The Norwegian Cruise Line has come up with a unique idea that will allow the cruise passengers to bid so that they could get upgraded to a suite or stateroom during their travel. According to the Travel Market Report, the idea is entirely new for the cruising industry to let the passengers bid for upgrade after they already paid for their trip. Travellers will get to experience the Norwegian Upgrade Advantage program from 8th February, Wednesday.
The cruise line has launched a beta test of 60 days to test the potential of the new venture and they managed to receive positive feedback from numerous elite travel agents.
Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Breakaway, Pride of America, Norwegian Escape and Norwegian Getaway are the cruise ships, which will offer the program to the guests from 8th February. The cruise line plans to expand the program on their entire fleet of cruise ships by the second quarter of 2017.
The cruise line has revealed that the bidding program will run on an automated system, where the travel agents will be able to pocket a handsome amount of commission on higher fares, but after winning the bid the guests will not be able to select the exact stateroom for themselves. After the bid gets accepted, the guest will be bumped to a more expensive stateroom or suite. Those who opted for an inside stateroom, can be upgraded to an outside stateroom.
The senior sales vice president of Norwegian, Camille Olivere has stated that this truly is brand new, and their beta test was super-successful. She added that after final payment guests can bid on an upgrade and there’s a little dial that will show them in red, yellow or green the likelihood their bid is going to be accepted.
She has also informed that though the travel agencies have nothing to do with the process, they can still opt out of participation in the bidding.
