More Viking Air Follies

[dwlmg]

My wife and I are booked on Viking Homelands in September 2022 and have purchased Viking Air Plus and paid for business class. We are inside the reported booking window for flights (less than 310 days from the return flight). Our agent reports she can book our desired flights on KLM in economy class but Viking says they have not received booking authority for business class. Our agent booked Iceland Air flights for us as a 'place holder'. We said no thanks. Anyone else having business class booking issues through Viking Air with KLM for next year?

[duquephart]

We are booked Homelands in June. Paid for business and air+. MVJ says "Your air itinerary will be available from March 21, 2022."

[dwlmg]

38 minutes ago, duquephart said:

We are booked Homelands in June. Paid for business and air+. MVJ says "Your air itinerary will be available from March 21, 2022."

MVJ says that but with air +, you or your agent can contact Viking and book your flights when you are less than 310 days from your return flight. You should have an idea what you would like before you contact VIking. I look for business class trip report videos online for the airline and aircraft type I am interested in. I then look at seat guru for the flights I am interested in.

[SantaFe1]

At the 310 day point a week or so ago we booked Viking Air + flights in business class for our Sept ‘22 Mediterranean cruise. We got both the flights and seats we wanted.  Of course, they aren’t ticketed yet, and anything can change these days, but we were very pleased!

 

[Selion]

7 hours ago, dwlmg said:

I look for business class trip report videos online for the airline and aircraft type I am interested in. I then look at seat guru for the flights I am interested in.

Why don't you book your own air?  I had Viking Air on my reservation.  I cancelled it and booked on my own.  Viking Air's included transfer?  You can add it separately to your reservation, so that's not a reason to use VA.

 

If there's one good thing that came out of the pandemic, it's that the air reservations are much easier to manage when booked directly with the airlines.  Almost everything can be managed online.  Change your flights? Online.  Upgrade?  Online.  Cancel?  Online.  The only time I'll use cruise line air is when it's significantly cheaper than booking on my own, then I'll surrender control of my air reservation.

[dwlmg]

12 hours ago, Selion said:

Why don't you book your own air?  I had Viking Air on my reservation.  I cancelled it and booked on my own.  Viking Air's included transfer?  You can add it separately to your reservation, so that's not a reason to use VA.

 

If there's one good thing that came out of the pandemic, it's that the air reservations are much easier to manage when booked directly with the airlines.  Almost everything can be managed online.  Change your flights? Online.  Upgrade?  Online.  Cancel?  Online.  The only time I'll use cruise line air is when it's significantly cheaper than booking on my own, then I'll surrender control of my air reservation.

There are two prior bookings in the pedigree of this one. Covid cancelled both. It started with a booking on Majestic Fjords & Vibrant Cities back in Jul of 2020. I guess the primary reason I continue to hold VIking Air is that I believe the air is covered in my Viking Trip insurance where if I book it outside, it is not covered. The original Viking Air booked fare was included in the 125% plus up in the voucher for the cancelled cruise. I agree that today, you can fly cheaper booking your own but you may be assuming greater risk (non-refundable, change fees, etc.). The last reason is that my wife is a belt and suspenders type of person and prefers one stop shopping for all aspects of the cruise. 

[Selion]

Insurance and cruise vouchers, totally understand.  That's how the cruise lines get us.  Good luck!

[peggy655]

I am usually comfortable booking own flights as long as I plan on arriving a day earlier than embarkation. The Covid pandemic flight schedules have tipped the scales to pay the additional $100 pp to Viking Air plus. I am scheduled for the 9/28/2022 and noticed no direct flights from my home airport to Bergen, Norway. The connecting flights from airlines and their hubs had very long waiting times in between for next flights or multiple stopovers. Viking Air Plus had availability on connecting flights shown as sold out(probably buys blocks of seats) which made my travel arrangements much more convenient. I believe if they can’t book flights that you find suitable then their fee is refundable. Not sure if that has changed with Covid or if they have different rules for business class requests.

[GiGi&DaddyJim]

Are you saying that you will using Viking Air Plus for this trip?  We're on the same cruise and trying to figure out whether it's better to use Viking Air Plus or make our own travel arrangements.

 

[Heidi13]

16 hours ago, GiGi&DaddyJim said:

Are you saying that you will using Viking Air Plus for this trip?  We're on the same cruise and trying to figure out whether it's better to use Viking Air Plus or make our own travel arrangements.

 

Suggest reviewing this and some other threads that discussed the limitations of using cruise line flights v's the convenience and less risk in receiving refunds/vouchers, in the event the cruise is cancelled.

[bbtondo]

I usually do my own airfare and hotels for travel.  This time because of the "vid" I decided to use Viking Air Plus.  Yes, I had aggravation calling them quite a few times before my Med Cruise.  Just as DH and I were about to board our flight from MIA, AA decided to cancel the flight. 😝

 

Hundreds of passengers lined up to get to the AA desk.  Calling was a waste of time with wait times in the hours.  I called the Viking Emergency Number.  Right away someone answered and rebooked our flights on AA.  The people around me on the line were amazed.  The only thing I had to do was get to an AA desk for final confirmation and print out the tickets.

 

I am not a FF at AA or any other airline.  Before our trip I decided to buy tickets for AA's Admirals Club since we had a long layover.  Best money I ever spent.  Found the Admiral's Club, got right in, got our seats and tickets with no problem!

 

So, in my case Air Plus worked out.

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

I am so amazed at the number of folks that queue up at a ticket counter when there are irregular operations (irops).  Your first line of action is the airline app, which often has you proactively rebooked to a new flight.  The second is to get on the phone and call the airline while you are waiting.

[SantaFe1]

4 hours ago, bbtondo said:

I called the Viking Emergency Number. 

I used to have this number but can’t find it  would you an able to post ir on this thread. Thanks. We fly in two weeks. 
 

[bbtondo]

18 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

I am so amazed at the number of folks that queue up at a ticket counter when there are irregular operations (irops).  Your first line of action is the airline app, which often has you proactively rebooked to a new flight.  The second is to get on the phone and call the airline while you are waiting.

Yes.  I'm well aware.  AA phone had hours wait time, app was so overloaded that it didn't work.  This was Oct 31st.  

 

[FlyerTalker]

Of course, there are phone numbers that AA has that don't put you into a USA phone queue.  And I'm not referring to elite FF numbers.  Which is why you should have Skype on your phone.

 

Hope that is enough in the way of hints.

[vslparis]

On 12/9/2021 at 4:29 PM, SantaFe1 said:

I used to have this number but can’t find it  would you an able to post ir on this thread. Thanks. We fly in two weeks. 
 

Here you go - 877-523-0576

[SantaFe1]

28 minutes ago, vslparis said:

Here you go - 877-523-0576

Thanks, as always.  We fly in 12 days.  

[vslparis]

6 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

Thanks, as always.  We fly in 12 days.  

 A pleasure, as always !  Even though we missed each other on the Iceland trip, we have 4 months to get that drink in the Explorers Lounge 🥃. We are in cabin 5034 .  Valerie and Ray Lederle 

[SantaFe1]

Iceland seemed SO short a trip!  But, Unfortunately, we get off the day you get on.  Early on we decided not to do a WC this year and changed to just the Panama Canal cruise, leaving on Dec. 24 and ending Jan. 10.   Luggage Forward picked up our bags yesterday.  Not the only thing standing between us and the cruise is a negative Covid test.  

[vslparis]

14 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

Iceland seemed SO short a trip!  But, Unfortunately, we get off the day you get on.  Early on we decided not to do a WC this year and changed to just the Panama Canal cruise, leaving on Dec. 24 and ending Jan. 10.   Luggage Forward picked up our bags yesterday.  Not the only thing standing between us and the cruise is a negative Covid test.  

Too bad, I thought that we would finally get to meet.  Our next scheduled Viking trip is on 02 August 2023 on the Viking Saturn from Bergen to NY .

 

[SantaFe1]

Our next Viking trip is Sept. 28, Mediterranean Odyssey and Lake Como extension.  We plan to book Alaska for May 30, 2023 (a big anniversary) while on this cruise, And, I still owe myself Greece, which was cancelled for my birthday last March.  But we would love to do another WC.  But not while the pandemic still rages.  

[PKNC]

Re: Air Plus and the Viking emergency travel phone number, I was glad I had it - I pulled it up on my phone and dialed but then decided to wait it out while transiting through Paris Nov 16th. We were newbies flying to Athens and transited through Charles de Gaulle airport. We chose the flight due to the departure time, travel time, and because Delta was the US airline (partnered with Air France though). Never again will I travel through that airport. In fact, I now have no desire to visit France at all 😞 There was a strike called the day before we were scheduled to leave. Although we had 2.5 hours to get our connecting flight in Paris and arrived early, we almost didn't make it due to the long lines caused by a lack of airport staff (due to the strike). People were cutting in line out of frustration and yelling in French, which we didn't understand. The crowd was getting out of control at points. There were literally two security staff working and hundreds of passengers in line. I have to say it was the worst airport experience I've had in my life, and I have traveled to other countries and for work regularly. If we had missed the connection (we were the second to last on the flight and they were announcing "Last Call" - we had to run to the gate), we would have been in a bad way without Viking to help because there were no other flights on Air France going out that day to Athens. I am assuming that Viking would have taken pity on us and put us on Aegean Air, which had flights every hour. There appeared to be one lousy hotel near the airport - if we were on our own, I have no idea if we would have been able to find our luggage, get a room, etc.   I learned a lesson on that trip, and now, will make sure I have a Plan B for the European connections - choosing airlines that have multiple flights out to my destination, etc. I had lots of Plan B backups in place for the US, I did not anticipate how bad the airport would be in Paris.

[philw1776]

Had similar experience at CDG without a strike. Everyone working went out to long lunch I guess. Huge unruly crowd. 2.5 Hrs to transit airport. Thank God we used the restroom before getting into the back of an already huge "line" which was really just a mob. Stressed to the max.
On a prior CDG transit we were way at the back of a security line despite arriving early. Unlike my experience at US airport French folks do not accommodate folks whose flight is near departure by moving you to the head of the line. Woulda missed flight except that on the other side of security found it was delayed 90 minutes.

[FlyerTalker]

Interesting.  I've had few problems at CDG in the last five years.  It has been GREATLY improved over the "old days", with better signage, better passenger flow, and improvements in both security screening and passport control.

 

As for the "one lousy hotel" comment:  There is the Sheraton within the T2 terminal complex, along with at least 8 more hotels between T2 and T1, including a Hilton, Mercure, Novotel and Moxy.  Whoever told you about one hotel was misinformed at best.

 

Strikes happen in Europe.  Anyone who thinks that they shouldn't happen during THEIR vacation - well, enough said.

 

But I bet the Viking Air was a deal.

[dwlmg]

More on the original post. It seems that Viking Air Plus will offer to book the least desirable seats on a flight in a given air fare class . Several times we have been offered seats that have cautions on Seatguru.com. "Window" seats that have no window or an offset window or seats that have limited recline due to proximity to exit rows. Given that we are looking for seats over 300 days from the flight, it would seem that VIking Air should have access to seats in our desired seat fare classification that do not have these issues. Moral, watch your seat assignments via Viking Air Plus.