Viking Air without Plus

[CCWineLover]

9 minutes ago, JeriGail said:

I just received a new Viking Oceans brochure (risk free guarantee on 2022 cruises, Viking past guest special offers, reduced airfare) that lists premium economy and Business class airfare prices for some cruises in addition to the economy price.

As an example, on the British Isles Explorer cruise (London to Bergen), the airfare special is $999.  Upgrade to premium economy for an additional $1,099 and to business class for an additional $3,499.

Jerri -

We also saw this.  We had already booked our July 2022 Into the Midnight Sun cruise (3rd try at it) over a year ago.  We were able to book the PE upgrade both ways last week for just that 1099 - so it doesn't apparently have to be a new cruise booked.  It was a good deal we thought, for "Insurance" versus doing the PE on our own (which would have been a bit less expensive).

[JeriGail]

2 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Jerri -

We also saw this.  We had already booked our July 2022 Into the Midnight Sun cruise (3rd try at it) over a year ago.  We were able to book the PE upgrade both ways last week for just that 1099 - so it doesn't apparently have to be a new cruise booked.  It was a good deal we thought, for "Insurance" versus doing the PE on our own (which would have been a bit less expensive).

Kent - our cruise was my 1st flight to Europe, so I had no idea how much PE usually costs.  Glad to hear that Viking's price is in the ballpark.  Our United flight to Barcelona didn't have PE, so I got economy plus.

[FetaCheese]

On Dec cruise to ATH, had plus, but flights were changed twice. Final itin was PHL/LHR/ATH. 1st leg flight was listed as BA, but operated by AA. Same flight, 2 flight #s + a couple other airline's #s.  (Wish I could understand code sharing better).  Didn't know where to check in, called V, they said AA.  2nd leg was BA, and it really was.  About 2 weeks after getting home, no AA mileage credit.  (BA is a partner of AA).  Requested credit from AA, response was, sorry, flights don't qualify, partner BA didn't allow for credit.  Then a couple weeks later, got a standard marketing email from AA, and they DID give me credit for entire outbound itin. Being an infrequent flyer, I could not understand mileage credit #s, but, hey, they gave me miles for both legs!  

 

[FlyerTalker]

8 minutes ago, FetaCheese said:

 Same flight, 2 flight #s + a couple other airline's #s.  (Wish I could understand code sharing better). 

 

Code sharing is just that....sharing flight codes on particular flight.

 

The thing to remember is: There is only one "operating carrier" on a flight, but there can be multiple "marketing carriers" on that same flight.  The operating carrier is the one whose airplane you are flying.  In your TATL case, it was an AA operated flight - AA metal, as we say - but BA was the marketing carrier.  You will always check in with the operating carrier.

 

Now, how can this benefit you.  It can provide you with through fares from your origin to destination - for example, AA does not operate flights to ATH except seasonally.  But you could get an AA ticket from PHL to ATH through the codeshare, even without AA metal making the run.  In addition, there are sometimes arbitrage opportunities - the same flight may be different prices depending on the marketing carrier.  This is often happening when a particular marketing partner has committed to a "hard block" of seats and they aren't selling.  So the carrier discounts the price to be able to move the seats that they are committed to. ITA Matrix (not to be confused with the new Italian airline) will often have those price differentials to see. And in the case of cruiseline air, it may be a way for the cruiseline to meet the contractual obligations of their bulk ticket contract.

 

The most number of flight numbers I have seen on one flight is nine.  That was a bit of an outlier.

 

By govt regulation, carriers must advise you if you are on a code-share with your ticketed flight being operated by someone else.

 

One last tip:  if you see a four digit flight number where the first digit is an 8 or 9, that's almost always a code share.  Airlines use the lower number for their own flights, and fill out the code-shares with higher ones.  So if you see XYZ Airlines flight 84xx or the like, you can almost always know it's being operated by someone else.

 

Any other questions?

[elizpeace]

11 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

While we had plus when we upgraded our seats, the only role plus played was helping getting us be booked on  AA as we had status there that then allowed us to upgrade (with certificates on domestic portions and points +$ on the international long haul). 
 

However, others have reported elsewhere on this board that they have not been able to upgrade their seats due to the fare class Viking purchases. So It appears to me there is no guarantee of what might happen with Plus.  

 

Appreciate the response! Guess I'll wait and see 🙂

 

[greydog]

We are 'free econ air' and paid Air+ for Bali-SYD cruise in Nov.  Planning to route thru SYD (using V's $200pp deviation) to do Princess NZ cruise before connecting to Bali start.  We face an arduous tiring 5-6 hr trip to W coast ahead of 15-16 hr direct flight to SYD.   

 

V air already said (at least 1 agent) that with the V air we can't break up the trip with a 1 day ahead layover on W coast to recuperate before the 16-hr leg to SYD. 

 

However, some carriers post ATL-LAX-SYD trip with 10-12hr layover in LAX.  Considering this to get daytime hotel at LAX.  If a carrier offers this long-layover routing would it likely 'fit' with V-air ticketing?  Other thoughts besides doing on own dime to LAX early and starting V routing from LAX 1 day later.  Thx

Edited February 8, 2022 by greydog
typo

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, greydog said:

We are 'free econ air' and paid Air+ for Bali-SYD cruise in Nov.  Planning to route thru SYD (using V's $200pp deviation) to do Princess NZ cruise before connecting to Bali start.  We face an arduous tiring 5-6 hr trip to W coast ahead of 15-16 hr direct flight to SYD.   

 

V air already said (at least 1 agent) that with the V air we can't break up the trip with a 1 day ahead layover on W coast to recuperate before the 16-hr leg to SYD. 

 

However, some carriers post ATL-LAX-SYD trip with 10-12hr layover in LAX.  Considering this to get daytime hotel at LAX.  If a carrier offers this long-layover routing would it likely 'fit' with V-air ticketing?  Other thoughts besides doing on own dime to LAX early and starting V routing from LAX 1 day later.  Thx

Our experience for what it was worth (didn’t include a layover like you’re looking for) is I gave Air+ our 1st, 2nd, & 3rd choice routings (date, airlines, flt. #s) in each direction. A few days later we were ticketed (yes Flyer Talker had a ticket number and everything as we were within two months of departure) with our first choices in each direction. Of course there was no guarantee that we would have gotten any of them. 
 

Maybe you can post on the rollcall of a previous similar cruise or on the Viking thread and perhaps determine if Viking tends to use the same airline to SYD. Then you could potentially determine if that airline’s normal routing provides for the long layover between the west coast and SYD.  
 

Just don’t forget that AA flies non stop from DFW-SYD so you might not be in LAX at all. 

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, greydog said:

However, some carriers post ATL-LAX-SYD trip with 10-12hr layover in LAX.  Considering this to get daytime hotel at LAX.  If a carrier offers this long-layover routing would it likely 'fit' with V-air ticketing?  Other thoughts besides doing on own dime to LAX early and starting V routing from LAX 1 day later.  Thx

 

Whether that particular routing/itinerary is part of a cruiseline contract is beyond my knowledge.  However, I can give you the rules regarding international connections vs stopovers.

 

A "connection" is when you change between two flight numbers at some point in your trip between A and B.  To be a "legal" connection, you must have at least the amount of designated time for that particular carrier at that particular airport.  This is known as the MCT - Minimum Connection Time.  In addition, a connection has a maximum time interval.  For domestic itineraries, this is 4 hours OR the first onward flight, whichever is longer.  For international, replace 4 hours with 24.

 

If you spend more than that amount of time at your intermediate point, you no longer have a "connection", but rather a "stopover".  (And yes, both of these are specific terms of art in the industry and are different).  One important difference between a connection and a stopover is that the former allows for a through fare from A to B, while the latter "breaks" the fare into two parts at X, the change point, which get added together - A to X and X to B.  This is often significantly higher in price.  Note - there are some fare rules that allow for a free or reduced price stopover - you need to check those out separately (and is gist for a different post).

 

On a routing of East Coast to LAX to SYD, for example, let's say the LAX to SYD flight leaves at 2pm.  As long as you arrive within 24 hours of that 2pm time, you still have the through fare connection.  So, you could arrive from ATL at say 3pm the prior day, stay overnight, and still have a connection the next day.  And you can do that at every connection point in your itinerary.  Further rule to remember - you do NOT need to take the first flight out to your next stop.  Airline computers will give you those kind of routings, but as long as you stay within your time limit (4 or 24), you can take other flights and still have a connection.

 

There used to be some great options for this in the past.  Malaysian airlines would have a through fare from JFK to Johannesburg routed via Buenos Aires.  But the EZE to JNB segment only operated three days a week.  So one could fly to BA, stay two nights enjoying the town, then onward to JNB - all for the cost of just the through fare from JFK to JNB.

 

Back to your original scenario.  DL has a number of flights from ATL to LAX.  Pick some that arrive at a time "after" the SYD departure.  This will give you plenty of time for a relaxing evening before going onward to Australia.

[Azulann]

Flyer Talker,

Thanks so much. I was looking for this explanation. I know it was posted many times on Cruise air. 

I now know I cannot do the fly to  Europe from Midwest in one long slug, after my  Malta trip in October. I do not have the money or sky miles  to fly business class.

 I really want to go to Denmark  as the port during a  Viking cruise. I have found a couple that would work.  Need to find airfare , Delta is my preferred carrier. So I will follow your instruction come 2023 when flights are available.   

Edited February 8, 2022 by Azulann

[FlyerTalker]

4 minutes ago, Azulann said:

Flyer Talker,

Thanks so much. I was looking for this explanation. I know it was posted many times on Cruise air. 

I now know I cannot do the fly to  Europe from Midwest in one long slug, after my  Malta trip in October. I do not have the money or sky miles  to fly business class.

 I really want to go to Denmark  as the port during a  Viking cruise. I have found a couple that would work.  Need to find airfare , Delta is my preferred carrier. So I will follow your instruction come 2023 when flights are available.   

 

Glad that the info helps.

 

For MSP to CPH, you could fly MSP to JFK then next day to CPH.  First step is find the time for the JFK-CPH flight, then look at the arrival times for the leg from MSP.  Pulling times out of the air, let's say the JFK-CPH flight leaves at 6pm.  As long as you get into JFK after 6, you are a-ok.  And if there's nothing into JFK in the evening, you could check to see if LGA is a "co-terminal", meaning they act the same in terms of the fare rules.  Fly into LGA and make your way to JFK the next day.

 

If you just want to break it up, you can fly in on an early flight from MSP, spend the day at the airport, and get the flight in the evening.  Choices.  And remember that flights will become open about 11 months before departure.

[Clay Clayton]

21 hours ago, Azulann said:

Flyer Talker,

Thanks so much. I was looking for this explanation. I know it was posted many times on Cruise air. 

I now know I cannot do the fly to  Europe from Midwest in one long slug, after my  Malta trip in October. I do not have the money or sky miles  to fly business class.

 I really want to go to Denmark  as the port during a  Viking cruise. I have found a couple that would work.  Need to find airfare , Delta is my preferred carrier. So I will follow your instruction come 2023 when flights are available.  
 

AA has lots of fares with the LGA/JFK FLyerTalk discussed.  

Edited February 9, 2022 by Clay Clayton