Booking flights with Viking (AirPlus)

[sharkster77]

We are as of today 288 days from our Viking river cruise.  We intend to pay for AirPlus to choose our flights ourselves, and deviation fee to extend our trip.  Should we be booking our flights now (less than 300 days out)?  Our travel agent seems to be in no hurry to do this.  Would there be greater choice in flights now, as opposed to waiting?  We fly out of Boston, so we are hoping for maybe a direct flight or at most one connection.  Thanks in advance!

[mskaufman]

We did this last year to get a flight that was direct from the U.S. Turned out it was from Philly.  Transferring in the U.S. allowed us almost an extra full day in Prague. The direct flight was not available 90 days out.  Unless your TA has a reason I would say to book early.  After all, the reason you are paying the fee is to have more choice.

[3rdCoastFan]

If you're particularly keen on specific flights and/or airlines, I would ask Viking to reserve those flights sooner rather than later. Like @mskaufman said, you have chosen to pay a premium to have input on your flights - while you are waiting to book tickets, I'm sure there are others out there who are booking the same seats you want right now. 

[philw1776]

Book sooner if you have particular seats you like to select.  Planes fill up.

[sharkster77]

Thanks---I didn't even consider connecting in the US for a direct flight, as a way to avoid CDG, Frankfurt, or other similar houses of horror in Europe.  Flying from Boston, a short flight to Philly or any of the NYC airports would not be a bad thing!

[mskaufman]

3 hours ago, sharkster77 said:

Thanks---I didn't even consider connecting in the US for a direct flight, as a way to avoid CDG, Frankfurt, or other similar houses of horror in Europe.  Flying from Boston, a short flight to Philly or any of the NYC airports would not be a bad thing!

 

Yes, JFK, Charlotte and Atlanta are other east coast hubs that connect direct to Europe.  Also, Toronto but I hold Toronto in the same regard as CDG (I try to avoid it).

[Winedogs]

I also recommend booking early, especially if you want to book Premium economy or seats with extra legroom. 

[Peregrina651]

On 12/17/2018 at 11:30 AM, sharkster77 said:

We are as of today 288 days from our Viking river cruise.  We intend to pay for AirPlus to choose our flights ourselves, and deviation fee to extend our trip.  Should we be booking our flights now (less than 300 days out)?  Our travel agent seems to be in no hurry to do this.  Would there be greater choice in flights now, as opposed to waiting?  We fly out of Boston, so we are hoping for maybe a direct flight or at most one connection.  Thanks in advance!

 

I'm a fan of booking sooner rather than later--and so is my TA. We booked in June for our March departure--about 9 months out -- and we were able to snag flights direct from Boston to Paris, with good seats. We are cruising in France so as much as people complain about CDG, it is the right choice of non-stop for this flight plan.

 

Whatever, do not let Viking short you on your layover time. Allow at least an hour and a half for clearing customs and immigration and then for getting from one gate to another.

 

300 days is way too far out as not all the airlines may have posted their info at that time. 8 or 9 moths is better, if you are booking this far in advance. Winedogs is right about booking this far out if you want premium  economy or more legroom--there are few of those seats and they go quickly.

 

I have done it both ways and in the end, my preference is direct flights from Boston to Europe; it drives me crazy to fly south to NYC or PHL to then fly right back past Boston. If I have to make a stopover, I would rather it be in Europe. Coming home, I am crabby and cranky after the long flight and sitting around an airport waiting when I could be getting into a car for the ride home just doesn't work well for me.

 

 

 

[sharkster77]

Thanks for your comments Pellegrina651.   Actually , right now we are almost exactly 9 months from our departure date!  Hope to set up flights just after the holidays.  We also fly out of Boston but will be going to Amsterdam and flying home from Zurich, so we'll see if we can get non-stops.  We've read so many horror stories on CC about both CDG and Frankfort, would like to avoid them if possible.

[Peregrina651]

48 minutes ago, sharkster77 said:

Thanks for your comments Peregrina651.   Actually , right now we are almost exactly 9 months from our departure date!  Hope to set up flights just after the holidays.  We also fly out of Boston but will be going to Amsterdam and flying home from Zurich, so we'll see if we can get non-stops.  We've read so many horror stories on CC about both CDG and Frankfort, would like to avoid them if possible.

 

There is a direct flight from Zurich to Boston (United/Swiss departing at 5:25pm). We are scheduled on it in just a few weeks.  Do your home work before you talk with Viking. Know what is out there and decide in advance what is acceptable and what isn't --and where you will compromise.  I like letting my TA relay information from Viking Air. It gives me a chance to review what is being offered and make my choices without feeling that I must make an immediate decision. Some people like to be on the call with Viking Air but I would rather not. 

 

We have been through Frankfurt before and actually one of our best airport stories comes from our experience there. We were flying from Kiev to Frankfurt to home and our Kiev airport experience was one of the worst we have ever had, leaving us with a short time in Frankfurt in which we had to go though passport control, get our luggage, get our boarding passes for our TA flight and get through security and to the gate. As we got on the plane I was almost in tears but I went up to the stewardess and said that we needed help, that we needed some advice on what we needed to do and where we needed to go to do it. Ten minutes later, she was back to us: you will be met at the gate by an agent and they will take care of you. And they did. Actually two of them because they could not go through immigration with us, but our first agent gave us very precise instructions and we waited barely two minutes for our next helper. We were whisked through the whole process and made it to our gate with time to spare and we could not have done it without the Frankfurt customer assistants who knew exactly what we had to do and where we had to go. They both spoke English very well, were very friendly and both explained the process step by step, settling our anxieties in the process (the anxiety of possibly missing our flight!).

[jrkstl]

7 hours ago, sharkster77 said:

We've read so many horror stories on CC about both CDG and Frankfort, would like to avoid them if possible.

 

CDG is a beautiful, architecturally interesting airport that I love to use - but only if there is more than 90 minutes for connections. 2 hours is ideal. 

 

It’s huge, and busy but great food and shopping choices if you have the time 😀

 

We learned the hard way that 90 minutes was barely enough time, especially when the border crossing was only staffed with two agents  

 

Happy travels!

 

Jeff

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, jrkstl said:

 

CDG is a beautiful, architecturally interesting airport that I love to use - but only if there is more than 90 minutes for connections. 2 hours is ideal. 

 

It’s huge, and busy but great food and shopping choices if you have the time 😀

 

We learned the hard way that 90 minutes was barely enough time, especially when the border crossing was only staffed with two agents  

 

Happy travels!

 

Jeff

 

Thank you Jeff!!! That just confirms that our decision was the right one. We just made a last minute change of flights so that we had more time to change planes at CDG. Wish we had done it sooner so maybe we would not have had to give our seats on the Delta flight (which has few seats across than the AF flight we are now on and a 5 hour layover).

[philw1776]

5 hours ago, jrkstl said:

 

CDG is a beautiful, architecturally interesting airport that I love to use - but only if there is more than 90 minutes for connections. 2 hours is ideal. 

 

It’s huge, and busy but great food and shopping choices if you have the time 😀

 

We learned the hard way that 90 minutes was barely enough time, especially when the border crossing was only staffed with two agents  

 

Happy travels!

 

Jeff

Similar CDG experience.  Arrived CDG from Bordeaux with a 3 hour 20 minute layover.  Stopped by the toilets.  Thankfully because I was surprised at a well over 2 hour mad mob scene wait to get thru passport control.  Just 2 guys on duty during what I'm guessing was 2 hour lunchtime.  LONG sprint walk (we're fast) to departure gate but made it with 30 minutes to spare before takeoff.  Nightmare airport.

 

Another time 2 years earlier as rookies we had the reverse Peregrina experience at CDG.  Not enough time between flights.  Huge line.  Asked the powers that be to let us jump ahead because flight was leaving soon (they do this at Logan for TSA etc.) but NOOoooo!  Missed the takeoff only to find flight delayed 2.5 hours so all was well.  No thanks to CDG folks.

Edited December 21, 2018 by philw1776