Cabin upgrade pricing seems a bit strange

[MayB5]

I have booked a sea view cabin for a Mediterranean cruise next month with $600 bar tab included. When I booked the sea terrace was about £500 ($625) more expensive.

I’ve been keeping an eye on this cruise pricing and availability, and there seems to be plenty of availability left, cabins in all categories come up when I check. The sea terrace is now about £300 more than the sea view, and about £300 more than when I booked. I have also (some weeks ago) put in a bid to upgrade of £150 for limited view and £180 for central sea terrace - the bid slider had a max of £200 - so chances seems good there, but I would be happy to pay a bit more to be sure.

So I called to see about an upgrade expecting to be quoted about £300 which I would have happily paid. The quote (wait for it….) was £1450!!!! Thankfully I was sitting down at the time. When I queried the pricing I got a string of waffle which made absolutely no sense whatever and was obviously being read from a script with no concept as to the meaning so I simply confirmed that I was making no change to my booking and ended the call.

Has anyone had a similar experience?
Is it possible this was a rogue quote and I should call again?

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to VV pricing strategy? 

Thank you 😊

 

[cantgetin]

Not a clue what was happening on the phone call, but there is a decent chance that you'll get an upgrade by bidding.  There is also often an upgrade station in the terminal where you can inquire as to the cost and purchase an upgrade at that time.

[crusinthrough]

Same thing happens to me when I try upgrade to an XL cabin. The price on the website to upgrade is about $400 more than my current price.  When I call I'm quoted an upgraded price of $1900.  This price actually goes up every time I call..lol.
 

I was informed the current price on the website is the new promotion price.  When you try to upgrade an existing booking the price is calculated as the upgraded price for the promotion that was on when you booked.
 

 To get the website price you have to cancel and rebook but you lose anything that was included with your original booking such as a bar tab, which doesn’t exist anymore. 

[MayB5]

Want you were told on the call seems to match what I was told. It’s a daft way to price upgrades, as there is virtually no chance of selling one, whereas pricing close to what customers are seeing when they look at the cruise pricing for themselves would result in upgrade sales and income.

There is still loads of availability across sea terrace cabins for my cruise so I’ll just hope for a successful bid.

 

 

[CruisingWalter]

On 4/14/2024 at 5:23 AM, MayB5 said:

Has anyone had a similar experience?
Is it possible this was a rogue quote and I should call again?

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to VV pricing strategy?

 

The pricing on the website includes promotion for a new booking. When you want to 'upgrade' your stateroom, you are not given the benefits of the promotions.  You're being charged closer to the 'brochure rate' rather than the promotion rate.  All the cruise lines do this process differently. As others have mentioned, you can try to get the cabin through the bidding process. Or work with a TA in the future who can sometimes find ways around that weird policy. 🙂

[MayB5]

Ah, now I get it, thanks Walter.

I enjoy your YouTube content btw.