Can Viking Air return us one day after disembarkation?

[ted burke]

Booked next year cruise to Adriatic.  Haven't paid or selected Viking Air option yet.  If we select Viking Air, can they fly us out a day after arrival at Athens, so we can see the city on our own?  Without paying an upcharge?

 

Thanks

[pavementends]

I think if you ask Viking Air to arrange the next-day return flight you will pay a diversion fee (and you will be responsible for transportation to the airport).

 

I was able to cancel Viking Air and get a refund when I found I could arrange more attractive (and cheaper) flights myself.

[TinaLee]

Sadly, no. If you fly in or out on any day other than the day you embark or disembark they will charge you a deviation fee. and, as stated above, you'll need to arrange your own transportation. We don't use Viking Air, as by the time we pay for deviations and selection of our own flights we can usually book better tickets on our own. We also do self-exploration and arrange our own transfers. 

Edited May 8 by TinaLee

[CDNPolar]

If you are not booking Viking's post-extension, then book the air on your own.

 

You are then responsible to get from the ship to your hotel where you are staying for the extra time.

 

If you are flying in the day of embarkation, you can fill out a Viking form under the air tab in MVJ, and get your transportation to the ship from the airport.  You may pay for this...  sometimes they will allow you to jump on a bus but often they will charge you.  

[CJANDH]

5 hours ago, TinaLee said:

Sadly, no. If you fly in or out on any day other than the day you embark or disembark they will charge you a deviation fee. and, as stated above, you'll need to arrange your own transportation.

This is a big difference from their competition who may charge the deviation but still give you the transfers. It seems to me that Viking are very rigid in their polices and not showing the same focus on customer service as, say, Regent or Silverseas. Their absurd policy of requiring final payment a year or more before embarkation is another example of "we do it because we can" mentality.

[CDNPolar]

11 hours ago, CJANDH said:

This is a big difference from their competition who may charge the deviation but still give you the transfers. It seems to me that Viking are very rigid in their polices and not showing the same focus on customer service as, say, Regent or Silverseas. Their absurd policy of requiring final payment a year or more before embarkation is another example of "we do it because we can" mentality.

 

If you are doing your own deviation, there are no Viking transfers to be had in most cases.

 

If Viking are bringing you in on the day of embarkation, they are coordinating all the transfers that day and they are included if you are using Viking Air.

 

If you are on a Viking pre or post extension then you have included transfers because you bought that package whether or not you are using Viking for your air.

 

However, if you are doing your own pre-extension, and picking your own hotel or type of accommodation, I fail to see how Viking can be responsible or expected to manage that transfer for you.  People could be arriving one, two, three days early and staying at all sorts of hotels...  I would never expect this.

 

So you are telling me that I I am sailing Regent, and I decide to arrive in Barcelona two days early and I decide that I want to stay one hour outside of the city of Barcelona, that Regent is going to transfer me from the airport to the hotel of my choice included in my cruise fare?

 

The deviation charge is because the air you are booking is outside of the dates that Viking have contract rates.

 

Oh, and the final payment date has been debated and discussed over and over, and it is purely because they can, and they fill their ships regardless.

[CJANDH]

3 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

So you are telling me that I I am sailing Regent, and I decide to arrive in Barcelona two days early and I decide that I want to stay one hour outside of the city of Barcelona, that Regent is going to transfer me from the airport to the hotel of my choice included in my cruise fare?

No. What I am saying is that if you want to arrive two days before embarkation and book flights and a pre hotel through Regent they will provide transfers (not if you are doing your own thing). Regent also always offer a pre night hotel, included for higher suites and at extra cost for others. Viking will not consider any flexibility. In fact, on an Iceland cruise next year we can either fly in on the day of embarkation (RISKY) or purchase their two day extension. They will not allow us to fly in a day before embarkation and stay in their hotel and get transfers. If we don't take one of their options (arrive day of embarkation or buy the two day extension) we are on our own. With most travel advisers recommending against a risky day of embarkation arrival this policy seems against customers' best interest.

[CDNPolar]

1 minute ago, CJANDH said:

No. What I am saying is that if you want to arrive two days before embarkation and book flights and a pre hotel through Regent they will provide transfers (not if you are doing your own thing). Regent also always offer a pre night hotel, included for higher suites and at extra cost for others. Viking will not consider any flexibility. In fact, on an Iceland cruise next year we can either fly in on the day of embarkation (RISKY) or purchase their two day extension. They will not allow us to fly in a day before embarkation and stay in their hotel and get transfers. If we don't take one of their options (arrive day of embarkation or buy the two day extension) we are on our own. With most travel advisers recommending against a risky day of embarkation arrival this policy seems against customers' best interest.

 

Yes, I understand what you are saying but I am confirming that if you are not doing the Viking pre or post, then they do not have flexibility.  If you are on your own you are on your own.

 

If Regent are more flexible, good for them.  Not every cruise line operates the same way.

[CJANDH]

Just now, CDNPolar said:

 

Yes, I understand what you are saying but I am confirming that if you are not doing the Viking pre or post, then they do not have flexibility.  If you are on your own you are on your own.

 

If Regent are more flexible, good for them.  Not every cruise line operates the same way.

Most of the luxury lines are more flexible if you book air and hotel through them. The markup on the hotels is a nice profit center for them.

[CDNPolar]

Viking only offers booking of the hotel if you book the extension.  If you are not interested in their full extension then you are on your own.

 

We book outside of the pre/post extension when we are looking to save money or there are other advantages..

 

We have booked the same hotel as Viking's post-extension in Mumbai, and a private tour that goes to more sites than Viking's one tour, and we are doing it for less than half the cost including all transportation charges.  We are saving over $2000 doing it ourselves.

 

We did book the pre-extension on this same cruise through Viking because although we could do it somewhat cheaper, there was value in the transportation based on where the pre-extension was and where the harbour/port was...

[CJANDH]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

Viking only offers booking of the hotel if you book the extension.  If you are not interested in their full extension then you are on your own.

That is what I mean about their inflexibility.

[mort&fran]

I suggest that you check with Viking. Pre-Covid we booked a river cruise in France but took three days in Madrid pre-cruise. Viking Air got us a flight to Madrid; we had to get from Madrid to CDG but because we arrived at about the same time as flights Viking had arranged we also got the airport-to-ship transfer. (I do not recall if there was a charge for the transfer; there wasn’t for the pre-cruise air to Madrid.)

 

We recently booked a Viking cruise departing and ending at US ports and because of that experience I tried for similar. But no luck. I was told that (1) things have changed since Covid (I did not get details, because) (2) it’s not available for cruises departing US ports.

[taiwan_girl]

On our recent Viking cruise over the Xmas/New Year, we wanted to spend extra time in Rome.  We used Viking Air and it was USD$100 to change the return from the day of disembarkation to 3 days later.  Overall price for flights was still cheaper than we could find on our own.

 

One nice (uexpected) touch was because our connection in Frankfurt was fairly tight, there was a Viking rep waiting just outside the gangway with a sign who helped us get to our connecting gate.

Edited Saturday at 12:15 AM by taiwan_girl