Why I Love Silversea Air!

[commodoredave]

It seems that SS air works for some, but not all. It really depends on where you are flying from/to, when you book, and if you care what airline and route SS chooses for you. 95% of the time I have been able to book cheaper biz flights, with better routes, with fewer connections doing it on my own. So you would be well advised to shop and compare.

[Kauaijim]

We just booked non stop on Royal Jordanian Bus Cs  for $2700 pp  less than the SS offer for Jan trip on SS moon. With the coach credit it will be even less . All depends on route I guess . Our Nov NCL trip ended in Tahiti and they had people on a 5 am charter to LA  

[Stumblefoot]

Rumor on the street is SS Air going away and will now be handled by RCL. Anyone care to confirm?

[turtlemichael]

6 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

Rumor on the street is SS Air going away and will now be handled by RCL. Anyone care to confirm?

What will we make of that change? Not a lot, I'm suspecting.

[bobolz]

Interesting recent comments. My SS agent/consultant  told me that they are upgrading their air reservations system and that he would eventually be trained and allowed to make air reservations for his clients. He said this would allow a more seamless experience, which it clearly would. Now I’m not sure if only certain consultants would be able to access the system based on seniority/ experience  or all, but I guess we will know more once it is official. 
 

in the meantime, my recent experience has been very good (crossing my fingers that it stays that way) .all the flights SS has booked for me were ideal. Although 2 I never took due to Covid , the last one was 2 nonstops on BA , no issues. The one for next year , the original flight was a  terrible connection, but they were able to change it to the flights I requested, both nonstops, however I have to pay more as a result of the deviation . The additional cost , however, still keeps me well below the cost if I paid myself as well as removes the risk of paying in advance for my flights.

 

I agree that a lot depends on your departure and destination airport as well as the dates, but I have yet to find airfare on my own that comes close to what SS can do. Coupled with the reduced risk to me by not having to pay in advance is an extra benefit. I’m crossing my fingers that next years trip goes well, anything could happen, but so far I am satisfied w SS air

 

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by bobolz

[boccenana]

Well said Bob.

We never had a  non stop flight from Tucson International,  the price we pay for having a beautiful smaller airport less than 45 minutes away.

 

[ak1004]

7 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

What will we make of that change? Not a lot, I'm suspecting.

 

When we sailed with Celebrity, we had an option to book our own flights through their website. Very convenient, you are in full control, and he prices were actually pretty good. This was before Covid, not sure if this is still the case, but it would be a big improvement.

[canderson]

40 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

When we sailed with Celebrity, we had an option to book our own flights through their website. Very convenient, you are in full control, and he prices were actually pretty good. This was before Covid, not sure if this is still the case, but it would be a big improvement.

True, but only a portion of the flights available are shown online.  A phone call directly to their air folks (something you can't do at SS) often turned up a better itinerary.

[ak1004]

31 minutes ago, canderson said:

True, but only a portion of the flights available are shown online.  A phone call directly to their air folks (something you can't do at SS) often turned up a better itinerary.

 

I know. But still much better than the current Silver Air, at least you are in control. We were able actually to book very good flights online with Celebrity.

[canderson]

Just now, ak1004 said:

 

I know. But still much better than the current Silver Air, at least you are in control. We were able actually to book very good flights online with Celebrity.

Yes, I definitely preferred to work directly with the Flights by Celebrity people vs. how it's managed with SS where a middleman of some sort is always involved.  Discussion of alternate itineraries was SO much easier, not to mention MUCH faster.

 

[Robroy]

We've booked Door-To-Door for an Alaska cruise next May and taken Silversea Air arrangements. Booked through a Silversea rep and turned it over to our local agent. My understanding was that within 270 days you could get air routing/seating as long as you had paid in full - which we did on Thursday this week.

We have good routing and times but wanted to go into the American Airlines site to upgrade our seats for the ORD-ANC leg and was advised that "your agent or supplier has to pay for your trip" (online situation) - at this point still no access to our seating.

Anyone know how long it takes Silversea to pay the airlines which would allow access? Our T/A plans to follow up with them on Monday but wondering if anyone here has any insights?

 

Thanks,

Rob

[RachelG]

45 minutes ago, Robroy said:

We've booked Door-To-Door for an Alaska cruise next May and taken Silversea Air arrangements. Booked through a Silversea rep and turned it over to our local agent. My understanding was that within 270 days you could get air routing/seating as long as you had paid in full - which we did on Thursday this week.

We have good routing and times but wanted to go into the American Airlines site to upgrade our seats for the ORD-ANC leg and was advised that "your agent or supplier has to pay for your trip" (online situation) - at this point still no access to our seating.

Anyone know how long it takes Silversea to pay the airlines which would allow access? Our T/A plans to follow up with them on Monday but wondering if anyone here has any insights?

 

Thanks,

Rob

Are your seats even upgradable?  Not sure.

[FlyerTalker]

Note that there are great differences when using the term "upgrade".

 

There is first and foremost an upgrade of actual ticket class.  Such as to first class, or business, or premium economy, or what is called on AA "Main Cabin Extra".  This involves an actual change of your ticket fare basis.  And depending on your original fare basis (and this is NOT the same as "price"), your ticket may or may not be upgradable to a different class.  Note that there is a difference between "premium economy" and "Main Cabin Extra", which are two vastly different products.

 

The other area that people may talk about as an "upgrade" is to get to "better" seats within their ticket class.  This would involve buying into an aisle seat, or a seat towards the front of the aircraft.  This is not considered an "upgrade" in the terminology of the airline industry, but rather just a purchase of a preferred seat.

 

Be aware to the terminology difference.  To you, the passenger, it may all seem the same.  However to those actually working on your flight arrangements, they mean different things.  You may be told that you cannot upgrade your ticket, while still being able to buy a preferred seating.  And you may have an untrained person at a cruiseline tell you that you can upgrade - only to find out that they meant to a better seat, not to the business class cabin that you had assumed.  So always be very clear about what you want, and be very certain to get a clear description of what the person on the other end of the line is saying - especially when talking with a non-airline person.

 

 

[Robroy]

Good points - thanks. Our first choice would be to upgrade to business - should that not be possible, at least to secure a preferred seat in economy. At this point it seems my T/A will need to speak with Silversea early next week as I can't do anything directly with the airline.

In the past I've always handled air on my own but decided to try Silversea Air this time as I wasn't sure if I could get flights, hotel and transfers as reasonably as they could. Lesson learned......

 

Thanks,

Rob

[FlyerTalker]

53 minutes ago, Robroy said:

Good points - thanks. Our first choice would be to upgrade to business

 

For ORD-ANC next May, AA operates a 737 on that route, so you would get domestic first as the "pointy end".  No business.

 

55 minutes ago, Robroy said:

In the past I've always handled air on my own but decided to try Silversea Air this time as I wasn't sure if I could get flights, hotel and transfers as reasonably as they could. Lesson learned......

 

In all my years of travel, I have never seen a cruiseline-provided hotel go for a price that was as good as what I could find on my own.  Most times, I see them sell the hotel for a per-person rate that's around what I could get the whole room for.  So almost a 100% markup.  Also, the "transfers" are pretty much a throw-in. 

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

[Port Power]

6 hours ago, Robroy said:

We've booked Door-To-Door for an Alaska cruise next May and taken Silversea Air arrangements. Booked through a Silversea rep and turned it over to our local agent. My understanding was that within 270 days you could get air routing/seating as long as you had paid in full - which we did on Thursday this week.

We have good routing and times but wanted to go into the American Airlines site to upgrade our seats for the ORD-ANC leg and was advised that "your agent or supplier has to pay for your trip" (online situation) - at this point still no access to our seating.

Anyone know how long it takes Silversea to pay the airlines which would allow access? Our T/A plans to follow up with them on Monday but wondering if anyone here has any insights?

 

Thanks,

Rob

Travel agents (as Silversea is in this situation) can hold seats for varying lengths of time. Silversea seems to be able to hold flights without ticketing for 9 months!  I had exactly the same situation for my flights in May this year.  Every time I went in to to “manage my booking” to choose seats, I wasn’t able to as “the flight has not been ticketed”.  The flight was not ticketed until a month or so (cannot remember exactly) before departure. This is normal.  If there are flight cancellations or route changes, S/S doesn’t have to keep making adjustments.  Nevertheless, once ticketed, I was still able to select my seats and also lodge a request to upgrade with points to business class (US domestic first class).  S/S book fully flexible fares usually.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Port Power
Seat description

[tgh]

I would never submit myself to the vagaries of an inscrutable  corporate ticketing system without a savvy t/a managing the process.
Ex au we have had good outcomes with SS air;  the ta knows what we expect and (so far) has delivered better overall outcomes than I could manage on my own.

[Robroy]

Thanks for the comments. As I said before - lesson learned. The last time we booked Silversea Air was ten years ago and had a much easier and straightforward process. It seems ludicrous for them to hold off on ticketing until so close to flight time as I would have thought once I had "control" over my booking that the airline would simply advise me directly - as is the case when booking directly. The advantage of paying in full so far out completely disappears if I can't access the booking until so late in the game when possibly all of the business/domestic first/preferred seats are gone.

Will follow up with Silversea on Monday but as I say, lesson learned...!

 

Thanks,

Rob

[Port Power]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

In all my years of travel, I have never seen a cruiseline-provided hotel go for a price that was as good as what I could find on my own.  Most times, I see them sell the hotel for a per-person rate that's around what I could get the whole room for.  So almost a 100% markup.  Also, the "transfers" are pretty much a throw-in. 

 

I totally agree about the hotel rates.  I booked the same Vancouver hotel that S/S uses for two-thirds their price.  I lost my transfer from the airport, but I can afford a taxi with the $800 I saved!  However, their price for flights was just a bit better than I could get, and flights were excellent routings with a preferred airline.

[FlyerTalker]

45 minutes ago, Port Power said:

Silversea seems to be able to hold flights without ticketing for 9 months!

 

Probably because SS has a "hard block" of tickets contracted for.  The only question is what names to attached to each of them.

 

 

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

The ability to independently choose seats after Silversea makes the air arrangements depends on the airline.  For our upcoming flight to Cape Town in 2024, Silversea has provided us with an itinerary using American Airlines as the domestic carrier up to Chicago and Qatar Airways for the international portion going thru Doha and on to Cape Town.  We were provided with the PNR record number to pull up our reservation, but the airline's website would not allow us to choose seats.  We have spent over a week going back and forth with Silversea regarding our seat assignments.  For our return itinerary however, we were able to use the PNR record number to pull up our reservation on Qantas Airlines and United Airlines to select our seats for each of the three segments coming home.

 

By not ticketing the reservation until 30-60 days before sailing, it also allows Silversea to change the itinerary, so the flights you think you have secured aren't really secured until the flight is ticketed, despite having a "confirmed reservation".  

[FlyerTalker]

Until you have a 13 digit ticket number, you are still in limbo.  That "confirmed reservation" is as solid as quicksand.

 

The locator is merely a reference to your record, which either does or does not have an actual ticket assigned.

 

As for your flights on QR - give them a call.  Don't fight the website.

 

 

[highplanesdrifters]

19 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

Note that there are great differences when using the term "upgrade".

 

There is first and foremost an upgrade of actual ticket class.  Such as to first class, or business, or premium economy, or what is called on AA "Main Cabin Extra".  This involves an actual change of your ticket fare basis.  And depending on your original fare basis (and this is NOT the same as "price"), your ticket may or may not be upgradable to a different class.  Note that there is a difference between "premium economy" and "Main Cabin Extra", which are two vastly different products.

 

The other area that people may talk about as an "upgrade" is to get to "better" seats within their ticket class.  This would involve buying into an aisle seat, or a seat towards the front of the aircraft.  This is not considered an "upgrade" in the terminology of the airline industry, but rather just a purchase of a preferred seat.

 

Be aware to the terminology difference.  To you, the passenger, it may all seem the same.  However to those actually working on your flight arrangements, they mean different things.  You may be told that you cannot upgrade your ticket, while still being able to buy a preferred seating.  And you may have an untrained person at a cruiseline tell you that you can upgrade - only to find out that they meant to a better seat, not to the business class cabin that you had assumed.  So always be very clear about what you want, and be very certain to get a clear description of what the person on the other end of the line is saying - especially when talking with a non-airline person.

 

 

If only you could help with the cable company.   🤣

[FlyerTalker]

16 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

If only you could help with the cable company.   🤣

 

For an appropriate fee, I'm available.

 

 

[taxatty]

17 hours ago, Port Power said:

I totally agree about the hotel rates.  I booked the same Vancouver hotel that S/S uses for two-thirds their price.  I lost my transfer from the airport, but I can afford a taxi with the $800 I saved!  However, their price for flights was just a bit better than I could get, and flights were excellent routings with a preferred airline.

The same result appears to apply to pre and post cruise land excursions. We have paid between 40-60% of what the cruise lines wanted for the same types and quality of accommodations, transportation, etc. for land excursions in Europe and Southeast Asia. You just need to have a bit of DIY spirit.