Air Deviation - I'm Impressed!

[Robroy]

My wife and I have booked the Spirit nine night November 13/10 Bridgetown to Ft. Lauderdale voyage for our first Silversea experience. Our first luxury line cruise (after many Princess trips) was on Regent Voyageur two years ago and we have been following the Silversea threads with great interest over the past few months.

 

The excellent reviews and comments (particularly from Debbie/Colonel Wes and many others on the inaugural and transatlantic sailings on Spirit) prompted us to go ahead and book this trip. I had some concern however as to how the included air would turn out and not relishing the prospect of a milk-run from Toronto to Bridgetown and home from FLL particularly after checking out some of the possibile routings through Newark/JFK etc.

I did find direct flights from Toronto to Bridgetown and FLL home so asked my agent to check with Silversea to see if, for the price of a deviation, we could obtain these flights. Lo and behold, with no additional charge (except for the deviation fees) we were able to get these direct flights the day before sailing just in case of inclement weather.

 

I wonder if this type of favourable routing is standard fare for Silversea or whether we were just incredibly lucky? I must say, this is a tremendous beginning to what promises to be a lovely vacation and thanks again for you loyal Silversea devotees for sharing so much information!

 

Rob

[chicagogal]

My wife and I have booked the Spirit nine night November 13/10 Bridgetown to Ft. Lauderdale voyage for our first Silversea experience. Our first luxury line cruise (after many Princess trips) was on Regent Voyageur two years ago and we have been following the Silversea threads with great interest over the past few months.

 

The excellent reviews and comments (particularly from Debbie/Colonel Wes and many others on the inaugural and transatlantic sailings on Spirit) prompted us to go ahead and book this trip. I had some concern however as to how the included air would turn out and not relishing the prospect of a milk-run from Toronto to Bridgetown and home from FLL particularly after checking out some of the possibile routings through Newark/JFK etc.

I did find direct flights from Toronto to Bridgetown and FLL home so asked my agent to check with Silversea to see if, for the price of a deviation, we could obtain these flights. Lo and behold, with no additional charge (except for the deviation fees) we were able to get these direct flights the day before sailing just in case of inclement weather.

 

I wonder if this type of favourable routing is standard fare for Silversea or whether we were just incredibly lucky? I must say, this is a tremendous beginning to what promises to be a lovely vacation and thanks again for you loyal Silversea devotees for sharing so much information!

 

Rob

 

We had a similar experience in September.

[Croce]

Rob,

 

We are planning on booking the same cruise. It was my understanding that the included airfare was for travel on the same day as the cruise departed. To chose a different day would be $100 upcharge per person. Is that what you mean by a deviation fee? I was a bit concerned about possible missed connections or weather as well getting to Bridgetown from Chicago, so thought about the Ft Lauderdale to Bridgtown cruise - but the dates on that won't work for us. I may try your tactic as well. Thanks for the post.

 

Croce

[RosseauGirl]

Wonderful to hear! We travel to Barbados from TO a couple times per year, and know that there are a number of direct flights. We are waitlisted for April 2011 Barbados-Barbados, but I was a little apprehensive that we would end up with transfers (and, of course, lost luggage), when I know that we can get there directly in 5 hours. Once they decide whether or not the boat will be chartered (hopefully not!), I can get to work on my TA. Thanks for the tip!

Michele

[Robroy]

Croce - Based on what I had read on this forum as well as the "cruise air" forum and ultimately the fine print in the actual cruise contract, I thought you might be able to check what flights might be available and try and nail down your best choice - which I understood would involve a $100 deviation fee per person. At the same time, we don't like to fly in on the day of departure just in case of weather problems so thought we'd back up the departure by a day at the same time. Turns out, the previous day AND our first flight selection are covered by the one fee! Thought this was an excellent service provision by the Concierge department versus a nightmare we had years ago with Princess included air. Looks like a fabulous cruise - think you've made a great selection!

 

RousseauGirl - We were really happy to get the AC direct flight also and avoid the fiascos involved with clearing US customs at Pearson as well as the potential for missed connections etc. - the price is pretty competitive as well. Hope your trip comes off as planned!

 

Rob

[BILLP1]

We will be flying home to New York from the Barbados after our Whisper cruise in October. Is there an airline and time that Silversea would normally use or is it just pot luck getting back to the New York area? Non stop or direct ?

[Robroy]

Why not try what we did Bill? I simply checked for non-stops - selected the one we were most interested in and had our t/a make the inquiry with Silversea. It cost us the deviation fee but was well worth the fee.

As I mentioned earlier, this is our first Silversea cruise so I'm not sure if we just got very lucky or that this was standard fare for Silversea. Why not give it a try?

 

Rob

[gdlamberth]

We're on Cloud Copenhagen R/T boarding on 1 July and are going a day early staying for a week post cruise. There are three of us traveling. I used SS air for one and (after paying the deviation fee) able to match the SS provided flight with the other two that I booked with FFMiles. I've had similar experiences with Regent air deviations also.

 

Greg

[newlondon]

These feel good stories are great, but happened only because SS has a contract with the airline in question. We are doing Santiago, Chile to Buenos Aires in December. The SS air is on Delta who has yet to install lie flat seats in business. We found a AA and LAN combo BOS-SCE and ESE-BOS for $3600 each. We queried SS if we could use this and the answer was no contract therefore $5600 each. A no-brainer decision. If we had used SS it would have been $3100 but we wanted the better seats for 2 long flights.