Viking Air

We are taking the Viking Budapest/ Amsterdam cruise 9/14. Planning 3 extra days in Budapest and 2 in Amsterdam. We had planned on doing viking's air plus....but now wonder if there is a down side and should reserve/buy on our own? Still waiting to see if there is an up-charge for Viking in addition to the $100 for air plus. We can make reservations now...should Viking let us know what specifics flights we can choose as well as seats?

Go into kayak.com and put in your multi city dates and it will give you various flight options and prices. Pick the one you want and if you're using VRC air, tell them what flights to book. If you are not using any transfers then you can book directly with the airlines.

I know which flights we want I am trying to figure out if Viking was going to charge more for those flights than the Delta website....and if they are the same price is there any reason to book through Viking. Don't think we have transfers available since we are NOT doing pre-cruise through them.

I did what was suggested above on my own to see the different flights/connections/costs etc. We then noted what that price was if we booked on our own. Viking had a set price for flights from Toronto which is where we flew from so I was able to compare. I made arrangements through Viking Air (I booked the cruise directly with a Viking rep who was very good in e-mailing me back and forth with questions I had.) When I booked through Viking Air it cost $50pp and I gave him the flight information and asked for seats that we wanted on the long haul flights not the short European ones as can't book those in advance). It was done in 10 mins and I was content that I had done the research on my own and as I recall it was pretty much the $50 pp that was the extra cost for us. We did the pre-cruise through Viking in Budapest. I'm not sure if we got the transfers (at this time as I booked this over a year ago), because we went with Viking Air or because we booked the pre-cruise. Your agent would be able to answer those questions. The transfers worked out well for us and we figure what we would have paid for transfers from airport-hotel-ship-airport was about equal to the $100 fee and less hassle for us. Hope this helps. Pat

DeeDC - unless there's been a recent change in policy you should get transfers free if you book air with Viking regardless of whether you do a pre-cruise with them. That's been the case for us twice - I would hope it's still the policy. I guess if everything else is equal cost-wise with your flights the value of the transfer should be factored in when you decide.

Thanks for the great information, especially the transfers, that does take one level of hassle out of the long flight. We should be able to book next week and the TA is checking with viking what they will charge for our tickets.

Sparky,

We recently booked air for 2014 Viking cruise. We had decided to do a postcruise extension in Prague on our own. We were informed by the Viking rep we spoke to, who was very nice and informative, that we would NOT have transfers on the back end since we were doing a non- Viking postcruise extension. And, to purchase air home from Prague, rather than Budapest, which is the termination of our cruise, would incur a $100pp deviation fee added to the cost of our Viking air. So, this pushed the cost of our air well over what we could do on our own.

Becki

We did the Air Plus for our first Viking cruise, which was last month and we booked in Aug 2012. I think it was well worth the money. I told them what specific flights I wanted and got them. Then when an airline canceled a flight 6 mos out, they dropped that non-stop run, we were able to tell them what we wanted as an alternative. When I looked to see what the flights would have been had I booked directly, I still saved over $300 per ticket - even after the Air Plus fee. They were great to deal with and I will do that again, especially with scrambling to find a new flight.

We did use Viking Custom Air on our first cruise and did have a very satisfactory experience. Although Viking was again great to deal with in pricing out air prices and flight choices for our 2014 cruise, their pricing just was not competitive. We will, however, check with them again before booking air for our 2015 cruise.

Our TA did MUCH better than the Viking "deal" when we booked our trip for this past Sept. (Much better than what I found on my own, too…Kayak, Travelocity, etc.)

we will earn ffmiles if we book through Viking won't we?

we will earn ffmiles if we book through Viking won't we?

Yes. You can give your FF number to Viking at the time of booking your flights.

Yes. You can give your FF number to Viking at the time of booking your flights.

Read the fine print and/or ask based upon the air fare offered. On some of the really good air fares, custom air does not apply and airline mileage not available. This was the case for us in December but because of the air fare offered it was worth it and the flights we ended up with were those we would have chosen anyway had we booked the air directly with the airline.