Airlines for the Viking Homeland cruise

[ChrisB123]

We'll be traveling from LAX for our cruise that starts in Stockholm. My question is, which airlines and what layover is usually used? We'd prefer Virgin Atlantic but don't really expect it. We know there will probably be a layover and I've heard London or maybe Amsterdam. We have Air Plus as well as a TA.  Anyone have any insight? Also, the MV site says ticketing starts in May of 24 for our trip which is the end of August. The TA says they usually start booking about 300 days out.  How confusing!  

[CurlerRob]

1 hour ago, ChrisB123 said:

We'll be traveling from LAX for our cruise that starts in Stockholm. My question is, which airlines and what layover is usually used? We'd prefer Virgin Atlantic but don't really expect it. We know there will probably be a layover and I've heard London or maybe Amsterdam. We have Air Plus as well as a TA.  Anyone have any insight? Also, the MV site says ticketing starts in May of 24 for our trip which is the end of August. The TA says they usually start booking about 300 days out.  How confusing!  

 

Airlines and layovers, if any, will be too numerous to count - it will depend on what Viking has negotiated with various airlines for the time of your travel.

 

The purpose of Air Plus is to give you some input into your trip. I suggest you research 3 routings that you like and give them to your TA to discuss with Viking. Never a guarantee, but at least that way you have your favourites on the table.

 

Re your confusion: Booking = reservation (interesting, but frequently irrelevant and completely subject to change). Ticketing = when you really have a seat. Do not fall into the trap of confusing the two, they are not the same. 🍺🥌

[FlyerTalker]

There are no non-stops between LAX and ARN.  So you will have at least one connection along the way, possibly more.

 

Connections in Europe could be in London or Paris or Frankfurt or Munich or Madrid or Lisbon or Zurich or Rome or Brussels or Copenhagen or any number of other cities.  And USA connections have a similar wide range of possibilities.

 

 

[KBs mum]

Airlines connect through the country they are from, usually main hub airport, with a few very long haul having refuel stops. 

Code shares add a bit of variation, the connection will usually be a main hub airport of the operating airline

[janetcbl]

11 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

There are no non-stops between LAX and ARN.  So you will have at least one connection along the way, possibly more.

 

Connections in Europe could be in London or Paris or Frankfurt or Munich or Madrid or Lisbon or Zurich or Rome or Brussels or Copenhagen or any number of other cities.  And USA connections have a similar wide range of possibilities.

 

 

…or Amsterdam.

[FlyerTalker]

1 minute ago, janetcbl said:

…or Amsterdam.

 

Sorta covered by "or any number of other cities".

 

Did you really want/expect me to name EVERY possible connection city to get to Stockholm?  If so, should I start including Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore....

 

 

[cmaasfamily]

As noted, the possibilities are endless. However, LAX to AMS is likely to be your best bet. SkyTeam Alliance, mainly DL, KLM, and AF, but Virgin Atlantic too. VA is frequently code-shared with DL.

[ropomo]

As others have said, getting to Bergen can be quite a challenge. Viking routed us from ATL to Toronto to Copenhagen to Bergen (23.5 hours from our driveway to the ship). Coming home wasn't bad with the Iceland post excursion, Bergen to Reykjavik, three days in Iceland, Reykjavik to Newark to ATL.

[ChrisB123]

On 10/16/2023 at 12:51 PM, ropomo said:

As others have said, getting to Bergen can be quite a challenge. Viking routed us from ATL to Toronto to Copenhagen to Bergen (23.5 hours from our driveway to the ship). Coming home wasn't bad with the Iceland post excursion, Bergen to Reykjavik, three days in Iceland, Reykjavik to Newark to ATL.

WHAT?  Holy COW!  That's awful. We have a TA and Air Plus, so I hope that doesn't happen to us. 

[CannyScotTor]

You have air plus, so don’t wait until the date posted in MVJ to book. We just got our flights ticketed for our flights in May, just over 200 days out. One of the flights we wanted (Copenhagen to Bergen) was already “full “, which I presume means that Viking’s allocation of seats on that flight has been used up already. We had to go with a later flight, so we have a much longer layover in Copenhagen.

 

Good luck.

[Ceegeefl]

We also used air plus for our Homelands May '23 cruise. We were ticketed this week.  I asked the agent and Virgin Air was an option. We are using Delta,Lufthansa, and Eurowings Discover plus Icelandair to our precruise in Reykjavik. 

 

[Ceegeefl]

I'm sorry. May '24 cruise.

[SantaFe1]

11 hours ago, CannyScotTor said:

We just got our flights ticketed for our flights in May, just over 200 days out.

I’m envious.  We are 195 days out from our May ‘24 cruise, and although we have had our flights for several months, Viking says they won’t ticket until we make final payment, which is in two weeks.  I check every morning to make sure nothing has changed, although changes can occur even after ticketed.

[MSEm]

I booked our flights for June 2024.  We are booked on Delta from Atlanta to JFK. We have about 3 1/2 hr layover and then fly directly from JFK to Stockholm. This flight may be code share with KLM.

[ChrisB123]

8 hours ago, MSEm said:

I booked our flights for June 2024.  We are booked on Delta from Atlanta to JFK. We have about 3 1/2 hr layover and then fly directly from JFK to Stockholm. This flight may be code share with KLM.

I could go for that. 

[CannyScotTor]

23 hours ago, CannyScotTor said:

You have air plus, so don’t wait until the date posted in MVJ to book. We just got our flights ticketed for our flights in May, just over 200 days out. One of the flights we wanted (Copenhagen to Bergen) was already “full “, which I presume means that Viking’s allocation of seats on that flight has been used up already. We had to go with a later flight, so we have a much longer layover in Copenhagen.

 

Good luck.

I must have jinxed myself, having thought that we were all set. One day after we were “ticketed”, our return flights were replaced by new flights that were totally unacceptable for us.

 

No warning beforehand , no notice afterwards. I only found out because I checked on MVJ, which I do regularly, (paranoid I guess). If they have to change your itinerary, the least they could do is to contact you and give you some options.

 

I have often used Viking Air in the past, but I think that this is it for me. Too unreliable, and totally uncommunicative.

 

FWIW our TA has contacted VA and has been able to get better, but not great, alternatives.

 

Not impressed.

[FlyerTalker]

14 hours ago, CannyScotTor said:

One day after we were “ticketed”, our return flights were replaced by new flights that were totally unacceptable for us.

 

Interesting that you put ticketed in quotes.  Did you or did you not have an actual ticket, indicated by a 13 digit ticket number?  If you didn't have that, you were never "ticketed" but only had a changeable "reservation".

 

14 hours ago, CannyScotTor said:

No warning beforehand , no notice afterwards.

 

No one ever gets a "warning" beforehand.  That's completely unrealistic.  And the notice part is standard for many flights -- you need to be personally responsible.

 

14 hours ago, CannyScotTor said:

I only found out because I checked on MVJ, which I do regularly, (paranoid I guess). If they have to change your itinerary, the least they could do is to contact you and give you some options.

 

One thing you need to recognize is that there are two possible causes for at change.  It may be that the operating carrier has changed their schedules, thus affecting your itinerary. Or, prior to ticketing, the cruiseline decides to change your flight arrangements.  These are completely different situations, but without some kind of recognition, you are jumping to assumptions.

 

Which was it in your case?  If the carrier, then I cannot see your upset with the cruiseline.  The change was probably propagated by the airline - do you know what was the flow from your first flights to your second?

 

So....just who changed what?  And just what would you have wanted to happen in its stead, knowing the factors that caused the change.

 

 

[CannyScotTor]

Yes, it was ticketed, our flights with ticket numbers , were shown on the airline’s website. The airline canceled one of our flights, fine that happens .

 

My beef was with how Viking Air handled the change. They switched the segment to another flight, no problem, but the next segment was switched to a different airline, with an additional stop, in a different country. All of the seat reservations were cancelled on all segments, outbound and return. And they didn’t notify me of any of these changes. I expect this was all done automatically by Viking’s computer system, but it did a very poor job of it.

 

What I would have expected was that they call me to say the flight was cancelled, and to tell me the options available so that I could choose a reasonable alternative.

 

In the end, my extremely patient TA got everything put back to the way it was except for the cancelled segment. We now fly out earlier, and the next segment is as it was before.

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

40 minutes ago, CannyScotTor said:

Yes, it was ticketed, our flights with ticket numbers , were shown on the airline’s website. The airline canceled one of our flights, fine that happens .

 

OK...so we know that it was an airline-initiated change.  For clarification, your flight was not "canceled".  You had a schedule change.  Difference.

 

Cancellation is when the flights are still in the overall schedule, just that they are not operating on a particular date.  Cancellations happen in a short time frame.  Schedule changes months in advance.

 

42 minutes ago, CannyScotTor said:

My beef was with how Viking Air handled the change. They switched the segment to another flight, no problem, but the next segment was switched to a different airline, with an additional stop, in a different country.All of the seat reservations were cancelled on all segments, outbound and return. And they didn’t notify me of any of these changes. I expect this was all done automatically by Viking’s computer system, but it did a very poor job of it.

 

Nope.  Unless you know specifically that it was Viking that made those changes, I would wager large sums of money that this came from the airline.  It is SOP that when there is a schedule change, airlines will take all affected reservations and rebook them onto alternative routings.  Now, those may not be what you might have preferred, but that's the process.  And yes, they are done automatically according to parameters programmed into the airline reservation computers.

 

As for the seat reservations....first off, know that those are merely requests and it is explicitly noted that these can be changed at any time, for any reason.

 

As for Viking notifying you....they weren't the people changing your flights, so they find out when the airline tells them.

 

You were the "victim" of an airline schedule change.  You were processed by the airline in accordance with their methods.  And you got what you had paid for....transportation from A to B.

 

Let's pose this question....would you have preferred that the airline just let your ticket go off into limbo, awaiting you to make some kind of decision on your flights?  Or that you were given at least something to get you from A to B?

 

48 minutes ago, CannyScotTor said:

What I would have expected was that they call me to say the flight was cancelled, and to tell me the options available so that I could choose a reasonable alternative.

 

Just who is the "they" that you wanted the phone call from?  Viking?  They didn't make the change, so why should they be calling.  The airline?  They have thousands of people impacted by the change (not just your flight, but for all the dates that are affected).  They have the automated rebooking to handle just this type of situation, because the first priority is.....getting you on another flight.  And all airlines have a process where if you are not happy with the changes, you can either try for different flights or get a refund.

 

But of course, since you provide NO details on the cities, airlines, flights or cities, we can only discuss this in terms of industry standard procedures.

 

Don't go blaming Viking for what was outside their control or cause.

 

 

[CannyScotTor]

Well, you can bang on all you like about the technicalities of how airlines run their business, but that’s not the point. For me, it’s a  Viking Air customer service issue. I don’t like how Viking handled the situation, so I won’t use Viking Air in future, my choice. It may well be that dealing with an airline directly is not any better, but at least there won’t be an extra middleman getting in the way.

[FlyerTalker]

28 minutes ago, CannyScotTor said:

Well, you can bang on all you like about the technicalities of how airlines run their business, but that’s not the point.

 

Actually, it is.  Because unless you factually understand what's going on, it's just an emotional response.  Anyone who has read my posts over the years knows that I am not a cheerleader for cruiseline air.  But I am a believer in giving accurate information and presenting the clear picture of what's going on.

 

29 minutes ago, CannyScotTor said:

For me, it’s a  Viking Air customer service issue. I don’t like how Viking handled the situation, so I won’t use Viking Air in future, my choice.

 

Aha....now we see.  It doesn't matter that all of what happened with your change was done by the airline, not by Viking.  You still want to point the finger at Viking for the supposed failures of their customer service.  Given that the airline:

 

1) Changed their schedule

2) Rebooked you onto alternative flights

3) Changed your seat requests

 

just what would you have had Viking do?  Specifics please - otherwise, it's an unfocused rant without substantive basis.

 

Yes, it is your choice to use or not use cruiseline air in the future.  What is not your choice is to paint an inaccurate picture of what happened, and to assign blame when it is undeserved.

 

 

[CannyScotTor]

5 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Actually, it is.  Because unless you factually understand what's going on, it's just an emotional response.  Anyone who has read my posts over the years knows that I am not a cheerleader for cruiseline air.  But I am a believer in giving accurate information and presenting the clear picture of what's going on.

 

 Of course it’s an emotional response. Great customer service is about engendering positive emotions in your customers. Great companies want you to be delighted with their product or service. For me at least, the technicalities of what went wrong are not nearly as important as what’s being done to fix it. Obviously, we have a different take on this.

 

5 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Aha....now we see.  It doesn't matter that all of what happened with your change was done by the airline, not by Viking.  You still want to point the finger at Viking for the supposed failures of their customer service.  Given that the airline:

 

1) Changed their schedule

2) Rebooked you onto alternative flights

3) Changed your seat requests

You are right, actually. I don’t much care if it’s Viking or the airline that caused the problem. In this situation I am directly a customer of Viking.  I view them as an agent, working on my behalf in dealing with the airline. If they are not willing or able to do a good job at that, I can choose not to use them in future.

5 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

just what would you have had Viking do?  Specifics please - otherwise, it's an unfocused rant without substantive basis.

 

Oh I thought I’d already explained that. I would expect them to firstly, let me know about the change, and secondly, work with me to find a reasonable alternative.

5 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

Yes, it is your choice to use or not use cruiseline air in the future.  What is not your choice is to paint an inaccurate picture of what happened, and to assign blame when it is undeserved.

 

I don’t agree with your characterization, but no matter.

 

You seem to hold Viking as blameless since the root cause of the problem lies with the airline. I beg to differ. I see Viking as responsible for looking after me, their customer, which they singularly failed to do.

 

I don’t expect we’ll see eye to eye on this , which is fine. So I think I’ll bow out at this point. It’s been interesting having our back and forth.

 

5 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

 

 

[duquephart]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Actually, it is.  Because unless you factually understand what's going on, it's just an emotional response.  Anyone who has read my posts over the years knows that I am not a cheerleader for cruiseline air.  But I am a believer in giving accurate information and presenting the clear picture of what's going on.

 

 

Aha....now we see.  It doesn't matter that all of what happened with your change was done by the airline, not by Viking.  You still want to point the finger at Viking for the supposed failures of their customer service.  Given that the airline:

 

1) Changed their schedule

2) Rebooked you onto alternative flights

3) Changed your seat requests

 

just what would you have had Viking do?  Specifics please - otherwise, it's an unfocused rant without substantive basis.

 

Yes, it is your choice to use or not use cruiseline air in the future.  What is not your choice is to paint an inaccurate picture of what happened, and to assign blame when it is undeserved.

 

 

 

"What is not your choice ----- "

Still his/her choice.

[CannyScotTor]

Apologies to FlyerTalker, I seem to have edited your comments in my previous post in a way that makes them seem like they came from you, my bad.