Upgrading flights booked by Viking

[bundtkate]

Hey, all! DH and I managed to snag a free air deal on Viking's Cities of Light in 2023. Obviously we won't ever beat free so we want to use Viking's flights, but I'd also really like to use some of my hoarded credit card points to upgrade those flights to premium economy at least. Has anyone tried upgrading flights booked by Viking with points? If so, how did it work? My understanding is that they are effectively considered your travel agent for those flights which makes me think the airlines won't work with you directly making such upgrades hard/impossible, but I have never booked air through a cruise line before so I'm hoping someone who has will know better.

[mhb1757]

Couple of things to consider…. First you can talk to Viking and see if they will sell you an upgrade… usually with the free air promotions the answer is no and you can’t pay for Viking Air Plus to be able to pick your flights, but sometimes they do allow those. If you have Air Plus you can tal directly to Viking and don’t have to go thru your TA (if you used one). 

If you can’t do either of those things you will have to wait until after your flights are posted with Viking and then see if you can upgrade thru the airline. Again whether that can happen depends on the airline and the fare class Viking books you for. We prefer Delta (or their Sky Team partners) and I’d say 80% of the time our Viking Air booked tickets are upgradeable with cash or miles. Sometimes we can only upgrade to economy comfort and sometimes to Premium Economy or Business cabins. Same applies with American (or their partners). I try hard to avoid United so I can’t speak to their policies. Occasionally we cannot upgrade with miles or cash when flying on a Viking booked ticket because the fare class is not upgradeable. 
 

I don’t know what credit card you have points with but you will not be able to use them to upgrade directly thru the CC company. The CC folks will only work with tickets they have booked. What you can do with most CC companies is convert points to frequent flyer miles with multiple airlines. So after Viking tickets your flights you can convert points to miles if you have an upgradeable ticket and use those miles to purchase the upgrade. I am able to do that online without hassle. Beware however, that frequently is not a great use of points and you might be better off paying for the upgrade in cash. Generally anything much less than 1.3 to 1.5 cents per mile isn’t great. 

[bundtkate]

Thanks so much for the detailed rundown, mhb1757! This was exactly the info I needed. I'll drop my TA a line to see if he can ask about Air Plus. As for points, I have a decent pile of Chase UR and a larger pile of Amex MR so the plan was to transfer them over after flights were booked and the option to upgrade is confirmed. I know it may not be the best CPP redemption, but as far as gained happiness and sanity per point goes, upgrading long hauls are about the best I can do. We'll see what makes the most sense when the time comes. Thanks again! 🙂

[Host Jazzbeau]

24 minutes ago, bundtkate said:

Thanks so much for the detailed rundown, mhb1757! This was exactly the info I needed. I'll drop my TA a line to see if he can ask about Air Plus. As for points, I have a decent pile of Chase UR and a larger pile of Amex MR so the plan was to transfer them over after flights were booked and the option to upgrade is confirmed. I know it may not be the best CPP redemption, but as far as gained happiness and sanity per point goes, upgrading long hauls are about the best I can do. We'll see what makes the most sense when the time comes. Thanks again! 🙂

Please come back and let us know if this works.  The 'flyer talker' mavens are always warning people that bulk fares have terrible restrictions, including not being upgradeable – so I have shied away and just booked on my own.  Would be good to know there's an alternative.

[bundtkate]

32 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Please come back and let us know if this works.

I'll certainly try to remember when the time comes. We sail July 5, 2023 so I'm definitely getting ahead of myself here, but I've wanted to do a river cruise since forever so I'm a bit overly excited. 🙈

[Mark O]

I'm in the process of booking a Viking River Cruise with free air.  Having Air Plus is very important to me as I need to have sufficient connection time to allow me to have some of my diabetes equipment hand-checked.  In a chat they told me I could add Air Plus, but on the proposal they sent, it said "Air Plus - requested."  This makes me think that it's not guaranteed that I will get that.  Have to inquire further.  And by the way, they increased the price for Air Plus from $799 per person to $999 within the past few days.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Mark O

[jrkstl]

A couple of things. First, Air Plus used to be a $50 pp fee to use their services, plus any additional $ needed to book preferred itineraries in the event that the flights chosen were outside of the contacted amount. In the five or six times we’ve used the service, the flights we wanted were always included in the amount paid. They have recently upped the price to $100-$150 pp, so it will be interesting to see how this is handled going forward. We have always added Air Plus to our booking. I am happy to note that the trips we have that are already booked with the $50 pp fee are being honored at that price. I just worked with them the other day to get the preferred flights we wanted on our Northern Lights trip for next February. And finally, our Cities of Light trip coming up in a couple of weeks was booked during the anniversary sale with free air and we were able to use Viking Air Plus for this trip as well.

[Deb922]

I have some information about this. Viking air plus is $100 per person, I think it’s worth that to call and request the flights you would like. 
 

My first flight had 4 segments! On the week of thanksgiving! I was able to call and get a nonstop flight. My flight there is nonstop to Amsterdam connecting to Basel, the time of the first flight kept changing until I had a 50 minute layover. I was able to call air plus and change to an earlier flight so to have a longer layover to make my connection to Basel. 
 

My flight was just ticketed. When I booked my trip, it was $799 to upgrade from the free flight to economy plus or whatever your airline calls it. I declined and thought I could upgrade through the airline, Delta in our case. 
 

Delta will not allow an upgrade to premium select on my ticket. Viking will not upgrade my ticket unless I wish to pay $3000 per person. 
 

So I’m out of luck and will enjoy my economy seats. 
 

I called both Delta and Viking. Tried to upgrade on line with Delta. No go on any of those avenues 

[GoGAdawgsWin]

We have “free” air for our trip next month.  As soon as Viking ticketed we had upgrade offers to Comfort+ and the Premium Select on the Delta website.  Comfort+ is about $90 for the ATL-AMS and the PS is crazy high -($2,500).

We have good “preferred” seats - middle of the lane exit bulkhead and will stick with them.  Coming back I will upgrade to COmfort+ to see if its worth the extra $$ over my exit row seats.

[bundtkate]

10 hours ago, jrkstl said:

And finally, our Cities of Light trip coming up in a couple of weeks was booked during the anniversary sale with free air and we were able to use Viking Air Plus for this trip as well.

That is fab as I'm 99% sure that's the free air promo I booked with. Fingers crossed that means I can add Air Plus. Did you happen to have a choice of fare class when choosing your flights? I'm assuming the reason upgrades are inconsistent is due to fare class so hopefully Air Plus gives the option to request an upgradable fare.

 

10 hours ago, GoGAdawgsWin said:

 Coming back I will upgrade to COmfort+ to see if its worth the extra $$ over my exit row seats.

Looks lie Comfort+ has 3" extra legroom. Given that, I'd think you're better off with the exit row on the space front. That said, it also seems to come with dedicated overhead bin space so I guess that's an okay bonus? Seems a no-brainer from regular non-exit-row economy, but tough call with preferred seats ...

 

11 hours ago, Deb922 said:

My flight there is nonstop to Amsterdam connecting to Basel, the time of the first flight kept changing until I had a 50 minute layover.

I swear airlines are so deluded these days. I am headed on a Panama Canal cruise for my wedding in December and was helping my best friend book flights. American thought it was totally fine to give her 40mins to swap planes in O'Hare. Totally delusional! Glad you were able to avoid that madness.

Thanks, all y'all! Even if nothing is certain hearing about y'all's experiences is a huge help. ❤️

[Host Jazzbeau]

We avoid exit rows after feeling like we were in a meat locker throughout the flight!  And airline blankets keep getting thinner!

[jrkstl]

13 hours ago, bundtkate said:

That is fab as I'm 99% sure that's the free air promo I booked with. Fingers crossed that means I can add Air Plus. Did you happen to have a choice of fare class when choosing your flights? I'm assuming the reason upgrades are inconsistent is due to fare class so hopefully Air Plus gives the option to request an upgradable fare.

 

No, I don’t believe that Viking will give you the choice of fare class. When booked, I asked how much to upgrade to Premium Economy - so there was that choice - and of course the option to book Business Class, but that was it.

[bundtkate]

1 hour ago, jrkstl said:

When booked, I asked how much to upgrade to Premium Economy - so there was that choice - and of course the option to book Business Class, but that was it.

Hey, that could be an idea. I'd wager Premium Economy would be more likely to be upgradeable and with the base price being free upgrades will probably feel a bit more reasonable. Like another solid option.

[mhb1757]

7 hours ago, bundtkate said:

Hey, that could be an idea. I'd wager Premium Economy would be more likely to be upgradeable and with the base price being free upgrades will probably feel a bit more reasonable. Like another solid option.

Not to be Johnny rain cloud here, but in our experience when Viking offers free air either they cannot get you the premium economy or the price they quote for the upgrade is what it would cost if you booked it yourself. I.e., in June we had a free airfare Danube promo. Viking said the cost to upgrade to PE would be around $3200/ person.  If I just booked the same flights myself in premium economy it was about $3200. So we were essentially losing the “free” air. The good news was after they booked my regular economy seats for free I was at least able to upgrade to the extra legroom seats with the airline which made the long haul bearable. 

Edited September 18, 2022 by mhb1757

[Coral]

23 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

We avoid exit rows after feeling like we were in a meat locker throughout the flight!  And airline blankets keep getting thinner!

You mean airlines still have blankets???!!!

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

You mean airlines still have blankets???!!!

They have a few – that wouldn't fit in my carry-on!  [Yogi joke]

[Canal archive]

They’d fit into someone’s that’s why they only had a few! (BoBo joke)

[bundtkate]

So just wanted to pop back in here with what my TA shared with me since others seemed to have some interest. My free air promo (anniversary sale) does qualify for Air Plus, but it seems the value of Air Plus may have gone down some, depending on your perspective. I found the following on Viking's website when Googling to get a better handle on what Air Plus provides:
 

You can now use My Viking Journey to fully customize your flight itinerary, including seat assignments. Change your dates of travel and preferred airports; add a stopover before or after your cruise; and view or change your seats – all through our convenient online tool.

 Concerning Air Plus, the same page notes:

You can choose to customize your flights over the phone with a Viking Air Expert for a non-refundable service fee of $100-$150 USD per guest, as well as any applicable increases in airfare due to customization.

Now this is different than what I've read everywhere else (including on Viking's site when I first booked) so I asked my TA to confirm my understanding, and sure enough, he said Viking confirmed you can fully customize your flights, including upgrades (if available) all on your own and without Air Plus on My Viking Journey. Air Plus does allow you to talk to someone on the phone to help and allow you to choose flights a fair bit earlier (up to 310 days prior to departure), but as a millennial I am personally offended by phone calls so I'm perfectly happy to skip that. I don't know yet if this will help me waste CC points on upgrading flights, but at least I know I am not missing out on anything by skipping Air Plus.

I am not sure if I can link the bit of Viking's site I found as a reference or not so to be safe you'll find it right at the top of the results if you Google "Viking Air Plus". And, of course, I'll still report back on whether I manage an upgrade once we're ticketed. 🙂

[Squawkman]

I have done this on MVJ and was able to change an inconvenient flight to a better one at no additional cost. If you’re traveling with others, I strongly suggest using Air+ and using it early as even though your TA may say the reservations are linked, they may not actually be the same.

[Mark O]

After booking a Viking River Cruise with "free air," I must say I am very disappointed.  The flights they offered did not have a sufficient (for me) connection time, so I immediately paid the Air Plus upgrade and was able to switch to flights that met my needs.  A few months later, the outgoing flight was cancelled and they rebooked me on a flight with a 2-hour connection time in Dublin, which is insufficient for me.  It's virtually impossible to get an economy flight with sufficient connection time without having to pay between $650 and $1,500 per person.  To avoid the connection time problem, I thought I might go a day or two early and spend the night in Dublin.  I went back to the Viking Air website and although it offers me the ability to change flights and add stops, Dublin cannot be selected even though but they put me on a flight that connects in Dublin.  I will never take a vacation with "free air" again, unless I can opt out and get a reduced price.

[Peregrina651]

On 12/20/2022 at 6:11 PM, Mark O said:

I will never take a vacation with "free air" again, unless I can opt out and get a reduced price.

 

It won't happen.

 

Viking treats airfare and cruise fare separately. They never show a package price. If you choose to book your own air, Viking does not delete that amount from your cruise fare, they just delete the airfare line item from your invoice.

[LibertyBella]

 

 

Yes, I have the "free air" for my end of March river cruise,  and my flights have already been changed several times, including just today with a new return which is pretty awful.  Instead of going from Budapest to Frankfurt to Philly, we are now being routed Budapest to Zurich to Toronto to Philly (two flight changes instead of one).  I just hope my luggage makes it!

[Peregrina651]

8 hours ago, LibertyBella said:

 

 

Yes, I have the "free air" for my end of March river cruise,  and my flights have already been changed several times, including just today with a new return which is pretty awful.  Instead of going from Budapest to Frankfurt to Philly, we are now being routed Budapest to Zurich to Toronto to Philly (two flight changes instead of one).  I just hope my luggage makes it!

 

Call Viking Air immediately and get it fixed before they ticket your flights -- and even if they have been ticketed, try not to take NO for an answer. They are the ones who made the change, not you.

[bundtkate]

Well I said I'd update when I got our flights and the time has come! They are not upgradeable. In fact, I can't even earn miles on them. Also, we only have 1 hour 20 minutes to switch planes in Chicago and catch the international leg of our flight. I knew I might be in for that, but the cost of airfare would be $3200 for basic economy if I booked myself and it doesn't look like this itinerary has gotten any cheaper so I'll count that as a win anyway.

 

With that said, I think I can get an upgradeable fare for ~$800 extra if I want. My flight is United there, Delta back and they aren't even upgradeable through Viking. There are AA/BA intineraries that are and I assume that would allow upgrades not through Viking as well. Either way, not worth that cost to me so we'll probably stick with what we've got. I reached out to my TA expressing some concern about that layover time in Chicago on the off chance Viking might take pity, but I don't have high hopes. Ultimately, we made a similarly short transfer coming back from Germany last year and that included dealing with customs, bags, and security, and the trains between terminals in Denver so I'm not too worried so long as our short flight to Chicago is on time.

[GoGAdawgsWin]

My Viking book flights are showing available upgrades once they were ticketed.  Price for Premium economy of Lufthansa is fluctuating between 280 and 550 a person for the long haul portion.  Will watch and book if still low end about 30 days it.  My Delta return is crazy expensive for premium economy.

Edited February 5, 2023 by GoGAdawgsWin