Understanding Viking Airfare Budget for River Cruise

[Pbob20]

A group of us purchased the Viking Grand European Tour cruise in September. The documents say the Airfare portion is $1,999, discounted  $900, to $1,099 as a result of their special.  I'd assume we have a $1,999 budget, purchased for $1,099   We called to book air using Airplus because all three couples want to be on the same flights and for the flexibility.  Checking air fares online for direct flight to Amsterdam and a 1 connection return from Budapest are about $1,600.  And the cheapest regular flight (excluding Turkish Air via Istanbul) is an unfavorable 1 connection flight to AMS landing in the late afternoon (Aerlingus) flight is about $1,250.  Viking Air Travel stated if we want the direct flight its an extra $650 per person.  If we want to book the cheapest available flight with 1 connection both ways we will have to pay the $100 Airplus, plus $165 for the Aerlingus flight!  We obviously did not like that, and they said to wait 3 weeks to book and check again.  At end of February we owe the balance of our trip and likely wont have flights booked.  I would think any flight below $1,999 is in budget, or at a minimum Viking owes us a reasonable flight itinerary for free, plus Airplus if we do that.  Is it really possible that if we use Airplus or come June if we don't use Airplus, that we may be paying a large up fee if Viking can't find a flight below $1,099?  What the heck does flight included mean?

[SelectSys]

Sounds like marketing to me and the prices quoted by Viking don't mean anything.  What flights have were suggested by the cruise line?  My gut suggests they will simply assign you to whatever inventory they have available at the moment regardless of the actual price currently being quoted online.  

 

Good luck!  Also, can you get your flight money back or are you committed to taking what they give you?

[CDNPolar]

The air that you can book has nothing to do with the original price that Viking is showing you before the air discount.  Your reasoning makes sense, but that is not how this works.

 

This is as @SelectSys indicated and this is "marketing speak".  Viking are just moving amounts around and instead of discounting the cruise they are showing it on the air.

 

You are at the mercy of their contract pricing.

 

About the only time now that we book our air with Viking is when it is FREE air.  

[FlyerTalker]

This is going to take a bit to unpack, so sit back.

 

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

 The documents say the Airfare portion is $1,999, discounted  $900, to $1,099 as a result of their special.  I'd assume we have a $1,999 budget, purchased for $1,099 

 

First mistake.  You don't have a "budget".  What you have is a price for the contract air tickets available to you.  That $1099 is the sticker price for THOSE tickets and those tickets alone.

 

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

We called to book air using Airplus because all three couples want to be on the same flights and for the flexibility.

 

For which, you will pay a price, both in terms of the ticket cost and the associated fees.

 

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

Checking air fares online for direct flight to Amsterdam and a 1 connection return from Budapest are about $1,600.  And the cheapest regular flight (excluding Turkish Air via Istanbul) is an unfavorable 1 connection flight to AMS landing in the late afternoon (Aerlingus) flight is about $1,250. 

 

All of which means nothing in terms of air through a cruiseline. 

 

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

Viking Air Travel stated if we want the direct flight its an extra $650 per person.  If we want to book the cheapest available flight with 1 connection both ways we will have to pay the $100 Airplus, plus $165 for the Aerlingus flight! 

 

Because you are buying flights at the price, plus markup, of what they are available to Viking through their contracts.  Or the spot market.

 

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

I would think any flight below $1,999 is in budget, or at a minimum Viking owes us a reasonable flight itinerary for free, plus Airplus if we do that.

 

Again, you do NOT have a "budget" that you can use as you see fit.  You have a "price" for a Viking supplied ticket on a Viking chosen itinerary.

 

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

Is it really possible that if we use Airplus or come June if we don't use Airplus, that we may be paying a large up fee if Viking can't find a flight below $1,099?  What the heck does flight included mean?

 

You have to get the "flight under $1099" thinking out of your planning.

 

Here is the simple set of facts:

 

1)  If you want to pay $1099 for your flights, you will get the flights that Viking chooses for you to have.  Those and those alone.

 

2)  You do not have a $1099 "allowance" to use towards any flights you want.  You have prices.

 

3)  If you want to have more control of your ticketing and itinerary and still buy through Viking, Air Plus will sell you a ticket at the supplemental prices, and fees, that they quoted you.  And those are additional to the $1099 for flights noted in number 1 above.

 

4)  If you do not want to buy either number 1 or number 3 above, your other option is to purchase your own ticket on the open market from the airline directly.

 

Hopefully that straighten things out for you.

 

 

 

 

[Pbob20]

Thank you for all the responses. @CDNPolar & @SelectSys

@FlyerTalker A few new questions based on your response (and thank you for the detailed response):

 

1) (Clarifying) If we let Viking assign us tickets, is there a possibility that they would assign tickets AND request an additional fee because Viking can't get the tickets at the cost that they wanted, or do they owe me (reasonable - 1 stop) tickets at whatever their cost? 

 

2) Is Viking generally very good about allowing changes of flights after they are assigned assuming there is room on flights/at a similar cost? Or is any change at a fee to get us all on the same flight after they are assigned?

 

3) Can we modify/upgrade those ticket seat selections in any way directly with the airlines after they are "assigned"?  

 

4)  Based on your statements, and the timing (~90 days prior to sail date) which Viking picks to buy/assign the tickets, is it generally best to wait until that approximate time period to use Airplus versus 6 months prior to get best value for airfare to Europe (I know this subjective  and has many factors, but in general: y/n)?

[SelectSys]

@Pbob20 - sorry, I have no experience with cruise line air as I have always purchased it directly from the airlines.

 

Good luck!

 

Maybe some information in this thread might be helpful:

This search on google will uncover lots of previous threads as well:

https://www.google.com/search?q=cruise+critic+viking+air&oq=cruise+critic+viking+air&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQRRg8MgYIAhBFGDwyBggDEEUYPNIBCjExNjA0ajBqMTWoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Edited February 13 by SelectSys

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

1) (Clarifying) If we let Viking assign us tickets, is there a possibility that they would assign tickets AND request an additional fee because Viking can't get the tickets at the cost that they wanted, or do they owe me (reasonable - 1 stop) tickets at whatever their cost?

 

If you take their $1099 offer for air, you pay that.  They have made the offer to provide air travel at that price.  Doesn't matter what "their cost" is - that's the price they are selling it to you.  You have to forget about what it costs them - the only numbers that matter are what is being charged to you.  As for reasonable -- nope.  They can route you via Timbuktu and Novosibirsk if they choose.  If you want one-stop service, that's what you pay for the AirPlus.  Finally, note that air offers are almost always capacity controlled, so they may run out of inventory and not sell anything at the $1099 price if one waits too long.

 

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

2) Is Viking generally very good about allowing changes of flights after they are assigned assuming there is room on flights/at a similar cost? Or is any change at a fee to get us all on the same flight after they are assigned?

 

You keep thinking "costs". That's impairing your understanding.  It doesn't matter what it costs the cruiseline.  When they assign you a flight, that's what you get.  You don't get to then say "but a one-stop costs the same", because that's not how it works.  Again, if you want to have control over your flights, you either need to go the AirPlus route or buy the tickets yourself on the open market.

 

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

3) Can we modify/upgrade those ticket seat selections in any way directly with the airlines after they are "assigned"?

 

Completely depends on the fare rules of the specific ticket and the airline involved.  Some may allow for upgrades to PE or business, most may not.  There is no blanket rule.  Don't count on anything.

 

2 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

4)  Based on your statements, and the timing (~90 days prior to sail date) which Viking picks to buy/assign the tickets, is it generally best to wait until that approximate time period to use Airplus versus 6 months prior to get best value for airfare to Europe (I know this subjective  and has many factors, but in general: y/n)?

 

I have no idea.  Realize that inventory levels pretty much just go down as time progresses, so know that your range of choices probably will diminish over time.

 

Let me suggest a decision flow chart.  First off, how important is it that ALL three couples fly together?  Really consider that.  Is there some overriding reason, or just something that you might prefer?  Can you just meet at your destination hotel?   Next, ask yourself how much, in dollar terms, do you value that?  Is it worth $10?  $100?  $1000?  Because that's a part of your decision making process.

 

So, if you all have to travel together, then you need to go with AirPlus or buying the tickets on your own.  Now it is just a matter of comparing the options provided by Viking with what you can find on the open market.  And making that decision.

 

If you don't have to travel together, now you have to ask how important is it to have control over your itinerary and airline.  Again, assign your dollar values to that.  Now see how that jives with what the price is for a ticket from Viking, from AirPlus and from the open market.

 

For example, if you value control over your itinerary to be worth $300pp, but the additional cost to use AP or buy independently is, for example, $500pp, then the economic decision would be to just take the Viking air and suck it up.  But if you value it at $800 and the price differential is $500, then economics says to take the AP/open market route.

 

It's all a matter of value judgments and priorities.  Know yours.

 

 

[CDNPolar]

12 hours ago, Pbob20 said:

4)  Based on your statements, and the timing (~90 days prior to sail date) which Viking picks to buy/assign the tickets, is it generally best to wait until that approximate time period to use Airplus versus 6 months prior to get best value for airfare to Europe (I know this subjective  and has many factors, but in general: y/n)?

 

We are in Canada and you are in the USA, so there are going to be differences in airlines, and how many connections you have.  We generally fly direct from Toronto to most European cities that we embark a cruise from - generally.  Our friends in Kentucky have to connect at least once in the USA to get to the same destination.  

 

The above aside, if we are buying air through Viking, we have all but once used Air+ and the only reason the once we did not is because we booked the cruise 2 weeks from departure and there was no option to use Air+ on such short booking.

 

We book our flights through Viking Air+ about 300 days out.  We find our routes and times, and we will call Air+ with 2 or 3 options.  We start with our first option.

 

We have only paid an up cost on one flight because we wanted a later time departure to home and that was $100 per person.  We have always gotten what we wanted and rarely if ever had to go to option 2, or 3, but we know the Canadian airlines and partners that Viking have contracts with and they work for us.

 

We know that Air+ has these costs:

 

1) $100.00 per person to use the service

2) $100.00 per person if we want to fly in our out earlier or later and not buying Viking's pre or post extension - and this is on each end of the trip.

3) Possible up cost if we want flights outside the contract rate that Viking have.

4) Possible that the airline or flights we want are not in the contract pricing.

5) We may NOT be able to upgrade to PE or Business

 

We have always made any changes to our flights after ticketing on the airline site, not through Viking, but this is mostly seat assignments.  I am not talking upgrade.  That in most cases would have to be done through Viking if available.

 

On our recent cruise - the 2 week advance booking - the air was such a deal, we took what they gave us.  We could not book ourselves for less than $500 more per person.  We booked our seats on the airline site as soon as we got the flights.  We tried for online upgrade to PE and not available, but it was available at reasonable cost at the airport counter.  (This is not always the case.)

 

@FlyerTalker has explained this extremely well.  I just wanted to add our experience and perspective.