when does Silver sea book airfare?

[alolewis]

Booked on Silver Wind August 8, Kangerlussuaq to Kangerlussuag.  Paid for Business class upgrade but not Air Deviation. As of today the flights are not in My Silversea.  On our previous bookings on Silversea that were cancelled due to COVID the flights were on the My bookings.  Does anyone know how far in advance Silversea books flight?

 

Second question I noticed that the cheapest business class is on Icelandic air but no lie flat seats/beds.  The flights with lie flat seat beds are about double.  Would you suggest I do air deviation, would Silversea charge the much higher airfare?

Thank you.  This is our first time on Silversea.  I am hoping we don;t get so spoiled we never want to go back to Princess or Celebrity.

[Gourmet Gal]

Air deviation is usually not that much, perhaps a few hundred dollars but my experience lately with Silver Air is that they don’t have access  to inventory on some major airlines.  Recently I declined their offer and  booked on my own. But it’s good to be proactive and in conversation with them or through your TA to communicate your preferred routing and airlines ahead of the booking window.  
 

Doesn’t Delta fly to Iceland?

[Lvshack]

On 1/23/2022 at 9:30 PM, alolewis said:

Booked on Silver Wind August 8, Kangerlussuaq to Kangerlussuag.  Paid for Business class upgrade but not Air Deviation. As of today the flights are not in My Silversea.  On our previous bookings on Silversea that were cancelled due to COVID the flights were on the My bookings.  Does anyone know how far in advance Silversea books flight?

 

Second question I noticed that the cheapest business class is on Icelandic air but no lie flat seats/beds.  The flights with lie flat seat beds are about double.  Would you suggest I do air deviation, would Silversea charge the much higher airfare?

Thank you.  This is our first time on Silversea.  I am hoping we don;t get so spoiled we never want to go back to Princess or Celebrity.

Oh you will !!! You may never look back ... 😉Just ask Lois!!!

[A Tucson Guy]

On my July 2022 cruise, the bus air bookings showed up last Dec. My Nov. 2022 bus air has not shown up yet. Both cruises are paid in full.

[scottjeanne]

I was told they book air about 90 days out.  We had our flight confirmation and seats in December for an end of February cruise.

[FlyerTalker]

18 minutes ago, scottjeanne said:

I was told they book air about 90 days out.  We had our flight confirmation and seats in December for an end of February cruise.

 

Remember that having a "flight confirmation" does NOT mean that you are actually ticketed.

 

The six character locator does not indicate ticketing.

 

Only when you have a 13 digit ticket number are you actually ticketed for your flight.

[scottjeanne]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Remember that having a "flight confirmation" does NOT mean that you are actually ticketed.

 

The six character locator does not indicate ticketing.

 

Only when you have a 13 digit ticket number are you actually ticketed for your flight.

I agree, when we booked the cruise, they gave us flights, but the flights were not yet booked with the airlines.  Ticketed usually occurs 90 days prior.

[bohaiboy]

In regards to Iceland Air, the biz class seats are more like domestic first.  I am 6'6" and was pretty miserable.  If you get an Iceland air from east coast, NY or Boston, flight time is less and makes it more tolerable.  We flew from Denver and will not do it again on IA.

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, bohaiboy said:

We flew from Denver and will not do it again on IA.

 

Just as a matter of reference, in the industry, Icelandair has the code of FI.

 

IA is Iraqi Airways.

[cruiseej]

10 hours ago, scottjeanne said:

I was told they book air about 90 days out.

 

It's often earlier than that, especially for business class seats. For our December 2021 Antarctica cruise (which was cancelled... sigh), our seats were booked in March 2021 — 9 months in advance. 

[dawntrdr]

My air booking for a cruise in September just appeared on MySS - 8 months in advance.  To compare, the air showing as booked for a cruise on March 31 (63 days from now) is not yet ticketed.  My experience is that the actual ticketing occurs 4 to 6 weeks before the cruise, and on the shorter side of that during Covid because air schedules are changing all the time.

[FlyerTalker]

38 minutes ago, dawntrdr said:

My air booking for a cruise in September just appeared on MySS - 8 months in advance.  To compare, the air showing as booked for a cruise on March 31 (63 days from now) is not yet ticketed.  My experience is that the actual ticketing occurs 4 to 6 weeks before the cruise, and on the shorter side of that during Covid because air schedules are changing all the time.

'

A very good thing to remember.  Booking means bupkis.  It's actual ticketing that you really need, because until then, you are merely a request for a ticket.

 

Those "bookings" are little more than placeholders, subject to change at almost any time, for almost any reason.

[cruiseej]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

Booking means bupkis.  It's actual ticketing that you really need, because until then, you are merely a request for a ticket. Those "bookings" are little more than placeholders, subject to change at almost any time, for almost any reason.

 

That's definitely not my experience. The booking is a firm reservation. Once you obtain the record locator number, you can log onto the airline's website and select/change your seating (some airlines allow this on unticketed bookings, some don't). Of course, airlines can change flight schedules, and can change equipment. So it's not unusual that a booking made 8-9 months in advance will have at least one  minor (hopefully) change in flight time; if the airline changes from a 767 to a 777 or A330, then seat assignments can change. In the current Covid era of travel, these types of changes happen more frequently than in the past, as airlines juggle flight schedules and equipment to try to match demand and crew availability. As noted above, the cruise lines actually pay the airline to finalize the tickets about 4-6 weeks in advance of travel. If all cruise line air bookings "mean nothing at all", very few people would use the cruise line to book their air tickets — and that's just not the case. 

[Gourmet Gal]

16 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

It's often earlier than that, especially for business class seats. For our December 2021 Antarctica cruise (which was cancelled... sigh), our seats were booked in March 2021 — 9 months in advance. 

For our late Sept. 2022 cruise my T/A inquired and asked for certain flights at the end of Dec. and SS Air came back with options right away.  More than 9 months out.  It pays to be proactive though in this case the options were so unsatisfactory we booked our own flights and received the flight credit back.  In the event that this could happen to you it’s best to start inquiring early so if you end up booking on your own there will still be some good flights available.

[WesW]

Per our TA, now with Covid/Omicron Silver Air is not ticketing flights until 35 days prior due to possible changes.

 

I have flights for April on the Silver Dawn and can't select seats on outbound flight, tho booked with record locater.  Still waiting for Silver Air to respond to upcharge on the inbound flights, since I do not like Silver Air's Choice.

 

In the past with Silversea on over a dozen cruises, sometimes when booked have been able to select seats, other times not until ticketed.

[alolewis]

Silversea booked our tickets, not optimal as going on SAS, changing in Copenhagen, returning on Lufthansa changing in Frankfurt.  Our travel agent tried to get us changed to Delta, changing in JFK but Silversea said not available at the contract rate.  Purchasing on Delta would be $12000 roundtrip each. I said the booked tickets are doable but does add time to the journey.  This for a round trip San Francisco to Reykjavik. 

 

How do you get your record locator number for the air as the "details: in My Silversea only shows flights and times, no locator number.

Edited February 2, 2022 by alolewis
add information

[taxatty]

3 hours ago, alolewis said:

Silversea booked our tickets, not optimal as going on SAS, changing in Copenhagen, returning on Lufthansa changing in Frankfurt.  Our travel agent tried to get us changed to Delta, changing in JFK but Silversea said not available at the contract rate.  Purchasing on Delta would be $12000 roundtrip each. I said the booked tickets are doable but does add time to the journey.  This for a round trip San Francisco to Reykjavik. 

 

How do you get your record locator number for the air as the "details: in My Silversea only shows flights and times, no locator number.

If you put in your flight and personal information (or possibly your e-ticket numbers, which SS can give you) on the SAS and Lufthansa web sites you should see your airline record locators for the flights --at least that's how it worked with AA.

Edited February 3, 2022 by taxatty

[cruiseej]

Your travel agent can get the record locator numbers even if you can't yet on My Silversea. There is no e-ticket number until the booking is ticketed, probably about 3-5 weeks prior to the flight. 

[Oldiesfan]

On 1/23/2022 at 4:30 PM, alolewis said:

Booked on Silver Wind August 8, Kangerlussuaq to Kangerlussuag.  Paid for Business class upgrade but not Air Deviation. As of today the flights are not in My Silversea.  On our previous bookings on Silversea that were cancelled due to COVID the flights were on the My bookings.  Does anyone know how far in advance Silversea books flight?

 

Second question I noticed that the cheapest business class is on Icelandic air but no lie flat seats/beds.  The flights with lie flat seat beds are about double.  Would you suggest I do air deviation, would Silversea charge the much higher airfare?

Thank you.  This is our first time on Silversea.  I am hoping we don;t get so spoiled we never want to go back to Princess or Celebrity.

 

On 2/3/2022 at 12:02 AM, cruiseej said:

Your travel agent can get the record locator numbers even if you can't yet on My Silversea. There is no e-ticket number until the booking is ticketed, probably about 3-5 weeks prior to the flight. 

We booked Business thru SS for a March 2022 cruise.  We were allowed, per airline regs. to request our flights 321 days prior to the scheduled RETURN date.  The problem, as we discovered in these uncertain times, is that flights get changed or cancelled, we are now on our 3rd booking for this trip and 3rd air carrier.  SS has been great in helping find alternate routings that are on airlines that are acceptable to us but YOU need to stay on top of it with your SS consultant because SS Air team does not always notify you of the change or cancellation.  Also, we found out the hard way that while the will reserve and confirm your flights they dont pay for  them and get tickets issued until 30 - 60 days from the start date to avoid cancellation charges from the airline.  We still had the all the flights show up in the My Silversea details section - just need to be diligent.

[Oldiesfan]

If you stay on them they can book and confirm the flights as early as 321 days before the scheduled return but they dont pay the airlines or get tickets issued until inside of 60 days to departure so the confirmed resv. can be at risk for cancellation.  Need to stay on top of it with your contact at SS.  Ask specific questions via email and preserve the response if it does not work out as promised.

[FlyerTalker]

On 1/27/2022 at 10:51 AM, cruiseej said:

That's definitely not my experience. The booking is a firm reservation.

 

On 2/5/2022 at 9:48 AM, Oldiesfan said:

If you stay on them they can book and confirm the flights as early as 321 days before the scheduled return but they dont pay the airlines or get tickets issued until inside of 60 days to departure so the confirmed resv. can be at risk for cancellation.

 

And that sums it up.  You can be "booked" with that "firm reservation", but you aren't ticketed.  Until you are.  And that locator does not show "ticketed".  (And the 'I can select my seats' is just a red herring)

[jimdee3636]

I hope this isn't too much off-topic, but does the fact that Silversea is now part of Royal Caribbean give Silversea access to more airlines, better routes, lower priced-upgrades, etc.? We just booked a Cloud expedition to Greenland in September, 2023 where we'll be fling to Reykjavik and flying home from Halifax. The cruise sounds great, but I get the sense that the air options (or lack of options) could be a problem.

[sherylc]

1 hour ago, jimdee3636 said:

I hope this isn't too much off-topic, but does the fact that Silversea is now part of Royal Caribbean give Silversea access to more airlines, better routes, lower priced-upgrades, etc.? We just booked a Cloud expedition to Greenland in September, 2023 where we'll be fling to Reykjavik and flying home from Halifax. The cruise sounds great, but I get the sense that the air options (or lack of options) could be a problem.

You could look at flights yourself when they come out (330 days before) and compare price of doing it yourself vs the amount they would give you in air credit. For us, we saved about $2000 for business air booking ourselves and got to choose the best routes. 

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, jimdee3636 said:

I hope this isn't too much off-topic, but does the fact that Silversea is now part of Royal Caribbean give Silversea access to more airlines, better routes, lower priced-upgrades, etc.?

 

 

 

Completely depends on what RC decides to do in regard to their internal procedures on air.  Given that few RC sailings "include air", it may be operationally better for them to keep their air products separate, with a distinct SS air department.  Eliminates confusion over what belongs with what.

 

 

1 hour ago, jimdee3636 said:

We just booked a Cloud expedition to Greenland in September, 2023 where we'll be fling to Reykjavik and flying home from Halifax. The cruise sounds great, but I get the sense that the air options (or lack of options) could be a problem.

 

You make it sound as if it you are flying in/out of the end of the world.  You will find more options into KEF than you will from YHZ.  What SS may have on contract for late 2023 is a complete guess.