First - we are huge fans of Viking and have booked 17 cruises with them (4 river and 13 ocean) so far, including 5 from today through to March, 2025. All of them have been excellent and we highly recommend Viking to others.
My issue is with Viking's onboard credits (and loyalty recognition).
All of our cruises have been booked directly with Viking, and I have been very pleased with the service I have received from Viking agents (with one notable exception). I only recently found out, however, that Viking allows travel agents to provide up to $500 per person in non-cash incentives (e.g., onboard credits) for all cruises 15 days or over - up to $1,000 per cruise for us. For our 17 cruises, all of which have been over 15 days, that adds up to a potential loss of up to $17,000 in non-cash incentives for booking directly with Viking rather than using a travel agent!
I understand that such non-cash incentives pertain to travel agents, however I wrote to Viking, asking them if, due to our demonstrated loyalty, they would provide us with some amount of onboard credit for our 5 future cruises. I know that Viking managers do have some discretion in providing credits, etc. I should add that we always book one of the most expensive staterooms, so our 17 cruises represent a very significant amount of revenue (well into six figures) for Viking.
I was, very politely, refused by Viking Guest Services.
I should add that Viking's loyalty program - the Explorer Society - unlike other luxury cruise lines, does not recognize very frequent guests, and instead offers the same $200 booking discount benefit to Viking cruisers whether they have booked 2 or many, many cruises. This is another source of significant annoyance to me, but that's another matter.
My point in posting this is to point out to potential Viking guests that they consider very carefully booking through a travel agent rather than directly with Viking. Booking directly with Viking will mean they will lose a potentially significant amount of money, as represented by onboard credits.
We remain huge fans of the Viking "product", however we will not be booking directly with Viking on any future cruises.