Information on Silver Airways Flights

Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (and with a maintenance facility at Orlando International Airport), Silver Airways is known for its bright pink planes with fun flamingo tail livery. Its turboprop planes are a fairly common sight at airports across Florida, the Bahamas and Caribbean islands, as well as a handful of airports in the southern US, including Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.

When I’m on the hunt for a last-minute vacation from my home state, I always have a look at what Silver Airways is offering for inspiration. Here’s everything you need to know about flying with Silver Airways.

Silver Airways fare classes

Silver Airways passengers can choose from three fare classes when booking: Refundable, Freedom and Escape. I find it’s really worth considering your plans and how flexible you can be if you’re opting for the cheapest fare (Escape), since it’s not refundable and also doesn’t allow free ticket changes or free seat assignments.

Particularly when I’m traveling during hurricane season in Florida and the Caribbean (which runs from June 1 to November 30), I try to book either Freedom or Refundable fare classes, since these allow free ticket changes. That means you can change your plans as soon as you’re feeling iffy on the weather during this volatile season, and respond to whatever the official meteorological forecasts may be saying.

It’s worth keeping in mind that you don’t have to worry too much about not being able to select your seats on Silver Airways, since the turboprop ATR 72-600 and ATR 42-600 planes that make up the bulk of its fleet are a two seat by two seat configuration, with no middle seat to worry about getting stuck in.

I will sometimes opt for Refundable or Freedom class fares if I’m flying a particularly scenic route, and I really want to secure those window seat views (read: from Florida to virtually any place in the Bahamas, Caribbean or Key West).

Amenities and entertainment

If you’re looking to be entertained during your flight on Silver Airways, I highly recommend to either bring a book, your own device pre-loaded with shows, or plan to spend some serious time gazing out the window or at the screen-free seatback in front of you.

There is no in-flight entertainment on any Silver Airways flights, and the only things you’ll find in the seatback is what you would expect: a safety card and a paper bag for any ill-at-ease feelings that might crop up during flight.

Change and cancellation policies

You have a few options for changing and/or canceling any flights you’ve booked with Silver Airways, depending on the class of fare you originally booked. I always book directly online to make things easier and cheaper in case I need to make changes.

Keep in mind that while changes and cancellations for most reservations can be made online, you’ll need to get a Silver Airways representative on the phone if you only plan to cancel a portion of your reservation and not the entire round trip or multi-city itinerary.

If you buy a Refundable fare, there’s no charge for changing your flight or canceling it. But remember that you will still have to pay the fare difference, if it applies to the new flight, and that can often be quite a considerable difference, particularly if you’re close to your departure date.

Tickets bought in Freedom and Escape fares have an associated fee for canceling both domestic and international flights. When it comes to change fees, only Escape fare tickets have them, but all fare classes will charge any potential increase in fare if you choose to change your dates.

Loyalty programs

As a Floridian living in Tampa, I’ve come to rely on the airline’s connections, in particular for a quick hop to Key West to shorten what’s always a long drive from my home further north.

The airline codeshares with legacy carriers United, American and Delta, among others, and often offers cheaper fares than the big players from Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and San Juan in Puerto Rico to destinations that are sunny favorites across the Bahamas and Caribbean.

As a frequent flier who has miles piling up with many different airlines, I appreciate that passengers can earn miles with two major US airlines when flying with Silver Airways. And even though most of their flights are just short hops, those deposits into your mileage account always add up.

When you fly Silver Airways throughout its network, you can opt to accrue miles with United Airlines’ Mileage Plus loyalty program or with JetBlue’s TrueBlue program. Just add the member number you prefer when booking. And if you forgot to add the number before your flight or at the airport, you can always request mileage credit through United and Jet Blue’s websites by inputting the ticket number in your reservation (along with some other info).

Mileage accrued with JetBlue and United can be used to either book flights with those airlines or to book a flight on Silver Airways (again, nice to have options). And you can also use any AAdvantage miles you’ve earned with American Airlines to book flights on Silver Airways.

What this all means is that I never feel bad flying this airline just because it doesn’t have its own loyalty program, simply because they give good options for accruing and spending miles on future flights across a range of airlines.

Credit cards and miles

As previously mentioned, you can accrue miles on various airlines when flying Silver Airways. And while there are no credit card offers specifically targeting this airline, I usually use one of the several United Airlines or American Airlines credit cards I have in my wallet to book my Silver Airways flights, just to get those extra miles (and thus points) toward flights on those airlines.

Seats and legroom

Silver Airways’ fleet might be entirely turboprop, but, even as a tall woman, I find the leg room comparable to coach seats on the legacy carriers (legroom varies between 29” and 33”, so we’re not talking first class or anything, but on these short hops it’s all entirely manageable).

If you snag one of the exit row seats (always in the first row on these planes), be aware that you’ll be swapping that extra legroom for having no under seat luggage storage in front of you (or under you, since that’s for the passenger behind you).

All seats on these flights are either windows or aisles, so even if you opt to let the airline assign your seat for you (to avoid the fee that comes with that in the Escape fare class), you’ll still never have to worry about being sandwiched into a middle seat when flying Silver Airways.

Seats are 18.5” wide, made from a material that incorporates natural leather that’s plenty comfortable, and all have a tray in the seat back or arm rest.

Food and drink onboard Silver Airways

That brings us to snacks. It’s best not to come hungry – or overly thirsty – onboard the short and sweet routes that comprise the bulk of Silver Airways’ flight itineraries.

No food at all (and no snacks, not even pretzels or peanuts) is served onboard these flights, and your only option for quenching your thirst (provided there’s time and no turbulence to contend with) are small bottles or plastic cups of water offered by the flight attendants.

I always make sure to fill my reusable water bottle up just before I board – and that’s when I also take the chance to use the airport restrooms before flying Silver Airways. Even though the lavatories are full-size on the fleet, you still tend to get more bumps and little pressure drops on a turboprop than on larger planes, so I prefer to just remain seated with my seatbelt on during these quick flights.