Why I Love Silversea Air!

[boccenana]

  3 hours ago, boccenana said:
 

I booked my own travel for our business for many years. It was simpler in the 70's and 80's. 

At this time in our lives we want to feel confident that ALL is taken care of.

 

Our TA's these last few years were so stressed out with covid issues, that I ended up having to do most of the work myself anyway.

 

Since dealing with my great SS agent, all has gone as smooth as can be expected. 

SS Air has tried to accommodate all our wishes, so far.

 

Most definitely worth the extra money for Door to Door with flights upgraded to Business/First.

Comfort and peace of mind are well worth it to us.

 

Elaine 😎

[A Tucson Guy]

4 minutes ago, boccenana said:

  3 hours ago, boccenana said:
 

I booked my own travel for our business for many years. It was simpler in the 70's and 80's. 

At this time in our lives we want to feel confident that ALL is taken care of.

 

Our TA's these last few years were so stressed out with covid issues, that I ended up having to do most of the work myself anyway.

 

Since dealing with my great SS agent, all has gone as smooth as can be expected. 

SS Air has tried to accommodate all our wishes, so far.

 

Most definitely worth the extra money for Door to Door with flights upgraded to Business/First.

Comfort and peace of mind are well worth it to us.

 

Elaine 😎

We have also had very positive results using the SS Air. SS cost to upgrade to Bus Air is still very reasonable but wow, the airfares are really skyrocketing now.

[bobolz]

All worked out for me as well. You can’t beat the BC add on by doing it on your own. See my comments on the post SS air screws up again….they didn’t . At least for me

[boccenana]

2 hours ago, bobolz said:

All worked out for me as well. You can’t beat the BC add on by doing it on your own. See my comments on the post SS air screws up again….they didn’t . At least for me

Those comments were so well put. Do you think I can copy it to this post?

[bobolz]

27 minutes ago, boccenana said:

Those comments were so well put. Do you think I can copy it to this post?

Boccenana- If you can great, I didn’t know how. Thanks! 
 

 

[FlyerTalker]

14 hours ago, boccenana said:

I booked my own travel for our business for many years. It was simpler in the 70's and 80's. 

 

It was far more difficult then.  One had to rely on the paper OAG to research schedules, and pricing was fixed by the government.  There were fewer opportunities to be creative in your travel arrangements.  And then, you needed to be physically ticketed as well.

 

14 hours ago, boccenana said:

At this time in our lives we want to feel confident that ALL is taken care of.

 

You are making a HUGE assumption there.  When you turn over responsibilities to others, you are at the mercy of their competence.

 

14 hours ago, boccenana said:

Comfort and peace of mind are well worth it to us.

 

You are buying the comfort of not doing anything yourself.

 

As for buying peace of mind, IMO that is a FAR different matter.

 

Caveat Emptor.

[dawntrdr]

Some people enjoy the challenge of making their own plans.  But if you make your own plans and something goes wrong, you are the only one to fall back on to fix it.  It's in your lap alone.

 

I have been happy with Silversea air arrangements.  Nevertheless, I look at them carefully and, with connections, I do a little homework to see what the other flights might be available at that airport if there is a problem.  I keep their emergency number, and my CC's number, at hand.  Travel is always subject to risks, regardless of who makes the plans.

[boccenana]

 

We love the planning of our cruises together.

After that, DH wants to know, where, when and how much🤑.

He has been extremely pleased with SS Air. 

 

I too stay on top of the arrangements. Flight Itinerary and Airlines. 

If I see something I am not happy with, I look for better options.

 

SS Air has been excellent "so far" in accommodating the better flights I have found.

Again I remind you, I chose to go with a SS TA.

 

Should our experience with SS Air on future cruises be negative, we will reassess our plans. 

With constant airlines and global changes, you have to hope SS knows best. If not, there are plenty of great new alternatives.

 

But....We love our SS crew members and being spoiled by them. 

Elaine 😎 

 

 

 

[gcornell]

I’ve mentioned this before but would like to add to this new thread.  For my family of 4 upcoming Med cruise I emailed my outside TA 270 days with my first and second choice of flights. Got a response within the day that they honored my request with a small deviation and fare surplus fee totaling I think around 475 a person so my all in was around $11k for 4 Polaris seats direct both ways.  At the time, United had the seats priced at $18,000 or so.  Numbers aren’t exact but close.  Those same seats a few weeks later were $35,000 and have gone as high as $45,000.  I have a google alert set up.  Combined with the giant FCC I had saved up I couldn’t be happier. 

[Gourmet Gal]

On 6/4/2023 at 8:35 AM, gcornell said:

I’ve mentioned this before but would like to add to this new thread.  For my family of 4 upcoming Med cruise I emailed my outside TA 270 days with my first and second choice of flights. Got a response within the day that they honored my request with a small deviation and fare surplus fee totaling I think around 475 a person so my all in was around $11k for 4 Polaris seats direct both ways.  At the time, United had the seats priced at $18,000 or so.  Numbers aren’t exact but close.  Those same seats a few weeks later were $35,000 and have gone as high as $45,000.  I have a google alert set up.  Combined with the giant FCC I had saved up I couldn’t be happier. 

Glad it worked out.  I’m assuming you’re flying from JFK or EWR.  SS can be difficult for folks not flying from major hubs.  

[gcornell]

3 minutes ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Glad it worked out.  I’m assuming you’re flying from JFK or EWR.  SS can be difficult for folks not flying from major hubs.  

EWR. True. That helps a lot with traveling. 

[DCPIV]

We also have had a recent good experience with SS Air regarding scheduling.  At first, they had us on a 5 AM flight on our way home.  While we were willing to go along with that if necessary, our TA was able to work out with them a much more reasonable time (around noonish) at no additional cost and no additional legs.  We're quite pleased.

[boccenana]

6 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Glad it worked out.  I’m assuming you’re flying from JFK or EWR.  SS can be difficult for folks not flying from major hubs.  

So far we have been able to fly from Tucson to a hub with SS Air. 

With Door to Door no Blacklane Limo to pick us up in Tucson, even though it's well within the 50 mile radius . They did give us a credit to purchase transportation.

[bobolz]

As stated earlier and on another thread, my SS air experience was very good. I got non stop BC seats, including seat assignments, and reasonable departure times, but also flew out of a major US hub that had daily flights to LHR, I think that makes a big differences where you fly to/from as to whether your experience is satisfactory or not.
 I thought I would share my recent experience with Oceania’s air options just for a comparison . They don’t book the air until 75 days before the cruise, although you can pay a fee of about $200 per person for them to reserve the air ~225 days out  and per your desired route/times. I believe you don’t have to pay the fee if you don’t accept their selected flights, at which point you can remove the air from your booking. For this particular cruise I selected and since it is traveling within the US, the air credit for economy would be approx the price if I purchased on my own. However, if I wanted them to book it now, I would have had to pay them an additional $200 pp, or wait until 75 days out and hope they booked my desired flight.  If this were an overseas trip, I would have to pay the additional $200 pp to have them book in advance on top of a price that would have been much higher than SS ‘s BC upgrade charge.  So I see SS air options/policy, especially for BC upgrade, far superior to Oceania’s . I can’t say what the other luxury lines offer for air booking policies/options, but I would prefer the cruise line booking my air 220+ days out versus me booking that far out and incurring the cost and the risk … just my thoughts. 

Edited June 7, 2023 by bobolz

[FlyerTalker]

56 minutes ago, bobolz said:

I would prefer the cruise line booking my air 220+ days out versus me booking that far out and incurring the cost and the risk … just my thoughts. 

 

I hear comments like this about the "risk" involved.  Just what are those "risks" that cruiseline air mitigates that you would stay exposed to with self-arranged air?  Given the major changes that airlines have made in change policies and flight credits, I wonder if they are as great as in pre-covid years.

 

 

[Gourmet Gal]

I think one advantage is that your airfare is refundable and changeable up to a certain window without penalty. 

[canderson]

Part love, part frustration here.  It'll be our first experience with SS's air group.

 

Love:

If they deliver on it without changing it again (without notice to me or my TA), the itinerary they have finally chosen for us couldn't be improved upon at all.  Would have been my own first choice.  787-9 in Polaris class from DEN to LHR.  Sweet way to fly.  Then with a decent time to turn around in LHR, a short first class TAP flight from LHR to Lisbon.  Leaves late in the day DEN time which allows for dinner and then possibly some real sleep during the flight, and arrives late afternoon Lisbon time, so no need to figure out how to stay awake for an extra few hours after arrival.  Unpack, have dinner, and crash.  As I say, couldn't possibly have asked for better.

 

Frustration:

• No direct phone connection unless it's a day-of emergency.  We're accustomed to more direct contact than that.  Going back and forth on hold while the folks answering the main number bounce questions back and forth to the air group is not only inefficient, it also leads to errors (remember the old kid's game "Telephone"?)
• No record locators available for flights 6 months out, ostensibly because "the flights might change".  Locators don't change for changed flights, just changed airlines, and you can't get an itinerary like the one above - or anything even remotely resembling it - from any other airline out of DEN than UA.
• Previous itinerary 'discovered' on the my.SS website was just OK, but we'd take it.  The frustration on this note comes from the fact that the itinerary changed (for the better, I'll grant) without any notification to either me or my TA.  This could continue to happen right up until the day of departure for all I know.  They need to up their communications practices in that regard.
• Because we're going in 4 days ahead instead of 3, they insist on a $150 pp 'deviation charge'.  They knew from the beginning that we were going in 4 early, but their entire hotel/air system is geared to no more than 3 days early without other charges and complications starting to kick in.  Not SS Air's fault, but it seems SS is unable to reserve their hotel for more than 3 nights at any price.

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by canderson
typoz

[canderson]

2 minutes ago, canderson said:

Weird duplicate.  Ignore.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by canderson

[1straveler]

This is my first cruise with Silversea after 40+ cruises, primarily with Seabourn. I was interested in reading so many positive experiences with Silverair when my experience has not been positive. We paid for upgraded flights and all seemed to go well until I checked my flight on the Icelandair website and found I was in premium economy. I had my agent contact SS to find out why I was not in Business since that is what I paid for. They first said they could not accommodate because their contract was with Icelandair who doesn’t have Business Class, I think it’s called Saga, so what. My response was if you can’t accommodate,  schedule my flight through another city where I can get business class on a larger Icelandair plane. Against the rules, can’t do that. Rather than go through the back and forth which occurred several times, we got no satisfaction and SS became more adamant that they weren’t going to do anything. My cruise is in 5 weeks and I doubt it will be resolved. All I want is the international business class seating I paid for.

left unresolved it will be my only sailing with Silversea.

[QueSeraSera]

so far all has worked well for our July cruise in Scandinavia.

flights booked by Ss air business class with Lufthansa and SAS

[boccenana]

That's why for our last cruise, next cruise and all future cruises, I will,only book through my SS agent. 

Elaine 😎 

 

[bobolz]

On 6/7/2023 at 8:00 PM, FlyerTalker said:

 

I hear comments like this about the "risk" involved.  Just what are those "risks" that cruiseline air mitigates that you would stay exposed to with self-arranged air?  Given the major changes that airlines have made in change policies and flight credits, I wonder if they are as great as in pre-covid years.

 

 

Flyer 

 

the risk with doing it on your own is having to pay out of pocket for the BC ticket 220 + days in advance (a non refundable ticket ) versus SS booking it 220 days in advance for sometimes $1000-$1500 less for BC and refundable up to 60 days out(or whenever they ticket it) which provides flexibility  if there are any changes to itinerary or I decide to make a change  due to unforeseen circumstances.

 

 

[toolworker]

Why I Hate Silversea Air (Spoiler alert: Price gouging)

 

We're saving $2,900pp by booking our own refundable Business air.

 

On our cruise to Asia, Silversea purports to offer "Business Class upgrade at reduced rates." Their idea of reduced rates is a $7,000pp supplement.

 

I booked us on EVA Air for about $5,600pp, refundable less about $150pp, saving $2,900pp including the $1,500 Economy air allowance.

 

We could have saved more if Silversea had offered Port-to-Port on our itinerary. But they don't.

[FlyerTalker]

58 minutes ago, toolworker said:

I booked us on EVA Air for about $5,600pp, refundable less about $150pp, saving $2,900pp including the $1,500 Economy air allowance.

 

Hope you get the Hello Kitty aircraft.

 

 

[QueSeraSera]