More Viking Air Follies

[miami mama]

Thanks for the info Flyer Talker. I know Viking does not actually purchase the tickets until a certain period of time before you are to depart. Even though my cruise was a rebooking from a cancelled one of March, 2020, and fully paid for through vouchers and cash long ago, they were not going to purchase the tickets before today. I was able to get ahold of Viking Air and the gentleman explained that 75 days was actually the beginning of the period for purchase for us. Since I was requesting the tickets be issued today at the beginning of the period, he would go ahead and do so. I now show as having tickets that have been purchased, rather than just booked, and was able to purchase seats with extra legroom. MVJ stills shows as itinerary not available until today so I guess that has not been updated. With many cruises being fully paid for up to one year in advance, you would think the airline tickets would be purchased sooner than 75 days out from departure. I'm sure the policy in place helps to protect their bottom line but it can be very frustrating for the customer. 

 

Understanding how the price (as explained by Flyer Talker) is actually figured is helpful. So even when they publish flights included up to a certain dollar amount, looking at current fares available to anyone does not provide enough information to know if you are getting the flights free or if you have to pay something. It would be helpful to know exactly what you are getting when  you book the cruise, however, you cannot speak with Viking Air until about 10 months out from departure. In most cases, this is long after the cruise has been booked.

 

I don't want anyone to think I am an unhappy Viking customer, just a frustrated one. I absolutely love the crusies I have taken and I'm sure I will be enjoying the future ones I have booked. However, this is an area that could be improved. 

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, moatenote said:

For our return flight from Barcelona we booked Delta Comfort seats many months ago.

 

You had a reservation request.  Nothing more.

 

2 hours ago, moatenote said:

Delta has now booted us out of our reserved Comfort seats and relegated us to the back of the plane in Economy seats. 

 

They didn't boot you.  You never actually had those seats.  You had a request for them, but you were unticketed.  So they gave them to actual paying customers who had a paid in full ticket.

 

2 hours ago, moatenote said:

And of course, now all the Comfort and Delta One seats are taken.  Our TA says she's working with Viking but we've heard nothing now for several days.

 

So....there are no business or comfort seats available.  Do you want DL to move a paid and ticketed customer out of their seat to now accommodate you?  What do you expect Viking to do - create seats out of thin air?

 

2 hours ago, moatenote said:

Lesson learned--MAKE VIKING TICKET YOUR FLIGHTS AS SOON AS YOU PAY THEM THE FULL AMOUNT.

 

And Viking is within their rights to say "No". They may ticket when they wish, and your insistence will not matter.  Check the terms and conditions for cruiseline air and you will be amazed at what is really going on.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings, but this is the reality.

[duquephart]

In MJV our flights re listed under "air booking" rather than reservation. Maybe just more vikingspeak?

[Hockeyump]

So pleased to be in the UK where it works very differently.  Once we get to the time we can arrange flights (330ish days out) our TA contacts Viking and confirms what we want. Long haul is always business, we pay then select our seats and periodically check on the airline website that all is ok.

The thought of waiting to sort seats so close to flying would be a nightmare for me.

On our last cruise, Bali to Bangkok, one couple from USA came via South Korea!

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, Hockeyump said:

So pleased to be in the UK where it works very differently.  Once we get to the time we can arrange flights (330ish days out) our TA contacts Viking and confirms what we want. Long haul is always business, we pay then select our seats and periodically check on the airline website that all is ok.

 

Are you sure that "all is OK" means that you are ticketed?  For without that 13 digit number, you do not have a ticket.

 

If so, that is vastly different.

[Hockeyump]

Within 24 hours of making the payment we have the ticket reference and confirmation from the airline so yes, all is ok.

[FlyerTalker]

16 minutes ago, Hockeyump said:

Within 24 hours of making the payment we have the ticket reference and confirmation from the airline so yes, all is ok.

 

If by "reference" you mean a six character locator, that does NOT mean that you are ticketed.  Only a 13 digit number indicates ticketing.  And that "confirmation" - is that of the reservation or the ticketing.

 

And yes, the devil IS in the details.

[Hockeyump]

Why do you labour the point? We know what we are doing and our travel agent knows the process. At the point of purchase we were ticketed. End of conversation.

[photopro2]

21 hours ago, Hockeyump said:

So pleased to be in the UK where it works very differently. 

Thanks for your post, it was of great interest to me as we are also in the UK. However our experience was somewhat different.

Like you we asked for business class for the long haul sector and paid the relevant upgrade fee for the flights in full. We selected flights and got the 6 letter airline booking reference which we used to access our booking on the American Airlines site but discovered that AA would not assign specific seats at that point because the flight had not been ticketed.

When our agent queried this with Viking we were told that ticketing was "normally" 60 days before the cruise and that they would certainly not even consider ticketing the flights until the balance on the cruise fare had also been paid in full, which was not due for another six months.

I would be very interested to know if you had paid for the upgrade and also the full balance for the cruise when you selected your airline seats?  If you had not already paid the balance it is possible that the airline you were using allowed you to choose seats, unticketed, with just the 6 letter booking reference and Viking ticketed the flights later, following the policy as described to me.

Unfortunately Viking's office operation is not always consistent and additional information on your experience would be really helpful as we plan to do something similar again later this year.

Thanks! 🙂

Edited February 4, 2022 by photopro2
added "?"

[bbtondo]

On 2/2/2022 at 5:39 PM, FlyerTalker said:

 

You had a reservation request.  Nothing more.

 

 

They didn't boot you.  You never actually had those seats.  You had a request for them, but you were unticketed.  So they gave them to actual paying customers who had a paid in full ticket.

 

 

So....there are no business or comfort seats available.  Do you want DL to move a paid and ticketed customer out of their seat to now accommodate you?  What do you expect Viking to do - create seats out of thin air?

 

 

And Viking is within their rights to say "No". They may ticket when they wish, and your insistence will not matter.  Check the terms and conditions for cruiseline air and you will be amazed at what is really going on.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings, but this is the reality.

This is great information!  When I booked my Viking Air Plus I insisted they ticket my PE tickets.  They gave me a few reasons why I shouldn't have them do this LOL.  I kept insisting and they did.  

[Hockeyump]

2 hours ago, photopro2 said:

Thanks for your post, it was of great interest to me as we are also in the UK. However our experience was somewhat different.

Like you we asked for business class for the long haul sector and paid the relevant upgrade fee for the flights in full. We selected flights and got the 6 letter airline booking reference which we used to access our booking on the American Airlines site but discovered that AA would not assign specific seats at that point because the flight had not been ticketed.

When our agent queried this with Viking we were told that ticketing was "normally" 60 days before the cruise and that they would certainly not even consider ticketing the flights until the balance on the cruise fare had also been paid in full, which was not due for another six months.

I would be very interested to know if you had paid for the upgrade and also the full balance for the cruise when you selected your airline seats?  If you had not already paid the balance it is possible that the airline you were using allowed you to choose seats, unticketed, with just the 6 letter booking reference and Viking ticketed the flights later, following the policy as described to me.

Unfortunately Viking's office operation is not always consistent and additional information on your experience would be really helpful as we plan to do something similar again later this year.

Thanks! 🙂

We paid for the business class seats when the flight opened and were able to book seats. The balance of the holiday was not paid until later. We flew Emirates so whether it is different between airlines?

 

Next time I am talking to the travel agent I will ask her.

[shipboy]

1 hour ago, Hockeyump said:

We paid for the business class seats when the flight opened and were able to book seats. The balance of the holiday was not paid until later. We flew Emirates so whether it is different between airlines?

 

Next time I am talking to the travel agent I will ask her.

Emirates will allow you to pre book seats in business class with no exec club status, whereas some airlines (e.g. British Airways) will only allow this ~7 days prior to the flight, unless you are minimum silver status or are willing to pay for the privilege.

[dwlmg]

So here's a how de do. I am 152 days from departure for the Pristine Alaska pre trip extension. The trip is fully paid for. I have six digit booking numbers. I am flying Delta out and Air Canada back. Because Viking offers me the option to View/Change seats on the Air page of My Viking Journey, I do. It appears the seats are actually booked because if I go to the Air Canada web site, the seat selections appear in my itinerary. The bad news is that after a day or two the seat selections on the Air Canada web site and on My Viking Journey go away and the seats become unselected. I start the process over at that time. This only seems to happen with Air Canada. I have booking numbers for flights (Delta and KLM)  for two cruises farther out and they have seat selections which do not go away or change unless the itinerary or aircraft change. I am somewhat surprised that an airline would sell premium seats out from under a reservation made under a contract with Viking as represented earlier in this thread.

[photopro2]

2 hours ago, Hockeyump said:

We paid for the business class seats when the flight opened and were able to book seats. The balance of the holiday was not paid until later. We flew Emirates so whether it is different between airlines?

 

Next time I am talking to the travel agent I will ask her.

Thanks for the quick response, that is very helpful.

The question that I would like you to run by your travel agent if possible is does she have any experience of Viking ticketing flights before the cruise is paid for in full? According to my agent it is not something that they do even if, as in our case, the flights themselves have been paid for.

[Hockeyump]

I will what I can find out!

[FlyerTalker]

4 hours ago, dwlmg said:

So here's a how de do. I am 152 days from departure for the Pristine Alaska pre trip extension. The trip is fully paid for. I have six digit booking numbers. 

 

Stop right there.  A six character locator does NOT indicate that your tickets are paid for.  That is merely a way to get to the "reservation".

 

Until you have a 13 digit number, you are not ticketed.  And those seats, and routings, can go "poof" at any time the cruiseline wishes.

 

[Heidi13]

16 hours ago, photopro2 said:

Thanks for your post, it was of great interest to me as we are also in the UK. However our experience was somewhat different.

Like you we asked for business class for the long haul sector and paid the relevant upgrade fee for the flights in full. We selected flights and got the 6 letter airline booking reference which we used to access our booking on the American Airlines site but discovered that AA would not assign specific seats at that point because the flight had not been ticketed.

When our agent queried this with Viking we were told that ticketing was "normally" 60 days before the cruise and that they would certainly not even consider ticketing the flights until the balance on the cruise fare had also been paid in full, which was not due for another six months.

I would be very interested to know if you had paid for the upgrade and also the full balance for the cruise when you selected your airline seats?  If you had not already paid the balance it is possible that the airline you were using allowed you to choose seats, unticketed, with just the 6 letter booking reference and Viking ticketed the flights later, following the policy as described to me.

Unfortunately Viking's office operation is not always consistent and additional information on your experience would be really helpful as we plan to do something similar again later this year.

Thanks! 🙂

 

This was our experience when booking the World Cruise 2020 flights. Our TA suggested Viking would not reserve flights until we paid in full, which actually worked out well, as when we paid in full, the return flight schedule had just been published.

 

Viking reserved the flights we requested, providing a confirmation code and the e-ticket numbers. They also reserved our seats. This was pre-COVID, a little more than 6-months before departure and 11-months before returning.