How do you get Saga to answer a phone or email?

[Tom Magpie]

Been ringing for 2 days, listening to 70s music. sent email on Friday, no reply. They say they will reply within 24 hours, this has not happened. Have rang 2 different numbers.

[LandC]

Try the live chat facility on Saga website, quoting your booking reference (if you have one).  

[Manx buoy]

2 hours ago, Tom Magpie said:

Been ringing for 2 days, listening to 70s music. sent email on Friday, no reply. They say they will reply within 24 hours, this has not happened. Have rang 2 different numbers.

Closed Sat/Sun we were chatting to them this morning on their messenger facility

[silversurf]

Been hanging on phone for one hour twenty minutes before it was answered so patience is required (almost lost the will to live).

Got my query sorted easily once I got through.

I did try the chat line, but they couldn’t do anything and told me to phone the sales office and that I couldn’t request a call back. So that was a waste of time.

[Glenndale]

Probably most of their staff are trying to arrange customers who's cruises were cancelled onto the replacements?

[Denarius]

1 hour ago, Glenndale said:

Probably most of their staff are trying to arrange customers who's cruises were cancelled onto the replacements?

My Corsica and Sardinia cruise was cancelled by email on 5 March. It promised that I would be telephoned to discuss options. 3 weeks later, I am still waiting.

[Glenndale]

19 minutes ago, Denarius said:

My Corsica and Sardinia cruise was cancelled by email on 5 March. It promised that I would be telephoned to discuss options. 3 weeks later, I am still waiting.

Hopefully you should hear something soon. 🤞🏻

We are booked on the Corsica / Sardinia cruise for next year.

 

[nosapphire]

23 hours ago, Denarius said:

My Corsica and Sardinia cruise was cancelled by email on 5 March. It promised that I would be telephoned to discuss options. 3 weeks later, I am still waiting.

They are calling people on the cancelled cruises in sailing date order, and according to their website they are currently contacting those booked on the Idyllic Norway 3rd August.

 

[Glenndale]

14 minutes ago, nosapphire said:

They are calling people on the cancelled cruises in sailing date order, and according to their website they are currently contacting those booked on the Idyllic Norway 3rd August.

 

If that's the case then Denarius ought to ring them as the Corsica cruise was due to sail on May 6th.

Whereabouts on the Saga website did you find this info Nosapphire as I can't see it? Thanks 

[nosapphire]

1 minute ago, Glenndale said:

If that's the case then Denarius ought to ring them as the Corsica cruise was due to sail on May 6th.

Whereabouts on the Saga website did you find this info Nosapphire as I can't see it? Thanks 

It is on the travel update page

https://travel.saga.co.uk/travel-updates/coronavirus-cruise-passengers.aspx

 

According to one of the saga shareholder general chat pages (I am not a shareholder, but sometimes gives some interesting info) the new cruises go on general sale on Monday, and somebody apparently has a link to management and posted what they are:

Great British Isles Tour - 11th July - 14 nights. Spirit of Discovery - from Tilbury

Northern Isles to the Fjords - 8 nights - 25th July - Spirit of Discovery - from Tilbury.

Northern Isles to the Fjords - 3rd July - 8 nights - Spirit of Discovery from Tilbury.

Scottish Highlands and Islands - 27th June - 6 nights - Spirit of Discovery from Tilbury

The Inaugural Cruise - 26th July - 15 nights - Spirit of Adventure from Tilbury.

The Inaugural Cruise Spirit of Adventure • July 26, 2021 • 15 nightsSail from Tilbury • Cruise code: SU064Newcastle, England • Newhaven (for Edinburgh), Scotland • Dundee, Scotland • Kirkwall, Orkney Islands • Ullapool, Scotland • Cruise St Kilda • Greenock, Scotland • Belfast, Northern Ireland • Douglas, Isle of Man • Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales • Bristol, England • Falmouth, England. Disembark in Dover.

[Glenndale]

Thanks 👍

[Manx buoy]

26 minutes ago, nosapphire said:

It is on the travel update page

https://travel.saga.co.uk/travel-updates/coronavirus-cruise-passengers.aspx

 

According to one of the saga shareholder general chat pages (I am not a shareholder, but sometimes gives some interesting info) the new cruises go on general sale on Monday, and somebody apparently has a link to management and posted what they are:

Great British Isles Tour - 11th July - 14 nights. Spirit of Discovery - from Tilbury

Northern Isles to the Fjords - 8 nights - 25th July - Spirit of Discovery - from Tilbury.

Northern Isles to the Fjords - 3rd July - 8 nights - Spirit of Discovery from Tilbury.

Scottish Highlands and Islands - 27th June - 6 nights - Spirit of Discovery from Tilbury

The Inaugural Cruise - 26th July - 15 nights - Spirit of Adventure from Tilbury.

The Inaugural Cruise Spirit of Adventure • July 26, 2021 • 15 nightsSail from Tilbury • Cruise code: SU064Newcastle, England • Newhaven (for Edinburgh), Scotland • Dundee, Scotland • Kirkwall, Orkney Islands • Ullapool, Scotland • Cruise St Kilda • Greenock, Scotland • Belfast, Northern Ireland • Douglas, Isle of Man • Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales • Bristol, England • Falmouth, England. Disembark in Dover.

Adventure won’t be coming here🇮🇲 I’m afraid

[Kohima]

It will be interesting to see how some of these itineraries work out as it may be that shiploads of people, even if vaccinated, will not necessarily be welcome in small communities while the possibility of transmission of Covid is still uncertain.

[Manx buoy]

10 minutes ago, Kohima said:

It will be interesting to see how some of these itineraries work out as it may be that shiploads of people, even if vaccinated, will not necessarily be welcome in small communities while the possibility of transmission of Covid is still uncertain.

Can’t speak for Orkney, Shetland or the Western Isles but our government have stated it’ll be September at the very earliest before any border restrictions will be lifted at the moment residents can travel away for compassionate reasons and only essential workers can come here and have to isolate for 14 days on arrival

[BIGdock]

Saga left a message to contact them on Monday morning.Tried 3-4 times each day since then .Can get no reply at all on number given and no reply on booking line.No info on live chat .Just tells you to keep on calling.

I have three cruises booked with them ,I have never sailed with them before.I hope their ships are managed a lot better than their offices.

I am so grateful I am not a shareholder.

[nosapphire]

1 hour ago, BIGdock said:

Saga left a message to contact them on Monday morning.Tried 3-4 times each day since then .Can get no reply at all on number given and no reply on booking line.No info on live chat .Just tells you to keep on calling.

I have three cruises booked with them ,I have never sailed with them before.I hope their ships are managed a lot better than their offices.

I am so grateful I am not a shareholder.

They have cancelled a huge number of cruises, so I suppose they are really struggling as their normal systems were never designed for this. I really hope that you manage to get through and get satisfactory solutions soon.

 

The Saga shareholders, (according to the shareholder chat forum) (is an open forum, so I can see it) are all thoroughly *****-a-hoop at the minute.

Somebody posted the info they got from Saga management at the end of 2019 about what they needed to earn to make a profit.

That was 80% occupancy at £234 per person per night.

So they are all looking at the current cruise prices, working out how much profit there is, and expecting Saga share price to rocket and their dividends to start again soon.

Mind you, some of the shareholder posters do seem to live in an alternative reality......

 

 

[Denarius]

On 3/26/2021 at 3:41 PM, Glenndale said:

If that's the case then Denarius ought to ring them as the Corsica cruise was due to sail on May 6th.

Whereabouts on the Saga website did you find this info Nosapphire as I can't see it? Thanks 

Made myself a note to ring them on Monday, but they finally rang me today!

[Glenndale]

Hope you were able to find something you wanted to do 🙂

[nosapphire]

I think the idea is to try and be fair to those with cancelled cruises, to try and give them first options on replacements, rather than simply cancelling and letting those with cancelled cruises join the general scrum of rebooking.

But nobody has ever had to deal with so many cancelled cruises in one go - whatever they do, however hard they try, somebody is going to be at a disadvantage.

Let's hope this is the last round of cancellations and postponements - and for sure they'll be pulling out all the stops to make the replacement cruises as enjoyable as possible (they need happy people who want to book again).

[Kohima]

As Nosapphire correctly predicted the new summer British cruises are now on the Saga website today. Looks like you can book and choose cabins online, avoiding the phone lines. 

[nosapphire]

On 3/26/2021 at 5:57 PM, Manx buoy said:

Can’t speak for Orkney, Shetland or the Western Isles but our government have stated it’ll be September at the very earliest before any border restrictions will be lifted at the moment residents can travel away for compassionate reasons and only essential workers can come here and have to isolate for 14 days on arrival

Maybe Saga know something we don't... the cruise is now on general sale,and Douglas is still on the itinerary.

The Orkney Harbours official website only has cruise ships scheduled for 2022 - nothing for 2021, so don't know if that means they have not yet made up their mind, or the website needs updating - or Kirkwall is suddenly going to disappear from the itinerary.

I bet whoever has to plan and arrange the cruise itinerary is getting extremely stressed out - will they, won't they, do we include it, do we leave it?

Not an easy job at the best of times - even harder now.

[Kohima]

It may be that there are many people so keen to get away on holiday that they wont worry too much if the itinerary doesn’t work out as planned. 

[nosapphire]

3 hours ago, Kohima said:

It may be that there are many people so keen to get away on holiday that they wont worry too much if the itinerary doesn’t work out as planned. 

Very probably.

Most people will (or should) be expecting last minute changes - even in normal times, it is not unusual for unexpected changes (weather, strikes, revolutions, etc) to happen - just a fact of cruising.

[Windsurfboy]

Just to let people know , just need a lot of patience,  1hr 5 mins to get through Saga,  no probs 0800 number , on speaker phone and doing something else.  BA took about same. Impact of WFH