Silversea Air Screws Up Again

[Port Power]

9 hours ago, bohaiboy said:

Blacklane should allow  you a range of dates to book surrounding your cruise dates.  Read your email and BL website more carefully. You can select different dates, not etched in stone.  If we have an early morning flight, we just have BS pick us up the day before and we stay at a hotel near airport.  Never an issue.

 

I was not given a range of dates originally.  That was the problem.  I did read the email very carefully.  Blacklane made a mistake.

Blacklane admitted they made a mistake and they have now rectified it.  The departure dates now available are from April 14-May 13, and the return dates from May 30 to June 30.  Following an apology email, a lady rang from the Philippines to go through booking my transfers with me.  I booked correctly, but then she altered the airport to Perth International!  It took her two tries to fix it back to T4 Perth Airport!

 

The above is lovely and shows good service.  If only she hadn’t called me at 12:30am!

[MrsWaldo]

Positive for my flight options,,,,

 

Exactly what I would have booked, but they have me arriving a day later than my SS precruise hotel is booked for.

 

Well they have 10 months to fix it.

 

 

 

 

[ging466]

My SS rep asked me if I wanted a few extra days before embarking, I said no and then they booked me Singapore Airlines with a 1 hour connection in SIN. I said no way can I do a 1 hour connection in SIN so they changed it to another flight and I now have a 4 hour connection in SIN. I'm much happier about that!

Flights are in my SQ app and all they need now is to be ticketed after I pay the remainder of the trip.

Crossing my fingers that it all goes to plan.

 

Cheers

Jennifer

[Host Jazzbeau]

6 minutes ago, ging466 said:

My SS rep asked me if I wanted a few extra days before embarking, I said no and then they booked me Singapore Airlines with a 1 hour connection in SIN. I said no way can I do a 1 hour connection in SIN so they changed it to another flight and I now have a 4 hour connection in SIN. I'm much happier about that!

Flights are in my SQ app and all they need now is to be ticketed after I pay the remainder of the trip.

Crossing my fingers that it all goes to plan.

 

Cheers

Jennifer

That sounds very good – but it still wouldn't work for me.  I read every review on SeatGuru and I want to pick the best seats – these long flights are excruciating at best, so I want to make it the least painful I can.  That's why I decided to switch from D2D to P2P and book my own flights.  Almost 9 months to embarkation and I am ticketed and my seats are set  – priceless!

[saminina]

"I suggest you book D2D in future and take the air credit."  So says the SS rep for the upcoming cruise.

$150 deviation fee for (my choice) airport no longer available.  The process has been painful and confusing.  It's aggravation I do not need and I really have no need to do future bookings with SS.

 

For different reasons, goodbye SS and SB.  Too many new/different options.

[Gourmet Gal]

On 5/6/2023 at 7:38 PM, saminina said:

"I suggest you book D2D in future and take the air credit."  So says the SS rep for the upcoming cruise.

$150 deviation fee for (my choice) airport no longer available.  The process has been painful and confusing.  It's aggravation I do not need and I really have no need to do future bookings with SS.

 

For different reasons, goodbye SS and SB.  Too many new/different options.

Are you saying the policy no longer allows deviation or just in your case?

[saminina]

RNO is one of many that have been dropped from list of less than major airports they would serve for deviation fee.     Believable?   Just reporting what was told by agent.

[MrsWaldo]

Update on my situation.

 

Flight dates switched easily and I asked for upgrade to PE price.

 

Checked online booking direct for me and the upgrade cost is exactly the same difference I see.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to easily select seats...

[canderson]

Q for those who have been down this road before -- this is our first:

 

When there are changes to flight itinerary, does SS normally notify either the guest or the travel agent?  Just found that we have had ours changed entirely, but only discovered it by accident as I was in our SS reservation online today.  Actually turned out to be a better pair of flights as regards schedule (and Polaris class on a 787-9 rather than on the older 757 setup), but notice of such changes would certainly be appreciated.

 

Ah, and edit to ask:  At what point to we get record locators, and perhaps seat assignment information?

Edited May 28, 2023 by canderson

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

10 minutes ago, canderson said:

Q for those who have been down this road before -- this is our first:

 

When there are changes to flight itinerary, does SS normally notify either the guest or the travel agent?  Just found that we have had ours changed entirely, but only discovered it by accident as I was in our SS reservation online today.  Actually turned out to be a better pair of flights as regards schedule (and Polaris class on a 787-9 rather than on the older 757 setup), but notice of such changes would certainly be appreciated.

 

Ah, and edit to ask:  At what point to we get record locators, and perhaps seat assignment information?

My experience has been that Silversea does not notify you of flight itinerary changes.  If you booked directly with Silversea, your Rep won’t notify you either.  If you book thru a Travel Agent , you stand a better chance of getting notified.  I monitor our booking on my.Silversea often to keep up with any changes that may occur.   Once the flights are assigned, I request the record locator from our Rep (he doesn’t offer it on his own).  I can then look up the flights on the airlines website and change the seats.  We usually fly United but some airlines won’t allow you to choose your own seat right away.  If you have a flight with connections that are codeshared with another airline, you may also have a problem changing your seat with the codeshared airline.  

[Lois R]

6 hours ago, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

My experience has been that Silversea does not notify you of flight itinerary changes.  If you booked directly with Silversea, your Rep won’t notify you either.  If you book thru a Travel Agent , you stand a better chance of getting notified.  I monitor our booking on my.Silversea often to keep up with any changes that may occur.   Once the flights are assigned, I request the record locator from our Rep (he doesn’t offer it on his own).  I can then look up the flights on the airlines website and change the seats.  We usually fly United but some airlines won’t allow you to choose your own seat right away.  If you have a flight with connections that are codeshared with another airline, you may also have a problem changing your seat with the codeshared airline.  

I agree. I continually check my flights and have always found any changes on my own. 

[canderson]

6 hours ago, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

My experience has been that Silversea does not notify you of flight itinerary changes.  If you booked directly with Silversea, your Rep won’t notify you either.  If you book thru a Travel Agent , you stand a better chance of getting notified.  I monitor our booking on my.Silversea often to keep up with any changes that may occur.   Once the flights are assigned, I request the record locator from our Rep (he doesn’t offer it on his own).  I can then look up the flights on the airlines website and change the seats.  We usually fly United but some airlines won’t allow you to choose your own seat right away.  If you have a flight with connections that are codeshared with another airline, you may also have a problem changing your seat with the codeshared airline.  

Thanks for the forewarning.   I'll request the locators for both the UA and TP flights.

 

Yes, I'm very familiar with Star Alliance and code share issues.  We'll be direct DEN to LHR on UA, but the LHR to Lisbon leg is a TAP Portugal codeshare, and I fully expect a seat assignment hassle there if it works like my usual Lufthansa experiences. 

[canderson]

While I'm in SS air mode this morning ... more newbie questions.

 

We have opted for the SS business class upgrade - at today's prices, it's now a real bargain vs. back when we booked it.  That's a bonus on the DEN to LHR leg since United's 787-9 service out of Denver has no business class.  United has shifted to combined business/first service (Polaris class) on those aircraft. 

 

But the two subsequent legs from LHR to Lisbon and the return from from FLL to DEN (it's a TA cruise) are on two class aircraft (economy + first, no business).  What seats is SS likely to arrange for us on THOSE legs? 

 

[FlyerTalker]

56 minutes ago, canderson said:

But the two subsequent legs from LHR to Lisbon and the return from from FLL to DEN (it's a TA cruise) are on two class aircraft (economy + first, no business).  What seats is SS likely to arrange for us on THOSE legs? 

 

 

Just remember that intra-Europe "first" or "business" is usually nothing more than a blocked middle seat, with a meal and beverage.  No extra legroom or different seats.

 

AKA a glorified coach experience.

 

 

[fdnycruiser]

Can’t say for sure on LHR to LIS as mentioned above that intra Europe is a different animal. FLL to DEN will be in first . Not to be redundant, but as Lois has noted, keep checking for flight changes on your own. I’d also add to check for aircraft changes too. I always download the app of the airlines we’re flying, and check it frequently.

[canderson]

9 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Just remember that intra-Europe "first" or "business" is usually nothing more than a blocked middle seat, with a meal and beverage.  No extra legroom or different seats.

 

AKA a glorified coach experience.

 

 

Yes, I'm familiar with that having spent a fair bit of time on EU aircraft over the years.  But that won't apply in this particular case as there isn't a business class offering of any sort on the TAP flight, just Economy and Executive, and the aircraft does have four rows of 'first class' up front for the latter.  So I'm still wondering what kind of seat SS will book on that leg.

[canderson]

3 minutes ago, fdnycruiser said:

Can’t say for sure on LHR to LIS as mentioned above that intra Europe is a different animal. FLL to DEN will be in first . Not to be redundant, but as Lois has noted, keep checking for flight changes on your own. I’d also add to check for aircraft changes too. I always download the app of the airlines we’re flying, and check it frequently.

Once (if) I can get the record locators from SS, I'll definitely add those to my booked trips in the UA app which MIGHT help, but perhaps not if SS changes the entire itinerary again, perhaps to one with yet a different locator number.  UA certainly has no record of this trip associated with my account so far.  I don't yet have any visibility as to what the SS musical chairs situation looks like from the airline side.  Will make a point of requesting locators ASAP.

 

Thanks for the good news on the FLL to DEN leg.  It's a bummer to have the very last leg of an otherwise first class vacation finish with 3-1/2 hours in the back of the bus.

[mchell810]

As others have reported SS won't notify of changes, so I always request the locator number so I can add it to my airline account and monitor flights myself.  Also, you should be able to change the seat selection if you want to. 

[canderson]

47 minutes ago, mchell810 said:

As others have reported SS won't notify of changes, so I always request the locator number so I can add it to my airline account and monitor flights myself.  Also, you should be able to change the seat selection if you want to. 

When you're dealing with a Star Alliance overseas codeshare that starts with a North American partner (e.g., United or Air Canada), changing seats or upgrading on the European airline that handles the EU leg(s) is often quite an exercise.  With Lufthansa, I can NEVER get it to work online, even with the second Lufthansa-specific locator in hand, and always have to call them.  I don't imagine that TAP will be any easier.

Edited May 28, 2023 by canderson

[boccenana]

Having same experience with TAP Portugal Airlines. Cannot pickseats even with confirmation number.

[mchell810]

57 minutes ago, canderson said:

When you're dealing with a Star Alliance overseas codeshare that starts with a North American partner (e.g., United or Air Canada), changing seats or upgrading on the European airline that handles the EU leg(s) is often quite an exercise.  With Lufthansa, I can NEVER get it to work online, even with the second Lufthansa-specific locator in hand, and always have to call them.  I don't imagine that TAP will be any easier.

 

Agreed, changing seats on a codeshare can be difficult or impossible.  I have been avoiding them just for that reason.  I thought SS was as well as my flights have not included them in lately; perhaps I just got lucky.

[boccenana]

😇Lucky!

[saminina]

Called LH last week to change seats MUC-LAX on UA codeshare.   Could not have been more efficient changing from window to middle aisle on 2-2-2 configuration.   Am I happy with SS Air?  No.   But happy that the various airlines have been helpful obtaining desired seating.   Original seat assignments on five flights had to be improved.

[canderson]

11 minutes ago, saminina said:

Called LH last week to change seats MUC-LAX on UA codeshare.   Could not have been more efficient changing from window to middle aisle on 2-2-2 configuration.   Am I happy with SS Air?  No.   But happy that the various airlines have been helpful obtaining desired seating.   Original seat assignments on five flights had to be improved.

That's wild.  My last experience was in late '22.  I had purchased business class DEN-FRA (United) -BCN (Lufthansa) from United for 4 of us, then had to call Lufthansa to get us together in seating since there were no seats assigned.  Their web site wouldn't let me even look at seats because they said I was booked in basic economy where no seats may be moved to begin with, and had a major headache dealing with their U.S. reps on the phone.  Glad you had better luck.

[boccenana]

Has anyone ever called TAP Portugal?

Any luck with them?