Is It Possible To Upgrade Air

Hi all!

 

Does anyone know if it is possible to upgrade the air package offered by SS? We have the special $199 RT airfare and I would like to upgrade to comfort class if possible.

 

We are cruising in February and the flight does not yet show up in our names on the airline website. Does anyone know when that happens as well. It's Delta.

 

If it's possible to upgrade then how do I go about Getting this done.

 

Thanks in advance for your knowledge.

A couple of technical points that may help out.

 

First off, what you are doing is a seat purchase, not an "upgrade". An upgrade is when the class of service is changed, such as from coach to business. Comfort+, just like UA's Economy Plus and AA's Main Cabin Extra are basically seating options that may have some extra benefits put in. Be careful using the "upgrade" word with an agent, who may construe you to be talking about a class change.

 

Second - since this is a seat purchase, it is an add-on to the base price of your ticket. As such, you must have....an actual ticket. DL will not let you buy Comfort until you are ticketed. Even if you have a six character locator, that is NOT an indication that you are actually ticketed. You may just have a placeholder reservation pending a ticket issue. Check to see if you have a 13 digit ticket number....on DL it would start with "006". Until you have that, you have no ticket.

 

Third - when you will actually get a "ticket" is anyone's guess. It is almost certain that you will be getting a negotiated/consolidator/bulk ticket - perhaps on the itinerary you selected, perhaps not. Completely depends on what availabilities there are when SS decides to have you ticketed.

 

Finally - there are certain fare classes on DL that cannot buy the seat purchase in Comfort. But until you are ticketed, you won't know what your fare rules are and can't know if you can buy the seats. A bit of a Catch-22.

 

Sorry that I can't be more encouraging but that's the situation you are in. Good luck.

In general, air line tickets purchased through cruise line "special fares" are not upgradeable. Delta only allows upgrades on certain fare classes. They are actually fairly restrictive on this. Even if you go on their website and purchase a ticket, there are many fares there that are not upgradable.

 

So the answer is no.

Just to echo the other posters, i did try to do an upgrade on one of the Silversea air packages.

It turned into a fiasco, so i would be very cautious about doing this.

If you used a travel agent i would ask them to contact the Silversea air department to try to do this if you want to be sure of it.

In general, air line tickets purchased through cruise line "special fares" are not upgradeable. Delta only allows upgrades on certain fare classes. They are actually fairly restrictive on this. Even if you go on their website and purchase a ticket, there are many fares there that are not upgradable.

 

So the answer is no.

 

Just to echo the other posters, i did try to do an upgrade on one of the Silversea air packages.

It turned into a fiasco, so i would be very cautious about doing this.

If you used a travel agent i would ask them to contact the Silversea air department to try to do this if you want to be sure of it.

If you both will notice, the OP was NOT looking for an "upgrade", but rather a purchase of a Comfort+ seat. BIG difference. She will actually be quite likely to be able to buy the better seating, as long as there is still available inventory of Comfort+ when she is ticketed.

 

You are correct, though, in that many, if not all, cruiseline provided tickets are bulk/negotiated/consolidator fares that have fare rules prohibiting or restricting upgrades (which means a change in fare class, not just better seating).

Edited November 4, 2015 by FlyerTalker

Flyer...

not to quibble, but Delta considers the change to comfort plus an "upgrade",

at least that is how they market it to customers.

 

Whatever one considers the change, it is a change that can throw the reservation/booking in a kerflewie.

I think you are talking at cross purposes with FT.

 

As I have read it, the OP has asked about an upgrade. What she means is she wants a better class than the one she has paid for from SS. As the flight is in February and doesn't yet show ..... I am assuming it hasn't been ticketed yet and she doesn't have a PNR. In that case she might want to "upgrade" her booking so far as SS is concerned but if it hasn't been ticketed yet it isn't an upgrade as far as Delta is concerned, but a new ticket. It may be that the OP is hoping for a small price differential which is unlikely.

 

It's a shame that it isn't easy for her to simply get SS to quote for the seat she wants and as it hasn't been ticketed just credit the price already paid towards it.

 

 

Jeff

Flyer...

 

not to quibble, but Delta considers the change to comfort plus an "upgrade",

 

at least that is how they market it to customers.

 

 

 

Whatever one considers the change, it is a change that can throw the reservation/booking in a kerflewie.

 

 

Yes, that's how they market it. Which doesn't mean that they process it as a third cabin class. The ads I've seen mention upgrading your experience not upgrading your cabin.

 

If it were a third cabin class, you would expect to upgrade to first from it with less FF miles/$$ than coach. You would also not expect higher Frequent fliers categories to get auto upgrades to it from coach at booking.

Bottom line, how do we help the poster who speaks to upgrade.

It may not be an upgrade. Semantics aside,

I guess we wait to hear if anyone has been able to achieve what the poster wants to do.

Hope someone posts with a roadmap.

You are not going to get a better road map than what has been posted by FT and Jeff.

Bottom line, how do we help the poster who speaks to upgrade.

 

It may not be an upgrade. Semantics aside,

 

I guess we wait to hear if anyone has been able to achieve what the poster wants to do.

 

Hope someone posts with a roadmap.

 

 

Semantics can be important sometimes. I remember once my wife and I were going to a play, and I booked a pre-show/intermission event largely because it said it included "free drinks". When we showed up were each given vouchers for two free drinks. Beyond that you were on your own.

 

In this case, it likely means whether Jeff's advice or Flyertalker's will prove more helpful.

Bottom line, how do we help the poster who speaks to upgrade.

It may not be an upgrade. Semantics aside,

I guess we wait to hear if anyone has been able to achieve what the poster wants to do.

Hope someone posts with a roadmap.

 

I already have explained. :)

 

To be honest ... I didn't wish to be seen as facetious earlier .... but I am puzzled as to why the OP thinks anyone on a forum can help her. We aren't clairvoyants and the whole issue depends on whether the ticket has been issued or not and the only people that know and who can offer either advice or help initially is SS ether directly or via her TA if one were used. :)

 

SS have an allocation of tickets so that they can offer the low price. That is why they don't need to ticket early to protect the price. It would be easy customer service for SS (and probably earn them more) if they credit the ticket price paid against a new ticket in her chosen class. Only SS can help initially.

 

Advice here can only be offered once she tells us that a ticket has been issued and what sort of ticket restrictions it has. If it hasn't been issued then she might be able to cancel it and get her cash back and make her own arraqngements - or ask SS to do it for her.

 

Jeff

Gosh I'm sorry I caused a semantic war. I apologize. I'm a newby to this terminology and abbreviations.

 

What I meant is that I don't mind paying extra or using frequent flyer miles to change my seat to comfort class.

 

The ticket Does not yet show up on the Delta website.

 

I wanted to know if anyone else had done this and what was the best way and time to do this.

 

Thanks to all the posters.

Yes, you didn't mention that you would like to use miles, and it still isn't clear whether the ticket has been issued or not. You say "it doesn't show", but what do you mean? Have you a PNR or booking reference? Have you considerd asking either SS or your TA whether your ticket is issued and what your options are?

 

Have you tried to make a dummy redemption booking to see if there is any availability? If there is redemption availibilty and SS refunds your fare, it seems obvious to me what you need to do.

 

Jeff

Edited November 5, 2015 by UKCruiseJeff

Let's get this cleared up:

 

1. OP wants to sit in Comfort+ seats, not first/business.
   
2. These are not upgrades to a separate fare basis class and do not follow upgrade rules.
   
3. Any discussion about class upgrades is irrelevant and not at play.
   
4. C+ seats are paid seat options, not done with FF miles.
   
5. They are complimentary to DL elite flyers within certain time windows.
   
6. They can only be purchased after a ticket has been issued.
   
7. A ticket is indicated by a 13 digit number, not the six character locator. DL issued tickets start with "006".
   
8. Until such time that the ticket is issued, no one can buy or reserve a C+ seat for the reservation.
   
9. Since the ticket is being purchased through SS, only SS controls when a ticket is actually issued.
   
10. The purchase of C+ is a separate process than the ticket issuance, and is done directly by DL alone. Thus SS has no involvement with any C+ seating for their guests.
    
11. The OP will have to wait until the ticket is issued to attempt to buy C+. That purchase will need to be done by the customer directly with DL (or by their TA who will need to access their DL reservation and make the purchase).
    
12. If there is no inventory of C+ seats still available for sale at the time of ticket issue, the OP is out of luck.
    

 

Hopefully that will make things crystal clear for everyone, and remove any misconceptions.

If the better seat is really important, ask your TA or Silversea how much it would cost to get exactly what you want. We did that to get Premium Economy on Air New Zealand, and going through Silversea was much cheaper than anything we could have done on our own.

If the better seat is really important, ask your TA or Silversea how much it would cost to get exactly what you want. We did that to get Premium Economy on Air New Zealand, and going through Silversea was much cheaper than anything we could have done on our own.

And to clarify your situation.....Premium Economy on NZ is a different situation. PE is a separate class of service, not a seat purchase like DL's C+. PE requires a different fare basis and is NOT an add-on like C+.

 

Delta, American and United do NOT offer any Premium Economy product. They do offer seating options for an additional add-on price to the base fare class. Big difference - not apples and oranges.

 

And for those who may think I'm beating a dead horse....this kind of differentiation is critical in getting the product you want in the air travel world. You gotta understand what's going on or you may very well be disappointed in the end.

This thread has become so informative.

Thanks all for the input.

Ok, as suggested I called SS directly.

 

They said that our travel agent has to email the air and sea department of SS as a special request to obtain a quote to change our ticket from economy class to comfort class.

 

I've asked our agent to get a quote from SS and we'll see what happens.

 

They said that air and sea will respond within 3-4 business days of receiving the email.

 

I'll let everyone know what happens and if this works or not.

I wanted to update this thread.

 

Our TA did email the SS air and sea desk and did get a reply quite promptly.

 

For an additional cost we can buy business class seats. Of course the fare goes from $199 up to $2000 and something round trip.

 

Their response for changing our seats to comfort plus was that once the tickets are issued we can do that through Delta directly.

 

Hope this helps others.

I wanted to update this thread.

 

Our TA did email the SS air and sea desk and did get a reply quite promptly.

 

For an additional cost we can buy business class seats. Of course the fare goes from $199 up to $2000 and something round trip.

 

Their response for changing our seats to comfort plus was that once the tickets are issued we can do that through Delta directly.

 

Hope this helps others.

And I think that exactly tracks what I wrote in post #15:

Let's get this cleared up:

 

1. OP wants to sit in Comfort+ seats, not first/business.
   
2. These are not upgrades to a separate fare basis class and do not follow upgrade rules.
   
3. Any discussion about class upgrades is irrelevant and not at play.
   
4. C+ seats are paid seat options, not done with FF miles.
   
5. They are complimentary to DL elite flyers within certain time windows.
   
6. They can only be purchased after a ticket has been issued.
   
7. A ticket is indicated by a 13 digit number, not the six character locator. DL issued tickets start with "006".
   
8. Until such time that the ticket is issued, no one can buy or reserve a C+ seat for the reservation.
   
9. Since the ticket is being purchased through SS, only SS controls when a ticket is actually issued.
   
10. The purchase of C+ is a separate process than the ticket issuance, and is done directly by DL alone. Thus SS has no involvement with any C+ seating for their guests.
    
11. The OP will have to wait until the ticket is issued to attempt to buy C+. That purchase will need to be done by the customer directly with DL (or by their TA who will need to access their DL reservation and make the purchase).
    
12. If there is no inventory of C+ seats still available for sale at the time of ticket issue, the OP is out of luck.

Can you book with Expedia and than changing it to Comfort plus or do you have to book with DL

Can you book with Expedia and than changing it to Comfort plus or do you have to book with DL

 

 

You can book with anybody, switching to Comfort+ you do with Delta (or your TA does it for you with Delta), after you're ticketed.

How long does it take to get ticketed?

Were flying from Toronto to San Juan via ATL or JFK will the comfort plus be only on one leg of the flight or both legs there and back?