Need help - Silversea Air Arrangement Question

[AndieSF]

@alithecat - Thank you for confirming!  I wish I knew sooner!  I am researching for my flights now...  it is not going to be easy since everything went up by 50-70%.  Thank you for sharing your insights! 

 

@kimanjo - Good idea!  I will book a room in both MO and Ritz with fully cancellable.  And I will do the same with the airport Holiday Inn (for the departure day).  

 

 

[kimanjo]

3 hours ago, AndieSF said:

@alithecat - Thank you for confirming!  I wish I knew sooner!  I am researching for my flights now...  it is not going to be easy since everything went up by 50-70%.  Thank you for sharing your insights! 

 

@kimanjo - Good idea!  I will book a room in both MO and Ritz with fully cancellable.  And I will do the same with the airport Holiday Inn (for the departure day).  

 

 

 

I know it helps me feel a little less stressed to be over-prepared.  With a Plan A, Plan B etc... Reservations, contingency plans, bookings.

It is such a complicated, bucket list cruise, I just couldn't "wing it.  

[cruiseej]

@AndieSF Sorry I missed this thread over the holiday weekend and just caught up to it now. I can echo many of the comments you've seen from @alithecat about booking air... although we ended up with a favorable outcome.

 

We're going to Antartica in December and had paid to upgrade the included SS economy air to business class after our cruise last year was canceled. A year ago, they booked our air in March for the December trip; this year, our travel agent reported that they weren't booking air — even custom/deviation air plans — until closer to the cruise because of the never-ending changes in airline schedules. (Although, I should note, that there are three major nonstops between the US and Santiago daily — from Miami on American, from Atlanta on Delta, and from Houston on United — and those flights have not been changing like domestic flights and other international destinations with multiple flights per day.

 

One day, I noticed our flights were listed on the Silversea website: an early morning flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta, an 8 hour layover in Atlanta, and evening flight from Atlanta to Miami, with a tight 50-minute connection to the flight to Santiago. Crazy! Especially since there are multiple nonstop flights from PHL to MIA every day, and our TA had in fact submitted a request for a PHL-MIA-SCL routing. Our TA got in touch with Silversea Air — which she noted they can only do via email these days, instead of calling as they always had in the past — and a few days later, our requested flights replaced the awful ones. (We've found it very advantageous on multiple occasions to be working with an experienced luxury cruise TA rather than directly with the cruise line.)

 

We also decided to fly a day early due to the uncertainty of east coast winter weather and airline problems. I was going to book on our own for the extra night at the MO, but ended up booking through SS. Booking on my own was about $330 at the time, versus $420 on SS. Booking the hotel through SS gets you an included airport transfer, so that gets back part of the $90. But more importantly, because of the hotel booking, SS didn't charge a flight deviation fee for flying a day early (and giving us our requested flights) — so we actually came out ahead booking the extra hotel night through SS. So, for now at least, it's a happy resolution for us. (But after having had our planned Antartica cruise canceled each of the past two years, I know we're still a long way from crossing the finish line!)

 

I don't know why they seemingly allow their computer system to select the cheapest fare, no matter how little the routing makes sense, and then have to deal with unhappy customers and TAs hammering them for changes. I also don't know why they don't confirm which hotel they are using, since they clearly have a block of rooms on hold. Sigh. 😉

[goletans]

We just found out the SS is not offering any air on our cruise from Brisbane to Singapore, so we're on our own. We really want the safety net that comes with SS booking the fights. Business Class air is showing at ~ $8300 pp. Sadly, we're really considering canceling the cruise that we booked over a year ago.

[Brownie54]

Cruiseej

Thank you for all of your information. We are booked on a Silversea Antarctica trip in January of 2024, so I’m sure this will be very useful.

In addition to the direct flights from the U.S. to Santiago that you mentioned, I believe there is also an AA direct flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Santiago.

[kimanjo]

1 hour ago, Brownie54 said:

Cruiseej

Thank you for all of your information. We are booked on a Silversea Antarctica trip in January of 2024, so I’m sure this will be very useful.

In addition to the direct flights from the U.S. to Santiago that you mentioned, I believe there is also an AA direct flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Santiago.

 

That AA DFW-SCL is the one we took in November 2021 Antarctic cruise.  I believe the non-stop cities to SCL are  MIA  DFW  LAX  ATL. ( AA and DELTA) Our return was thru Houston (UNITED) not sure if that is running?  So,  in the winter, heading from home to connect in one of those airports is better than having to connect into "snow" city ie. CHI, MSP BOS.

Edited July 8, 2022 by kimanjo

[cruiseej]

1 hour ago, Brownie54 said:

In addition to the direct flights from the U.S. to Santiago that you mentioned, I believe there is also an AA direct flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Santiago.

 

You're correct, there's an American flight from DFW. It never came top in my flight searches back a few months ago, with travel originating in PHL, but it does now. I don't know if they added it to the schedule more recently, or it just didn't come up for me. (Flying from PHL, it's longer air travel to fly west to Dallas and back east to Santiago than going due south from Miami.) And there's also the previously mentioned American flight from New York (JFK). 

[AndieSF]

@cruiseejThank you for your info!  I had another week of saga with Silversea.  I advised them that I was going to make my own air arrangement, but they tried to accommodate, and changed the outbound flights from  SFO - JFK (5 hr layover) -SCL on American, to SFO - HOU - SCL on United. (Return was still SCL - DFW - SFO on American).  At first I was able to see the flights on my United.com, but by mid of last week the United flights completely disappeared.  I tried to contact my Silversea rep, who never replied to my emails and phone calls for few days, then later got an out of the office email stating he will be out for 10 days.  I reached out to the reps, and I was told "your inquiry has been submitted to our air department, which will require 72 business hours before they can get back to you"

Having no direct access to the air agents is extremely frustrating.  I don't know WHY Silversea is operating this way.  Other cruise lines that I have been with (Azamara, Vikings, Regent) were far less painful.

 

We made the mistake of booking this trip with Silversea direct... Maybe we made the mistake going with Silversea in general?

Our trip is first week of December this year... too late to change to another cruiseline...

 

So after 4 months of dealing with them,  our air is still unkown.

 

 

 

 

[jimdee3636]

@AndieSF

Why is it "too late to change to another cruise line"? You haven't reached the final payment date yet, have you? I'm not necessarily saying you should cancel, but if you did you wouldn't be losing much. Are all other options for Antarctica completely sold out?

[kimanjo]

7 hours ago, AndieSF said:

@cruiseejThank you for your info!  I had another week of saga with Silversea.  I advised them that I was going to make my own air arrangement, but they tried to accommodate, and changed the outbound flights from  SFO - JFK (5 hr layover) -SCL on American, to SFO - HOU - SCL on United. (Return was still SCL - DFW - SFO on American).  At first I was able to see the flights on my United.com, but by mid of last week the United flights completely disappeared.  I tried to contact my Silversea rep, who never replied to my emails and phone calls for few days, then later got an out of the office email stating he will be out for 10 days.  I reached out to the reps, and I was told "your inquiry has been submitted to our air department, which will require 72 business hours before they can get back to you"

Having no direct access to the air agents is extremely frustrating.  I don't know WHY Silversea is operating this way.  Other cruise lines that I have been with (Azamara, Vikings, Regent) were far less painful.

 

We made the mistake of booking this trip with Silversea direct... Maybe we made the mistake going with Silversea in general?

Our trip is first week of December this year... too late to change to another cruiseline...

 

So after 4 months of dealing with them,  our air is still unkown.

 

 

 

 

 

Deep breath!

 

We are currently in South America ( Peru) and have been traveling all over SA since end of February.  We are full-time nomads.  I can tell you this.  Indoor mask mandates and on all transportation here appear to have made travel EASY. Staffing is fully operational.  We have had one flight delay, coming back from Iguazu Falls to Buenos Aires ( 1.5 hour delay) in all our travels. 

I suspect the US to Santiago flights on all airlines will still be there in the fall/winter, maybe with slight time adjustments.  Chile's mining economy is strong and Chile/ US is an important flight!

 

Houston, Dallas, Miami.  Unless the US cities have a airline meltdown akin to what's going on at Heathrow or Amsterdam going into the fall/winter, I wouldn't sweat it too much. IF that happens, we have a lot more things going pear-shaped!

 

Our upcoming flights are from Arequipa where we are currently, to Cusco, to Cartagena Colombia, to Quito ( for our Galapagos cruise) and then on to US to resupply and see the kids, and head on back out to ???.

 

So far, NONE of any of our past flights or currently scheduled ones have been changed/cancelled. Not even the one home on Delta from Quito to ATL to Chattanooga.

[AndieSF]

We are 10 days before the cancellation deadline.   If I choose to cancel, I will have to scramble to find another similar cruise.. This trip was originally set in 2020, and was delayed twice in two years due to covid.  Polar Cruise company closed during the pandemic, so I am not sure where I can easily find alternatives.  It will be a great disappointment if we can't find another options in time.  This is a fly the drake option.  

 

Right now, Silversea air and service have left a really negative impression of their customer service. I am surprised because I was under the impression that they are a "luxury cruise line" - with white gloves service?  

 

I saw the AA flght from SFO - DFW - SCL, but they won't book that one.. instead, they previously offered through JFK only.  But now on my itinerary, I have the return flight only.  Outbound on United disappeared - and for one week no one in Silversea care to tell me what is going on.

 

[kimanjo]

2 hours ago, AndieSF said:

We are 10 days before the cancellation deadline.   If I choose to cancel, I will have to scramble to find another similar cruise.. This trip was originally set in 2020, and was delayed twice in two years due to covid.  Polar Cruise company closed during the pandemic, so I am not sure where I can easily find alternatives.  It will be a great disappointment if we can't find another options in time.  This is a fly the drake option.  

 

Right now, Silversea air and service have left a really negative impression of their customer service. I am surprised because I was under the impression that they are a "luxury cruise line" - with white gloves service?  

 

I saw the AA flght from SFO - DFW - SCL, but they won't book that one.. instead, they previously offered through JFK only.  But now on my itinerary, I have the return flight only.  Outbound on United disappeared - and for one week no one in Silversea care to tell me what is going on.

 

Ugh.. I see that UA flight is still listed, so it disappeared from your mySilversea flight info??? That is a head scratcher as to why if that UA flight is flying and listed on UA website why it wold be removed from your details.  I too, would be frustrated if that is the case. I would also push hard to have them book either the DFW, the UA or the ATL flights ( not going to JFK).  Going north in the winter is not my idea of a good plan.

[taxatty]

Who knows why SS won't book you on the MIA-SCN-MIA flights, which how we went last December/January using their air department. Please note that some of those flights may sell out as a lot of Chileans use them to do holiday shopping in South Florida or to visit with family back home,  and we only got business class seats (SS couldn't get them for us) through a combination of having AA status, paying cash and AA miles for the upgrades and a lot of sheer luck.

[labrasett]

21 hours ago, kimanjo said:

 

Deep breath!

 

We are currently in South America ( Peru) and have been traveling all over SA since end of February.  We are full-time nomads.  I can tell you this.  Indoor mask mandates and on all transportation here appear to have made travel EASY. Staffing is fully operational.  We have had one flight delay, coming back from Iguazu Falls to Buenos Aires ( 1.5 hour delay) in all our travels. 

I suspect the US to Santiago flights on all airlines will still be there in the fall/winter, maybe with slight time adjustments.  Chile's mining economy is strong and Chile/ US is an important flight!

 

Houston, Dallas, Miami.  Unless the US cities have a airline meltdown akin to what's going on at Heathrow or Amsterdam going into the fall/winter, I wouldn't sweat it too much. IF that happens, we have a lot more things going pear-shaped!

 

Our upcoming flights are from Arequipa where we are currently, to Cusco, to Cartagena Colombia, to Quito ( for our Galapagos cruise) and then on to US to resupply and see the kids, and head on back out to ???.

 

So far, NONE of any of our past flights or currently scheduled ones have been changed/cancelled. Not even the one home on Delta from Quito to ATL to Chattanooga.

How lovely to see something of an update from you.   Sounds like your travels are going very well (normads).  How have your packing choices managed in view of dress codes?    No, no, just kidding.  Keep up your travelling and post an odd update, I so admire what you are doing I am just not brave enough to set off into the sunset and I have dogs at home I couldnt leave for more than a month.

[kimanjo]

55 minutes ago, labrasett said:

How lovely to see something of an update from you.   Sounds like your travels are going very well (normads).  How have your packing choices managed in view of dress codes?    No, no, just kidding.  Keep up your travelling and post an odd update, I so admire what you are doing I am just not brave enough to set off into the sunset and I have dogs at home I couldnt leave for more than a month.

 

Thanks!!  Going great.  We were in Argentina from end of Feb til July 4 doing all sorts of great adventures. 

Our son calls our side-trips ( like to Iguazu Falls and Salta) vacations from retirement!

Packing.... We haven't needed to "dress up" anywhere, and no plans too.  I've learned a LOT about long term travel packing.  Because we don't know where we will go, we need to carry 4 seasons of  clothing and footwear with us.  Nighttime Salta needed jackets, gloves and hats.  When we go to Cartagena, we'll need beachwear. And it wears out/ gets old fast, lots of wear, variety of washers/dryers.

 

I did not have an 'Gram account before this.  I needed one to keep the kids updated as to where we are!  Just a few friends follow too.  It's  travelingstanleys.  It's not a moneymaker or anything. Just a little quiet travel log.

[cruiseej]

On 7/17/2022 at 1:56 AM, AndieSF said:

We made the mistake of booking this trip with Silversea direct... Maybe we made the mistake going with Silversea in general?

 

The sense I get, from our trip planning and other traveler posts, is that the back office operation remains a mess, but the SS experience onboard is (generally) not. Hopefully you'll get to judge for yourself in a few months. 😉

 

I do think this is a case where having a travel agent to advocate on your behalf is worth a lot. When our original flights were assigned, I balked to my TA, and within a few days, she got SS to straighten things out and get us the flights we had wanted. It's too late to change to a TA now, but it's worth keeping in mind for the future. 

 

On 7/17/2022 at 12:22 PM, AndieSF said:

We are 10 days before the cancellation deadline.

 

Are you sure of that? We're on the December 17 cruise, and we go into 15% cancellation penalty in two days (July 20) — at 150 days before the cruise. So if your cruise is two weeks before ours, are you sure you aren't already into the penalty? 

[AndieSF]

@cruiseej  - Thank you for confirming that the onboard experience should be better than the office operations! 

 

I called Silversea today to get an update on my submission 3 business days ago for "inquiry of flights", and this was what I got:

 

• Silversea changed our outbound flights by removing the United (that we agreed with extra charge) and replaced it with Delta  (again) with two stops  (but not removing the extra charge).  This change did not appear on the latest itinerary (still showing United), so we have no idea the exact flights.  I guess they had no plan to inform us the change and wanted to surprise us later?

 

I am beyond frustration and no longer trust Silversea.  For now,  I cancelled Silversea's flight arrangements.  I got lucky using Google Flights search and booked directly with United (Roundtrip: SFO-HOU-SCL) for the same price as Silversea's (Delta 2 stops + AA for return). 

 

• Then I found out that our ship will change from Silver Explorer to  to Silver Endeavour - which Silversea won from an auction from Crystal --- so my room will change, but don't know to what.... Not sure if this is a good sign or not?  

 

 

 

 

 

[cruiseej]

2 hours ago, AndieSF said:

Thank you for confirming that the onboard experience should be better than the office operations!

 

That's the general wisdom, but I make no promises! 😉

 

2 hours ago, AndieSF said:

I guess they had no plan to inform us the change and wanted to surprise us later?

 

That's scary. Note to self: check our air bookings every week from now until December to make sure they haven't been changed without notice.

 

(Edit: With heart pounding a little, I just checked: so far, so good; no changes to our flights PHL-MIA-SCL and back.) 

 

2 hours ago, AndieSF said:

Then I found out that our ship will change from Silver Explorer to  to Silver Endeavour - which Silversea won from an auction from Crystal --- so my room will change, but don't know to what.... Not sure if this is a good sign or not?

 

From everything I've seen, this is a home run win for you. The Endeavour is a spectacular, new ship. I know the 33 year-old Explorer has her fans among longtime SS travelers, but I think you won the lottery with this one! When I saw SS was buying the Endeavour, I was hoping they might substitute it for the Cloud, which we're scheduled to be on for the December holiday cruise. That would have probably been too many moving pieces, so it makes sense they swapped it for the Explorer. It gives them a slightly larger ship to sell (slightly over 200 versus 144) for these popular Antarctica trips. 

Edited July 18, 2022 by cruiseej

[AndieSF]

@cruiseej - The best way to confirm if your flights are still there is by putting the record locators in the airline websites directly (Delta/AA/UA) --- if you still see the flights in your profile with the airlines, you are good.

 

For our case, Silversea reps said the United flights are still "in our profile" - but the United flights actually dropped off completely from our United.com after day 3.  We were only able to see our return flights on American Airline website.  We didn't check on Delta, because I told tome several times that I have no in interest in transfer two times.  Not until they "reached out" to the air (or refresh their system) - did they know the flights were switched.

 

I now have my flights made on my own 🙂

I saw the Silver Endeavor, pretty slick!  But I am not sure how they will map everyone's rooms.  Now I wonder if should've gone with a cheaper room option...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kimanjo]

1 hour ago, AndieSF said:

@cruiseej - The best way to confirm if your flights are still there is by putting the record locators in the airline websites directly (Delta/AA/UA) --- if you still see the flights in your profile with the airlines, you are good.

 

For our case, Silversea reps said the United flights are still "in our profile" - but the United flights actually dropped off completely from our United.com after day 3.  We were only able to see our return flights on American Airline website.  We didn't check on Delta, because I told tome several times that I have no in interest in transfer two times.  Not until they "reached out" to the air (or refresh their system) - did they know the flights were switched.

 

I now have my flights made on my own 🙂

I saw the Silver Endeavor, pretty slick!  But I am not sure how they will map everyone's rooms.  Now I wonder if should've gone with a cheaper room option...

 

 

 

1 hour ago, AndieSF said:

Even in "normal" times, I am obsessive about checking my flights, maybe even daily or every other day.  If the airline makes changes, you want to be right on top of it to request alternative flights. If you're flight changes by a couple of minutes, no, but sometimes they go wacky, and you want to give the airline the flight you actually want.  

 

Just a heads up 

 

 

 

 

[cruiseej]

5 hours ago, AndieSF said:

The best way to confirm if your flights are still there is by putting the record locators in the airline websites directly (Delta/AA/UA) --- if you still see the flights in your profile with the airlines, you are good.

 

Yes, thanks, for sure. Once we obtained the record locator numbers, I added our American Advantage numbers to the flights, so I just need to log into my AA account to see that the flight record is still there. So far, so good. 😉 

[fyreus]

Would you mind sharing what flight credit Silversea gave you? And did they take away the transfers in Santiago to and from the airport and hotel? We are doing Antarctica cruise as well, and have been tearing our hair out trying to deal with Silversea air. Our flights posted in May and are completely and utterly unacceptable. 

Our cruise consultant with Silversea has also been MIA for weeks now— multiple emails not responded to since mid-May. I did get a phone call after leaving a voicemail back in May, since then nothing. Not what I expected when we booked! Thanks. 

[Gourmet Gal]

45 minutes ago, fyreus said:

Would you mind sharing what flight credit Silversea gave you? And did they take away the transfers in Santiago to and from the airport and hotel? We are doing Antarctica cruise as well, and have been tearing our hair out trying to deal with Silversea air. Our flights posted in May and are completely and utterly unacceptable. 

Our cruise consultant with Silversea has also been MIA for weeks now— multiple emails not responded to since mid-May. I did get a phone call after leaving a voicemail back in May, since then nothing. Not what I expected when we booked! Thanks. 

No email response since mid-May?!  How disappointing.  Can you escalate up to a supervisor?

[AndieSF]

@fyreus - we gave up on Silversea Air today and booked our flights on our own.  They will refund $1000 per person for standard economy tickets back to our credit card.  We are planning to arrive one day early, so we will book one night at MO (so far they told me is at MO).  And yes, we will need to find our ways to the hotel.  

I definitely felt better after having our flights reserved.  I can't believe I let Silversea stressed me out over air arrangement for 5 months.

 

 

 

[fyreus]

Thanks. If I can ever make contact with my consultant I’m about ready to do that. I’m especially nervous about having them change our flights at the last minute, even if they correct them now to reasonable itineraries. It will be interesting to see what happens with the credit, as we booked an extra SS hotel night in Santiago, which we would like to keep.