Silversea Air

Hi Guys - thanks in advance for your help...

Just booked on the Muse - through a travel agent. No air, no ins.

Can I now get a quote from Silversea regarding air or does all communication now have to be done by my T.A.?

Highly recommend you research your own air. We have always been able to do better on our own, but we have lots of points and miles.

I agree with Rachel. SS Air has never been less than what I could acquire myself.

 

 

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WJBonds, agree with Rachel and Stumblefoot/Brian; using you own miles or travel portal (American Express or Chase) you can generally do better than Silversea.

 

However, to answer your specific ?, yes now that you booked with a TA you need to go through your TA for air ? You can try Silversea but my guess is they will refer u back to your TA.

 

Good luck.

An exception to always-buy-your-own-air: if the start-to-finish cruise distance is greater than either of the air distances (home-to-start or home-to-finish), SS air may be cheaper. The classic example is a transatlantic cruise.

Having never taken a trans-Atlantic cruise I can’t comment on Jgibbs post. I have yet to have Silversea meet and certainly not come in under what I have been able to book myself. I know Silversea wanted $2,000 more for airfare this past November for San Antonio to Rome then Dubai to Santonio than I could book myself and that was despite their advertised “special airfare” rates. Kind of disappointing as over on the Holland America section here, our previous cruise line of choice before switching to Silversea six years ago, they are reporting good results with HAL air. I guess size matters and Silversea maybe isn’t big enough to leverage better airfares.

Interesting. We managed to do waaaay better with SS than on our own for our Aug RT London -- business class no less! Guess your mileage may vary!

Vandrefalk

We also have a good price for London to Barbados next January and home from Fort Lauderdale in February. Better than our agent or I could find and we have the reassurance that Silversea will manage any delays for us as we are flying in on the day of the cruise.

I have had good pricing with Silversea and not so good. Best to do a little preliminary research, IMO, and then you will know if your Silversea quote is "good".

 

 

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I have had good pricing with Silversea and not so good. Best to do a little preliminary research, IMO, and then you will know if your Silversea quote is "good"

 

Likewise. From a European perspective, short hops to the Med or similar distances, I've always found DIY was much cheaper, but when it came to open jaw TA flights, SS have always come up trumps for us. On our next our of FLL, flights are included, so difficult to beat that! That said, this time we used a TA who is able to book us direct flights from Gatwick to FLL instead of LHR to Miami which is far better for us.

 

As always though....... buyer beware. If you book as a package and your flight delayed, they will get you there eventually. If you've booked it..... that's gonna be at your expense - insurance aside. Always worth all considerations when making final decisions.

don't forget to consider transfers - I believe on my Rome-Barcelona flights next month, air was comparable but through SS we get transfers from FCO to port and from port to BCN included

Our experiences have varied. It is really important to compare. For our upcoming Cloud cruise (in two weeks!) we found the exact flights we wanted, checked the airlines' prices, then had our TA ask Silversea. They offered the same round trip flights, same business/first seats, for less than half the price of booking just the return flights directly with the airlines. I know this sounds preposterous, and maybe the airline quotes were mistaken, but that did actually happen.

I have a couple questions about using Silversea's air as well. I have a cruise booked that departs in December. I know people will say to book the flights myself, but the Silversea airfare is better than I can do and includes transfers, and takes the worry out of being on my own if a connection is missed (there are no direct flights). If I was making my own arrangements, I would go in at least a day before, which costs me another day of holiday and the cost of the hotel. So anyway - my questions:

- When will I receive flight details? My TA said Silversea told her 60 days out but I have seen posts where people are many months out and know their itineraries. Note that my cruise will be paid in full by the end of this month (April). If I won't find out for a while, then I may just do it myself while there are some good deals, rather than end up with 2 or more connections.

- I have read that you can request that Silversea make your flight non-refundable and ticket it immediately so you can look after things like seat selection, and that they shouldn't charge you for this if you agree that your flight will indeed be non-refundable. Wondering if anyone has had success with that recently?

- how late could they have you come in? I am trying to figure out what the chances are that they will come back requiring me to do a hotel night the day before

- does Silversea give you a 24 hour emergency number in the event you have problems with your flights? I know how hard it is to get through to them on a good day and picture missing a red-eye connection and needing to contact someone.

- there are flights to Miami that get in earlier with shorter layovers, but I recognize the transfer would be slightly more expensive. I asked the TA to ask about it and she said she was told if I wanted that I should book my own flight and arrange my own transfers. Wondering if anyone else has tried to get to the port in Fort Lauderdale by flying in to Miami through Silversea air

Thanks for your help!

Edited April 26, 2018 by emiliesmom
Adding one more question!

When will I receive flight details?

We have usually received them about 48 hours after adding the flights (assuming we are not talking 11+ months ahead of the cruise. Maybe get your TA to ask again?

 

Does Silversea give you a 24 hour emergency number in the event you have problems with your flights?

At a minimum, you will have a (satellite phone, very expensive) number for the ship itself.

Thanks jgibbs! When you typically add the flights, how close is it to your departure date? and how do you see them - like is it through your My Silversea account or a separate email?

I'm not sure calling the ship would help me in the event a connecting flight is missed in the middle of the night - I need a travel agent who can rebook me... though I suppose I could call the ship and ask them to wait LOL.

When you typically add the flights, how close is it to your departure date? and how do you see them - like is it through your My Silversea account or a separate email?

Timing varies. I usually book [cruises] well ahead (more than a year) and check [air] prices around 11 months ahead, then decide.

 

I'm not sure calling the ship would help me in the event a connecting flight is missed in the middle of the night - I need a travel agent who can rebook me... though I suppose I could call the ship and ask them to wait LOL.

Haha. Yes, there are office numbers, though on the one occasion when we missed a connecting flight (US immigration, Miami), so had dozens of others and the airline simply switched us into seats on the next flight. I assume those were the seats that would have been occupied by people further back in the queue. Short version: assume you're on your own if something goes wrong with flights. And it may be more relaxing to have a night in a hotel at the embarkation port.

Does Silversea always offer flights for their cruises? We have a Mediterranean cruise booked and paid for that’s a little over a year away. Flying from the States to Nice, France looks like the cost will be more than the cost of the cruise, and that isn’t even considering getting back home from Barcelona! :o

 

My TA says the prices aren’t out for next Summer yet, so not to worry. I just noticed our cruise is waitlisted in every category, so I’m concerned Silversea won’t offer any incentives, specifically special airfare.

Does Silversea always offer flights for their cruises? We have a Mediterranean cruise booked and paid for that’s a little over a year away. Flying from the States to Nice, France looks like the cost will be more than the cost of the cruise, and that isn’t even considering getting back home from Barcelona! :o

 

My TA says the prices aren’t out for next Summer yet, so not to worry. I just noticed our cruise is waitlisted in every category, so I’m concerned Silversea won’t offer any incentives, specifically special airfare.

 

You can always book flights through Silversea. Whether or not they are less expensive or discounted or included is a different question. Sometimes they have no special offer, sale, or discount. Will say our last flights to Rome then home from Dubai were about 2/3 the cost of the cruise and Silversea’s air was even more expensive. You never know and some are reporting better deals through Silversea so you at least have to give them a try. Luckily you have time on your side.

Does Silversea always offer flights for their cruises? We have a Mediterranean cruise booked and paid for that’s a little over a year away. Flying from the States to Nice, France looks like the cost will be more than the cost of the cruise, and that isn’t even considering getting back home from Barcelona! :o

 

My TA says the prices aren’t out for next Summer yet, so not to worry. I just noticed our cruise is waitlisted in every category, so I’m concerned Silversea won’t offer any incentives, specifically special airfare.

 

I fear that if there is a waitlist then the incentive to construct new marketing incentives is low.

 

However, if you haven't already done so, just make sure that you are enrolled in all the relevant airline membership schemes and ensure that you are on their mailing lists so that you are amongst the first to receive offers and promotions. Also, don't overlook being on both Air France and Iberia's mailing list. Use a flight search engine to identify all the lines that travel your route. Even many far-Eastern carriers have a stop in some of the European hubs.I use to regularly use JAL to go to Paris and twice I have been on an empty plane. Also don't always presume that a one way ticket is cheaper than a return or "a package". Keep the mind open!

 

Good luck Naps. :)

Napri, try Kayak.com - use the multi-city option, and you can look at flights for Home-Nice, and Barcelona-home. We did something similar for our honeymoon 12 years ago, and I was surprised how inexpensive it ended up being. Actually, we just returned from our cruise, and we booked our flights from the Albany, NY (SmallBany) to Hong Kong, and Singapore to Albany, we paid $717 rt on United, booked about 6 months ahead. oh, and it was one stop only going out - Albany-Newark-Hong Kong, and Singapore-Tokyo-Newark-Albany. If you are flying out of Atlanta, you may get lucky with a direct flight, especially coming home from Barcelona.

 

Jan

Also try Google Flights. Some nice features, like allowing you to list multiple "from" airports, specify maximum end-to-end travel times and times of day to fly.

 

And when you have results from Kayak, GF etc, do go directly to the top 2-3 airlines' sites. The aggregators are often right, but they can be out-of-date in a fast-moving marketplace.