Does Silversea Air know what they're doing?

[ilovhywd]

We booked the door to door package for our upcoming cruise.

 

They KNOW our cruise ends in the morning at Puerto Williams, at the tip of South America,  and they put us on a 10:00 am flight from Santiago to Miami.  The charter flight from Puerto Williams to Santiago takes about 5 hours so how could we possibly make this Miami flight?

 

it took 5 phone calls to Silversea to get them to change to a later flight.  Haven’t they done this hundreds of times before with passengers ending their Antarctica cruises?

[taxatty]

They certainly have, which is why they booked us a few years ago on the post-cruise late night AA flight out of SCL, and we got the same flight for ourselves when we go back to Antarctica next year.

[Texas Tillie]

Silversea Air department is now operated by Royal Caribbean.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

3 hours ago, Texas Tillie said:

Silversea Air department is now operated by Royal Caribbean.

To be more precise the third party offshored air consolidator company that Royal Caribbean Group contracts with. Flight arrangements have been a universal mess since the switchover. I actively discourage clients from booking door to door whenever possible. 

[drron29]

In general I believe RCCL knows what they are doing but they seem to have no insight on how those decisions negatively impact their passengers.

[MBP&O2/O]

We have a cruise in a matter of days and the flight tickets have not yet been issued, which KLM tells me they haven't been paid for?

Sometimes I despair😏

 

RCCL = Really Couldn't Care Less 🙂

[markham]

There is no real discussion about customer service and professionalism if RCCL is handling SS air arrangements in such a sloppy, thoughtless, careless and haphazard manner. These episodes show RCCL has a lot of explaining to do and, in the meantime, outsource the whole thing to competent TAs. They do exist, after all!

 

Future bookings with DTD? Not likely until I am convinced RCCL demonstrates what we all expect. Too much to ask? For their sake and more importantly for the SS brand I hope they get the job done.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[jjs217]

Check your dates.  They may have you spending the night in Santiago before flying you home.

[Observer]

4 hours ago, markham said:

Future bookings with DTD? Not likely until I am convinced RCCL demonstrates what we all expect.

 

Is it not possible that RCCL is happy to have people book port-to-port rather than door-to-door?  This significantly simplifies life for RCCL in that they do not have to worry about flights and chauffeur service and can concentrate on the onboard experience. Heaven knows! Focus is needed on the onboard experience that seems to be a pale shadow of that offered by the former Silversea.  

[Port Power]

On 9/16/2024 at 6:42 PM, ilovhywd said:

We booked the door to door package for our upcoming cruise.

 

They KNOW our cruise ends in the morning at Puerto Williams, at the tip of South America,  and they put us on a 10:00 am flight from Santiago to Miami.  The charter flight from Puerto Williams to Santiago takes about 5 hours so how could we possibly make this Miami flight?

 

it took 5 phone calls to Silversea to get them to change to a later flight.  Haven’t they done this hundreds of times before with passengers ending their Antarctica cruises?

As @jjs217 states, the Antarctica package usually includes a post cruise night in Santiago.  Is that not included in your D2D booking?

[Tothesunset]

1 hour ago, Observer said:

 

Is it not possible that RCCL is happy to have people book port-to-port rather than door-to-door?  This significantly simplifies life for RCCL in that they do not have to worry about flights and chauffeur service and can concentrate on the onboard experience. Heaven knows! Focus is needed on the onboard experience that seems to be a pale shadow of that offered by the former Silversea.  

I doubt it. The mark up on the D2D elements is immense. RCCL wouldn't pass up the opportunity  of screwing more bottom line from their esteemed clients. 

[applefan75]

1 hour ago, Tothesunset said:

I doubt it. The mark up on the D2D elements is immense. RCCL wouldn't pass up the opportunity  of screwing more bottom line from their esteemed clients. 

Not always, if you reserve a trip with D2D a year or more out, you may very well come out ahead on airfare due to fare increases by the time you could purchase airfare on your own.  It's happened several times for me.

[commodoredave]

I’m not sure RCL/Silversea are any worse than the entire cruise industry when it comes to booking air. In my experience, most are sorely lacking . 
Consequently, we have not opted for cruise air on any line in more than 10 years. 
We book our own, well in advance, pick the routing and airline we prefer, and use points whenever possible. Most recent example was our SS cruise in Japan where we flew JAL to Tokyo from Chicago in business class for a super good fare. 

[ilovhywd]

To jjs217 and Port Power:

According to the brochure, some non-US passengers get a post-cruise night in Santiago when there are no possible flights on disembarkation day that they can make.  We received a communication saying that we have a day room at a hotel near Santiago Airport where we can wait for our 10:40 pm flight.

 

We booked the door-to door option because of the multiple transfers and hotels both pre- and post-cruise.  Hoping that it will be an efficient, seamless process.  Keeping our fingers crossed!

[MBP&O2/O]

Further to my earlier comments ... my TA says ...

 

I have spoken to Silversea who have advised the ticketing had not pulled through automatically so I do apologise. They are now ticketing the flight and within the next 24 hours you will be able to log onto the airlines website and manage your booking with your locator references.

 

😏👎🤞😵‍💫🤪

[Port Power]

19 hours ago, ilovhywd said:

To jjs217 and Port Power:

According to the brochure, some non-US passengers get a post-cruise night in Santiago when there are no possible flights on disembarkation day that they can make.  We received a communication saying that we have a day room at a hotel near Santiago Airport where we can wait for our 10:40 pm flight.

 

We booked the door-to door option because of the multiple transfers and hotels both pre- and post-cruise.  Hoping that it will be an efficient, seamless process.  Keeping our fingers crossed!

Unfortunately there is no “informative” button.  I hope the whole trip goes well, and with no stress now.