Move Up Offer

[Wendylet]

I am booked on the Apex in September of this year. I just received a move up offer this morning. I am totally unfamiliar with this process so thought I would ask for some help. Currently I am booked in an Infinite Verandah cabin. They have listed all possible upgrades with amounts per person in each category? Is that the minimum bid for that classification? I assume if you offered and were accepted you would lose the location on the ship you had picked out and be subject to whatever comes up? So maybe not midship, other side of the ship? Are these offers used to fill cabins in undesirable locations? If I used a TA do I go through them to put forth an offer. Never done this before so is it worth it and how does this work? Thanks to all responses!

[Jim_Iain]

When you first open the bid it only shows the maximum bid of each category.

 

Go to each offer and click the slider bar -   It will then show you the Minimum and Maximum.   This bid is PER PERSON.   You move the slide to the amount you wish to bid on an upgrade.   You then enter your name, address and credit card details then submit.   

 

If your bid is accepted you will normally be notified between 48 hour and about 15 days before cruise and your credit card will be charged immediately.   You can then go to your reservation to see the room you are assigned.   Normally the room you are assigned is the room you will get as all rooms in the class will be filled.    Plan on the worst room and be happy if a better room.  

 

48 hours prior to sailing all rejected offers will be advised that their bid was not accepted

[Surfguyxxx]

On 6/28/2022 at 6:18 PM, Jim_Iain said:

When you first open the bid it only shows the maximum bid of each category.

 

Go to each offer and click the slider bar -   It will then show you the Minimum and Maximum.   This bid is PER PERSON.   You move the slide to the amount you wish to bid on an upgrade.   You then enter your name, address and credit card details then submit.   

 

If your bid is accepted you will normally be notified between 48 hour and about 15 days before cruise and your credit card will be charged immediately.   You can then go to your reservation to see the room you are assigned.   Normally the room you are assigned is the room you will get as all rooms in the class will be filled.    Plan on the worst room and be happy if a better room.  

 

48 hours prior to sailing all rejected offers will be advised that their bid was not accepted

Great explanation. 

 

In the 15 or so bids I've tried, I've only gotten 1 of them.  I didn't know we had won because we were on a b2b and wasn't checking emails.  Went to make dinner reservations for the next leg of the cruise and they said that's not your room number 😳.  Felt kinda stupid but ended up in a GS so can't complain 🤑Good luck  

[DCPIV]

On 6/28/2022 at 1:52 PM, Wendylet said:

I assume if you offered and were accepted you would lose the location on the ship you had picked out and be subject to whatever comes up? So maybe not midship, other side of the ship? Are these offers used to fill cabins in undesirable locations? If I used a TA do I go through them to put forth an offer.

 

What you are bidding on is, essentially, a guarantee for the category you are bidding on.  You may or may not lose your location on the ship, but you have no control over where the new cabin will be.  Yes, it could be more forward or aft, and it could be on the other side of the ship.  Yes, they use the offers to fill undesireable locations, but you may get a location you are very happy with.  I don't think you need to go through your TA, but I could be wrong about that.

 

Something else to note is that a "MoveUp" to a suite will not get you the Retreat "perks" (premium drink package, premium wifi, OBC), but you do keep what AI or other promotional perks you may have for the room you originally booked.  You do get the "amenities" of the suite class you move up to.

[abbydancer2003]

I had an interesting experience today.  I woke up this morning to an email that our move up from Concierge to Aqua was accepted.  I took a look at the room (Eclipse) and it was an A1, which is directly below the pool.  The A2s are in a better location, as the ones in the aft are below the cabins on the aft of the pool deck.  There was one available back there, two ahead of a sofa bed room, which means couch by balcony.  I called, and she was (after a while since she had to price protect us, because we had a move up to an A1) able to give us that room.

 

All well and and good, until I got home that afternoon, and realized that we'd lost 600.00 of OBC for indulge.  We still, however had the premium wifi and drinks.  Another call and 30 minutes of waiting for him to figure it out,  and it's all fixed.

 

So check your perks, as it shouldn't have happened.  

 

BTW, we did a pretty minimum bid, as getting Blu was worth something, but not a lot to me.  Did lose the embarkation lunch though.

[BarbaraB2]

Curious if you used a TA for the original cabin and were able to renegotiate the move-up cabin location directly with Celebrity? 

[wrk2cruise]

Even if you book via a TA you can use the MoveUp program without involving them.   There is at least 1 TA associated with a warehouse store which does not participate.   The MoveUp process is actually handled by a 3rd party which does upgrade bidding for many cruise lines and airlines.

 

The person above who was actually able to change a MoveUp cabin from the assigned A1 to A2 was very lucky as the T&C state that what you are assigned can't be changed so you do have to be happy with any cabin in the category you are bidding on.

[abbydancer2003]

4 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

Even if you book via a TA you can use the MoveUp program without involving them.   There is at least 1 TA associated with a warehouse store which does not participate.   The MoveUp process is actually handled by a 3rd party which does upgrade bidding for many cruise lines and airlines.

 

The person above who was actually able to change a MoveUp cabin from the assigned A1 to A2 was very lucky as the T&C state that what you are assigned can't be changed so you do have to be happy with any cabin in the category you are bidding on.

Yup,   I was very nice on the phone, and I think I acknowledged it was a favor.  They've been very nice to me on this booking in general.  The Travel Agent, who happened to be me, called.  They also previously let me reprice the booking for the 60% off sale, sort of.  We had the Elevate package on the previous sale, and were able to move to indulge for 6.00 additional.  Maybe they still felt sorry for me for having to cancel a May cruise (this is the replacement) due to the pesky red line on the test strip not going away in time.

[George C]

exactly a year ago we had a sky suite on Edge a couple of days before we sailed my move up to penthouse was accepted, costly cruise but it was fantastic. I believe move up bid was a little under 4K.

[Jim_Iain]

7 hours ago, BarbaraB2 said:

Curious if you used a TA for the original cabin and were able to renegotiate the move-up cabin location directly with Celebrity? 

I've always had bookings with an agent and once assigned theoretically you could change to another cabin in the same category.   In reality when they award the cabins all the cabins in the class are usually award at the same time so there are no cabins to choose form.    

 

If there are cabins available you could try.  

Edited July 2, 2022 by Jim_Iain

[BarbaraB2]

Thank you, Jim. I have another question for you. At the risk of having you repeat yourself, could you please describe the benefits you received when you were upgraded to the Royal Suite? I have read conflicting information about it and I know you have previously reported it but I cannot find it. 

[Jim_Iain]

43 minutes ago, BarbaraB2 said:

Thank you, Jim. I have another question for you. At the risk of having you repeat yourself, could you please describe the benefits you received when you were upgraded to the Royal Suite? I have read conflicting information about it and I know you have previously reported it but I cannot find it. 

 

You get the CC points based on your original room you booked.     A Royal Suite comes with the following amenities -  Unlimited Specialty Dining, Laundry, Bar Setup with 2 liter of premium booze.

 

You keep the perks that come with your booking -  for clarity lets assume you were in an Aqua and had the Classic Drink Package and Basic Internet.   You will still have the Classic Drink Package and Internet.   Also if you didn't have tips you still will not have tips.    All these are considered perks not amenities that come with a room.

 

Having said that recently they added something new to RS and above.   We already have High Speed Internet but for the upper suites they give you 4 connections instead of 2.    I would guess if you had the basic internet you would get 4 devices at that speed.      While not huge it allow you to be connected to 4 devises simultaneously instead of just one each. 

[BarbaraB2]

Perfect! I would be most interested in the unlimited specialty dining besides the additional space in the cabin. Now, I hope to get the opportunity to bid on it for our October cruise. 🤞

Thank you!

[talljules1]

I would love to know what algorithm they use to decide who wins.

 

On our last cruise we were in an S1 (aft corner) sky suite. We bid the maximum for a Royal and didn't get it, and we bid early.  However, we know someone won who had bid from a non-suite class room and didn't bid the max. So we think overall we would have paid more had we won.  Fair play to them.  

 

It doesn't *seem* to be about maximising revenue.  I don't think Captain's club tier or number of future cruises booked make any difference either.  Maybe it is just a lottery.

 

Have just bid the bare minimum for a RS for our next cruise (in 8 days time) - don't expect to win that either.  We have bids in for RS and CS for our Iceland cruise. Not holding breath.

 

I think the answer, ultimately, has to be: book the room you will be happy in. If you get the upgrade, bonus!  We were happy in our aft corner SS on our last cruise, will be happy in our SS on Beyond, and will be happy in our aft corner SS on our Iceland cruise if that's what we land in.

 

We were spoiled by our RS last year (which we booked as a RS) and the 'come down' to a SS was a bit hard but we rapidly adjusted and had a great time. The unlimited specialty dining with RS+ is amazing. The extra room is wonderful. We have booked a RS for our xmas/NY cruise for 2023/24.

[emmas gran]

7 minutes ago, talljules1 said:

I would love to know what algorithm they use to decide who wins.

 

On our last cruise we were in an S1 (aft corner) sky suite. We bid the maximum for a Royal and didn't get it, and we bid early.  However, we know someone won who had bid from a non-suite class room and didn't bid the max. So we think overall we would have paid more had we won.  Fair play to them.  

 

It doesn't *seem* to be about maximising revenue.  I don't think Captain's club tier or number of future cruises booked make any difference either.  Maybe it is just a lottery.

 

Have just bid the bare minimum for a RS for our next cruise (in 8 days time) - don't expect to win that either.  We have bids in for RS and CS for our Iceland cruise. Not holding breath.

 

I think the answer, ultimately, has to be: book the room you will be happy in. If you get the upgrade, bonus!  We were happy in our aft corner SS on our last cruise, will be happy in our SS on Beyond, and will be happy in our aft corner SS on our Iceland cruise if that's what we land in.

 

We were spoiled by our RS last year (which we booked as a RS) and the 'come down' to a SS was a bit hard but we rapidly adjusted and had a great time. The unlimited specialty dining with RS+ is amazing. The extra room is wonderful. We have booked a RS for our xmas/NY cruise for 2023/24.

Our friends bid pre cruise Move Up to go from CS to RS and didn’t get it on Sil last September. When they boarded they enquired and got RS for less than their bid, went to Guest Services and told they would know within the hour, they got the full suite treatment.

[talljules1]

2 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

Our friends bid pre cruise Move Up to go from CS to RS and didn’t get it on Sil last September. When they boarded they enquired and got RS for less than their bid, went to Guest Services and told they would know within the hour, they got the full suite treatment.

we tried that on our last cruise - heard late in the day before embarkation that there was a RS free. We were one of the first to board and went straight to guest relations on boarding, but were still out of luck. (We had also contacted our TA the evening before.)  So we still don't know how they decide.  We suspect/wonder if it might depend on whether you booked direct with Celebrity or not (we think that those who were successful had booked direct, but are not certain). It is a shame it is so opaque. We thought having made a max bid early we had a good chance.  We could have done no more.  It is a little galling in such circumstance not to be, and to have had others prioritised over us. Still delighted for those who did get it.

[jagoffee]

1 hour ago, talljules1 said:

I would love to know what algorithm they use to decide who wins.

 

On our last cruise we were in an S1 (aft corner) sky suite. We bid the maximum for a Royal and didn't get it, and we bid early.  However, we know someone won who had bid from a non-suite class room and didn't bid the max. So we think overall we would have paid more had we won.  Fair play to them.  

 

It doesn't *seem* to be about maximising revenue.  I don't think Captain's club tier or number of future cruises booked make any difference either.  Maybe it is just a lottery.

 

Have just bid the bare minimum for a RS for our next cruise (in 8 days time) - don't expect to win that either.  We have bids in for RS and CS for our Iceland cruise. Not holding breath.

 

I think the answer, ultimately, has to be: book the room you will be happy in. If you get the upgrade, bonus!  We were happy in our aft corner SS on our last cruise, will be happy in our SS on Beyond, and will be happy in our aft corner SS on our Iceland cruise if that's what we land in.

 

We were spoiled by our RS last year (which we booked as a RS) and the 'come down' to a SS was a bit hard but we rapidly adjusted and had a great time. The unlimited specialty dining with RS+ is amazing. The extra room is wonderful. We have booked a RS for our xmas/NY cruise for 2023/24.

 

1 hour ago, talljules1 said:

we tried that on our last cruise - heard late in the day before embarkation that there was a RS free. We were one of the first to board and went straight to guest relations on boarding, but were still out of luck. (We had also contacted our TA the evening before.)  So we still don't know how they decide.  We suspect/wonder if it might depend on whether you booked direct with Celebrity or not (we think that those who were successful had booked direct, but are not certain). It is a shame it is so opaque. We thought having made a max bid early we had a good chance.  We could have done no more.  It is a little galling in such circumstance not to be, and to have had others prioritised over us. Still delighted for those who did get it.

Your experience is puzzling to me.  From a Celebrity(3rd party management company), it is not logical.

1.  Is it possible that the maximum bid amount was increased at some point after you bid?  Did you recheck it occasionally?  You bid the absolute maximum for the RS upgrade?

2.  Was the person you know who bid the absolute maximum from a lower category on the same cruise as you?  They won their bid?  They did not just pay to upgrade? 
3.  Did you pay for your S1 or was it some kind of free upgrade or special?

4.  I would hope that a direct booking vs TA booking would not be a factor, but I do know that Celebrity pays the TA an additional amount of commission if you win a bid.  So I guess it is possible. Although the move up bidding thread does not seem to indicate that it matters. 

5.  Obviously you trust that the person who won the bid from a non suite cabin or you would not be reporting it.

 

I am perplexed, but I would never bid the absolute maximum anyway.  I agree that the R.S. Overall experience is wonderful.  
 

Good luck.  
 

P.S.  I am a little surprised that the price you paid for your S1 plus the absolute maximum bid was less that what you could have paid to just upgrade.  Do you mind sharing the bid amount?  Two people in the cabin, correct?

[talljules1]

1 minute ago, jagoffee said:

 

Your experience is puzzling to me.  From a Celebrity(3rd party management company), it is not logical.

1.  Is it possible that the maximum bid amount was increased at some point after you bid?  Did you recheck it occasionally?  You bid the absolute maximum for the RS upgrade?

2.  Was the person you know who bid the absolute maximum from a lower category on the same cruise as you?  They won their bid?  They did not just pay to upgrade? 
3.  Did you pay for your S1 or was it some kind of free upgrade or special?

4.  I would hope that a direct booking vs TA booking would not be a factor, but I do know that Celebrity pays the TA an additional amount of commission if you win a bid.  So I guess it is possible. Although the move up bidding thread does not seem to indicate that it matters. 

5.  Obviously you trust that the person who won the bid from a non suite cabin or you would not be reporting it.

 

I am perplexed, but I would never bid the absolute maximum anyway.  I agree that the R.S. Overall experience is wonderful.  
 

Good luck.  
 

P.S.  I am a little surprised that the price you paid for your S1 plus the absolute maximum bid was less that what you could have paid to just upgrade.  Do you mind sharing the bid amount?  Two people in the cabin, correct?

We were perplexed too and it did not make sense to us either:

 

1. I checked frequently after bidding. My max bid, which was >$1100 pp remained the max bid.

 

2. They were on the same cruise and won a bid.

 

3. We paid for our S1 at the time of booking (it was not itself an upgrade)

 

4. We would hope so too.

 

5. Indeed.

 

The cost of the actual booking plus the max move up bid was still less than the cost of booking the RS at the time of booking (by about $2-3000 for the two of us - which is why we thought it was worth putting in the max bid).  As I recall, the booking fare for the S1 was just under £6000 for the two of us for a 7 night cruise. We bid the max for the move up (just over $1100 pp). At the time of making the move up bid, a RS booked as a new booking would have been several thousand £ more. We had to conclude that however they do it, it is not that the people who have overall paid the most win.

 

Our experience was puzzling to us as well.

[jagoffee]

2 minutes ago, talljules1 said:

We were perplexed too and it did not make sense to us either:

 

1. I checked frequently after bidding. My max bid, which was >$1100 pp remained the max bid.

 

2. They were on the same cruise and won a bid.

 

3. We paid for our S1 at the time of booking (it was not itself an upgrade)

 

4. We would hope so too.

 

5. Indeed.

 

The cost of the actual booking plus the max move up bid was still less than the cost of booking the RS at the time of booking (by about $2-3000 for the two of us - which is why we thought it was worth putting in the max bid).  As I recall, the booking fare for the S1 was just under £6000 for the two of us for a 7 night cruise. We bid the max for the move up (just over $1100 pp). At the time of making the move up bid, a RS booked as a new booking would have been several thousand £ more. We had to conclude that however they do it, it is not that the people who have overall paid the most win.

 

Our experience was puzzling to us as well.

Thank you for the additional information.  
One of life’s mysteries.

[C4HCG]

11 minutes ago, talljules1 said:

We were perplexed too and it did not make sense to us either:

 

1. I checked frequently after bidding. My max bid, which was >$1100 pp remained the max bid.

Blimey - you could buy a house in South Yorkshire for that 😂

[talljules1]

2 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

Blimey - you could buy a house in South Yorkshire for that 😂

I know.

 

Our takeaway learning points are/were:

 

1. Book the room you want (we did - and we did enjoy the aft corner SS. But yes, it is a come down from a RS). Don't rely on move up to get the room you want.

 

2. For us (it may be different for you!), our price point for a RS is £1000 per day for the two of us (so, 500pp). With our max upgrade, we would have hit this.  That's what we're paying for a RS on our Infinity cruise in Dec 2023.

 

3. No idea at all how they decide who they decide have the winning move up bids. If anyone does know, we'd love to hear from you!

 

4. The RS is amazing (both the extra room, the in room amenities and the all included specialty dining). Definitely do if you can, but beware that anything less is a real come down!!  We're doing all our cruises this year in SS and love the sweet suite life.  We haven't done a CS.  We decided we'd rather do 3 cruises in SS rather than 1-2 in RS this year.  (Of course, we could have done 6 in a concierge class room for that, but now I think we would miss the retreat)

 

 

[A Sixth?]

A question that probably has been answered 

 

if you go from say an interior to an Aqua Class do you get the extra points 

[abbydancer2003]

4 minutes ago, A Sixth? said:

A question that probably has been answered 

 

if you go from say an interior to an Aqua Class do you get the extra points 

Nope.

[Surfguyxxx]

21 minutes ago, A Sixth? said:

A question that probably has been answered 

 

if you go from say an interior to an Aqua Class do you get the extra points 

You'd only get the points you had the original booking with before the upgrade.  

[george_sf]

With regards to who gets the upgrade / maximizing profits.... it doesn't just matter what someone offers for a move up. It also matters what was offered on the now free room. And so forth down the chain.

 

This is handled by a third party. I was also told (last July) that the cruise line provides other inputs such as leaving a certain percentage of a class of rooms empty. Probably due to the pandemic (crowds in restaurants, staffing...) . So even if rooms are available, they would not take all of the move up offers. This is probably changing if not already changed by now. When I asked if CC status or what was originally paid mattered, I was told "no." It just maximizes the bottom line extra $. (That was before the recent Captain's Club bonus announcement.)