Blacklane

[Archipelago]

Got up at 2:30 to get ready for my trip. I went to my gate at 3:30 for my Blacklane  driver and to open the gate . My driver NEVER came and I have missed my flight . I live around 60 miles from the airport and was billed the overage . I cannot get another flight with my carrier today. I have emailed my TA and tried to call SS but they are closed . Looks like this cruise will be cancelled then. I paid for DTD without flights because I fly first and they only offered economy .They are going to have to make this right or I will be cancelling the two others I have booked and NO not using Blacklane EVER. I have been having to undo all my plans and now my paperwork is wrong to travel to Colombia . Tjhis has caused a lot of problems for myself and my family . Not happy with SS.

[Pies4u]

Crikey! That is outrageous - sorry to hear your news. Hope you can get sorted and adequately compensated, not that ‘compensation” is any substitute for the loss of a cruise or the anxiety involved.

 

Really worried about using Blacklane myself - their reliability seems questionable and the “additional luggage” charges sound somewhat dubious too. Nit much if a service if customers have to pay extra for a few miles plus actually taking luggage with them. SS need to get on top of these issues pdq.

 

All the best with your claim(s).

[Archipelago]

Thank You ...I am Caregiving / Caretaking my mother and my brother is coming up from Florida while I am gone . He can't change his plans so this was my only time away and planned since July...probably no more SS and definitely no more Door to Door !

[Port Power]

17 hours ago, Archipelago said:

Thank You ...I am Caregiving / Caretaking my mother and my brother is coming up from Florida while I am gone . He can't change his plans so this was my only time away and planned since July...probably no more SS and definitely no more Door to Door !

 

I am so sorry that you were let down so badly.  Was it too late to call a taxi or uber?  It sounds like you were boarding the ship on the day of flying in.  Not a nice way to learn to fly in at least a day early.  After a missed flight connection last year, I am now thinking to arrive two days early for a cruise!  Thankfully in Australia Blacklane has contracted with a very reliable car company rather than using ad hoc independent drivers.

 

Also pretty poor that there isn't an emergency number to call when problems arise during travel.  How would SS have handled rebooking your flights and getting you to the ship if you had been fully D2D?

[Mayflower1]

As far as I am aware the SS Booking Conditions clearly state that SS take no responsibility for any delays caused by Blacklane - another example of their idea of ' Seamless Luxury Service' !!!

 

[Archipelago]

I was arriving the day before. Blacklane never notified me at all . I live and hour and 15 minutes away and could not have gotten there on time had someone been standing here to take me . I am in a small town and taxi service opens at 8am and closes at 7pm. American had no available flights that day or the next . I am cancelling my 2 future voyages with SS. They were both long trips . I am putting this behind me and will find other good choices in the future .SS needs a new slogan .. Silversea Door to Door ..Will you take the risk ?

[mklions]

I spent a whole of last Saturday morning sorting out my issues with Blacklane. I live 47.9 miles away from Heathrow airport. 

When I booked the transfers with Blacklane using their website link (sent over via Silversea ) they registered my milage as 61 miles and provided me with an additional cost of £33 each way ( £66 for the home and return journey).

The problem with Blacklane in the UK is you cannot talk to anyone direct by telephone, you have to use their online chat service.

I decided to use this chat service and got into a semi heated discussion with this very arrogant and unhelpful person.

Apparently their computer calculations on the milage is all that matters and if it doesn't pick up a shorter route so be it.

In the end I took a google screen shot of the route I always take and attached it to our conversation, too prove the distance.

The person went away and apparently (after I threatened to contact Silversea customer services) spoke to her manager and it was agreed to waiver the additional charges.

I still had to pay for the excess milage to proceed with the booking, but have been told these costs will be refunded. 

I still await the refund.

 

IMO, Silversea should arrange the transfers on our behalf and not expect the customer to do so.

i

To add insult to injury, I could not book the additional taxi transfers when we arrive on our cruise in Dakar next month as Blacklane do not service Senegal. 

So I will need to get back in touch with Silversea to find out these transfer arrangements .

Door to door NO MORE!!!

[Gourmet Gal]

4 minutes ago, mklions said:

IMO, Silversea should arrange the transfers on our behalf and not expect the customer to do so.

Be careful what you wish for.  With the current SS track record on “included” excursions I would be leery of their ability to manage home transfers as well.

[mklions]

I just hope they turn up because I cannot find any direct phoneline to chase them up if they don't.

All this online "chat" customer service is just away of saving money.

Why can't we just go back to picking up the phone dial a number and speak to a person!

[RetiredOnVacation]

57 minutes ago, mklions said:

I spent a whole of last Saturday morning sorting out my issues with Blacklane. I live 47.9 miles away from Heathrow airport. 

When I booked the transfers with Blacklane using their website link (sent over via Silversea ) they registered my milage as 61 miles and provided me with an additional cost of £33 each way ( £66 for the home and return journey).

The problem with Blacklane in the UK is you cannot talk to anyone direct by telephone, you have to use their online chat service.

I decided to use this chat service and got into a semi heated discussion with this very arrogant and unhelpful person.

Apparently their computer calculations on the milage is all that matters and if it doesn't pick up a shorter route so be it.

In the end I took a google screen shot of the route I always take and attached it to our conversation, too prove the distance.

The person went away and apparently (after I threatened to contact Silversea customer services) spoke to her manager and it was agreed to waiver the additional charges.

I still had to pay for the excess milage to proceed with the booking, but have been told these costs will be refunded. 

I still await the refund.

 

IMO, Silversea should arrange the transfers on our behalf and not expect the customer to do so.

i

To add insult to injury, I could not book the additional taxi transfers when we arrive on our cruise in Dakar next month as Blacklane do not service Senegal. 

So I will need to get back in touch with Silversea to find out these transfer arrangements .

Door to door NO MORE!!!

To be fair, although living within the included Blacklane distance, we have never used that part of D2D fares, preferring to make our own arrangements and so getting a transfers credit (x2) - of course the new P2P caters for this now anyway.  But have used Blacklane multiple times for other things. If it helps, there is this UK number that's listed in the Blacklane app you could use instead of webchat? +44 (0)20 3318 5249.  Hth. 

 

Regarding your Senegal disembarkation, surely the Blacklane elements are purely between home airport and home, not a foreign port to foreign airport? This would be provided for by an inclusive SS coach transfer assuming your flights are SS inclusive too? Or have I got that wrong? 

[Invited On-board]

1 hour ago, mklions said:

 

To add insult to injury, I could not book the additional taxi transfers when we arrive on our cruise in Dakar next month as Blacklane do not service Senegal. 

So I will need to get back in touch with Silversea to find out these transfer arrangements .

Door to door NO MORE!!!

It is not immediately  clear if Dakar is your end of cruise/ disembarkation port? . If it is ,as D2D fare passengers your transfer to the airport for the journey  back to the UK would be by SS organised transport, locally arranged. From memory this is indicated  in the letter placed in suites regarding disembarkation  preferences towards the end of your voyage. It used to be that the Blacklane transport referred to start/end of journey,in this case in the UK, though appreciate  it may be different now.

Edited April 9 by Invited On-board

[alexandria]

4 hours ago, Archipelago said:

I was arriving the day before. Blacklane never notified me at all . I live and hour and 15 minutes away and could not have gotten there on time had someone been standing here to take me . I am in a small town and taxi service opens at 8am and closes at 7pm. American had no available flights that day or the next . I am cancelling my 2 future voyages with SS. They were both long trips . I am putting this behind me and will find other good choices in the future .SS needs a new slogan .. Silversea Door to Door ..Will you take the risk ?

Sorry to hear about your experience...what an unfortunate turn of events.  That's one reason I never book through a cruise line but handle all of my own transfers, hotels and flights both before and after the cruise.

 

Your experience may be helpful to other travelers in planning travel from remote airports with infrequent flight availability.  In such cases it is a good idea to have more than the usual contingency plans in place.  If the airline schedules mean that one absolutely has to make a particular flight, a hotel stay the night before at the airport might be wise.  And considering that weather, ATC and other disruptions are not uncommon, the conventional wisdom of arriving in the port of embarkation one day before sailing may need to be reconsidered and arrival even a few days earlier might be a good idea where the disruption of a single flight could prevent one from arriving to the ship on time.

 

Hope your future cruise travels, on whatever line, are trouble-free.

[RetiredOnVacation]

6 minutes ago, alexandria said:

That's one reason I never book through a cruise line but handle all of my own transfers, hotels and flights both before and after the cruise.

 

 

💯% agree with you in that!

And arriving a day or two early too. It's what we do and why we're pleased to see the new P2P fares that take Blacklane and SS Air (or RC Air) out of the equation! 

[Archipelago]

Silversea should terminate the Blacklane partnership . No telling how much business this has cost them . Being "sorry" does not cut it when You're out thousands plus your time . Silversea passengers are affluent people who expect more and who pay more . They won't stand for this shoddy treatment ! Some heads should roll at Blacklane .

[mklions]

Our cruise is Dakar to Lisbon. ( silver wind)

Included with our Door to Door package is all transfers.

 

We have six transfers in all,

 

1,Home to Heathrow Airport

2, Dakar Airport to pre cruise Hotel.

3. Pre Cruise Hotel to Port

4 (Post cruise),Port to Lisbon hotel.

5. Lisbon hotel to Lisbon airport.

6. Heathrow to Home.

 

We had four transfers allocated through the Blacklane website.( as previously mentioned Blacklane  do not service Senegal, Dakar).

So I can only assume the transfers in Dakar will be provided by another Silversea transfer company?

I just wish Silversea would make it clear to us rather than finding information out as we go along and having to make our own assumptions.  

 

 

 

 

 

[RetiredOnVacation]

1 hour ago, mklions said:

Our cruise is Dakar to Lisbon. ( silver wind)

Included with our Door to Door package is all transfers.

 

We have six transfers in all,

 

1,Home to Heathrow Airport

2, Dakar Airport to pre cruise Hotel.

3. Pre Cruise Hotel to Port

4 (Post cruise),Port to Lisbon hotel.

5. Lisbon hotel to Lisbon airport.

6. Heathrow to Home.

 

We had four transfers allocated through the Blacklane website.( as previously mentioned Blacklane  do not service Senegal, Dakar).

So I can only assume the transfers in Dakar will be provided by another Silversea transfer company?

I just wish Silversea would make it clear to us rather than finding information out as we go along and having to make our own assumptions.  

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing that info. There's another Blacklane discussion going on in this Silversea board and one poster shared how for their booking of 2 people, there were 4 blacklane journeys available (one for each person), link here.Blacklane Transfer    

 

Idk but I think the intention would be for the pre and post cruise journeys (between your home and LHR in your case) to be Blacklane, and with the foreign airport/hotel/port transfers being local coaches that SS will tell you about nearer the time, but not Blacklane per se.  Never having actually used SS transfers (always do our own, which coincidentally has often involved blacklane where available) I can't say for sure, but that's my thinking of most likely scenario!  😀

 

 

 

Edited April 9 by RetiredOnVacation
Link added

[Port Power]

3 hours ago, mklions said:

Our cruise is Dakar to Lisbon. ( silver wind)

Included with our Door to Door package is all transfers.

 

We have six transfers in all,

 

1,Home to Heathrow Airport

2, Dakar Airport to pre cruise Hotel.

3. Pre Cruise Hotel to Port

4 (Post cruise),Port to Lisbon hotel.

5. Lisbon hotel to Lisbon airport.

6. Heathrow to Home.

 

We had four transfers allocated through the Blacklane website.( as previously mentioned Blacklane  do not service Senegal, Dakar).

So I can only assume the transfers in Dakar will be provided by another Silversea transfer company?

I just wish Silversea would make it clear to us rather than finding information out as we go along and having to make our own assumptions.  

 

 

The Dakar Airport to hotel transfer will be arranged by SS, not via a Blacklane link.  There is usually an SS representative in the arrivals area to meet passengers.  The transfer might be a minibus or car, depending on how many passengers are arriving around the same time.  You will receive notification of the arrangements nearer your departure date.

 

All the other transfers (except to home) will also be provided by SS, whether group transfers, chauffeured cars or taxi depending on how many passengers on each occasion.

Edited April 9 by Port Power

[Invited On-board]

14 hours ago, mklions said:

Our cruise is Dakar to Lisbon. ( silver wind)

Included with our Door to Door package is all transfers.

 

We have six transfers in all,

 

1,Home to Heathrow Airport

2, Dakar Airport to pre cruise Hotel.

3. Pre Cruise Hotel to Port

4 (Post cruise),Port to Lisbon hotel.

5. Lisbon hotel to Lisbon airport.

6. Heathrow to Home.

 

We had four transfers allocated through the Blacklane website.( as previously mentioned Blacklane  do not service Senegal, Dakar).

So I can only assume the transfers in Dakar will be provided by another Silversea transfer company?

I just wish Silversea would make it clear to us rather than finding information out as we go along and having to make our own assumptions.

 

By looking on the SS website at your specific cruise and then scrolling to the   itinerary details it starts with a number of different of boxes,headed, Private Executive Transfers, International Flights etc . Annotated as included for Door to Door  using the drop downs reveals information concerning each item, hopefully supplying answers to the questions  regarding these points you may have. They are repeated again at the end of  the cruise itinerary regarding  the return journey home 

[Fletcher]

18 hours ago, mklions said:

Our cruise is Dakar to Lisbon. ( silver wind)

Included with our Door to Door package is all transfers.

 

We have six transfers in all,

 

1,Home to Heathrow Airport

2, Dakar Airport to pre cruise Hotel.

3. Pre Cruise Hotel to Port

4 (Post cruise),Port to Lisbon hotel.

5. Lisbon hotel to Lisbon airport.

6. Heathrow to Home.

 

We had four transfers allocated through the Blacklane website.( as previously mentioned Blacklane  do not service Senegal, Dakar).

So I can only assume the transfers in Dakar will be provided by another Silversea transfer company?

I just wish Silversea would make it clear to us rather than finding information out as we go along and having to make our own assumptions.  

 

 

 

 

 

We're on that Wind trip, also the previous one from Manaus, so we won't be using the Dakar hotel.  As far as I know, your only Blacklane transfers will be from your home to LHR and back again.  Two people makes four trips which is the rather inconvenient way Blacklane do things.  We opted out of that, mainly because we live 120 miles from LHR and the surcharge was absurd, £600 each way.

[Archipelago]

Update on my situation . Blacklane is accepting full accountability and I am wanting full reimbursement for my expenses. My family owned a small chain of building supply stores in NC and we stood behind our service and our products . If we carried a product that did not do our customers right we terminated it . This will be a bigger deal than they thought and Silverseas has a responsibility here too . This should be solved soon according to Blacklane.

[Archipelago]

Silversea not Silverseas...

[Invited On-board]

39 minutes ago, Archipelago said:

Update on my situation . Blacklane is accepting full accountability and I am wanting full reimbursement for my expenses.

 

This will be a bigger deal than they thought and Silverseas has a responsibility here too 

Whilst not a good situation  it is a positive step that accountability for the situation is being accepted by a party.

 I hope the following  is of use from SS t&cs.

"Silversea makes arrangements for transportation, other than ocean passage, only as a booking agent. Silversea’s responsibility does not extend beyond the vessel. In arranging for the transportation of guests to and from the ship, Silversea does so with independent contractors".

 

"Standard cruises as well as “Special Combos”, “Grand Voyages” and full World Cruises qualify for this inclusion, on Silversea’s “Door-to-Door All-Inclusive Fares” (reduced rates do not qualify). These transportation services are not operated by Silversea. Guests choosing to accept this service must complete their booking and agree to the terms and conditions provided by Blacklane on www.blacklane.com or their mobile application. Guests must plan their pick up accordingly based on flight departure and arrival scheduled. Silversea will not be responsible for any delays, which could cause a guest to miss their flight and/or their cruise"

 

Edited April 10 by Invited On-board

[Archipelago]

Well ...Door to Door is "At your own risk ' I had a 22 day Antarctica with 3 day Buenos Aires and business class flights booked and also 18 day Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale booked . I cancelled them both . If Blacklane is unreliable Barbara Muckermann and her team need to know . This will hurt their business from loyal guests . I was planning a world cruise as well and will do it but will look elsewhere now . Thank You for your post and I hope others have a better experience with them than I have .

[mklions]

Thank you for all the replies.

 

Thankfully the good people on this forum have come back to us with the answers to our taxi transfer questions.

 

Answers that really should have been passed onto us by Silversea, after all how were we to know that Blacklane only supplied the transfers from home to the airport, and the airport back to our home?( After all they did supply us with four transfers to book)

Likewise how were we to know that the four Blacklane transfers supplied were for two people per trip and not for four separate transfers in total?

 

More clarity is needed when Silversea send over the Blacklane transfers and I hark back to my original gripe, that if you could speak to someone rather than an unhelpful and unknowledgeable chat line person it would be far much better.

Thanks again to all!

[Invited On-board]

1 hour ago, mklions said:

Thank you for all the replies.

 

Thankfully the good people on this forum have come back to us with the answers to our taxi transfer questions.

 

Answers that really should have been passed onto us by Silversea, after all how were we to know that Blacklane only supplied the transfers from home to the airport, and the airport back to our home?( After all they did supply us with four transfers to book)

Likewise how were we to know that the four Blacklane transfers supplied were for two people per trip and not for four separate transfers in total?

 

More clarity is needed when Silversea send over the Blacklane transfers and I hark back to my original gripe, that if you could speak to someone rather than an unhelpful and unknowledgeable chat line person it would be far much better.

Thanks again to all!

 

Glad,that as a whole, the various sources of information were useful  in allaying concerns  re transfers, taxi provision.Though in my case , fair disclosure, it is not due to great insight just a highlighting  of information available on the Silversea  website.

Re post cruise in Lisbon, there are  two different  properties on offer, so there might be separate transport  for each hotel..

Also as regards  the awful situation the originator of this thread found themselves in, please be aware that Silversea has only acted as a booking agent as regards Blacklane transfers and in the event of an issue a customer needs to resolve  it with Blacklane (as per Silversea general  booking t&cs) 

 

Hope you have an outstanding  expedition  cruise.