tcuprof

We use a TA for two reasons. First, she serves as a backup to remind you of upcoming payments, need to book excursions, etc. Second, without saying who the agent is, booking through her gives us multiples (some things double, some triple, etc.) of airline miles. Those miles add up to quite a bit when your cruise is with Viking.

That's surprising that Celebrity says staff would not be available to help. We cruised on the Celebrity Flora and I can't imagine anyone with minor balance or mobility issues would have a problem. Their specially designed zodiacs (which they call tenders) are entered and exited via a built-in stair system. There was NO sitting on or exiting from the side of the boat. Also, staff were ALWAYS there to assist everyone getting on or off. If we were taking another Galapagos trip, I would absolutely choose the Celebrity Flora.

To the OP -- Whether or not you put together an independent pre-cruise extension, I highly recommend checking out the excursions offered by Viator. Besides the usual "must do" things (Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Picaso Museum, etc.) Viator has some nice option for foodies. Their Gourmet Tapas & Wine Tasting was wonderful.

I don't know what the latest reviews say, but we recently stayed at Nobu and were quite satisfied. I especially like that it is next to the Barcelo Sants station. For us, being close to a metro station is a must because the Barcelona metro system is superb.

Thank you for your comments. You state that rerouting you do not want is "common practice with cruise line air." It may be, but I have booked cruise line air with other cruise lines and not had this experience. You said you cancelled a cruise and Viking Air and received a refund. That is a completely different situation. Viking would not refund our air (we did not cancel the cruise). Good to know that other airlines may give you credit towards their elite programs for tickets purchased by Viking Air. You're probably right - the lack of credit on AA is an AA problem (which is certainly not a surprise).

Based on my experiences, I will not let Viking book my air again. 1) When Viking books your air, you pretty much give up control. They can change your flight as they see fit - EVEN IF YOU HAVE Air+. (see example below) 2) Viking air can appear to offer a good price, but that is often because they're going to give you a routing you do not want. To get the routing you DO want (e.g., non-stop), you'll have to pay the fare difference, thus eliminating what seemed a good price. 3) If you want to cancel the Viking air, Viking will not refund your money. They will only give you credit. 4) If it matters to you, you will not get credit towards an elite program (e.g., AA loyalty points) for your flight, because YOU did not buy the ticket. A recent incident: We had Air+ AND paid an extra $1900 to get the AA business class seat we wanted for a direct flight DFW-CDG. During the night and without asking us, Viking changed us to Air France. When I called, Viking first said the AA flight (AA48) was cancelled. It was not. Then, they said our AA reservation was probably cancelled because the flight was oversold. If the flight was indeed oversold, I rather doubt AA would start by kicking off an executive platinum elite. More importantly, I quickly established that the flight was not oversold and in fact there are seats available now. Finally, the agent said "I cannot get you on the AA flight. Would you like to book a different flight and pay the fare difference?" Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing why I lost my AA reservation. Since the Air France business class seats are cheaper than AA, the cynic in me suspects Viking took the opportunity to make a few thousand $ profit by changing our flight. One last note: You are very unlikely to get any help from the Viking Air agent who answers your call. That person is essentially a human “bot” who types in your question or complaint and then reads you the pre-programmed scripted reply. They have NO authority to do anything beyond that scripted reply. Don’t waste your time, just request a supervisor.

If you have elite status with American Airlines, you probably care about earning loyalty points since they are the new currency for achieving or maintaining status. In April, we took a Viking cruise that included DFW-EZE and MAD-DFW flights. We arranged the flights through our AA concierge, but they were purchased by Viking. I was expecting 55000 loyalty points ($5000*11), but received only 5000. I learned that flights purchased by cruise lines do not earn loyalty points. I have mixed feelings about cruiselines arranging air. On the one hand, they are ostensibly cheaper and they include a guarantee to get you on the cruise and home. On the other hand, one of the reasons they are cheaper (at least with Viking) is that they often choose a route you would not take (for example, Viking tried to send us DFW-JFK-LHR instead of DFW-LHR). Also, as stated above, you don't get loyalty points, and that's important to me.