Viking Air Plus: Caught Between Two Airlines

[rbslos18]

Just when I was breathing a sigh of relief after 12 itinerary changes, I find ourselves trapped between two airlines. We have a British Airway flight from SDF-ORD which is operated by Envoy Air as American Eagle. According to American Airlines (online and via phone) our flight BA 6777 has been cancelled. The 2:57 PM flight no longer appears on AA's website. BA still shows the flight as taking place. Viking Air's computer still shows the flight as taking place and can not issue a new ticket because their computer says no itinerary change has occurred. We are stuck in a triangle of BA, AA and VAP! Any sage advice?

[philw1776]

BOHICA
is what happened to me in recent fight between United & Lufthansa
Viking Air tried to fix but United was recalcitrant

[broker1217]

With all due respect, I would ignore what Viking Air says. Just leave them out of the equation for now.

 

Have you tried looking at googleflights to see what is showing as valid flights for your date?

Since it is operated by AA as American Eagle, and not showing on AA website, my guess is that the flight is cancelled and there is a delay showing it cancelled with BA.

If you provide the dates, someone who is more knowledgeable would be able to confirm what is going on.

 

[broker1217]

Also--make sure you sign up with every airline for notifications for each flight.

You cannot count on VA notifying you of changes.

Our recent experience was that VA changed our flights.

We are set up with AA for automatic notification of any changes, but that only covered flight #, times or cancellations.

We did not receive notification because nothing at AA changed, yet VA switched our flights.

They blamed AA for a cancellation---and that was not true. Nothing changed on our flights and the flights were NOT cancelled.

 

So on top of setting up notifications with each airline, you need to check frequently on your itineraries to see if VA changed your flights.

In our case, we got no notification from VA. Yet, we got no notification from AA because they had not changed anything-not flight # or times.

Not a fan of VA.

[rbslos18]

25 minutes ago, broker1217 said:

With all due respect, I would ignore what Viking Air says. Just leave them out of the equation for now.

 

Have you tried looking at googleflights to see what is showing as valid flights for your date?

Since it is operated by AA as American Eagle, and not showing on AA website, my guess is that the flight is cancelled and there is a delay showing it cancelled with BA.

If you provide the dates, someone who is more knowledgeable would be able to confirm what is going on.

 

I did provide the information. I was told they can not cancel and redo the ticket until VAP's data base shows the cancellation.

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, broker1217 said:

Not a fan of VA.

 

Really?  I've been quite a fan of Virgin Australia over the years.  They used to have a great Balvenie Doublewood in their onboard bar.

 

Oh, did you actually mean Virgin Atlantic?  They are VS, not VA.

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, rbslos18 said:

I did provide the information. I was told they can not cancel and redo the ticket until VAP's data base shows the cancellation.

 

NOTE to RBSLOS:  This post is primarily for the other folks who may be reading this. But quoting your post for relevance.

 

 

Because you do not have a "published fare" ticket.  You have a "bulk/consolidator/contract fare" ticket.  And the customer for that ticket from the airline is.....Viking.  Not you.  You are merely the one that it has been resold to.

 

And for the benefit of everyone else (who hasn't been following our discussions, sir) even though you might be on the same flights as a published ticket from your airline, you don't have the same ticket.  And you are subject to potentially VASTLY different fare rules.

 

For the folks that say "Well, I have a locator."  Or "Well, I have a ticket number".  Or "Well, I was able to pick my seats".  None of that is indicative of the type of ticket you have, and of the rules that govern travel on that ticket.

 

Go through Viking Air - be subject to the vagaries and contract specifics of Viking Air.

 

Caveat Emptor.  And good luck.

 

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, broker1217 said:

With all due respect, I would ignore what Viking Air says. Just leave them out of the equation for now.

 

Bad advice.  The ticket was through Viking, and any resolution of that ticket needs to be through Viking.

 

 

2 hours ago, broker1217 said:

Have you tried looking at googleflights to see what is showing as valid flights for your date?

 

Looking at google flights is never as good as the airline's website directly for finding if a flight is still in the schedule.  Google gets its data from the GDS systems, while the airline is the direct source of flight information.

 

 

[vslparis]

3 hours ago, rbslos18 said:

Just when I was breathing a sigh of relief after 12 itinerary changes, I find ourselves trapped between two airlines. We have a British Airway flight from SDF-ORD which is operated by Envoy Air as American Eagle. According to American Airlines (online and via phone) our flight BA 6777 has been cancelled. The 2:57 PM flight no longer appears on AA's website. BA still shows the flight as taking place. Viking Air's computer still shows the flight as taking place and can not issue a new ticket because their computer says no itinerary change has occurred. We are stuck in a triangle of BA, AA and VAP! Any sage advice?

Ah, the joys of code shared flights .   The fact that you are saying it is a British Airways flight # from SDF to ORD tells me that the ticket was more than likely issued by BA and therefore even though that one is flown by  AA, AA can not touch that ticket.  The ownership belongs  to  Viking and BA so Viking has to wait for BA to do the schedule change first. 

If the original flight was cancelled, did they not protect you on another flight ?

[rbslos18]

5 minutes ago, vslparis said:

Ah, the joys of code shared flights .   The fact that you are saying it is a British Airways flight # from SDF to ORD tells me that the ticket was more than likely issued by BA and therefore even though that one is flown by  AA, AA can not touch that ticket.  The ownership belongs  to  Viking and BA so Viking has to wait for BA to do the schedule change first. 

If the original flight was cancelled, did they not protect you on another flight ?

It’s messy and confusing. American Airlines has two different locators for me. One has me on the cancelled flight. The second has me on the next flight out with a 30 minutes connection at O’hare. Yes, 30 minutes to get from the domestic to the international terminal. I’m calling VAP to see if they can resolve this. BA still shows me on the cancelled flight! 

[vslparis]

Just now, rbslos18 said:

It’s messy and confusing. American Airlines has two different locators for me. One has me on the cancelled flight. The second has me on the next flight out with a 30 minutes connection at O’hare. Yes, 30 minutes to get from the domestic to the international terminal. I’m calling VAP to see if they can resolve this. BA still shows me on the cancelled flight! 

Yeah, I would be turning that flight down!  When are you flying ?

[broker1217]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Really?  I've been quite a fan of Virgin Australia over the years.  They used to have a great Balvenie Doublewood in their onboard bar.

 

Oh, did you actually mean Virgin Atlantic?  They are VS, not VA.

 

 

By VA I mean Viking Air. My fault--should have spelled out Viking Air Plus.

Thank you for pointing this out.

[vslparis]

9 hours ago, broker1217 said:

By VA I mean Viking Air. My fault--should have spelled out Viking Air Plus.

Thank you for pointing this out.

Although with all the frustration of dealing with VA ( Viking Air) you may need  a shot of that Balvenie Doublewood from VS ( Virgin Atlantic)😉🥃

[rbslos18]

14 hours ago, vslparis said:

Although with all the frustration of dealing with VA ( Viking Air) you may need  a shot of that Balvenie Doublewood from VS ( Virgin Atlantic)😉🥃

I’m getting there! My Viking Air reflects someone is aware our flight is cancelled. Now it’s a waiting game what they come up with. Just a tad stressful!

[vslparis]

1 hour ago, rbslos18 said:

I’m getting there! My Viking Air reflects someone is aware our flight is cancelled. Now it’s a waiting game what they come up with. Just a tad stressful!

A lot depends on when you are traveling. If it is within the next month or two, you might want to be very aware of your options. If it is not until next year, I wouldn’t be worried about it..

[rbslos18]

8 hours ago, vslparis said:

A lot depends on when you are traveling. If it is within the next month or two, you might want to be very aware of your options. If it is not until next year, I wouldn’t be worried about it..

We travel in December. Still no resolution on itinerary #13,