Recent Feedback on SS Air Business Class from NY

[gcornell]

Hi.  Heading to Alaska on Sunday for the Muse (pre Denali trip as well) and booked our 3rd SS Cruise, Athens - Venice,  with the family (2 adults and 2 children) for next July.  For the Med cruise I chose the D2D and Business Class Air.  I usually arrange air myself, but it seems like a good deal ($2,400pp) and I've had to rebook air on 3 trips so far this year because of flight cancellations and schedule changes.  It was a lot of work.  Flights for next July will become available to book on my own soon so still trying to decide what to do.   I read through the forums and there a bit of positive and negative feedback so would appreciate any recent feedback or advice.

 

We are planning on spending an additional 2 nights or so in Venice at the end of the trip.  Any idea what type of deviation fees we may be looking at?

 

Has anyone had any recent trips from NY to the Med?  If so, can you kindly share what airline and was the schedule to your liking?

 

Thanks much!

[Lois R]

Good morning, unless I am misunderstanding, you are  going to use SS for flights both ways, correct? Flying out and back into NY? As for deviation fees, unless I am way off base, you shouldn't have any fees.  You want to fly home 2 days after the cruise? You should be able to do that without an extra charge. I could be wrong of course but I thought deviation fees usually come from change of airports.........and that is 150.00. I am sure someone will correct me if I am giving you incorrect  information.

[Joywrk]

You do have to pay a deviation fee to change dates. Just did it for an Asia cruise to go in early and stay later

[Lois R]

4 minutes ago, Joywrk said:

You do have to pay a deviation fee to change dates. Just did it for an Asia cruise to go in early and stay later

Oh...ok, thanks for correcting me. Was it 150.00 each way?

[Joywrk]

We are Canadian and it was $185 ca. which is more than 150 US. Suspect it is $175 us

 

[gcornell]

Good info.  Thanks much.  So now were are up to at least $2,550pp if I book through SS without any additional schedule change requests.  

[hamasgirl]

Based on my recent experience with SS-arranged flights I would recommend that you re-think that option.  Please take a look at my experience on our recent SS-selected flight home from our cruise last week under "Great until Disembarkation" post.  We will NEVER use SS to arrange our flights again.

[FauxNom]

The deviation fee is US $150, which is described in the huge "Terms and Conditions" page on the website. (excerpt below)

I met several people who flew out of NYC for our Athens-Lisbon cruise recently. They all were happy with their Silversea air arrangements, but I don't know which airlines they flew.

 

SILVERSEA AIR PROGRAMME AND AIR CHARTER PACKAGES DEVIATION, CANCELLATION & ADMINISTRATIVE FEES (the “Fees”)

 

Deviation Charges and Administrative Fee (collectively referred to as the “Fees”) After deposit has been applied to the booking (or final payment, if booking is made inside 90-days), any additional air cost associated with confirmed changes to travel dates, flight schedules and/or airlines will be the responsibility of the guest and relevant fees will be applied to guest’s booking. In addition, for each confirmed change, guests will be charged as follows: USD$150 per person non-refundable administrative fee.

 

All changes to confirmed air schedules at any time prior to departure will incur such fees and charges as the airline supplier may impose and any additional air costs associated with the confirmed changes to travel dates, flight schedules and/or airlines will be the responsibility of the Passengers and relevant fees will be applied to the Passenger’s booking. In addition, Passengers will be charged a non-refundable administrative fee of US$150 per person.

[silkismom]

We are doing ATH RT in Nov, our Delta flts DEN-JFK-ATH are messed up DL canceled the flt from DEN for the day SS booked it and now DL shows we will arrive the day after the ship leaves!! My TA called and they said they are working the flts in order of the cruises. I've looked at flts and there is no way they can get us there on the day of the cruise--I assume they will send us a day earlier, will they pick up the hotel cost?  After 6 tries, this will finally be our first SS cruise. Then there is the Japan RT changed 3X to next Apr--not holding my breath on that one.

 

 

[Stumblefoot]

1 hour ago, Joywrk said:

We are Canadian and it was $185 ca. which is more than 150 US. Suspect it is $175 us

 

$185 CAD ~ $144 USD, not $175.

[Stumblefoot]

15 minutes ago, silkismom said:

I assume they will send us a day earlier, will they pick up the hotel cost?

I imagine they’ll pull you off of DL and go with OneWorld via LHR on BA or Philly on AA in order to avoid paying a one-night hotel charge.

[silkismom]

Gawd, I HATE LHR!!

[alithecat]

I outlined our issues with SS Air, business class, in other posts. We are flying SFO to Santiago in December/January for an Antarctic cruise. SS routed us thru NYC outgoing and Toronto returning. Neither of these is acceptable in the winter months. We were told that if they gave us our preferred flights, thru Houston, it would be an additional $2300pp.

 

Several others replied to my post that they were also given unacceptable routings, for different cruises. The most interesting was a return trip from Bali to Las Vegas, which was routed thru Amsterdam, and took an extra 19 hours if I remember correctly.

 

The issue is that that there are fewer flights now, higher prices, and SS Air has limited contracts with the various airlines. It's a lot safer to use SS Air in this time of Covid-19, but buyer beware.

[silkismom]

Long before the cruise was canceled, we were routed DEN-LHR-NRT--go figure, on the return it was NRT-DEN non stop--basically a trip around the world!!   But then covid hit.

[gcornell]

Thanks again everyone.  So far it sounds like I may be better off seeing what I come up with on my own.  Being in NY, I have a lot of departure airport options.    My experience with SS so far is they are lightning fast at booking the trip and taking deposits but very slow at mostly everything else so eliminating additional back and forth with them will probably offset any additional work taking care of flights on my end.

[taxatty]

15 hours ago, alithecat said:

I outlined our issues with SS Air, business class, in other posts. We are flying SFO to Santiago in December/January for an Antarctic cruise. SS routed us thru NYC outgoing and Toronto returning. Neither of these is acceptable in the winter months. We were told that if they gave us our preferred flights, thru Houston, it would be an additional $2300pp.

 

Several others replied to my post that they were also given unacceptable routings, for different cruises. The most interesting was a return trip from Bali to Las Vegas, which was routed thru Amsterdam, and took an extra 19 hours if I remember correctly.

 

The issue is that that there are fewer flights now, higher prices, and SS Air has limited contracts with the various airlines. It's a lot safer to use SS Air in this time of Covid-19, but buyer beware.

Have you looked at SFO-MIA-SCL and back? The MIA-SCL-MIA flights leave late at night and arrive early in the morning, so you may not need overnight layovers in Miami.

[alithecat]

@taxatty we are booked business class using miles via Houston. There is no overnight layover. The flight leaves late in the evening and arrives early the next morning, same as Miami.

Edited June 22, 2022 by alithecat
entered persons name wrong

[Stumblefoot]

2 hours ago, gcornell said:

My experience with SS so far is they are lightning fast at booking the trip and taking deposits but very slow at mostly everything else…

A very large group of people would agree with you.

[zqtchas]

4 hours ago, taxatty said:

Have you looked at SFO-MIA-SCL and back? The MIA-SCL-MIA flights leave late at night and arrive early in the morning, so you may not need overnight layovers in Miami.

we tried that but is was all taken except for 3 days earlier- in Dec.