WC Words of Wisdom Please

[mysty]

Thanks spinnaker2! We are using a TA. She is currently on her own cruise. :) We got an invoice but there was no air on it. The air just showed up today on My Silversea and I guess I thought the booking reference numbers would be provided there. I guess I will have to wait for our TA to return. Not a big deal! Thanks for your response!

[spinnaker2]

If you want to spend some time on it you might be able to learn your reference number directly with the airline, using your name and flight details, I.e., the date and time, and an option like manage my flight or a similar type of subject title. I have been able to do that in the past, but it was tedious.

[joe_90]

Hi

 

 

I would give Silversea a call if you are worried. The air dept should have all the info.

 

I see that wifi is now included for all guests about time cost me a fortune last year.

 

Whisper is coming to my home port at the beginning of Sept and we hope to get a visit so will be able to tell you all the news.

 

 

Joe

[mysty]

Once again, thanks so much Joe! I really appreciate your Words of Wisdom! :) Yes, I was very excited to hear about the WiFi being included. Initially we were told we would only get 1 hour per person per day for the cruise for our suite category. I like this plan much better! I look forward to hearing all the news after the Whisper visit to your home port! :)

[UKCruiseJeff]

M,

 

You'll need to call SS for your PNR/ticket number. It should theoretically be impossible to get these from simply your name and route by any other means from a security viewpoint. Otherwise anyone could mess with your booking including cancelling it.

 

Sometimes SS delay getting the tickets so it is good sense to ask them.

 

Jeff

[mysty]

Thank You Jeff! And your explanation makes perfect sense now that you mention it! :) I'll see what I can come up with via the telephone!

[mysty]

Just a quick update for all the extremely helpful posters on this thread in relation to the air reservations. I called SS yesterday and a very helpful young man provided the file locator numbers. I hurried off to check the flights using the locator number for our Air Canada booking. I am very glad that I did. The only person listed on the reservation was me. Myster was nowhere to be found. Once again, I had lost him. I called SS back to see if they could help. A very helpful young woman spent some time trying to figure it out. She used something called checkmytrip.com and lo and behold, Myster was found again. All the information was in place according to that site. The very helpful young woman is going to talk to the "air" people at SS and will call me back. Thanks for all the help here! :)

[mysty]

If you want to spend some time on it you might be able to learn your reference number directly with the airline, using your name and flight details, I.e., the date and time, and an option like manage my flight or a similar type of subject title. I have been able to do that in the past, but it was tedious.

OMG spinnaker 2, I just saw this post from you! I missed it completely when it was posted. Sorry about that! I wasn't ignoring it! :( I called Silversea as I mentioned in my post from yesterday and now I am throughly confused. The info is all there on the Lufthansa record but still only me on Air Canada's site. I called AC and they said that I had to talk to SS. I called SS back and they said that it was a problem with AC's website and that their records showed us both as booked. Hopefully SS is right!

[spinnaker2]

No worries. Not to scare you but we had a similar issue on the alaska expedition. At one point the airlines canceled our reservations! Just make your TA do the leg work, otherwise you will drive your self crazy.

[mysty]

No worries. Not to scare you but we had a similar issue on the alaska expedition. At one point the airlines canceled our reservations! Just make your TA do the leg work, otherwise you will drive your self crazy.

Thak you spinnaker2! Both my son and my husband are saying not to worry (and I admit that I am a worrier), however, your situation on the alaska expedition is what I can see happening down the road. Our TA should be back in about a week I think. She is usually pretty good but is now dealing with the loss of her spouse a couple of months ago so things are a little dicey! As far as driving myself crazy is concerned, I don't really have far to go! :)

[joe_90]

I highly recommend that you talk to the manager of ss air or have your ta on the ball.

 

Flight details are now the most important ones to get right if airlines will cancel and you will be left at the airport. I nearly had this happen because of my middle name only having the letter R instead of the full name Robert.

The USA visa forms are very strict and watch out for the visa for India a mine field!

 

On a lighter note I was talking to a very nice lady last night who says the ship is at capacity for the whole voyage and she does not think there will be many withdrawals when the final payment is due next week. However all the crew are now being put in place to handle the rush.

 

As i said before hope to get on when she calls for the day early next month and will report back.

 

Go and shout (i didnt mean that reallly i never lose the rag) at your TA

 

Joe

[mysty]

I highly recommend that you talk to the manager of ss air or have your ta on the ball.

 

Flight details are now the most important ones to get right if airlines will cancel and you will be left at the airport. I nearly had this happen because of my middle name only having the letter R instead of the full name Robert.

The USA visa forms are very strict and watch out for the visa for India a mine field!

 

On a lighter note I was talking to a very nice lady last night who says the ship is at capacity for the whole voyage and she does not think there will be many withdrawals when the final payment is due next week. However all the crew are now being put in place to handle the rush.

 

As i said before hope to get on when she calls for the day early next month and will report back.

 

Go and shout (i didnt mean that reallly i never lose the rag) at your TA

 

Joe

Thanks so much Joe for your continued help and support! I will try to contact the manager of SS air and see what I can come up with. I am a nervous nelly when it comes to things like this. Murphy Law is my bible unfortunately. Hope you get to visit Whisper!

[mysty]

Joe, how was the visa for India a mine field? For Canadians, the visa application is submitted through a contractor for the embassy. The application must be completed online with the paperwork delivered via Fedex or submitted in person. This is the one I am most concerned about. The ETAs for Australia and Sri Lanka seem fairly straight forward. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[UKCruiseJeff]

The visas for Oz are very straightforward, but whatever you do make sure you apply online via the official website. There are spoof websites that charge an inflated fee that appear official The Oz government are trying to crack down on them. The visa is an evisa and when you enter your passport number it recognises you on entry.

 

With respect to the tickets. To repeat it is unlikely that an airline that you do not have a frequent flyer account with ie who can ask you questions and know you, will release any ticket info to you. It has to be from SS or TA if involved.

 

If you use the classic version of checkmytrip and use the PNR it will give you the long digit ticket number starting normally with 126 I believe from memory. If it has that umber the ticket has been issued, If it hasn't that number but just a PNR the ticket is not issued. but simply a booking.c You need to seemthe long number for both of you to be fully reasured. The classic version is the useful version

 

https://classic.checkmytrip.com/plnext/XCMTXITN/CleanUpSessionPui.action?LANGUAGE=GB&SITE=XCMTXITN

 

Jeff

[mysty]

Thanks Jeff! I am a little beside myself here with this issue. I know I am obsessive (much like a dog with a bone). I just don't want to screw this up for Myster. He depends on me to deal with these things - planning and such! I'll check that website and see where we stand. Really appreciate your input here kind sir! :)

[mysty]

OK Jeff, where would those long numbers appear? The site lists both Myster and my names and the itinerary is correct. I don't see any long numbers anywhere though.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good morning M. Don't panic:)

 

I have used one of my forwrd bookings to check! The Amadeus system is the hidden engine that the airlines use to create file and change bookings.

 

1. You enter the PNR and the name and hit enter.

 

2 The next screen should have a top field which says "your trip reservation" which has the PNR number and the travellers names. The next field should say "e-ticket numbers "and have afield which says "Document " followed by the long numbers. My one says "Document 125-" followed by 11 numbers. It also has the trip details which in my booking says London to London.

 

3 the following field says "your flight selection" which has fuller travel details

 

Without that long document number starting in my case with 125, thrn the ticket hasn't been issued by the carrier. Just because there is a reservation number there is NOT a firm booking registered in the Amadeus system. Only the e-ticket number confirms. You can choose seats without it but without an e-ticket document number you won't be flying.

 

You are not being picky. I am picky and that is why I have less suprises than many.What can go wrong often goes go wrong if you do not check.

 

If you have an ipad and get the app called "myflightsHD" and enter your pnr number and set it to alert you to changes, then as soon as there is any change including an e-ticket number it will send you an alert. It will show in red and crossed out the previous version and in yellow the new version. This uses Amadeus so is always up to date. The alert means it continually asks Amadeus if there is a change all day and every day to all your reservations, and tells you as soon as there is one. This is also good for other things like if there is a time change, flight cancellation or if they change your seat you have booked. I have often picked up changes long before the airline contact me and that has meant that I could proactively sort things out and I have avoided suprises.

 

Do not panic if the number isn't there, just request that they have the ticket issued.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

Good luck

 

Jeff.

Edited August 27, 2015 by UKCruiseJeff
ipad spelling ...

[mysty]

Thank you so so so much Jeff! There are no e-ticket numbers and nothing that says Document. Under each of the flight segments liksted it says Confirmed in red. In the section that provides more information there is a green check mark after each flight segment, name and seat assigned. But there are no e-ticket numbers! I will see what I can find out from SS. The puzzler for me is that these data are showing up on all the flight websites except for Air Canada which only has me listed.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thank you so so so much Jeff! There are no e-ticket numbers and nothing that says Document. Under each of the flight segments liksted it says Confirmed in red. In the section that provides more information there is a green check mark after each flight segment, name and seat assigned. But there are no e-ticket numbers! I will see what I can find out from SS. The puzzler for me is that these data are showing up on all the flight websites except for Air Canada which only has me listed.

 

 

The problem is that many travel people you deal with don't understand these details themselves. Sometimes the earliest manifestation will be when someone arrives at the airport with their booking printed off and the check in says "yes I can see the reservation but I am afraid it hasn't been ticketed".

 

So when you call, you simply say something along the lines of "I can see the reservation in the system but it hasn't been ticketed yet .... "

 

The origin of this number and it being called a "document" was those nice proper carbon paper printed long tickets you use to get in the old days and the number use to appear on the bottom of that document with al the fare details you paid. You remember them?

 

It was effectively a currency that could often be exchanged with another airline if you were late. The advent of online booking gave the PNR reservation number and that number hangs in space until the soft version of that old long ticket is issued by the airline hence the "eticket document number" with the 125-xxxxxxxxxxx ...

 

This isn't a source of panic, just something to keep your eye on and you can be a bit more relaxed once the ticket is properly issued.

 

Hope the background is of interest.

 

Jeff

[mysty]

Thanks again Jeff! I'm going to get soppy here and say that you are my rock! Deal with it! :) I remember clearly the old carbon paper tickets as clearly as I remember my first flight! I used to keep them as souvenirs when I was younger and had lots of storage space. Ha Ha!

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thanks. :)

 

We like helping each other. :)

 

Jeff

[mysty]

OK, the gospel according to SS is that the tickets are not issued until 45 days prior to departure. Does that sound reasonable? To be honest, in the past when I have checked flights using the file locator numbers I have naively assumed that there was an actual ticket associated with the reservation. Obviously, I was wrong!

[UKCruiseJeff]

The six digit alpha-numeric booking reference is slimply a simpler way of locating your reservation. It isn't a confirmed booking until it is ticketed. The shortened PNR saves using all 16 digits of the full socument number. There is a absolutely no reason whatsoever to be conscerned about it. Nothing will happen until a few days before the flight to concern you. No onemis bumped or anything until then. So as long as your PNR accurately reflects both your names and your trip then simply have a look say 40 days out.

 

Nothing to panic about.

 

Jeff

[mysty]

Thanks Jeff! For your patience and for your awesome font of knowledge! I am indebted! :)

[UKCruiseJeff]

The only thing you should be clear about with them is that whilst you have no concern about it not being ticketed, you are making plans around that itenerary and you will not be accepting any changes as a result of late ticketing.

 

I only say this because sometimes when people like SS start to consolidate and firmly ticket they on rare occaisions discover there are more bookings than capacity and they then sometimes try to change flights for some. It has happened once to me where I'd booked Heathrow to Heathrow and saw once ticketed they were content for me to leave from Heathrow and return to Gatwick. I of course was not.

 

I emphasise. YOU will not have problems because you are Mysty and on top of it. Just press for ticketing at 40 days ish and you WILL be fine. That's all!

 

Jeff

 

.

Edited August 27, 2015 by UKCruiseJeff
ipad spelling