Upgrading shared transport to private transport

[maesteggirl]

This may be of interest to those of you wishing to upgrade transport to the ship.

I contacted Saga today to upgrade our shared transport to private transport for our forthcoming cruise in April.

The cost to upgrade has increased from £1.75 per mile to £2.50 per mile. This applies to single journeys over 75 miles and up to 250 miles.

The cost came into force last week.

[LandC]

48 minutes ago, maesteggirl said:

This may be of interest to those of you wishing to upgrade transport to the ship.

I contacted Saga today to upgrade our shared transport to private transport for our forthcoming cruise in April.

The cost to upgrade has increased from £1.75 per mile to £2.50 per mile. This applies to single journeys over 75 miles and up to 250 miles.

The cost came into force last week.

This is a big increase! Thank you for sharing.

[Jammy Bun]

The shared transport provided by Saga for our recent 270 mile journey home was dreadful.  Travelling backwards on upright hard seats, knee to knee with two strangers was an experience I never wish to repeat.  

[Tothesunset]

8 hours ago, Jammy Bun said:

The shared transport provided by Saga for our recent 270 mile journey home was dreadful.  Travelling backwards on upright hard seats, knee to knee with two strangers was an experience I never wish to repeat.  

Oooh. Not good. 

[LondonLad60]

12 hours ago, Jammy Bun said:

The shared transport provided by Saga for our recent 270 mile journey home was dreadful.  Travelling backwards on upright hard seats, knee to knee with two strangers was an experience I never wish to repeat.  

Seeing this photo has convinced me to upgrade from shared transport to a private car for our June cruise. We've met some really nice people on our Saga cruises so far, and we have also met one or two not so nice people. Knowing my luck I know who we would probably be sharing with...

[david05]

Having heard stories, including from a relative, of people being picked up last having great difficulty fitting their luggage into the vehicle and having an uncomfortable journey, we always upgrade to a private vehicle.

[FatBoy20]

Also if you are unhappy with your quality of Transfer Service you should feed back your concerns to Saga Customer Services.

[Jammy Bun]

28 minutes ago, FatBoy20 said:

Also if you are unhappy with your quality of Transfer Service you should feed back your concerns to Saga Customer Services.

We won't be using Saga again, so see little point in complaining.  The cruise was not what we'd hoped for, in many respects, and the journey home was just the final nail in the coffin.  

[Tothesunset]

21 minutes ago, Jammy Bun said:

We won't be using Saga again, so see little point in complaining.  The cruise was not what we'd hoped for, in many respects, and the journey home was just the final nail in the coffin.  

Now then, JB, you really must tell us more about why you were disappointed with Saga. We need that sort of balance. 

[Wacktle]

If I felt that we need to pay an extra £2.50 per mile to upgrade the "chauffeur" transfer (the advertising still makes me laugh!), we might as well book a cheaper cruise and use the taxi company that we always use for non-Saga holidays. We have had a couple of "iffy" transfers, but nothing terrible. If we do experience something intolerable, we will certainly report it to Saga. Fingers crossed!

[Windsurfboy]

I know the chauffeur car company  saga use in our area,  as we use them to go to Heathrow and to Southampton for Cunard. They charge less than £2.50 a mile when we book them privately  for just the two of us. So charging this to upgrade is a  RIP OFF, they should charge half their normal mileage rate , ie just over £1 per hour , as it's half paid for anyway.

[david05]

4 hours ago, FatBoy20 said:

Also if you are unhappy with your quality of Transfer Service you should feed back your concerns to Saga Customer Services.

I would second this. We complained about a terrible driver - over the speed limit, driving right behind the car in front, changing lane right in front of another car at speed (you get the idea!). We weren't looking for any compensation but said we would not step into the car if he turned up again. Anyway they said that he wouldn't be used again and gave us some on board credit for our next cruise.

[Jammy Bun]

2 hours ago, david05 said:

I would second this. We complained about a terrible driver - over the speed limit, driving right behind the car in front, changing lane right in front of another car at speed (you get the idea!). We weren't looking for any compensation but said we would not step into the car if he turned up again. Anyway they said that he wouldn't be used again and gave us some on board credit for our next cruise.

OBC would be of no interest to us - unless they can transfer it to another cruise line.  😁  This was an experiment. We'd been tempted by the 'door to door' hype.  Back to Viking in July.  

[Medeba]

2 hours ago, david05 said:

I would second this. We complained about a terrible driver - over the speed limit, driving right behind the car in front, changing lane right in front of another car at speed (you get the idea!). We weren't looking for any compensation but said we would not step into the car if he turned up again. Anyway they said that he wouldn't be used again and gave us some on board credit for our next cruise.

I think we may have had the same driver last summer on our way back from Dover.  He was late picking up someone in our home town to take them back to the ship but from the way he drove us home he wasn't late in the end!  Like you, we should have told Saga as I wouldn't want to be driven by him again.

[LondonLad60]

16 hours ago, david05 said:

I would second this. We complained about a terrible driver - over the speed limit, driving right behind the car in front, changing lane right in front of another car at speed (you get the idea!). We weren't looking for any compensation but said we would not step into the car if he turned up again. Anyway they said that he wouldn't be used again and gave us some on board credit for our next cruise.

This is one of the reasons I never fill in the online cruise questionnaire on the ship - I always do it from home. As far as I'm concerned the cruise finishes when the transport pulls up outside our house. 

[Windsurfboy]

On 3/14/2023 at 10:45 PM, Jammy Bun said:

The shared transport provided by Saga for our recent 270 mile journey home was dreadful.  Travelling backwards on upright hard seats, knee to knee with two strangers was an experience I never wish to repeat.  

 

Completely unacceptable,  hope you complained,  send this picture to  Nigel Blanks. Clearly not the luxury transport described. Makes a lie of their promise "You won’t be cramped though: you’ll always have room to stretch out.

 

Even if you are not considering Saga again , for the sake of others, raise this with Nigel.blanks@saga.co.uk 

 

My wife just cannot travel backwards, car sick in ten minutes.  

[Jammy Bun]

57 minutes ago, LondonLad60 said:

This is one of the reasons I never fill in the online cruise questionnaire on the ship - I always do it from home. As far as I'm concerned the cruise finishes when the transport pulls up outside our house. 

We did fill in the questionnaire on the ship -  and gave such poor ratings for many aspects that we got a phone call the day after we got home!  Unfortunately my OH, who took the call, forgot to mention the abysmal journey home.  You live and learn. 😏

 

[Jammy Bun]

25 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Completely unacceptable,  hope you complained,  send this picture to  Nigel Blanks. Clearly not the luxury transport described. Makes a lie of their promise "You won’t be cramped though: you’ll always have room to stretch out.

 

Even if you are not considering Saga again , for the sake of others, raise this with Nigel.blanks@saga.co.uk 

 

My wife just cannot travel backwards, car sick in ten minutes.  

OK, I take your point.  Will do so later today when I have more time.

[Vivaldi]

21 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

I know the chauffeur car company  saga use in our area,  as we use them to go to Heathrow and to Southampton for Cunard. They charge less than £2.50 a mile when we book them privately  for just the two of us. So charging this to upgrade is a  RIP OFF, they should charge half their normal mileage rate , ie just over £1 per hour , as it's half paid for anyway.

 

I agree with you. It is an astonishing supplement for a private car for two people, and suggests that a car for four people is costing £5 a mile, which is beyond belief. It's such a big charge and such a large price hike that I wonder if there is another issue involved here: could it be that Saga is having difficulty finding sufficient drivers and vehicles to ferry all their passengers around and that they have decided to limit the demand for private cars by making them a lot less affordable? If that is the case they should say so, otherwise people will look at the exorbitant car costs and wonder where else Saga might be ripping them off. It's not good for their image.

[Denarius]

1 hour ago, Vivaldi said:

 

I agree with you. It is an astonishing supplement for a private car for two people, and suggests that a car for four people is costing £5 a mile, which is beyond belief. It's such a big charge and such a large price hike that I wonder if there is another issue involved here: could it be that Saga is having difficulty finding sufficient drivers and vehicles to ferry all their passengers around and that they have decided to limit the demand for private cars by making them a lot less affordable? If that is the case they should say so, otherwise people will look at the exorbitant car costs and wonder where else Saga might be ripping them off. It's not good for their image.

I recently booked a cruise for the Summer of 2024 with a shared car to Dover, which is over the 250 mile limit. The lady taking the booking informed me that as from 2024 the included mileage allowance is being increased from 250 to 300, so in my case there would be no extra charge. So it appears that you get more included mileage but extra miles cost you more. It may be that the included private transfer allowance is also being increased.

[Wacktle]

2 hours ago, Vivaldi said:

 

I agree with you. It is an astonishing supplement for a private car for two people, and suggests that a car for four people is costing £5 a mile, which is beyond belief. It's such a big charge and such a large price hike that I wonder if there is another issue involved here: could it be that Saga is having difficulty finding sufficient drivers and vehicles to ferry all their passengers around and that they have decided to limit the demand for private cars by making them a lot less affordable? If that is the case they should say so, otherwise people will look at the exorbitant car costs and wonder where else Saga might be ripping them off. It's not good for their image.

We had a private car back from our last cruise. We were surprised. The driver said that Saga and Titan do not have enough large vehicles to take passengers to the ports AND transport those who've just disembarked home. I don't know if that's true, as it seems at odds with Vivalidi's theory? 

[Vivaldi]

48 minutes ago, Wacktle said:

I don't know if that's true, as it seems at odds with Vivalidi's theory? 

 

What I said was purely speculative, and I have no evidence whatever to support it, but it seems a possible theory at least and I can't think of another one! 

We've also been surprised to have had private cars back from a couple of our Saga cruises, and you could well be right, that a lack of large vehicles was the reason. I'd still like to know why Saga thinks that a £2.50 a mile supplement is appropriate.

[nosapphire]

2 hours ago, Wacktle said:

We had a private car back from our last cruise. We were surprised. The driver said that Saga and Titan do not have enough large vehicles to take passengers to the ports AND transport those who've just disembarked home. I don't know if that's true, as it seems at odds with Vivalidi's theory? 

Pure logic would say that has to be correct. The vehicles have to carry both Saga and Titan customers, and now Saga have larger ships, and are extending the "VIP" (ho,ho,ho) car service to river cruises, there is no way that their own fleet can cover everybody. Certainly on the few times we have used Saga transport they have not been Saga/Titan branded vehicles.

We usually drive ourselves, and there is invariably a long line of Addison Lee people carriers at the port dropping off Saga passengers.

 

 

[david05]

We have only once had a Saga/Titan vehicle, all the rest have been private hire vehicles usually from Southampton or London. However, many of our cruises have been from Southampton which is quite local so it probably doesn't make much sense to use their vehicles for these journeys. Having said that we have never had one of their vehicles to or from Dover and the only occasion was a return trip from Tilbury. We have a cruise later this year to and from Tilbury so we will see what is provided this time.

[lincslady]

It sounds as though this pat of a Saga cruise has taken a downturn.  It is several years since I did one (sadly) but on some 10 or so cruises we always had a Titan vehicle and driver; never more than four people on board, and always facing forwards  with two on the back seat and two in front - a bit less comfortable, so it was good to be on first and have the back seat.  And all good or great and very polite and helpful drivers, except one who was a bit brusque.

 

Saga need to get back to this situation, or will lose a lot of trade.