Question on using Viking for Airline arrangements

[boater3]

We did the Viking Homelands Trip this past May. Originally, we booked the airfare with Viking, however, when I went online the end of December, we found cheaper rates so were able to cancel the air and make our own arrangements. We flew Toronto to London then on to Bergen. Coming home we flew out of Stockholm to London then back to Toronto. Last week we booked the Empires of the Mediterranean Cruise for April 2017 and went with the Viking Air which was a good price. I did my own research of various flights and chose what was good for us. I then called Viking Air and the short leg of the trip over to Athens was an airline they didn't use. We were able to find another combination that worked. Our return flights were as we had originally planned. The cost of $50 per person was well worth it and we got to choose our seats on the long-haul flights for no charge which is always nice to know in advance.

[MURPHY27]

Roothy, ask Viking directly when the cut off date is for changing your mind about using Viking air. You want to make sure that you have accurate information and only Viking can speak for Viking. I mean, what if we get it wrong?

 

The Air Plus fee is non-refundable. However, you only have to pay the first 3 times you use it; after that it is free. I don't mind paying the fee; it helps to keep those who are just shopping for information from clogging up the phone lines.

 

Thanks, I didn't know the Air Plus is free after the 3rd cruise. That's great news. I can confirm that the deviation fee was changed to Cost per trip not each flight.

[doglover3]

Thanks to those who responded to me. I've done my "homework" and Viking's price isn't a lot less than what I could get using Icelandair, which looks to be the worst option I could get for London, but decent for Bergen. (Yes, I know I could get just about any pair of flights.) However, with Icelandair, we'd be changing planes in Reykjavik (middle of trip), so I don't think I'd get much sleep. It's bad enough trying to sleep on a non-stop flight to Europe; I really don't want to make things even worse.

 

I'm planning to call Viking Air today to discuss what's available with Air Plus, but in the mean time, these are my questions:

 

1. I can choose to "not use" Viking arranged air up until final payment or some other time, right?

2. It's probably unlikely, but if I then ask for Air Plus and don't find the options right for my situation, I can just say no and they won't charge me for Air Plus, right?

3. About how long is that scenic train ride to Oslo, Jazzbeau? It's tempting me, as is staying in Reykjavik for a day on the way back from Bergen.....

4. Has anyone ever gotten a daytime flight overseas using Viking's regular air? There are a few, and I don't think I want those.

Roothy,

I don't know if you're still following this thread, but I wondered what you ended up doing about your air arrangements? We will be flying out of the same home area (Dulles is our preferred airport, but we can do the other two) and cruising Bergen to Greenwich Into the Midnight Sun. Did you wind up using Viking Air or book your own flights? Which airlines did you get and how were the flights? I will be starting to look at trying to use United Miles to book our flights, but Im' not sure that will work out and may winnd up with whatever Viking arranges for us. We've included the Viking Air, so I know we can still make our own arrangements until they ticket us. Thanks for all your input and advice on this and many other threads.

 

Lauri

[roothy123]

Roothy,

I don't know if you're still following this thread, but I wondered what you ended up doing about your air arrangements? We will be flying out of the same home area (Dulles is our preferred airport, but we can do the other two) and cruising Bergen to Greenwich Into the Midnight Sun. Did you wind up using Viking Air or book your own flights? Which airlines did you get and how were the flights? I will be starting to look at trying to use United Miles to book our flights, but Im' not sure that will work out and may winnd up with whatever Viking arranges for us. We've included the Viking Air, so I know we can still make our own arrangements until they ticket us. Thanks for all your input and advice on this and many other threads.

 

Lauri

We booked our own flights on Icelandair, since we wanted to do a free stopover in Reykjavik for two days. We flew to Reykjavik on the 8:30 pm flight out of Dulles and landed in Iceland very early the next morning. I guess since you're doing the opposite itinerary, this may not matter much, but I would caution you that:

 

Icelandair's planes (767s I think, at least in summer?) are nice and new but there's not much cushioning in the seats. I squirmed half the night and didn't sleep a lot. I've gotten pretty decent at sleeping on overnight flights to Europe, but this time it was a challenge. I didn't realize the seats were bad until the next morning when my husband (sitting a row in front of me to get the extra-legroom seat I had scored for him by booking early) and others mentioned the hard seats. IF you book Icelandair for a sleeping flight, you might want to make sure you bring or can get at least a pillow or two.

 

Coming back from Bergen, we took the 1 PM flight and changed in Reykjavik, arriving Dullles in very late afternoon or early evening. It was a very long day. Bergen is 6 hours later than DC, and Reykjavik is 4. The 1 PM flight made a stop in Trondheim before getting to Reykjavik.

 

Icelandair doesn't give you any free food. I was hungry a lot, although of course you can order food on the plane. I think the Viking passengers got a nice warm ham and cheese baguette, but for a long flight, you may want more - and you may want to order that free baguette before they come around offering it.

 

Honestly, we loved Iceland, and we also liked being able to stay on the ship in Bergen until 9:30 for our 1 PM flight. However, if you're not planning to go to Iceland, I'd probably see what you can get on something else - although I don't think British Airways is all that great, either! Yes, Icelandair is cheap, but take lots of pillows and food on board to make it tolerable! Also take earphones, as they don't provide those.

 

The best part of this experience (other than Iceland) was coming home to Dulles to find NO lines at the immigration checkpoint, and no separate lines for Customs. It was not as easy the last time we flew in to Dulles. (Our favorite airport is BWI, but Icelandair doesn't go there any more, I'm afraid.)

Edited July 13, 2017 by roothy123

[Peregrina651]

Roothy,

I don't know if you're still following this thread, but I wondered what you ended up doing about your air arrangements? We will be flying out of the same home area (Dulles is our preferred airport, but we can do the other two) and cruising Bergen to Greenwich Into the Midnight Sun. Did you wind up using Viking Air or book your own flights? Which airlines did you get and how were the flights? I will be starting to look at trying to use United Miles to book our flights, but Im' not sure that will work out and may winnd up with whatever Viking arranges for us. We've included the Viking Air, so I know we can still make our own arrangements until they ticket us. Thanks for all your input and advice on this and many other threads.

 

Lauri

 

Piggy-backing on what roothy said. When Viking booked us, we were booked non-stop RT to London (from Boston) and then we had a one-way flight between Bergen to London which was actually booked as a separate reservation with its own confirmation number. If you aren't looking for a stopover in Iceland, this may be something to keep in the back of your mind as you are working on your flights--even to the point of using points for the transatlantic and paying cash for the Bergen-London flight.

[Peregrina651]

Thanks, I didn't know the Air Plus is free after the 3rd cruise. That's great news. I can confirm that the deviation fee was changed to Cost per trip not each flight.

 

Heads up, folks. I understand that Viking has done away with this perk.

[doglover3]

Roothy and Peregrina,

 

Thank you both for your input. I don't think we have the time to visit in Iceland on this trip. I think we'd rather spend an extra day in Bergen or maybe taking the train from Oslo, while we get over our jet lag. It's good to know that Icelandair would not be a terrible option, even if we didn't stay, though I'm hoping for a flight itinerary more like Peregrina's. If I can find the right flights on United, we hope to fly to Oslo with just one stop and back from London non-stop. Otherwise, maybe we'll take our chances with Viking. I'll have to compare that to the prices on Icelandair, since I think they would be considerably less than the promotion we got from Viking. I will be glad to have the flight plans settled, as I do not enjoy that part of the planning.

[Peregrina651]

Roothy and Peregrina,

 

Thank you both for your input. I don't think we have the time to visit in Iceland on this trip. I think we'd rather spend an extra day in Bergen or maybe taking the train from Oslo, while we get over our jet lag. It's good to know that Icelandair would not be a terrible option, even if we didn't stay, though I'm hoping for a flight itinerary more like Peregrina's. If I can find the right flights on United, we hope to fly to Oslo with just one stop and back from London non-stop. Otherwise, maybe we'll take our chances with Viking. I'll have to compare that to the prices on Icelandair, since I think they would be considerably less than the promotion we got from Viking. I will be glad to have the flight plans settled, as I do not enjoy that part of the planning.

 

Does anybody???????

[CharTrav]

If I can find the right flights on United, we hope to fly to Oslo with just one stop and back from London non-stop.

 

There is no direct flight from Dulles to Oslo. What you do is fly to Newark and from there to Oslo. We did that last year when we did Viking Homelands. We chose the noon flight to Newark and then doodled around Newark until our flight at 8. There's a later flight to Newark but knowing how bad things can be in Newark especially late in the day during the Summer, decided to play it safe. Hope this helps.

 

 

 

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[doglover3]

There is no direct flight from Dulles to Oslo. What you do is fly to Newark and from there to Oslo. We did that last year when we did Viking Homelands. We chose the noon flight to Newark and then doodled around Newark until our flight at 8. There's a later flight to Newark but knowing how bad things can be in Newark especially late in the day during the Summer, decided to play it safe. Hope this helps.

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Thanks for your suggestion. I will keep this in mind as I start to try to book next week using United Miles. It will be interesting to see what works out. I'm glad to have Viking Air on our reservation for a backup.

[CharTrav]

Thanks for your suggestion. I will keep this in mind as I start to try to book next week using United Miles. It will be interesting to see what works out. I'm glad to have Viking Air on our reservation for a backup.

 

Sadness. Just checked. Last year there was a direct flight from Newark to Oslo. Doesn't look like that's still true. But I have found in the past that sometimes United changes their flights for reasons unknown. Adds them, deletes them. Who knows why. I booked a flight to Berlin in 2013 via Newark each way. And thought for sure when I wanted to do it again in 2015 it would still be possible. But I couldn't in late March when I booked it. 2 days later in April, the flight I wanted to Berlin via Newark reappeared. Same flight number. But it was too late, I'd already booked. So who knows? The advantage to going thru Newark rather than London, Munich or Frankfurt is that you don't go code shared on Lufthansa. But maybe you already know that. Good luck!

 

 

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[sherrar]

Just wondering if anybody knows if Air Plus works in the same way for UK passengers?

[doglover3]

Sadness. Just checked. Last year there was a direct flight from Newark to Oslo. Doesn't look like that's still true. But I have found in the past that sometimes United changes their flights for reasons unknown. Adds them, deletes them. Who knows why. I booked a flight to Berlin in 2013 via Newark each way. And thought for sure when I wanted to do it again in 2015 it would still be possible. But I couldn't in late March when I booked it. 2 days later in April, the flight I wanted to Berlin via Newark reappeared. Same flight number. But it was too late, I'd already booked. So who knows? The advantage to going thru Newark rather than London, Munich or Frankfurt is that you don't go code shared on Lufthansa. But maybe you already know that. Good luck!

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Thanks again for your time and input. We have flown with codeshares before, on Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa, and I don't think that we noticed any problems. Maybe we just are not very savvy fliers (probably true). We don't usually try for any upgrades, so maybe that's why we don't really notice a difference. Both of those airlines have flights using United Miles to Oslo, as does Scandinavian Airlines, so I had hoped for one of those. I have since discovered that flights back from London to Dulles require more than twice as many miles, so we may not be able to do it anyway, since we don't have that many miles.:( Viking Air looks better all the time!

[sandshark]

I just used Viking's Air Plus option to book flights for the transatlantic cruise in April. I've read many complaints in this board about poor airline itineraries booked through Viking, so I asked my travel agent to see what was available now through Air Plus, The flights that she was able to book are really excellent - as good or better than I would be able to book myself, at a much better price. In my opinion, the additional $50 per person fee was money well spent.

[Peregrina651]

I just used Viking's Air Plus option to book flights for the transatlantic cruise in April. I've read many complaints in this board about poor airline itineraries booked through Viking, so I asked my travel agent to see what was available now through Air Plus, The flights that she was able to book are really excellent - as good or better than I would be able to book myself, at a much better price. In my opinion, the additional $50 per person fee was money well spent.

 

The hitch is that Air Plus is not available on all itineraries and sometimes (many times?) the complaints that you have seen here are from people who could not use it.

 

Personally, I have had great experiences with Air Plus and will always suggest using them where available. You are paying so much for this vacation why ruin it with lousy flights when for a mere $100 you can have some say in which flights you are assigned.

[vnb2003]

The hitch is that Air Plus is not available on all itineraries and sometimes (many times?) the complaints that you have seen here are from people who could not use it.

 

Personally, I have had great experiences with Air Plus and will always suggest using them where available. You are paying so much for this vacation why ruin it with lousy flights when for a mere $100 you can have some say in which flights you are assigned.

 

Exactly what I said in my river cruise review ;)