Kudos to Viking Air!

[SM77]

I just happen to be on United's website and noticed that my upcoming connecting flight from Brussels to Berlin had a schedule change and was moved up an hour so our connecting time was now just 70 minutes to go from an international gate to a gate within the EU with a border security check between the gates.  I have no email notification of any flight schedule changes even though I am set up for United alerts.  I called United and their attitude was that I had at least 30 minutes and if I missed the connection then I could catch the next flight that was 14 hours later.  The United rep wasn't going to do anything about it and didn't care.  I called Viking customer service and explained the situation.  He was very understanding and even though I booked through a travel agent, Viking customer service was more than happy to transfer me directly to Viking Air to rebook the outbound flight.  No fees, the Viking Air rep was happy to find and rebook the flight from IAD to Frankfurt to Berlin.  All done in a matter of minutes and she was very understanding about the need to change the flights since United had made a schedule change which made the connection time too short.  I hate flying through Frankfurt but the good news is that there are several flights to Berlin throughout the day.  This is the second time that Viking Air has made a difference in dealing with situations with the airlines.  We are happy to have them intervene on our behalf and the Viking reps do it w/ such great customer focus.  FYI, this flight is for an upcoming Elbe River cruise & Cities of Lights River cruise which will occur in April.

[Frenchberet]

Wow, that’s great news!  👍

[Clay Clayton]

Congratulations!  

Had you paid for custom air?

[SM77]

50 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Congratulations!  

Had you paid for custom air?

 

Absolutely, always do.  In fact I had picked the flights - was hoping to avoid Frankfurt but now my thinking is to have a connecting flight to an airport that has several flights to the final destination (if possible).  I chose to fly out of Richmond to Houston to Buenos Aires in December and though there were no issues, if there was an issue w/ the plane from Richmond, we would have missed the flight to Buenos Aires.  I'm getting smarter about our air travel.  It really helps having Viking Air deal w/ the airlines when there is an issue.