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Viking Air Business Class Question


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Has anyone used Viking air business class to SE Asia? We are flying from SW Florida, Ft Myers Tampa area. Flying to Bali and back from Bangkok in early 2019. What were the airlines and routing used? How did the cost compare to booking it your self compare. I know that airfare and routings change a lot, I am just interested in what your experience was.

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Viking is just breaking into the SE Asia market on the ocean side of the business, so there isn't much data here to collect yet; people are just starting to look at flights, etc. However, on the river side of the business, they have been doing Mekong river cruises for a number of years now and perhaps there is some helpful information to be found in the River Cruising forum.

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Has anyone used Viking air business class to SE Asia? We are flying from SW Florida, Ft Myers Tampa area. Flying to Bali and back from Bangkok in early 2019. What were the airlines and routing used? How did the cost compare to booking it your self compare. I know that airfare and routings change a lot, I am just interested in what your experience was.

 

We're doing that cruise and flying business class from the UK. Just waiting to see what airline, what route and how much the upgrade will cost. Standard economy included in the brochure price here in the UK. Will be interested to see how they compare!!

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We're doing that cruise and flying business class from the UK. Just waiting to see what airline, what route and how much the upgrade will cost. Standard economy included in the brochure price here in the UK. Will be interested to see how they compare!!

 

Ask your Viking rep for the price delta from coach to business class. We are booked 2019 and 2020 SE Asia cruises, both we asked for coach and business class numbers. We are Business for both.

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We are going on the Bali to Sydney cruise beginning 11/30/18. We made our own flight reservations going and are using Viking on our return. We are going business class and the cost is about $9,000 for the two of us. That may not sound like a great deal but each way is a non stop flight - going is on Singapore Air and returning on Virgin Australia. When you book the Singapore Air fare - they fly you non-stop to Singapore - where you can spend three days or so - then a free flight (2 1/2 hours) down to Bali (where we will also spend three days before hopping onto the ship). It gets a little complicated - but if you (or anyone) is interested on how to do this deal - I'll spell it out to you.

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Sunbrookgal, can you tell me your routing and what the cost difference was? Delta and Korean Air have the best and shortest flight times, but I think Viking prefers to use Cathy Pacific. We have flown on Cathy Pacific and it was very good, however I would like to avoid flying to JFK or Newark to get on a Cathy Pacific flight at 1AM.

Did you pay extra to the air department at Viking to get the flights you wanted?

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Just upgraded our flights through Viking Air from the UK to Sydney and Bali back to the UK for March 2019.

Was given a couple of options for flight upgrades, premium economy or business and then a choice of BA or Emirates. Have plumped with Emirates Business class - did a comparison myself on costing direct with the airline and Viking was cheaper although I think the difference was the 'flight allowance' that is built into the package cost of the cruise (as it included return flights) - tbh I'm happy with what I'm paying so all is well :)

Jo

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

I had a very good experience booking with Viking Air today... I did the business class upgrade w/Viking Air Plus.

 

Customer service agent was extremely friendly. It was a complicated itinerary with the extensions, but she was able to get me on my preferred carriers (my husband and I are both United Global Services/Star Alliance Gold) by playing with code shares and by my willingness to be flexible and take a short connecting flight on the outbound. It all came in under the contract with no add/collect.

 

I ended up with:

 

SFO-LAX-LHR on United

Bergen to Oslo on SAS

Oslo to FRA on SAS as a LH codeshare

FRA to SFO on United as LH codeshare

 

I tried booking the same exact flights directly with United and the business class fare was coming in at $17k per person, so using Viking was a huge savings, and once booked, everything immediately populated in my United App so I am confident my FF status carried thru.

 

That being said, I had to be patient and work with her as she bid the flights... the call was 1 hr 4 minutes long! LOL.

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Our experience, from the UK, to Beijing and return from Hong Kong was that the preferred carrier was KLM, the cost to upgrade to business class with KLM was pretty steep, we found better routings and pricing with Emirates business class, so we asked about a cruise only price with Viking, they asked what we were considering about flights and told them and within minutes they were able to offer the same flights packaged with the cruise at a better price than we could have achieved.

 

We were very pleased and impressed with Viking Air, they seem a lot more "on the ball" than many other cruise lines "air" departments.

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We're flying London to Bali and return from Bangkok. Viking gave us Emirates business as a first choice and more than happy with price and timings. Very good reviews on A380 so looking forward to it!

 

The A380 is an excellent aircraft, very comfortable. Haven't used Emirates, but have flown First or Business on A380's with BA, Qantas & Qatar.

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I had a very good experience booking with Viking Air today... I did the business class upgrade w/Viking Air Plus.

 

Customer service agent was extremely friendly. It was a complicated itinerary with the extensions, but she was able to get me on my preferred carriers (my husband and I are both United Global Services/Star Alliance Gold) by playing with code shares and by my willingness to be flexible and take a short connecting flight on the outbound. It all came in under the contract with no add/collect.

 

I ended up with:

 

SFO-LAX-LHR on United

Bergen to Oslo on SAS

Oslo to FRA on SAS as a LH codeshare

FRA to SFO on United as LH codeshare

 

I tried booking the same exact flights directly with United and the business class fare was coming in at $17k per person, so using Viking was a huge savings, and once booked, everything immediately populated in my United App so I am confident my FF status carried thru.

 

That being said, I had to be patient and work with her as she bid the flights... the call was 1 hr 4 minutes long! LOL.

 

You will love this routing. Viking Air Plus routed us on the same....Bergen to Oslo/ Oslo to Frankfurt/ Frankfurt to Tampa. You will probably have a breakfast from the ship, then another breakfast on the 50-minute flight to Oslo, then another breakfast on the Oslo-Frankfurt. Once in Frankfurt, Lufthansa has its own Customs Control for transferring into the Euro Zone, which is REALLY nice with no big, long line. Then you can have lunch in the Lufthansa Business Class lounge before your TransAtlantic flight. It was heavenly. Since everyone speaks English, we asked a guy pushing an empty wheelchair how to get to Lufthansa and he took us up an elevator right to it and avoided the LONG lines. Have a great trip.

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