Air ti and from Silversea cruises.

[RetiredandTravel]

2023 cruises now available on the SS website

[RetiredandTravel]

On 7/23/2021 at 10:59 AM, Stumblefoot said:

 

 

I have been sailing with Silversea since 2008 and have never felt out of place not wearing a tuxedo.
 

With that said, there has been no “de-formalization” of Silversea’s standards.  If your voyage has a formal night and you wish to dine in a venue that follows the formal designation for the evening, then men wear tuxedos, dark suits, or dinner jackets.  Tie will be required as well.

 

 

 

 

I have no problem wearing a sports jacket & tie.  Any idea what percent wear a tux? 

 

How often are the formal nights say on a 14/16 day Australian cruise?

 

Do people generally wear jackets w/o a tie on non formal nights? 

 

People often say SS is more formal than Seabourn.  Is this just because of the formal nights?

 

ty

[Stumblefoot]

12 minutes ago, RetiredandTravel said:

 

 

I have no problem wearing a sports jacket & tie.  Any idea what percent wear a tux? 

 

How often are the formal nights say on a 14/16 day Australian cruise?

 

Do people generally wear jackets w/o a tie on non formal nights? 

 

People often say SS is more formal than Seabourn.  Is this just because of the formal nights?

 

ty

Pre-pandemic, roughly 1/3 wear a tuxedo.  It seems the longer the voyage the more tuxedos there are.

 

Regardless of geography on the Classic ships, sailings of 10-14 days usually have two formal nights whereas sailings of 15+days have three.

 

On informal nights, the majority of men don’t wear ties.  But, you will tend to see more in La Dame and the main dining room whether in Atlantide or The Restaurant.

 

In regards to your Seabourn question, I don’t know.  I imagine you may be right considering Silversea operates an on board dress code after 6:00p each day.

[cruiseej]

6 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

In regards to your Seabourn question, I don’t know.  I imagine you may be right considering Silversea operates an on board dress code after 6:00p each day.

 

Seabourn does as well.

[Stumblefoot]

6 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

Seabourn does as well.

Formal, Informal, and Casual?  Like I told RetiredandTravel, I don't know.

[cruiseej]

Seabourn's dress code is, to me, end up being quite similar to Silversea's, although there are now two levels of evening dress, Formal and Elegant Casual. If I recall correctly, it used to be three, like Silversea, but got simplified to two some time back:

 

In the evening (after 6pm) there are two different dress codes:

Elegant Casual

• Men: Slacks with a collared dress shirt or sweater; Jacket Optional. Ladies: Slacks / skirt, blouse, pant suit or dress. This is the dress standard for all dining venues
• Jeans are welcome in all dining venues during the day, but not appropriate in The Restaurant after 6pm.

Formal

• In the Restaurant, Men: Tuxedo, suit or slacks and jacket required. Ladies: evening gown or other formal apparel. Dress in other dining venues is Elegant Casual.
• Jeans are welcome in all dining venues during the day, but not appropriate in the Restaurant after 6pm.

On Formal nights, similar to Silversea, you will see perhaps 50% of men wearing a suit, 30% wearing a tux, and 20% wearing a sport jacket. Formal applies only to the main restaurant, so anyone who doesn't wish to wear a tux or suit can go to the other restaurants onboard. 

 

On the majority of the evenings, which are Elegant Casual, you will see a mix of men wearing a suit, sport jacket, sweater or collared shirt. The mix may depend in part on the location and climate; you'll find fewer suits and jackets it hot climates than cooler ones. 

[5waldos]

We had planned on making our own flight arrangements to Alaska but have just learned that refusing Silversea's included airfare effects a number of other things. Including the trip from Anchorage to Seward, various connection transportation, etc. Upgrading to Business Class is outrageous- an addition $1,700, US. With the $750 they will refund me for not taking the flights- that is $2,450.  I can make roundtrip business class reservations for something under $1000. Currently trying to work out what the additional things that we will lose are worth. More complicated that I originally figured. 

[A Tucson Guy]

43 minutes ago, 5waldos said:

We had planned on making our own flight arrangements to Alaska but have just learned that refusing Silversea's included airfare effects a number of other things. Including the trip from Anchorage to Seward, various connection transportation, etc. Upgrading to Business Class is outrageous- an addition $1,700, US. With the $750 they will refund me for not taking the flights- that is $2,450.  I can make roundtrip business class reservations for something under $1000. Currently trying to work out what the additional things that we will lose are worth. More complicated that I originally figured. 

I find on SS it is much more expensive to upgrade domestically than it is to do it internationally. Example- upgrade to Europe Business is usually $699 each way and I think that is a bargain. Down under is the one that really gets expensive on SS.

[ronrick1943]

44 minutes ago, 5waldos said:

We had planned on making our own flight arrangements to Alaska but have just learned that refusing Silversea's included airfare effects a number of other things. Including the trip from Anchorage to Seward, various connection transportation, etc. Upgrading to Business Class is outrageous- an addition $1,700, US. With the $750 they will refund me for not taking the flights- that is $2,450.  I can make roundtrip business class reservations for something under $1000. Currently trying to work out what the additional things that we will lose are worth. More complicated that I originally figured. 

What you loss is the transfers from airport to hotel and/or ship—-that’s only an taxi fare—-for us it’s much better to have more control.  Plus we like to get in 3 to 5 day Dan before the cruise.  Departing we liken 1 to 5 days before departing home.  Never enjoy trying to hurry to get from ship to airport.

[RetiredandTravel]

47 minutes ago, 5waldos said:

We had planned on making our own flight arrangements to Alaska but have just learned that refusing Silversea's included airfare effects a number of other things. Including the trip from Anchorage to Seward, various connection transportation, etc. Upgrading to Business Class is outrageous- an addition $1,700, US. With the $750 they will refund me for not taking the flights- that is $2,450.  I can make roundtrip business class reservations for something under $1000. Currently trying to work out what the additional things that we will lose are worth. More complicated that I originally figured. 

 

 

Go to the "Offers for this Cruise" section and click on the tab that discusses the air fare.  Go to the bottom and they state exactly what isn't included if you purchase your air on your own air.  You almost always lose the transfers.

 

Like so

 

"In case Promotional Flights are not available or for guests not utilizing the promotional bundle offer, we are pleased to offer a $750 Air credit. Included Transfers and Hotel are available only for guests utilizing Silversea air offer. For more details please refer to the Terms and Conditions page."

 

[RetiredandTravel]

8 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

What you loss is the transfers from airport to hotel and/or ship—-that’s only an taxi fare—-for us it’s much better to have more control.  Plus we like to get in 3 to 5 day Dan before the cruise.  Departing we liken 1 to 5 days before departing home.  Never enjoy trying to hurry to get from ship to airport.

 

 

We do the same.

 

As noted above there is an advantage to taking SS tickets in the Covid era that if the cruise is disrupted its SS responsibility to get you home.

[5waldos]

On further investigating- transfers are lost, however they do provide a coach from the hotel to the departure point- a far distance in Alaska. The other transfers are no big deal, as pointed out. Unclear about the new service  from home to the airport and return- in reading the small print this does seem to be a separate thing. Not a big deal as we can easily have family bring us to the airport. But nice if the flights are very early or very late. It seemed worse before I had finished my first cup of coffee this morning. 

[ronrick1943]

2 hours ago, RetiredandTravel said:

 

 

We do the same.

 

As noted above there is an advantage to taking SS tickets in the Covid era that if the cruise is disrupted its SS responsibility to get you home.

I agree 100% with you right now with Covid going on.

[taxatty]

I just had a poor experience dealing with SS air trying to book Business class seats to South America. The airline website showed Business as sold out one way but six Business seats available the other way. The SS rep first stated that a mixed Economy/Business ticket was possible, but then claimed the flight showing six Business seats available had none. Clearly, he just didn't want to be bothered. In case anyone was wondering, Premium Economy is not bookable through SS. Since Economy on these flights was $800 more than the offered credit, we're going Economy!

[Stumblefoot]

2 hours ago, taxatty said:

I just had a poor experience dealing with SS air trying to book Business class seats to South America.
 

…we're going Economy!

Ugh!  Feel for you.  That’ll be a brutal overnight flight.

[cruiseej]

4 hours ago, taxatty said:

The airline website showed Business as sold out one way but six Business seats available the other way. The SS rep first stated that a mixed Economy/Business ticket was possible, but then claimed the flight showing six Business seats available had none. Clearly, he just didn't want to be bothered. 

 

SS doesn't have access to every seat on every flight. They have bulk contracts with various airlines for discounted prices. As inventory gets tight, airlines often keep some seats for customers who will pay full price; it's profitable for them. So your statement that the SS rep "just didn't want to be bothered" is probably incorrect.

 

Out of curiosity, when is the cruise you were booking flights for? It sounds like it's within the next year, since you're talking about seats available, and flights are only available 11 months in advance. Since many cruise customers book a cruise much farther in advance than that, SS may have previously sold Business Class upgrades to many passengers and used up their allotment with the airline(s). 

[kimanjo]

13 hours ago, taxatty said:

I just had a poor experience dealing with SS air trying to book Business class seats to South America. The airline website showed Business as sold out one way but six Business seats available the other way. The SS rep first stated that a mixed Economy/Business ticket was possible, but then claimed the flight showing six Business seats available had none. Clearly, he just didn't want to be bothered. In case anyone was wondering, Premium Economy is not bookable through SS. Since Economy on these flights was $800 more than the offered credit, we're going Economy!

 

I have tix booked for this November ( 2021) South America.  AA from Memphis thru DFW to Santiago, and Santiago back via Delta.  I have them booked with miles, but the Premium Econ on both are under 600 each way ( if I wanted to use $$) which is pretty cheap.  

I never fly business, so I am always looking for good prices in Premium Economy.  Just a heads up, the DL flight was on a plane with Premium Select, but they just switched equipment , and now it's just Comfort Plus.  That being said, the AA Premium Econ is a slightly better product then DL Comfort +, so I'll switch my return to AA thru DFW.

 

Yes, I know this is "the Covid era" and most would never book their own air,  but I always do.

[taxatty]

On 8/14/2021 at 12:33 AM, cruiseej said:

 

SS doesn't have access to every seat on every flight. They have bulk contracts with various airlines for discounted prices. As inventory gets tight, airlines often keep some seats for customers who will pay full price; it's profitable for them. So your statement that the SS rep "just didn't want to be bothered" is probably incorrect.

 

Out of curiosity, when is the cruise you were booking flights for? It sounds like it's within the next year, since you're talking about seats available, and flights are only available 11 months in advance. Since many cruise customers book a cruise much farther in advance than that, SS may have previously sold Business Class upgrades to many passengers and used up their allotment with the airline(s). 

 SS claimed that all of the different booking codes for AA Business seats (there are several) for the return flight showed zero availability, which means that online availability should also have been zero. What the rep said thus made no sense, even with the existence of a SS restricted quota as you mentioned. Our flights are near Christmas and New Years, when many South Americans visit South Florida, so that's likely the reason for the very high prices I'm seeing for our flights, both in cash and AA award miles.

Edited August 15, 2021 by taxatty