Using Viking Air to book Business/First class

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, tango223 said:

We booked our own business class flights for our trip to S. America next year as Viking wanted about $3000 more than what we found on our own.  We did book their 2 nights pre package with Viking to get the transfers between the airport & hotel and then from the hotel to the port.  The Viking representative confirmed that we will get those as we booked the 2 night pre cruise package.

 

So you don’t have to book Viking air to get Viking airport transfers?  How much did the transfers cost in addition to the hotel?  What hotels did Viking use?  We are going on Viking South America as well.

[tango223]

My TA was told that if we arrive on the dates in synch with the 2 night pre-cruise, they will transfer you to the hotel & to the port. They just need to know your flight info. I hope that what they say is correct because we were very clear that we were going to book our own air.

[tango223]

3 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

 

So you don’t have to book Viking air to get Viking airport transfers?  How much did the transfers cost in addition to the hotel?  What hotels did Viking use?  We are going on Viking South America as well.

 

We booked their 2 night pre-cruise so our TA was told that as long as our flight comes in the day that synchs with the 2 night stay, they will pick us up. 

The hotel info for the 2 night pre-cruise says Marriott Santiago  but has a paren (or similar).

 

[Marykatesmom]

I've been warned away from consolidators.  Outside of looking at individual airlines.  What do you search for when looking for business class flight prices? 

[molemaui]

2 minutes ago, Marykatesmom said:

I've been warned away from consolidators.  Outside of looking at individual airlines.  What do you search for when looking for business class flight prices? 

I've been most successful doing the following:

 

a. When airlines have mileage sales with bonuses, there can be attractive pricing. This sales for example, expired yesterday. United miles-get 100% bonus. For example, if you buy 70000 miles ($2450) you get 70000 bonus miles. Found many BC opportunities with United and Lufthansa for 70000 miles each way. Net cost $2450 round trip BC, I'd do that every day. Sale is over but things like this happen all the time with various airlines. (I don't fly United but would have had the timing been right)

 

b. bundle-I've done this three times so far a saved a lot. Have used Delta vacations and gotten best pricing. They require 3 nights minimum hotel stay. For trip to France, we got 4 nights Marriott Champs Elysees and business class airfare for approx.$2600@. (could have been even cheaper if we selected lesser hotel) Just airfare at Delta site was $3900 and higher. This works even better price wise if you're doing open jaw travel -for example in to London, out of Barcelona. Hotel nights can be broken up for before and after cruise or any combination that totals at least three nights. 

 

I agree with you, stay away from consolidators. 

 

[CCWineLover]

This is great info!  Never even thought about Delta Vacations.  Great tip!

[molemaui]

On 6/14/2019 at 9:05 AM, CCWineLover said:

This is great info!  Never even thought about Delta Vacations.  Great tip!

Also, if cruising you can’t do booking on computer as it assumes you need a hotel for every night you’re gone. Simply call and speak to a live agent. 

[m2inor]

I just canceled my Viking Air Plus on a March 2020  Germany cruise after inquiring about business class upgrades and fares.

I was able to book biz class tickets for wife and I that got us to embarkation city a few days earlier, and returning from a different airport so we could stay a few days longer and visit a few other nearby cities. Overall, cost was considerably less than what Viking Air Plus was going to charge for business class. Note well: the economy class price from Viking Air Plus was less than what I could have booked in Economy, but the business class I was was able to book directly with the airline was only slightly more than Economy.

This was with United, and I paid the $35 for Fare-lock, that gave me 7 days to purchase the fare; I used that time to check other options before locking things in. I was lucky to grab that low biz class fare, as it went up almost $2000 each for the next 6 days.

So...best advice, is to learn how to use the air fare search engines, and book directly with the airline if you find a good fare.  

Edited July 12, 2019 by m2inor

[SM77]

On 6/9/2019 at 6:34 PM, flashfearless said:

The cautionary tale I will bring to you is what will happen (and what *did* happen to us) should your flight get canceled if you booked through Viking Air.  DO NOT EXPECT Viking Air to lift a finger to get your business class accommodations reflected on re-booked flights.   Everything we got was due to our own work.  

 

And as far as the airline is concerned, your airfare was purchased in bulk and akin to having a travel agent book it.  So, you have no leverage to change your flights until the flight is canceled.   The airlines will prefer to accommodate people who booked through them instead of through Viking Air or some other resource.   

Sorry to hear that Viking Air was not helpful in rebooking your business class accommodations.  We had the exact opposite experience when AA canceled our flight back to the US from Hong Kong (or our LAX to IAD flight - we had two legs, not sure which one was canceled) - AA just emailed us to work w/ our TA to rebook - which was challenging since we were in Bali post-extension & there was a 14 hour time difference.  I got in touch w/ our TA via email, she got a hold of Viking Air & I was allowed to email directly to Viking Air to rebook(3 AM Bali time).  In fact, we wound up w/ a nonstop flight from Hong Kong to IAD on Cathay Pacific which was much better than what we had before.  I clearly believe if we didn't have Viking Air work w/ AA to rebook it, we would have had less options.   Maybe in my situation, Viking Air was able to do something since we were two days out from the flight and AA emailed us to go through our TA.  Personally I don't understand why AA just didn't rebook our flights for us since they canceled it.