AndieSF

@cruiseej - The best way to confirm if your flights are still there is by putting the record locators in the airline websites directly (Delta/AA/UA) --- if you still see the flights in your profile with the airlines, you are good. For our case, Silversea reps said the United flights are still "in our profile" - but the United flights actually dropped off completely from our United.com after day 3. We were only able to see our return flights on American Airline website. We didn't check on Delta, because I told tome several times that I have no in interest in transfer two times. Not until they "reached out" to the air (or refresh their system) - did they know the flights were switched. I now have my flights made on my own 🙂 I saw the Silver Endeavor, pretty slick! But I am not sure how they will map everyone's rooms. Now I wonder if should've gone with a cheaper room option...

@cruiseej - Thank you for confirming that the onboard experience should be better than the office operations! I called Silversea today to get an update on my submission 3 business days ago for "inquiry of flights", and this was what I got: Silversea changed our outbound flights by removing the United (that we agreed with extra charge) and replaced it with Delta (again) with two stops (but not removing the extra charge). This change did not appear on the latest itinerary (still showing United), so we have no idea the exact flights. I guess they had no plan to inform us the change and wanted to surprise us later? I am beyond frustration and no longer trust Silversea. For now, I cancelled Silversea's flight arrangements. I got lucky using Google Flights search and booked directly with United (Roundtrip: SFO-HOU-SCL) for the same price as Silversea's (Delta 2 stops + AA for return). Then I found out that our ship will change from Silver Explorer to to Silver Endeavour - which Silversea won from an auction from Crystal --- so my room will change, but don't know to what.... Not sure if this is a good sign or not?

We are 10 days before the cancellation deadline. If I choose to cancel, I will have to scramble to find another similar cruise.. This trip was originally set in 2020, and was delayed twice in two years due to covid. Polar Cruise company closed during the pandemic, so I am not sure where I can easily find alternatives. It will be a great disappointment if we can't find another options in time. This is a fly the drake option. Right now, Silversea air and service have left a really negative impression of their customer service. I am surprised because I was under the impression that they are a "luxury cruise line" - with white gloves service? I saw the AA flght from SFO - DFW - SCL, but they won't book that one.. instead, they previously offered through JFK only. But now on my itinerary, I have the return flight only. Outbound on United disappeared - and for one week no one in Silversea care to tell me what is going on.

@cruiseejThank you for your info! I had another week of saga with Silversea. I advised them that I was going to make my own air arrangement, but they tried to accommodate, and changed the outbound flights from SFO - JFK (5 hr layover) -SCL on American, to SFO - HOU - SCL on United. (Return was still SCL - DFW - SFO on American). At first I was able to see the flights on my United.com, but by mid of last week the United flights completely disappeared. I tried to contact my Silversea rep, who never replied to my emails and phone calls for few days, then later got an out of the office email stating he will be out for 10 days. I reached out to the reps, and I was told "your inquiry has been submitted to our air department, which will require 72 business hours before they can get back to you" Having no direct access to the air agents is extremely frustrating. I don't know WHY Silversea is operating this way. Other cruise lines that I have been with (Azamara, Vikings, Regent) were far less painful. We made the mistake of booking this trip with Silversea direct... Maybe we made the mistake going with Silversea in general? Our trip is first week of December this year... too late to change to another cruiseline... So after 4 months of dealing with them, our air is still unkown.

@alithecat - Thank you for confirming! I wish I knew sooner! I am researching for my flights now... it is not going to be easy since everything went up by 50-70%. Thank you for sharing your insights! @kimanjo - Good idea! I will book a room in both MO and Ritz with fully cancellable. And I will do the same with the airport Holiday Inn (for the departure day).

OMG.. that is more new info to consider! I didn't even think about the return leg of the trip! So please let me know if I am capturing everything correctly.. if we make the air arrangement on our own: 1) We are responsible to go from airport to the hotel in Santiago . 2) Just in case, we should leave one day sooner, and book an one extra nigh at the same hotel...(Question - they have not told us which hotel - Just rep simply said, "Ritz or similar"... and online it is written : "Silversea Hotel" ----how do we find that out?) 3) On the way back, Silversea will drop us off at the SCL airport - so we should arrange a day hotel at the airport in Santiago, (Holiday Inn is nearby? Walking distance?) Did I get all that right? Am I still missing something else? You guys are so experienced!! OMG! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got it. We also planned to take the 11AM flight from SFO to HOU. And I truly wished SS rep could just tell me from the start that they do not have contract, so if they book it then, it would cost me $x... then I could've decide sooner. But the "Please check back in couple of weeks" is not only going to secure my flights through them, it is ending up costing me more. (it is now $1800pp). I guess it is a hard lesson I learn going with SS. I have only cruised with Regent, Azamara and Viking previously, and none of them were as difficult - really leaving me a bad taste 😞 Ok, I will look into do it on our own now. It is good to know that we are not alone and it is better to do it ourselves.

Thank you all! We booked our trip via SS directly, and not with TA. It is the first time we booked with anyone directly... I guess we learned our lesson. I joined the FB group just now, but not sure if that would be any of help. @alithecat - we are from SF, on the Nov 28 Silver Explorer to Antarctica. We choose SFO to HOU to SCL on United, and in Feb, it was $1000 pp. But Silversea first booked us from SFO - ATL - MIA - SCL...then now SFO - JFK (5 hour layover) - SCL. They kept changing our flights, anything but the ones we want. I am in a agreement - I want to avoid weather impacts to my flights! I have been monitoring the exact flight I wanted to go (that Silversea also have as well) since February - nothing has changed as far as the flights except price went up by 50%. Now I wish I had known about SS enough not to believe them .. and just planned it myself 😞 This is leaving me a bad taste about Silversea - and our trip hasn't even started it ...

Thank you for your inputs! Good to know we are not alone with SS ignoring us with our flight arrangements?! Silversea knows which flights we want (they sent us the options but reserved another airline with worse flight schedule). If we make the flight arrangements ourselves, will they still pick us up at Santiago? Or do we then need to find our ways to the hotel?

We have a trip scheduled with Silversea this November to Antartica. We booked this trip prior to covid, paid in full for several years. It is our first time traveling with this cruise line and are very excited. However, for the past months, we have been unable to work with them with our air arrangements. Silversea set a random flight arrangements on our itinerary. When we tried to request for our preferred flights (due to our airline program) and we are willing to pay the difference, the representative from Silversea simply kept telling us "please wait for few more weeks" and never followed up. I get the same message every time I follow up after few weeks. It is now July, less than 5 months prior to the trip, the rep is still chanting the same message: "please wait for few more weeks" and ignoring us. Somehow I get this feeling that if I check in again in a few weeks, I will likely be getting the same message? We have until late July to cancel without major penalty... now we are considering cancelling the trip entirely due to lack of response from Silversea. From your experiences - this common from Silversea? Do they don't care about their customer's flight requests? Should we cancel? Any advice you can provide will be greatly appreciated.