Silversea Air Fare Packages

We are booked for December 22, 2018 on the Cloud for 15-night Antarctica. Will make final payment by May 2nd 2017 to get early booking discount.

However, Silversea is currently running Antarctica specials that include greatly reduced airfare on sailings through February 2018 with payments also due by May 2nd 2017.

Is it possible for Silversea to include reduced airfare on our sailing as well at a later date? Or are we screwed?

They will have had all of our cruise fare for 19 months before sailing. Right now this leaves a very sour taste in my mouth as I have also already paid for our deposit and insurance.

Antarctica All-Inclusive Package: Now including charter flights, hotels and more + $899 Economy Class Air Round Trip to Buenos Aires on Silver Explorer Expeditions, or Santiago de Chile on Silver Cloud Expeditions*

Early Booking Bonus: Save 10% if you book and pay in full by 2 May*

The economy air they quoted me from SFO to Santiago was greater than 2600 per person.

Advice please?

There is a possibility the fare could be added at a latter date, though won't be if the cruise is selling well. I can very much understand your frustration as that differential is substantial. My last cruise had a similar package but the inclusion was what got the booking.

Your booking is quite a bit into the future so it might be a while for it to appear.

I'm in a similar position as you with similar thoughts. Mine is in April 2018 and hoping that silver select or one of the other deals gets added, but therein lies the gamble.

Silversea generally are very crafty with their pricing. You do get a price guarantee, but in time, the cruise price will usually increase. So paying now you get the 10% plus not having the extra added. The fare you are hoping for might never be added.

The gotcha, is you pay up front, they then increase the fare by $300 and then add the fare, they won't honour the guarantee as they'll say you've got a cheaper fare already and will not give you the fare unless you cancel the booking and rebook. The will charge an admin fee to cancel but will give that back if you rebook.

So in short, I will be paying up front now knowing if they do charge me another £200 for my booking, i can pay the extra and be entitle to rebook and get a $1500 on board spend on the promotion I'm hoping will be added.

No one knows if offers will be added, but you might get a good feel by asking SS how many places have been booked and how many left. If it's near full, it's highly unlikely your promotion will be added.

On my last cruise I just got back from, we got extremely lucky. We paid in full a year out after they added an air fare promotion for U.K. to Caribbean for £299 making our fare very good. But amazingly, they added silver select which gave us a two category upgrade free and then a Venetian promotion which gave us a $1000 on board credit. This was several months after we'd paid in full and without the usual price increase which locks out earlier bookers price warranty.

I've never seen a promotion stacking like that without a price hike and I'd say it was only that way because it wasn't selling well. It soon sold out afterwards.

Unfortunately no one can answer your question with certainty, but you can get a feel for whether any offers will be added by how well it's selling.. I expect the cloud expedition is likely to be a good seller for SS.

Hopefully food for thought even if it doesn't answer. I half expect the early booking promotion will continue into June. But you are currently locked into your price.... if it continues and they increase the price, you will lose "your" discount unless you cancel and rebook... and that would be at the new higher price.

My next has this promotion and it is my intention on paying up front... hopefully the right decision but who knows!

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Interesting.

Having read the comments, I checked our cruise and saw SS have now introduced an offer of £999 for business class airfares.

Sounds like a good deal?

In our case, as we have other plans in the Caribbean and we need to adhere to a specific itinerary, we would need to have the offered flights and routes altered .... with the appropriate 'admin fees' to be added on.

However, I assume that the deal is for 'new bookings' only so the only way to get it would be - as stated - to cancel and rebook.

We booked last September at a good price. The offer was 10% off if the cruise price was paid up front.

Since then, the 10% discount has been repeatedly extended, but at the same time the basic price has been increasing accordingly.

In our case, the price we paid is now £1500 pp less than the current 'going rate'.

Couple that 'new booking' price increase (£3000) with the £2000+ offer plus the admin fees, etc. and it works out at much the same price as my TA is quoting, so there would be nothing to gain and more to lose?

Therin lies the gotcha.

Most people dont follow their cruise price once booked or appreciate that this new super duper offer comes at a price of an increased cruise price. Give with one hand and take with the other. Sometimes it works spectacularly well and no price increase happens.... But like youve noticed, it is a bit of a con when it doesnt represent the offer you think it is.

Thanks for your responses.

We are new to Silversea. Guess we will just have to wait and see where this goes.

Right now, the airfares seem higher than normal, probably because this is a "Holiday" sailing to include Christmas and New Years? Plus it is "prime" time in Antarctica?

We just booked our first cruise with Siversea and the main incentive to book early was the inclusion of business class air fares which have a "retail" value of AU$12,000 on a cruise costing AU$16,000 (for two pax).

Most cruise lines have varied pricing method depending upon peak and off peak periods, time to sailing, occupancy rates etc. so it is just down to chance whether you get the best possible price. Prices also differ in different geographic areas.

Therin lies the gotcha.

 

Most people dont follow their cruise price once booked or appreciate that this new super duper offer comes at a price of an increased cruise price. Give with one hand and take with the other. Sometimes it works spectacularly well and no price increase happens.... But like youve noticed, it is a bit of a con when it doesnt represent the offer you think it is.

So I looked into this some more.

We are sailing on a 15-day cruise to Antarctica and there were no others, so I looked at all of the 10-day Ushuaia to Ushuaia sailings for the 2017 - 2018 season. There are 7 of them that range in price from low of 13.365 to 15,345 for a Veranda. Add the current promotion of $899 RT economy air, then the total is 14,264 to 16,244 per person.

For the 2018- 2019 season there were three 10-day sailings that were all 12,125 pp, add the 2680 that I was quoted for economy air, then the total is 14,875. Therefore the pricing for the cruise plus air is not that far off from the current promotion. This relieves some of the sour taste I had in my mouth at first.

With the promotion 14,264 to 16,244 pp versus 14,875 for the December 2018 sailings, I should note that the two lowest fares were in February 2018 (the end of the season). Seems to me that Silversea is playing a numbers games with their cruise pricing.

So for the cruise we booked - 15-night 12/22/18 through 01/06/18 (height of the season + Christmas and New Years) it was 18405 + 2680 for air which totals to 21085 pp. I'll see if I can find cheaper air as I do have 19 months to look for it.

Anyone else want to join us for voyage 1829?

For you seasoned Silversea cruisers, am I missing something here? Anything else I should consider?

These airfares seem absurd. You fly rt SFO-SCL coach for under $1100 on Avianca, and rt business class from LAX-SCL for under $2700 (lie flat seats), and add on a cheapie rt flight SFO-LAX.

I would guess a consolidator could beat these published fares.