minutes ago, RumRunner2021 said:

Many people are willingly scammed without anybody forcing them to do anything.  Fooling people into thinking that this is an actual fair/open auction is the scam part.

No one is being fooled into anything.  All they are doing is providing additional information to the consumer.  In no place at all does it state that the upgrade program is any sort of auction.  Please read https://www.ncl.com/content/upgrade-advantage-terms

Will disclosure of the additional information drive people to bid more and generate additional revenue for NCL? Perhaps so, then again a publicly traded company has a fiduciary obligation to maximize share holder income.

[RumRunner2021]

27 minutes ago, MoCruiseFan said:

No one is being fooled into anything.  All they are doing is providing additional information to the consumer.  In no place at all does it state that the upgrade program is any sort of auction. 

Thanks for supporting my point.  The poster that I was responding to had been fooled into thinking it was an "open auction."  Just reread those posts and you (might) understand.

[UKstages]

it's been said many times, many ways, but NCL reserves the right to choose whatever bid it likes. as far as i know, it does not have to be the highest bid.

 

sometimes, the deciding factor may in fact be the room you're vacating, not the one you're moving up to.

 

if they can upgrade somebody to the room you're vacating, that kills two cabins with one stone. they get the upgrade revenue from you, plus upgrade revenue from putting somebody else in your cabin. this is why category upgrades from already desirable rooms are more likely to succeed, in my opinion.

 

nobody knows for sure how this works.

 

NCL reserves all rights. and they can do whatever the heck they want. and usually do.

[Bocadude85]

I placed a bid for a balcony room($175pp which was in the fair category ) for our 16 day Alaska/Hawaii cruise on10/3. I checked the prices today and saw that the balcony room was now cheaper then what we paid for our ocean view room. So I canceled our bids and got upgraded to a balcony for free. Make sure you monitor the fares..sometimes it’s cheaper to upgrade without bidding! 

[CptAleSpill]

3 minutes ago, Bocadude85 said:

I checked the prices today and saw that the balcony room was now cheaper then what we paid for our ocean view room. So I canceled our bids and got upgraded to a balcony for free.

I'm pretty sure that this makes you the first.  Congrats!!!!  🎉

[RumRunner2021]

8 minutes ago, Bocadude85 said:

I placed a bid for a balcony room($175pp which was in the fair category ) for our 16 day Alaska/Hawaii cruise on10/3. I checked the prices today and saw that the balcony room was now cheaper then what we paid for our ocean view room. So I canceled our bids and got upgraded to a balcony for free. Make sure you monitor the fares..sometimes it’s cheaper to upgrade without bidding! 

Doesn't the new room have to cost more than what you had?

[Bocadude85]

4 minutes ago, RumRunner2021 said:

Doesn't the new room have to cost more than what you had?

 
My pcc called over to the “resolution department “ and was able to have the price of the balcony room increased to be equal to my ocean view room and from there he was able to give me a complimentary upgrade. 

[nycteacher]

I was notified yesterday that I was upgraded from a balcony to a mini suite/club balcony on my Gem cruise leaving tomorrow for $75/pp.  This was the lowest bid allowed. I'm looking forward to being on the higher deck. 🙂 

[rbxlady]

14 hours ago, Bocadude85 said:

I placed a bid for a balcony room($175pp which was in the fair category ) for our 16 day Alaska/Hawaii cruise on10/3. I checked the prices today and saw that the balcony room was now cheaper then what we paid for our ocean view room. So I canceled our bids and got upgraded to a balcony for free. Make sure you monitor the fares..sometimes it’s cheaper to upgrade without bidding! 

I wrote a whole comment on this a couple of hours ago, but it didn't post… My apologies if it eventually appears and this comment is redundant!

 

Anyhow, when you pay to upgrade yourself, please triple check your cruise summary to make sure that any amenities you paid to upgrade are still there.
 

I paid to upgrade us from club balcony to the Haven because the fare dropped to about our standing bid, and cabins were dwindling. (The Haven sold out shortly thereafter, so I believe I made the right call.) However, they took the $686 I paid toward Free at Sea Plus and applied that to the upgrade, thus removing FASUP from my reservation. They did not tell me this, nor did I receive an upgraded amenity confirmation to tip me off. I happened to notice it a week later.

 

Long story short, it took a 2.5-hour phone call with NCL, mostly waiting on their “resolution team” to help resolve it.

 

Also, as a side note, my upgrade page still shows us in club balcony, and bid ranges have not changed to reflect our new cabin assignment. I could, theoretically, still have a standing bid for the suite type I already have booked. Obviously we cancelled all our bids, but if you are, say, booking interior, then pay to upgrade yourself to balcony, then are hoping to be able to bid on an upgrade to the Haven, it doesn’t look like your upgrade page is going to update and allow you to do that. I would guess that if you upgrade yourself prior to the upgrade e-mails’ going out, you can do that, but likely not after.

[wolft927]

13 minutes ago, rbxlady said:

I wrote a whole comment on this a couple of hours ago, but it didn't post… My apologies if it eventually appears and this comment is redundant!

 

Anyhow, when you pay to upgrade yourself, please triple check your cruise summary to make sure that any amenities you paid to upgrade are still there.
 

I paid to upgrade us from club balcony to the Haven because the fare dropped to about our standing bid, and cabins were dwindling. (The Haven sold out shortly thereafter, so I believe I made the right call.) However, they took the $686 I paid toward Free at Sea Plus and applied that to the upgrade, thus removing FASUP from my reservation. They did not tell me this, nor did I receive an upgraded amenity confirmation to tip me off. I happened to notice it a week later.

 

Long story short, it took a 2.5-hour phone call with NCL, mostly waiting on their “resolution team” to help resolve it.

 

Also, as a side note, my upgrade page still shows us in club balcony, and bid ranges have not changed to reflect our new cabin assignment. I could, theoretically, still have a standing bid for the suite type I already have booked. Obviously we cancelled all our bids, but if you are, say, booking interior, then pay to upgrade yourself to balcony, then are hoping to be able to bid on an upgrade to the Haven, it doesn’t look like your upgrade page is going to update and allow you to do that. I would guess that if you upgrade yourself prior to the upgrade e-mails’ going out, you can do that, but likely not after.

Give it a few days, I paid to upgrade from balcony to courtyard haven, my bids still showed me in balcony for about 3 or 4 days, then showed me in courtyard and only cabins I could upgrade to was the owners suites and 2 bedroom haven. Minimum bids also went down substantially for the owners and 2 bedroom. 

[rbxlady]

6 minutes ago, wolft927 said:

Give it a few days, I paid to upgrade from balcony to courtyard haven, my bids still showed me in balcony for about 3 or 4 days, then showed me in courtyard and only cabins I could upgrade to was the owners suites and 2 bedroom haven. Minimum bids also went down substantially for the owners and 2 bedroom. 

Oh, weird, it’s been 11 days since I paid to upgrade us, and the upgrade bidding page still shows our cabin as club balcony and allows me to bid (min $1000) to a 2BR Haven suite, which is what we upgraded to.

 

It’s fine that it hasn’t updated for me, as I have no interest in bidding now even if it did update, but perhaps other people’s upgrade pages will update like yours, and they can do what I warned against trying to do.

 

So YMMV, I guess?

Edited August 27, 2022 by rbxlady

[KrazyKs]

I’ve been bidding for upgrades for years and have never won one, even with some “good” bids. Does anyone know if all upgrade ranges are the same?  For instance if I have  balcony and I’m bidding on Haven categories, do the people already booked in Haven rooms trying to upgrade to a higher level Haven category have the same bidding range?  It would seem those already in Haven should have a lower range. 

[wolft927]

36 minutes ago, KrazyKs said:

I’ve been bidding for upgrades for years and have never won one, even with some “good” bids. Does anyone know if all upgrade ranges are the same?  For instance if I have  balcony and I’m bidding on Haven categories, do the people already booked in Haven rooms trying to upgrade to a higher level Haven category have the same bidding range?  It would seem those already in Haven should have a lower range. 

So when I was bidding from balcony to say owners suite minimum bid was 2k, now I payed to upgrade from balcony to courtyard haven and the minimum bid now for the delux owners suite is 800

[KrazyKs]

Thank you. That answers my question. 😊

[Nclgetawaymenhoney]

1 hour ago, KrazyKs said:

I’ve been bidding for upgrades for years and have never won one, even with some “good” bids. Does anyone know if all upgrade ranges are the same?  For instance if I have  balcony and I’m bidding on Haven categories, do the people already booked in Haven rooms trying to upgrade to a higher level Haven category have the same bidding range?  It would seem those already in Haven should have a lower range. 

Every sailing is different, if you sail in prime time it’s harder to upgrade, it’s also easier to upgrade from an inside to balcony, versus balcony to haven since there are so many fewer havens to go around.  Do you research do mock bookings and if it’s on a weak capacity sailing you might win.  I’m 6 for 8, only always sail off season only 2 not won were balconies to haven

[jancl57]

I received the invitation to upgrade 110 days before our December 11 cruise.  We are currently in a BF category.  Put bids on a spa balcony suite and a spa balcony. Bids are in the poor range so I highly doubt we will win the the upgrade, but its worth a shot.   I never received a confirmation email but when I go back to original email and click "lets get started" it shows my current bids.  Also, on my NCL page it doesn't show anywhere that I have bids in.

[rbxlady]

3 minutes ago, jancl57 said:

I received the invitation to upgrade 110 days before our December 11 cruise.  We are currently in a BF category.  Put bids on a spa balcony suite and a spa balcony. Bids are in the poor range so I highly doubt we will win the the upgrade, but its worth a shot.   I never received a confirmation email but when I go back to original email and click "lets get started" it shows my current bids.  Also, on my NCL page it doesn't show anywhere that I have bids in.

Cruising in October, got the upgrade e-mall in July, and there has been no indication anywhere on the NCL site for me that I had bids in.

[2boyzmom]

On 8/26/2022 at 3:28 PM, MoCruiseFan said:

Stressful?  Having MORE jnfo is stressful than not knowing where you stand? LOL

I like the idea of bidding once and forgetting about it vs. competing and watching bids every day.