Upgrade Bidding System

[wowzz]

I see that Princess are introducing a bidding process whereby you can try and obtain a higher grade of cabin by bidding once the final payment date has passed. Some other cruise lines already operate a similar system.

What are the odds that P&O will follow suit in due course ?

[arlowood]

Having briefly read the new Princess Upgrade Bidding system it does not seem to clarify whether you will be able to bid for an upgrade to a specific cabin or just to a higher grade of cabin in an area where these are located.

 

I know that some pax with P&O have fallen foul of the free upgrade system. At the time of booking , if you select that you are open to an upgrade then if you are offered an upgrade, you cannot refuse it and you may end up in a nominally better cabin but in a much worse location on the ship. I was advised not to tick the upgrade box when booking to avoid that issue.

 

If you are bidding and paying hard cash to upgrade then I would hope that you can at least pick which upgraded cabin you are moving to.

[wowzz]

Just now, arlowood said:

Having briefly read the new Princess Upgrade Bidding system it does not seem to clarify whether you will be able to bid for an upgrade to a specific cabin or just to a higher grade of cabin in an area where these are located.

 

I know that some pax with P&O have fallen foul of the free upgrade system. At the time of booking , if you select that you are open to an upgrade then if you are offered an upgrade, you cannot refuse it and you may end up in a nominally better cabin but in a much worse location on the ship. I was advised not to tick the upgrade box when booking to avoid that issue.

 

If you are bidding and paying hard cash to upgrade then I would hope that you can at least pick which upgraded cabin you are moving to.

It very much looks like you can only bid for an upgrade category, not a specific cabin, which would make the system a no no for soneone like me who books a specific cabin.

[gsmt47471015]

32 minutes ago, wowzz said:

It very much looks like you can only bid for an upgrade category, not a specific cabin, which would make the system a no no for soneone like me who books a specific cabin.

Sounds like a lottery to me If you are bidding on just a general upgrade , could this be the next evolution to fluid pricing?

[pete14]

It seems as though if this takes off, the days of free upgrades for those who opt to take the chance will be severely diminished. Selling something that once was free is a a good way of increasing profits with few objections in this instance.

[Megabear2]

41 minutes ago, wowzz said:

It very much looks like you can only bid for an upgrade category, not a specific cabin, which would make the system a no no for soneone like me who books a specific cabin.

Celebrity and RCI offer this and it is to a grade not a cabin.  You also have to be careful not to lose any other benefits attached to your original booking, loss of drinks packages, wifi etc often occur.

 

The system is very popular in the US and assumedly Princess are introducing it for that reason.  

 

I'm not sure P&O would be able to sell the idea to the UK market. Who, for instance, would bid on a deluxe or conservatory suite on deck 8 of Iona or Arvia?

[Eglesbrech]

We have used it on Celebrity and family on RCI.

 

Whether it is worthwhile depends on the grade you are bidding for and what the worst possible cabin allocation is within it. If there are none you wouldn’t take then it can be worthwhile.

 

Once the bid is in they can accept it immediately or it can sit there for weeks. Once a new cabin is allocated that’s that, no going back.

 

If it’s successful on Princess then I can see P&O adopting it.

 

I read an article indicating that lower price inside and window cabins (and at the other end suites) are selling our the fastest. That’s leaves a lot of more expensive balconies in the middle which could generate income - but probably not the most choice ones.

 

You also don’t also get the perks or additional loyalty points for the higher grades on a bid.

 

 

[Ranchi]

I’m developing an app called either ‘Berthfrog’, ‘Cabinfrog’ or ‘Stateroomfrog’ as we speak. Which do you think sounds best?  I’m hoping to earn enough to be able to afford a drinks package. 😉

[david63]

Whilst I can appreciate that a bidding system might generate more income why not just offer an upgrade for a nominal fee of, say, £100 pppw? That I am sure would generate more income - certainly in the UK market

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

I see that Princess are introducing a bidding process whereby you can try and obtain a higher grade of cabin by bidding once the final payment date has passed. Some other cruise lines already operate a similar system.

What are the odds that P&O will follow suit in due course ?

Glad I won't need to bother, our accessible standard balcony cabin is perfectly acceptable to us, and we don't really need a de-luxe one, even if one was still available.

[Bazrat]

48 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Celebrity and RCI offer this and it is to a grade not a cabin.  You also have to be careful not to lose any other benefits attached to your original booking, loss of drinks packages, wifi etc often occur.

 

The system is very popular in the US and assumedly Princess are introducing it for that reason.  

 

I'm not sure P&O would be able to sell the idea to the UK market. Who, for instance, would bid on a deluxe or conservatory suite on deck 8 of Iona or Arvia?

There a lot of people on another site who have stayed in those cabins on deck 8, they claimed to have enjoyed the experience, but each there own.

[Megabear2]

8 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

There a lot of people on another site who have stayed in those cabins on deck 8, they claimed to have enjoyed the experience, but each there own.

Each to their own!  I notice if you look at Saver fares for Iona the areas open are all forward, I wonder why???

 

Being allocated a deck 8 is one thing, actually bidding to pay a premium for the experience is surely another.

Edited August 19, 2022 by Megabear2

[majortom10]

They are introducing it for one very good reason -money. They will get money for upgrades instead of giving them away and why put a fixed nominal price on a upgrade if there is a chance somebody might pay more.

[Bazrat]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

Each to their own!  I notice if you look at Saver fares for Iona the areas open are all forward, I wonder why???

 

Being allocated a deck 8 is one thing, actually bidding to pay a premium for the experience is surely another.

Really depends what you are looking for in accommodation, if my memory serves me correct Iona is part of a group of ships ordered by carnival, if the design was bad I would have thought they would not have continued with the design.

[davecttr]

2 hours ago, Bazrat said:

Really depends what you are looking for in accommodation, if my memory serves me correct Iona is part of a group of ships ordered by carnival, if the design was bad I would have thought they would not have continued with the design.

If you check the deck plans of the ships of Iona's class & sub classes you will see they don't all have the same deck 8 'dodgy' cabin arrangements. Aida's pair have balcony cabins forward on deck 8, no prom deck here. There are 10 conservatory suites aft that are overlooked. Costa's pair have 12 overlooked cabins aft and forward is crew accommodation. Carnival's and P&O's quartet have the dreaded forward overlooked cabins.

 

This confirms P&O is aiming at the pack em in market.

[Windsurfboy]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to book a guarantee in the higher level cabin than a select price and then bid to upgrade.

 

It might make sense to bid to upgrade from a guarantee if this is less than price difference between grades for guarantee cabins. If they let you bid if you've bought guarantee. 

 

 

No sense to pay money to turn a select into guarantee, no sense even if free which is why we always select cabin and tick no upgrade. 

[Eglesbrech]

4 hours ago, majortom10 said:

They are introducing it for one very good reason -money. They will get money for upgrades instead of giving them away and why put a fixed nominal price on a upgrade if there is a chance somebody might pay more.

People sometimes pay more than they would have it they called and did an upgrade the old fashioned way (or booked that grade in the first place). They get carried away or don’t notice the cost is per person or move the dial too far.

 

Others don’t do their homework and book a cabin they regret and use this as a way of moving.

 

Your point is well made about the bidding system making more. If you offer a fixed upgrade that’s all you get. If you end up moving several people upwards in a bid chain you will make more. 
 

I don’t see anything wrong with it. No one has to participate and in these tough times it could help the company’s bottom line.

 

How many people did the Upgrade Fairy ever really visit with a “proper”upgrade anyway.

 

 

[Bazrat]

20 minutes ago, davecttr said:

If you check the deck plans of the ships of Iona's class & sub classes you will see they don't all have the same deck 8 'dodgy' cabin arrangements. Aida's pair have balcony cabins forward on deck 8, no prom deck here. There are 10 conservatory suites aft that are overlooked. Costa's pair have 12 overlooked cabins aft and forward is crew accommodation. Carnival's and P&O's quartet have the dreaded forward overlooked cabins.

 

This confirms P&O is aiming at the pack em in market.

If it keeps p&o afloat no pun intended than that's not a problem, it is always your choice if you sail with them or not

[tring]

We bid for an upgrade from an outside to a balcony cabin on Azamara about four years ago for a one week med based cruise, (we had booked our own flights and pre/ post hotels in Barcelona/Rome).

 

We were allowed to bid a minimum of £160pp and we went for £170pp.  We were successful and got a cabin which was in the front section, but not too near the pointy end.  That price difference was very good for the cruise concerned, (being Azamara) and we had an excellent offer price on our original cabin, which was a mid ship outside, (that was the only outside cabin available to book three months before the cruise,).  For a one week cruise in the Med, it was well worth taking the chance, and indeed we did very well. However if we had been going across the Bay of Biscay, it would not have been worth to the risk IMO.  Another risk was a balcony over the show lounge, which would have had noise from there, but we felt could have coped with that.

 

[grapau27]

12 hours ago, wowzz said:

I see that Princess are introducing a bidding process whereby you can try and obtain a higher grade of cabin by bidding once the final payment date has passed. Some other cruise lines already operate a similar system.

What are the odds that P&O will follow suit in due course ?

Royal Caribbean have had 

Royal Up for a long time.

I have put bids in for Suites from our Ocean view balcony cabins.

[grapau27]

5 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

People sometimes pay more than they would have it they called and did an upgrade the old fashioned way (or booked that grade in the first place). They get carried away or don’t notice the cost is per person or move the dial too far.

 

Others don’t do their homework and book a cabin they regret and use this as a way of moving.

 

Your point is well made about the bidding system making more. If you offer a fixed upgrade that’s all you get. If you end up moving several people upwards in a bid chain you will make more. 
 

I don’t see anything wrong with it. No one has to participate and in these tough times it could help the company’s bottom line.

 

How many people did the Upgrade Fairy ever really visit with a “proper”upgrade anyway.

 

 

We had a free upgrade on Royal Caribbean once from a mid ships ocean view balcony cabin to a Junior Suite at the aft of the ship.

[No pager thank you]

Maybe P&O will send an online auction page via one of its emails ... ah, just remembered, its IT system wouldn't cope! 

 

You can just see them trying to do a video introducing the auction soon, but I can't see this going down very well with most P&O customers, unless the "bidding" is notional.

 

On a related topic, I have noticed that on sailings with lower occupancy, balcony cabins appear to be left unsold in some cases, as opposed to offering to guests paying inside or outside fares (and not just in the COVID-19 isolation areas either), so this is an extension to that line of thinking.

[wowzz]

10 hours ago, No pager thank you said:

On a related topic, I have noticed that on sailings with lower occupancy, balcony cabins appear to be left unsold in some cases,

Is that from onboard observation,  or from looking at availability on line? If the latter, then you have to take into account that cabins may be shown as available,  but in fact will be allocated to those who have paid a saver fare.

[gsmt47471015]

10 hours ago, No pager thank you said:

Maybe P&O will send an online auction page via one of its emails ... ah, just remembered, its IT system wouldn't cope! 

 

You can just see them trying to do a video introducing the auction soon, but I can't see this going down very well with most P&O customers, unless the "bidding" is notional.

 

On a related topic, I have noticed that on sailings with lower occupancy, balcony cabins appear to be left unsold in some cases, as opposed to offering to guests paying inside or outside fares (and not just in the COVID-19 isolation areas either), so this is an extension to that line of thinking.

On a Ventura cruise this year the ship was only 25% full and they still wanted an enormous amount of money ( £1500) to transfer to a balcony from inside , it was still the same quote with less than two weeks left of a five week cruise, our whole deck of balconies was empty, we had no intention of changing for the last two weeks as the best of the good weather was behind us , fully understand the price at the beginning of the cruise as it would upset people who have paid upfront for a balcony but with only two weeks left we were astonished    

[jeanlyon]

We were upgraded when we had specifically asked not to be and it was A deck, my worst nightmare, so I got them to put us back where we had chosen.