Book through Viking or TA??

[Cruzmama]

Can a Travel Agent give you a better deal than the brochure price that Viking offers?

[Host Jazzbeau]

Viking has severely restricted what Travel Agents can do you for you, but you can still get a better deal than booking direct.  You will get the exact same prices and amenities as Viking offers, plus the TA can give you some OBC or a rebate.  There is never a reason to book direct [unless you book direct and immediately transfer the booking to your TA].

[dolllover]

TA's are very valuable IMO. I had issues with my Avalon cruise and my TA was able to get me a refund.

[sharkster77]

The book on Viking is that once you make it to the ship, you will be treated like royalty.  The folks in the office, OTOH, let us say have deficiencies in customer relation skills.  Booking with a TA will give you an advocate should the booking office mess something up and respond in a less-than-accommodating manner.

[Clay Clayton]

I agree with the previous posters.   We booked our River Cruise through the online TA run by one of the big box membership stores and not only did we get obc and a gift card for the store, they went to bat for us after Viking canceled our cruise. For Viking Oceans, we have used a different TA who provides significant OBC and also assisted in getting us OBC from Viking when there was a major price drop. 

[wheezedr]

Used the big box TA as well.  Paid the same price but received a gift card worth about 7% of the fare a week after completing the cruise.

[Coral]

A certain big box store can no longer book with Viking as of September 2017. The issue was their rebates.

 

I will always book with an agent because I like the expertise that they provide and they often save me money. 

[Coral]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

A certain big box store can no longer book with Viking as of September 2017. The issue was their rebates.

 

I will always book with an agent because I like the expertise that they provide and they often save me money. 

Sorry - meant to clarify I have not booked with Viking. With the new rules, I am not sure what savings they can provide. I was just aware of the issue with the big box store.