It gives me no pleasure to write this post. As those of you who’ve been traveling around the world with me these past 4.5 years know, I rarely write negative reviews. Delays happen, mistakes are an unavoidable part of life on the road. Sometimes a hotel employee having a bad day can tarnish your experience, but it doesn’t mean the whole hotel deserves a bad rap. I try to vent about travel providers only when I see a systemic issue that needs to be addressed, and given my recent experience with Silver Airways, I feel you faithful readers deserve to be warned.
LET’S GET MARRIED!
One of the first tasks on any bride’s to-do list, aside from STOP EATING & WIN THE LOTTERY, is finding the perfect venue for the Big Day. Since Rick & I knew we wanted a tropical destination wedding that could accommodate a rather large group, it was important for us find a destination with an affordable hotel and affordable, plentiful flight options. Having attended some 2,941 expensive weddings in my life, I know all too well how financially burdensome someone else’s nuptials can be. (That’s one of the main reasons I only have a maid of honor and no bridesmaids – I just don’t want to pass on extravagant costs in addition to travel expenses to my people.)
After a few site visits, we landed on the perfect hotel. (Oh, how wrong we were!) But what about those plentiful, affordable flights?
Way back in April, we researched options from Florida, New York, Texas, Wisconsin & Tennessee – the markets where most of our guests live, and found that Silver Airways (in partnership with United) offered plenty of options to both Marsh Harbour (MHH) & Treasure Cay (TCB) during our wedding week. Satisfied with the options, we booked a few dozen flights on Silver to the tune of several thousand dollars, with many more to come as additional guests coordinated their individual travel plans.
I was crushing the wedding planning game – way ahead of schedule, slashing that to-do list like Valyrian steel.
“Look how easy it is to travel internationally, y’all,” I told my guests. “It’s so easy to get to The Bahamas,” I said.
Weeks & months went by and wedding planning continued. White dresses & linen suits were purchased, invitation design was in progress and fat checks were written for various deposits. There was no turning back.
WHEN IT ALL WENT WRONG: THE SILVER SAGA BEGINS
Months after confirmations were received and BOOK FLIGHTS was checked off my insanely long list, Silver Airways sent out a middle-of-the-night email to the dozens of guests who had already booked.
Oh, just a little schedule change? My left foot.
This wee “flight time change” meant at least one unplanned night in Fort Lauderdale on the way to the wedding for many guests. Others found that portions of their itineraries had been canceled completely with no mention of rebooking, essentially stranding them in The Bahamas. (There are worse places to be stuck, but most American bosses aren’t like, “Oh sure, take all the time off you need! Stay gone on vacation forever. Rest up!” What do you think this is — France?!)
Here’s just one example of this scheduling buffoonery. My grandparents were reserved for 4 flight legs total, set to arrive on Wednesday & depart on Sunday. Check out their updated itinerary:
Notice anything wonky here? Now they are stuck with a night in Fort Lauderdale that they didn’t sign up for, which means not only will they miss all the Thursday wedding activities, but they’re also on the hook for an unplanned hotel night in FLL. What’s even worse, their return flight from The Bahamas to Florida has just mysteriously disappeared from the itinerary.
Sorry, Grandma & Grandpa, you guys get to swim back to Fort Lauderdale!
And this didn’t just happen to the grandparents… aunts & uncles, Mom & Dad, siblings – seriously, everyone who was scheduled to return home on Sunday was left hanging, and the only indication they received that their whole trip was upended was that there was a mild “schedule change.”
Call me crazy, but after researching for hours to find the perfect flight schedule, reserving it on Silver’s website, paying hundreds for it and receiving a CONFIRMATION number, one expects to arrive on the selected and CONFIRMED dates.
I mean… travel dates generally aren’t optional, right? Even with unforeseeable delays that could crop up, it’s fair to assume the airline will do everything it can to get you where you want to go at the promised time. Right?
Wrong. Silver Airways, was all, “Dude, don’t be so uptight, man. Reservations are like, harshing my mellow.”
Most customer service reps I spoke with (in dozens of conversations following hours spent listening to truly nefarious on-hold sounds not to be confused with actual music) couldn’t grasp my frustration at all. One told me to just chill and see how things played out over the summer.
Yeah, because I’m like Beyonce swimming in my giant pool of money! I can just pay all the deposits for venue, flowers, accommodations, etc. & if there aren’t enough flights to get us to the wedding, it’s totes NBD! I can just gas up my private jet and me and Jay-Z and Justin Beiber will be there, no problem.
Other guest relations yahoos countered that the flights would still get there, probably, eventually, just like, a day or two later than planned.
Super cool, I was so hoping we could all sit around staring at each other at the airport for a few extra days. It’s the perfect way to extend wedding week – psych!
I cannot imagine anything more painful than a 2-day forced layover with all of our relatives. I love them all dearly and I’m so glad everyone is excited to share in our special day, but as God is my witness, that could turn into a refugee situation really fast. People could get hurt. Who’s going to clean up that mess — Silver Airways? Yeah right.
When you book a specific flight, it’s because you have somewhere to be at a specific time.
So what’s the solution? I spoke with a few truly apologetic Silver customer service reps who just weren’t equipped to deal with this scheduling nonsense. I appreciate the one honest rep who confessed, “I have no control over this and no information on what might happen in the future.”
On the other hand, I’ve spoken to others who see no issue with the schedule changes whatsoever, telling me dismissively, “All airlines do this.” Â
A word-for-word excerpt of one email response I received:
Please be advised that schedule changes are normal in the aviation industry to streamline operations.Â
So, let me get this straight. Other airlines completely alter travel schedules after booking, leaving customers stranded in foreign countries with no compensation or recourse?
Um, no they really don’t, bro. Because they’d be out of business.
How about this Tweet exchange:
A. Guest Relations did not help in any capacity. That is the crux of the problem. Guest Relations is not equipped to deal with scheduling issues.
B. Thanks for that thinly veiled, verbal middle finger, but, this actually does not tend to happen with airlines in general. I’ve flown hundreds of thousands of miles on dozens of airlines, including bottom-of-the-barrel carriers like RyanAir, and this kind of inconsiderate, careless, schedule-screwing dickery has never, ever happened to me.
Shauna from Guest Relations let me know that maybe the flights were cancelled/changed since October is low season in The Bahamas. Hey, Silver, if you’re concerned about filling those low season flights, here are some options:
- Don’t offer them
- Give them time to fill up
I did the math and there’s potential for $50,000-$75,000 in revenue for Silver here on my guests’ flights – so the rationale that it’s low season so they have to cancel service is just bunk.
And sure, I don’t have any experience running an airline, but I’m pretty sure $75,000 during low season is a like, a pretty good thing for the bottom line. But yeah, idk.
It’s misleading to consumers to publish the flights, allow bookings & plans to be made, and then decide it’s not convenient or profitable anymore. It demonstrates a real lack of concern for customer experience, and while I don’t expect much from airlines in this day and age, I do rightly expect confirmed reservations to be honored.
We are literally planning the most important day of our lives around flight availability, and Silver is like, “Hahaha, let’s mess with these two happy people and see if we can get them to break up!” WHAT THE ACTUAL FLIP.
Some questions that I have for the folks at Silver Airways:
- What exactly is a FLIGHT CONFIRMATION good for in the Silver Airways world? Is it more like a FLIGHT SUGGESTION, or a WE MIGHT FLY YOU TO THE BAHAMAS IF YOU’RE COOL certificate?
- Who foots the bill for the extra, unplanned night(s) at layover airports? And what about meals, ground transportation, etc.?
- Can you talk to my irate & panic-stricken relatives and explain to them why I lied about how easy it is to travel to The Bahamas? Because everyone thinks I lied and I’m going to get exactly ZERO blenders/toasters out of this whole wedding thing now.
- Can someone in Guest Relations cancel the hotel reservations for the nights already reserved in The Bahamas & book extra nights for those stranded?
- Can you rearrange all our golf cart reservations and cancel our snorkeling excursion?
- Go ahead and rebook all our prearranged ground transportation, too.
- What’s the compensation to travelers for completely getting rid of a confirmed flight? If you pay $600 to get you to and from home, eventually you’ll need that return flight back to the U.S. to do so.
- Who’s going to help my grandparents swim back to Florida to catch their FLL-JAX flight? Could you get us a rowboat of some sort?
LET’S TRY THIS AGAIN
All the affected wedding guests either cancelled and rebooked from scratch or spent hours dealing with Silver’s customer service department in an attempt to adjust the new Silver schedule to fit with the days they were meant to be in The Bahamas. In this second attempt at getting to The Bahamas, we researched flights on Bahamas Air & American Air, the only other options, and while there are a few flights, there weren’t nearly enough to get everyone to MHH & TCB, and most flights weren’t on the days we needed them. (Which is why we didn’t book them to begin with.)
So most folks just adjusted their schedules to go with Silver’s new flights. Many had to request extra days off work, leave a day or two early, or had to accept that they’d miss out on various wedding activities because the airlift that was initially promised & reserved had been removed.
And it should be noted, for those of us who cancelled and started from scratch, the prices went up, so each new flight ended up costing a good $100+ more. In the end, Silver actually made more money off of screwing up the flights. What a scam, right?! (Who’s swimming in a big pool of money now?! I think we know.)
After many more hours on the phone (hours which I was unable to do my actual job or coordinate other aspects of the wedding – sorry, there will be no flowers and we probably have to eat on paper plates), most everyone was rebooked and reconfirmed, and the nightmare that was my Silver Airways debacle had come to an unsatisfying end.
Having related to countless Silver representatives that 150-200 seats would ultimately be booked on the remaining available flights, I thought the ludicrous clowning around with the schedules would come to an end.
SILVER SUCKS: THE SAGA CONTINUES
Less than one week after sorting out the whole foolish and unnecessary situation, another round of late-night emails from Silver dropped into our inboxes like so many flaming brown paper bags of poo, with all new changes, cancellations and septuagenarian swims back to Florida.
As you might’ve guessed, the excrement promptly hit the oscillating ceiling blades.
Messing with customers’ hard-earned, limited vacation time & cash is disgusting – and any company worth its salt should know that. But from what I have experienced in all this interaction with Silver is that this airline is run by some JV squad of dinguses with no regard for customer satisfaction. (I don’t think I want to know who’s flying the planes if they can’t even get the schedules right.)
What I don’t understand is why Silver is canceling & rescheduling flights for passengers who have already paid thousands of dollars to fly on those specific dates and times – twice. Every single person, we’re talking dozens and dozens, who has booked with Silver so far has either had random flight legs cancelled or rescheduled so significantly that they risked missing the wedding altogether – twice. TWICE.
Basically, Silver Airways is the honey badger of airlines. They literally don’t give a sh*&.
In the latest Silver scheduling muck-up, Rick’s brother & sister-in-law were told they’d be spending 3-4 days in Fort Lauderdale airport. THREE TO FOUR DAYS, y’all. They were initially scheduled to arrive early in the week, but the earliest Silver could bring them in after the schedule changes was Saturday. Well that would be great if the wedding wasn’t on Friday!
EXISTENTIAL MARRIAGE CRISIS
Brides are pretty stressed out to begin with, but I think destination-wedding planning brides have even more potential for drama. Trying to coordinate all the details of the special day from hundreds of miles away offers its own special challenges, and the cultural differences, a.k.a. island time, can make things a notch trickier at times.
As Round 2 of the Silver Airways saga unfolded, I went full bridezilla and had a rare Mother Flipping Nuclear Meltdown.
*Hyperventilating* Should we even do this? Is all this a sign that we shouldn’t get married? Maybe we aren’t supposed to fly because the planes are going to crash and this is God trying to warn us!*Text from Grandma: Well, have fun at your wedding because we are done with all this nonsense*OMG, maybe we should elope*Calls fiance*BABE, I THINK WE SHOULD ELOPE! I’m FREAKING OUT*Sobs uncontrollably* I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO*THERE ARE NO FLIGHTS*NO ONE IS COMING TO OUR WEDDING!*Fiance rethinks this whole marriage thing*Throw invitations on the ground*Sob on the floor*Snotty tissues everywhere*Research refunds on wedding dresses*Give up on marriage*
After breathing into a paper bag for a while (not the aforementioned flaming poo ones), talking to my mom & sister and remembering why we’re going through all this mess in the first place (we’re in love, dangit), we eventually found a solution.
We cancelled every last flight on Silver Airways and rebooked on Bahamas Air.
Sure, we have to spend a day driving to West Palm Beach in order to catch that flight, and then we all have to pay for parking for 7+ days (instead of just taking Uber to the airport in JAX) and then of course everyone has to drive all the way back home after a week away. Surely, all that effort that has to be better than potentially suffering through another round of the unbelievable Silver Airways Wedding Saga. It took a full work-week of hours in total for me, not to mention what it took for other guests, to book, unbook, rebook, unbook and rebook new flights.
I have to give Silver some credit… there have been many phone calls & emails from various employees since I turned to Twitter to vent my frustration; unfortunately none was equipped to do anything about the schedule, and of course no one has a clue if there could be more cancellations. Mostly there were just empty apologies & CYA-conversations. But it doesn’t even matter.
At this point, I’m feeling like this kid:
I’ve learned my lesson, and there’s no way we’re going to risk EVER flying with Silver again. Especially not when the happiest day of our lives is on the line.
So we’ll improvise. Traveling to The Bahamas will be less convenient & more expensive for everyone involved. Chances are, fewer people will be able to attend – and obviously, that’s crushing for Rick & me, especially since we really tried to pick a location that was affordable for most guests.
In researching for this post, I came across this excerpt from Silver Airways’ mission statement:
- Treating each customer with personalized, caring service and genuine appreciation
- Supporting team members with the resources to do what’s right for our customers
Having just read these for the first time, I’m just going to go on record and say LOLLLLLLLLLL. Silver, you have a long way to go.
Travelers, beware of this airline. If you’re heading to The Bahamas, find another way.
Have you ever flown on Silver? What’s your worst air travel customer service story? Tell me below… I know I’m not the only one!
What.A.Nightmare!!!! I am so sorry you are having to go through this. I’m sure it will all work out and the wedding will be insanely awesome. You guys will (eventually) look back on this as one of those “Do you remember that crazy time?” moments of your relationship. Good luck!
Hannah
Jeeez girl!!!! that’s worse than any airline story i’ve heard – i feel so bad you had to go through that! well, i’ll never fly them thanks for sharing!!
I actually think you were too nice. So many wasted hours, rescheduling and trying to get refunds – not to mention having to talk you off the ledge- don’t know how these jackwagons stay in business.
WHAT MOM SAID.
That is APPALLING! I feel for you, it drives me insane with anger and frustration when something so unbelievable and illogical happens and there is no one to blame directly! I guess the best thing you could do was write this post to give them bad publicity and warn people off the airline… I’m glad you found a way around it and I’m sure you’ll have a magical wedding anyway 🙂
I’m so sorry you went through this Angie, but really, really appreciate the long rant. It worked – I will no longer ever consider flying Silver Air. And I fly over 150K miles a year and am in the planning stages of several Caribbean trips. I published a post last year on my adventures with Ethiopian Air – cancelled flights, new routing, changed reservations – but that only affected me. I hope everything goes smoothly from here on out!
I was dealing with travelocity so I had to stay calm because it wasn’t their doing. But when they offered for us to leave Friday I just about flipped breathed for a second and explained what was going on wedding best man ect. Somehow they figured something out so thank goodness. Although I am still waiting on another email to drop.
Wow. That is an absolutely unacceptable way to run a business! I had United send me a middle of the night “small” change that moved my Mexico vacation an entire day. I can’t even imagine going through all of that. They are officially off of my use-list.
Ahhhhh what a nightmare! Note to self: don’t plan a destination wedding in the Bahamas. Lol.
I’m baffled that they didn’t offer to rebook any of those canceled flights, or help any of you out in any way. I have NEVER had an airline act like that. On the few occasions when I’ve had flights canceled, oversold, or delayed so much that I missed another flight, the airline was always able to rebook me at NO COST to me. Sounds like Silver just doesn’t give a shit about their customers. Apologies only go so far.
Angie, I cringed while reading your saga with Silver Airways and I applause you and your guests for still going ahead with your destination wedding in the Bahamas. Literally, hundreds of destination weddings are held throughout our 700 islands and cays every month. You chose Treasure Cay and it is indeed a very beautiful place and one you and your future husband will be glad you settled on for location to begin your new phase of life together.
We call the Bahamas home, so our view is biased however we do look forward to reading a positively, raving review once your wedding day and trip are in your rearview mirror.
Please, enjoy your day, enjoy your new husband and family and enjoy the Bahamas…
I think I told you this via text, but this just happened to one of my best friends re: her honeymoon in St. Martin. When I told her it happened for your entire WEDDING she sent lots of fellow bride calming vibes. Please don’t let this be a new trend in the airline industry. Hang in there girl.
This is truly unthinkable! So sorry that you have to go through this!
(But can I just say that I love your Mom’s use of the word jackwagon? It’s my new fave.)
I am sorry that you have fallen into a trap such as this, but you must realize that Silver Airways was purchased, out of bankruptcy, buy a firm that doesn’t do anything more than try to make a profit or write it off as a business loss. In a nutshell, they didn’t care and won’t care about a schedule because a loss is merely a write off for them…. There are others airlines that are legidiment… I trust you will use them in the future and if you would have done any research, you would have seen ALL the negative comments about silver airways and their schedules.
Do you work for Silver Airways? Your logic is about as sound as theirs…
That is a total nightmare, however
I just back from marsh harbor and flew from New Smyrna Beach via
Airgate Aviation cost $300 each way
Use them if you have to great company to fly with
Wow- that’s terrible. I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through this!
Oh man, this is horrible! So sorry you had to go through all this– as if wedding planning isn’t stressful enough. Johnny and I are in the middle of our planning for 2016 and I’m pretty sure I’d breakdown and call it quits if this happened to me. 🙂
Well, that explains everything. I’ve been hittin the travel sites hard looking for a flight that would get me there in a reasonable amount of time and wont cause me to take out a second mortgage. Flying from Charlotte NC apparently adds another leg to the trip there but not the trip back. Ot takes at least 2 days to get there. So after much deliberation with my hubs I think I must regrettably admit defeat. I was so looking forward to meeting everyone in person. Im so very bummed to have to miss your special day. I hope it is beautiful and full of joy and love. And I wish you an eternity of happiness together.
WOW, this is truly awful and your post worked – I will certainly never be flying Silver Airways in my life! I’ve had airlines like Delta and United change my flights but usually not by more than a couple hours. I feel like there should be some sort of action taken against Silver Airways as I just googled them and they sound like the WORST. Perhaps you should file a complaint with the US Dept. of Transportation? Although you’re probably just completely over dealing with the whole situation 🙂
I wonder if anyone had used a credit card with travel insurance if that would have covered the cost of rebooking cancelled flights? Might be worth looking into.
This is straight-up INSANE. Like, how are they even an operating, legit company? I have had similar happen with a Hawaiian airline going bankrupt and all our flights canceled. We had booked on Expedia, and while we got the money back, it was weeks before our scheduled flight and they wouldn’t help us rebook at the same price at all, so we wound up paying hundreds of dollars more per person.
But that was just Scott and me and on vacation and not our freakum WEDDING. The worst is when you feel powerless, like in your case, because no one “is equipped” to help =(
OH MY WORD. What the actual f#$%? I have engaged in some horrid airlines customer service experiences, some horrible airlines … but this? Oh. This takes the wedding cake. Which apparently you may not have now since you had to give so much of your life to this tomfoolery. Glad its sorted, but wow. I am appalled.
Holy *&$^# Angie!! This is the most absurd/horrifying experience I think a bride could ever go through. You did a fantastic job of not having that actual breakdown and pushing on (good call to go with a different airline altogether, if for no other reason than to give them the proverbial finger–this post is more like a running kick in the groin with a steel-toed boot). I sincerely hope everything goes smoothly for you from here on out, and I promise to never ever book with Silver!!
It was after my flights were booked to the Bahamas (through United Airlines, who has partnered with Silver Airways) that I found out about the atrocious cancellation record of this airline. I consider myself indeed fortunate, in that my flights were delayed, but not cancelled, as I arrived and departed. I have to say that I was very anxious about the possibility, however. #unitedairlines needs to re-evaluate IMMEDIATELY the record of Silver, as this is hurting their own reputation.
I’m so sorry you had to go through this mess! I’ve flown Silver a handful of times and each experience was similarly nightmarish. Each time I went to book flights, I’d give them the benefit of the doubt and another chance. They are truly the worst airline I’ve ever flown with (mind you, I’ve pretty much grown up on airplanes since my family is scattered across the U.S.), if not the worst company I’ve ever dealt with.
Readers: Angie’s story does not surprise me at all and is no exaggeration. DO NOT FLY WITH THEM. I don’t understand how they’re still in business. They have sketchy planes, their idea of customer service is a joke (obviously) and their reliability is mediocre at best.
It doesn’t matter how much cheaper their flights are or where you’re going. NEVER do it. You’ll regret it.
So completely ridiculous. I’m glad you were able to work it out. We also got married in the Bahamas, but it was on Grand Bahama, so we were luckily able to stick with US Air. Hope it’s smoother sailing from here.
Sheesh! So sorry this was your first taste of Abaco! We direct all our guests to Airgate aviation out of New Smyrna Beach. Amazing folks, reasonable prices, and as close to flying private as you can get without owning a plane. They fly 6 seaters out of NSB and will never cancel a flight. Shoot me an email next time you’re coming out and we’ll make sure you’re taken care of.
Sorry this happened to you. I live in MHH and I have flown Silver dozens of times. Up until about 2 years ago, they were great and I never had a single issue. Then it all went to hell under new management/ownership. I recently got suckered into booking with them by a great promotional price. I was planning a trip and it was convenient for me. Less than a week after booking, I got the same email blast telling me that the flights had been canceled and I’d have to rebook at different times. A real pain as I had connections to make. I’m dreading the inevitable delays/cancellations on the days of the flight – fortunately I now have some cushion but I won’t be booking with them again.
As a Bahamaian, I do apologize and I hope that Bahamasair treats you well and that you have a wonderful wedding. Sorry getting here was such a drag.
This was hard to read. This is so terrible. My story doesn’t really compare but I’ve had Teri blue experiences with them as well. I won’t fly them anymore or have my family fly them (and I currently reside in the Bahamas). My parents had to rebook their plans to visit me in the Bahamas twice because of this airline randomly canceling flights. They ended up taking a different route. A friend of mine did manage to get to me on this airline. When she went back to the airport for her returning flight (almost 2 hours early) it had already taken off! 2 hours early with absolutely NO notification to her whatsoever. then they told her they didn’t have another flight out for 2 days! TWO DAYS! Not that I minded her staying but really? And she had connecting flights on a different airline when she returned to FLL. She had to change then and was charged a ridiculous fee. Which Silver refused to pay. So I refuse to ever travel with them.
I can’t believe it! As if planning a wedding itself isn’t stressful enough. I hope it’s all smooth sailing now.
INSANE! I know the airlines that fly into Belize like to change up the schedule during the slow season, but in all the years of flying back and forth 3-4 times a year, Delta has never just up and cancelled a flight. They change the schedule ahead of time and don’t allow booking! I did have the local airline do that to me here once though. They retimed their flight for daylight savings, didn’t tell us, and we missed our international connection in Cancun because the inbound flight from Belize arrived too late now. It was during a hurricane and we had to run in a Cat 2 storm outside for like 20 minutes getting from the private air terminal to the main airport. Delta charged us $300 for change fees because the local airline had no affiliation with them, which I can understand, but as Platinum members, it still irked me quite a bit. I was standing their drenched and just started crying. He felt sorry for me and upgraded us to business class the rest of the way home, so I felt a little less sting from the additional money we had to pay. LOL
What a nightmare for you though. Thankfully you are getting refunds..I had visions as I kept reading that no one would get their money back on top of all this. Glad you got the flights figured out and fingers crossed everything else goes smoothly from here on in!
Oh my gosh you poor girl! I’m keeping my fingers crossed everything else goes to plan for you now! What dreadful service the whole way through – i’ll never fly with them now! Thank you for warning us all x
Sorry to hear about your experience Angie. We really appreciate you choosing to have your wedding in the Bahamas and hopeful that everything will work out for you and your guest to have a memorable time celebrating in the Bahamas.
Hi Angie,
I’m really sorry to read of all these troubles that you’ve had. I personally have never flown with Silver so have no experience of their service/customer service.
I think you make a lot of valid points.
– if people have booked and flights have changed then the airline have a duty to honour people’s travel plans
– booking should not be cancelled without an alternative given
– if the airline modify original bookings which now mean an overnight stay the airline should foot the accommodation and food cost of that overnight stay – no questions asked, this is a must
– airlines need to be mindful that people’s time and holiday bookings are precious, if you change dates and times on people then that is highly disrespectful. It is like saying the customer’s time is not as important as the airlines’
– I accept flights do change from time to time, yet this is often to unforeseen circumstances. Scheduling flights when they have a history of travel to that area, then changing them once bookings are received because it is “unseasonal” just stinks. Either you can’t man the flight or you are so poor at managing profitable flights that you don’t care about your customers
Angie,
I understand that you booked early for these flights to guarantee attendance to what is the biggest day of the your life. I agree 100% with your sentiment here, yet when booking so far ahead there is a trade off with the money saved vs an element of risk.
I know that many discounted flights have non-cancellable prices or charges for cancelling so I hope that you didn’t lose too much money on cancelling and booking elsewhere.
I hope the wedding now goes like clockwork and you have a wonderful time.
Silver Airways,
I hope you learn from this experience that giving a bad experience to someone on such a significant day in their lives can destroy your reputation to the point of being irrecoverable. Whilst I’ve never flown with Silver Airways I have personally black listed airlines who have provided poor service, messed me around and showed an unsympathetic “we won’t make it right” attitude.
Treat customers like dirt and it will come back to bite you.
This is literally my worst nightmare when it comes to booking flights. It’s always in the back of my mind, thinking “I hope this doesn’t change.”
I feel so bad you had to go through this, it sounds awful!
And you should not feel bad at all for being a bridezilla, I don’t think you even were. I think any reasonable human being would have been pissed if this happened!
Oh goodness.
Just reading this makes me annoyed haha
So sorry this happened! Glad you found a way around it, but what a pain.
I hope the wedding day turns out great!
OMG! How horrible for you. You must have been in mountains of tears. I’m so pleased that you eventually found another airline to transport you and yours to your most happiest of days.
p.s. I don’t live in the US but I won’t be flying silver airways either.
p.p.s. Congratulations on your wedding. 🙂
This is Crazy! Glad you found your way! – Posted by http://shaneperry.co
Unbelievable! So sorry you had to go through this, especially when you have enough going on when planning a wedding. I know that you would never trash a company unless it was truly awful.
Silver Airways you will have lost many customers as a result of this – so much for improving “efficiencies”.
SILVER IS A HORRIBLE AIRLINES and should be shutdown!
Clarification: I fly 100K+ miles a year both domestic and international. I have been on some airlines most people have never hear of and I didn’t at the time. I have experienced delays and cancellations from heavy rain, snow, air force one, mechanical, delayed connections and once the last person boarding had a heart attack entering the plane. Every airline has done everything in their power to arrange another flight or help me with another airlines to get to my destination—–This is until I experienced Silver Airways!
Cancelled my families flight to start vacation
Wouldn’t help with another flight or alternative airline
3 = Number of times Silver employee said they would return a call and didn’t
8 = Number of total lies I know for a fact Silver employee told me trying to get refund
15 = Number of phone call and email sent to Silver Airway without a response (over a months time)
4 = Number of times emailed copy of baggage receipt and Silver employee said we haven’t received to refund
1 Month = the amount of time currently spent trying to get refund for ticket and baggage, clock is still ticking
0 = Number of phone numbers has for it’s customer service
HORRIBLE AIRLINES —- AVOID!