Viking Air Information

[SoccerMom#3]

pinotlover,

 

You are right on as this is basically the scenario that I was involved in yesterday as I tried to find out way Lufthansa (LH) flight seat maps came up 'undefined' on their website.

 

Because I am using one carrier (United UA) to go overseas and a different carrier (LH) to return to the States when I called LH they said that Viking has not ticketed their reservation which must be completed in order to get seat assignments. LH also said that there would be an addition fee for reserving seats now as the seat map won't normally be open until 23 hours prior to the flight.

 

Next I called Viking Air and was told that since we are using UA and LH that it was really a UA booking. Viking also said that if they ticket the flights now (both UA and LH) that there would be a $300 charge for any changes to the flights that were made after ticketing.

 

I made the decision to have Viking Air ticket all the flights as I don't anticipate any changes.

 

After a couple of days to allow Viking time to complete the ticketing process I'll call LH and pay any extra fees to them in order to access the seat maps and reserve our seats.

 

Quite a learning experience. Maybe the best thing that I learned from this experience is to make our own flight arrangements and leave Viking Air out of the mix or use only one carrier for all the flights or wait till the seat maps do open up.

 

This is exactly what happened to me. We are flying UA to Europe and LH back to the States. Earlier this week I called Viking and had them ticket us early knowing that if I want to change our flights later it will be $300 per person plus any extra charges. I like our flights so I don't anticipate changing our flights.

 

I then went on the United site and upgraded (and paid for) Economy Plus seats for the flight to Europe. I still can't access the seats on LH but it sounds like I can call them and for a fee reserve actual seats.

 

I am so grateful to all of you on cruise critic or else I wouldn't know the steps to get actual seats for our flights.

[remydiva]

Prdancer;

 

I believe it is possible to get an early seat assignment on LA; but

 

1. LA may require you to go through Viking for any such request since they bought the ticket.

2. You will have to pay a fee to LA to choose your (any) seat.

3. You will then have to additionally pay for any upgrade in seating you choose.

 

Airline Rules for seat assignments are changing rapidly. It is hard to keep up with it all. Added to the difficulty is who the purchaser of the ticket (in this case Viking Air) actually buys the ticket from. They may have bought one leg from United directly, and the other directly from LA, which will further affect seat assignment choices.

 

I got an email this week from viking with our flights and booking # for our April 2015 trip.I went to airline ( air france) entered the # and name and got to choose seats for both TA flights to and fro ( but not inter Europe hop which i did not expect to do,anyways)

 

But my flight info also shows " not ticketed" yet so who knows if i really have picked a seat! I will keep on checking i guess but so far seems to be working ok.

 

I am very happy with the flights chosen both in airline, times and connections.

[Prdancer]

I was able today to complete my air flights for the Portraits of Southern France cruise in October by securing our seats on the LH flights directly from LH. I am very satisfied with my dealings with Viking Custom Air, UA & LH. It's nice to have the flights and seats that I wanted although it did cost me some money. Now I have all the big items for the cruise in place and can concentrate on the pre-cruise & post-cruise portion of our trip (tours & sightseeing).

[LINGBER]

I was able today to complete my air flights for the Portraits of Southern France cruise in October by securing our seats on the LH flights directly from LH. I am very satisfied with my dealings with Viking Custom Air, UA & LH. It's nice to have the flights and seats that I wanted although it did cost me some money. Now I have all the big items for the cruise in place and can concentrate on the pre-cruise & post-cruise portion of our trip (tours & sightseeing).

 

Hi Prdancer- I just booked the Portraits of Southern France cruise for September and got their air promotion. Since I am from south Florida I will be flying out of Miami. You mentioned you were happy with your flights. May I ask how many stops you have and where you fly in and out of?

[Prdancer]

Hi Prdancer- I just booked the Portraits of Southern France cruise for September and got their air promotion. Since I am from south Florida I will be flying out of Miami. You mentioned you were happy with your flights. May I ask how many stops you have and where you fly in and out of?

 

Hi Lingber,

 

Our flights to Paris involve two flights -- we leave Tampa (TPA) to Dulles (IAD) and transfer there for our overseas flight to Paris Charles de Gaul (CDG)

 

Our return flights also involve two flights -- we travel from Nice to Frankfort and from Frankfort to Tampa which is a direct flight home.