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Silversea offering free air on already booked cruise - a question


Hermione60
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Hello everybody,

I booked a cruise with SS (directly, London office) many months ago (Caribbean, end of November). I also, a few months later, booked us airfare (independently, a very good price for a direct Zürich-Miami in business class, with Flight Guru). Two days ago, I received a newsletter from Silversea offering free air on selected cruises, including the one I booked. I know that Silversea guarantees that you get the benefit of the best offer, even if you already booked and paid. So I wrote this to the Silversea rep:

 

"I see that Silversea is now offering free airfare for several cruises later this year, including the one I booked. We already bought our plane tickets, but would it be possible to benefit from another gesture on your part instead, such as online board credit for instance?"

 

No answer yet (but it's been only 2 days). Do you think I have a chance? Anything else I should be asking?

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Hello everybody,

I booked a cruise with SS (directly, London office) many months ago (Caribbean, end of November). I also, a few months later, booked us airfare (independently, a very good price for a direct Zürich-Miami in business class, with Flight Guru). Two days ago, I received a newsletter from Silversea offering free air on selected cruises, including the one I booked. I know that Silversea guarantees that you get the benefit of the best offer, even if you already booked and paid. So I wrote this to the Silversea rep:

 

"I see that Silversea is now offering free airfare for several cruises later this year, including the one I booked. We already bought our plane tickets, but would it be possible to benefit from another gesture on your part instead, such as online board credit for instance?"

 

No answer yet (but it's been only 2 days). Do you think I have a chance? Anything else I should be asking?

 

I do not think it is the case that Silversea "guarantees that you get the benefit of the best offer, even if you already booked and paid."

 

My understanding is that they guarantee the benefit of any lowered base fare after booking -- not of access to perks that may be added to encourage others to book.

 

Here is the text:

 

Fare Guarantee Program: When you plan ahead and book early, you will benefit from any future reduction in the voyage fare, upon request. [emphasis added]

 

I may be mistaken. Please let us know if I am mistaken.

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In effect because you can cancel and pay a penalty which is then set off of a new booking you effectively have a price guarantee of sorts.

 

In the UK you can take advantage of a flight offer to replace your existing booking by simply requesting a repricing. The base holiday price may have increased but the increase may be more than offset by the flight costs.

 

To the direct question, I very much doubt that Silversea will give you any form of credit simply because of the flight offer that you have seen but do not wish to take.

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Hi Hermione60,

 

Like you, I have been booking direct with an agent at SS. I have asked him a few times whether I can take advantage of a new promotion. Every time, he does the math and presents me with the two packages: the one I already booked, and the new one. In one case, the new promotion was a better deal and so we rebooked -- which is the process, as UKJeff notes. In another case, my original booking was better, but the agent threw in a very generous OBC just because. Another time, my original booking was better and he didn't sweeten the deal further. Most recently, he honored an Early Booking Bonus deadline that had passed, even though the cruise price had risen substantially.

 

My lesson learned so far: it's always good to ask. Sometimes you get a yes, and sometimes you get something else wonderful that you never would have asked for. By all means, establish a good working relationship with your SS agent. Mine has been terrific, and his kind attention is keeping me loyal in spite of the other PR problems we've been reading about on other threads.

Edited by Unibok
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By all means, establish a good working relationship with your SS agent. Mine has been terrific, and his kind attention is keeping me loyal in spite of the other PR problems we've been reading about on other threads.

 

I agree. I can do (and have done!) financially better with non-SS TAs, some of whom offer 10% rebates on the fare. I can generally get some OBC from my SS agent, and though I can enjoy greater financial savings by booking with non-SS TA, I stay with my SS TA because s/he offers substantial non-monetary benefits such as first hand advice, intimate knowledge of pending developments, connections within company to get responses to extraordinary requests, etc.

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Friday, I got another mailing list email from Silversea, with another offer saying "You will benefit from one-category suite upgrade and an onboard credit of $1,000 per suite", and again the cruise I'm booked on was listed. I emailed asking if I could benefit from *that*. No answer. So, I finally phoned today. Turns out my SS TA is away, she left a recorded message on her phone but no automatic answer from her email. I spoke to another TA, very nice, and she did the math but it still was more expensive than the price I have payed (with a 10% rebate for early booking). So that's it (unless they have even better offers in the future!).

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Yes, it's amazing how cleverly they do the sums - seldom can you do better with new offers because the base fare has increased. Or the different discounts are worth less.

A couple of times, I have seen cruises (that I have already booked and paid for) offering a lower solo supplement but when I get mine re-fared, the base price has gone up just enough so that the re-fare with the lower solo supplement is the same as what I originally paid, to the exact dollar.

That said, once ... just that tantalising once ... I did notice that the base fare for a cruise I had booked and paid for had decreased significantly so I asked my TA to get it re-fared and I got over $1,000 refund.

So it can pay to keep checking the website for price decreases (I unsubscribe from the emails, they're way too annoying) but don't expect to find any very often.

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Since I booked my cruise the base price has increased some 34%, and it was then that the airfares offer came.

The fiscal increase in hard cash is greater than the the cost of the airfares that I am booking independently ... with flights to suit me!

 

 

Sent from the magic box!

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I'm new to Silversea and would appreciate some advice... I initially made enquiries with the SS London office but later transferred my enquiry and booked with a travel agent. The SS representative has since priced me cruises for 2020 with early booking discount etc but no flights included. My questions are (1) is it better to book direct with SS who seem to have information that is not always on their webpage, like solo discounts, (2) book with travel agent who may give some discount and (3) is it better to book in advance without flight and hotel offers and source them separately or wait and get everything linked with SS. Confused cruiser.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I had a wonderful surprise. My TA came back from vacation, read my messages and promptly called me to tell me that I was entitled to all the new niceties, i.e. OBC, compensation for not using the offered air and cabin upgrade (or more accurately, paying my already-booked veranda suite the price of an ocean-view one). She had computed it all and I got 1000$ OBC plus more than 500 euros of refund on my credit card. I must say, I was impressed! (and very happy, obviously).

That OBC will go a long way paying for our excursions (it's our first time in the Caribbean so we booked one at each port, except Key West). <happy dance>

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had the same situation, booked early and saw the free airfare offer I called silverseas, but they said I would have to cancel and rebook. The new fare was $2500 pp more for my cabin and I would lose my on board credit, and 10% early booking so I would lose about $6000. I think I can do airfare on my own for less. I am thinking that Regents of the seas offered more, as they included airfare and excursions.

The next thing I am going to see on my cruise is new bookings will get free excursions as well!

 

jean

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Hermione60

 

Congratulations on the good news regarding your reservations. I'm glad that your OBC will help offset the cost of shore excursions. When we were in Key West a few years back, we walked to the Key West Butterfly Conservatory and had a magical time. We highly recommend going there. Hope you enjoy whatever you do.

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