What does "Free Air" include?

[98Charlie]

I've been researching river cruises for 2022..In looking through the terms and conditions for various river cruises it looks like there may be costs normally affiliated with air fare that are not included in the cruise lines "free air" offers. This comes from Avalon:

 

"airport taxes and fees, including the September 11th Security fee up to $11.20 per person, passenger facility charges up to $18 per person, Federal domestic flight segment fees up to $4.10 per segment, and U.S. and international arrival and departure and other government-imposed added by the airline and applicable at time of booking;"

 

It looks like there could be an extra $100 pp for the round trip. Compared to the cost of a cruise this isn't much. But I like to know upfront what the cost would/could be.

 

Does anyone have any insight?

 

Charlie

 

 

[greydog]

3 hours ago, 98Charlie said:

I've been researching river cruises for 2022..In looking through the terms and conditions for various river cruises it looks like there may be costs normally affiliated with air fare that are not included in the cruise lines "free air" offers. 

Charlie

 

My Viking 'free' air experience did not have any separate charges such as airport fees, taxes.  And Viking includes free pickup/dropoff from/to ship/departure flight if used Viking air reservation.  There may be smaller airports that incur an extra charge (airlines under Viking contract listed at Viking website)   Viking charges $50-100 pp for custom air where you pick preferred flights and/or offers upgrade option (e.g. premium economy) for fee (e.g. $799 pp).  GOOD LUCK

[Host Jazzbeau]

I think you will find that the meaning of 'free air' varies depending on the cruise line – and sometimes depending on the sailing [or the deal on offer at the time you book].  I don't think there is any 'one size fits all' answer to your question.

[Daisi]

Don't only look at the free air to purchase any cruise.  We originally booked for next year with Avalon at a "guaranteed" rate, which looked good because they were talking about air increasing to make up for the no-fly year this year.  When the air price came in, it was with an airline we don't care for, so said we would skip it.  I played around on their site with the airline we like, and it came out cheaper...we got that booked, and it includes transfers.  I will tell you that the taxes etc., that are not included in the above quote are possibly as much or more as the cost of the flight itself!

 

One thing with Avalon, they book the flights, but you go online to choose your seats, upgrade etc at the airlines costs.  We were able to choose our flights & airline for no extra costs.

 

If we do get to go, it's going to be nice to get off of an 18 hr travel day and be greeted by someone instead of having to work out our transport!

Edited August 12, 2020 by Daisi

[98Charlie]

Thanks to both of you for the insights. 

 

Charlie

[98Charlie]

4 minutes ago, Daisi said:

Don't only look at the free air to purchase any cruise.  We originally booked for next year with Avalon at a "guaranteed" rate, which looked good because they were talking about air increasing to make up for the no-fly year this year.  When the air price came in, it was with an airline we don't care for, so said we would skip it.  I played around on their site with the airline we like, and it came out cheaper...we got that booked, and it includes transfers.  I will tell you that the taxes etc., that are not included in the above quote are possibly as much or more as the cost of the flight itself!

 

If we do get to go, it's going to be nice to get off of an 18 hr travel day and be greeted by someone instead of having to work out our transport!

In the past when I've flown to Europe it has been for personal vacation. Fly in, have a car rental waiting, first and last night hotel reserved and the rest on my own. Is it common now for airlines to add transfers to the flight? Or do you make a separate arrangements?

 

Charlie

[Daisi]

Last time we had Avalon book our flights, but since we were staying at a hotel that had it's own airport pickup and taking the train back along the Rhine from Basel to Amsterdam, we didn't request them.  Also, we had them book the flights well after we had booked the cruise as we were waiting to see which would be a better deal (Avalon beat both my online searches and our TA's but we are fussy over where we fly out of and with whom).  They managed to get us a better price because of all the other travel groups they have associated with them under the Globus umbrella.  This time, since we were looking for a guaranteed rate due to fears of sky high (sorry) pricing, and we booked for the flights at the same time with the cruise, it included transfers.  Since we will be travelling in Budapest & Prague, I don't know enough of the language to worry about transport.  I figure it's going to be a treat.  Trust me...it's going to be enough of an experience changing planes.  Our travels usually are getting in the car and driving where ever we are going... planes, trains and public transport are something we had never done!

 

[NavyCruiser]

Yes,  agree with Greydog above about Viking's free air.

Our last year's & next yr's Viking cruises had free air with no additional taxes/fees.  

It also included free pick airport pick up & return transfers.

We always added $50 pp for Air Plus program, where we can custom choose our exact airline & flight schedules/times 10 months out, instead of letting Viking air dept assign our flights just 2.5 months out.

[franski]

14 hours ago, 98Charlie said:

In the past when I've flown to Europe it has been for personal vacation. Fly in, have a car rental waiting, first and last night hotel reserved and the rest on my own. Is it common now for airlines to add transfers to the flight? Or do you make a separate arrangements?

 

Charlie

 If you book air with the cruise line, they include transfers.  Some of them (Scenic & Emerald - perhaps more I am unaware of....) - provide transfers even if you book your own air. 

 

All companies will allow you to purchase transfers - but usually the cost is high.  The one time we did that was when we went to China --> we did not want to get off a long flight and have to figure out transfers to our hotel.  So, we paid Viking and they picked us up. 

 

Since we usually book our own air, I have gotten quite adept at sourcing out ground transfers.  If you are looking to book your own transfer, you will find that a new thread here on Cruise Critic can help you find someone - and it is usually a referral from someone who has used the service in the past - so won't refer unless the experience was a positive one. 

 

Fran

[dude_hdt]

What level are the "free air" tickets?  Just Economy and you'd need to pay extra for upgrades from there?

[gnome12]

What level are the "free air" tickets?  Just Economy and you'd need to pay extra for upgrades from there?

Unless it specifies anything different like “free business class air” it is economy. Don’t assume you can upgrade it from there; you have to check the policies of the airline(s) the cruise line uses.


Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[greydog]

On 8/20/2020 at 1:27 PM, gnome12 said:

Unless it specifies anything different like “free business class air” it is economy. Don’t assume you can upgrade it from there; you have to check the policies of the airline(s) the cruise line uses.

 

My (pre-Covid) experience with Viking-air and Delta is a cautionary tale. I learned Delta would not allow $ seat upgrade with them after booking air with Viking contract air service.  I thought I could watch for Delta price sale later to get cheaper upgrade. But Delta disallowed upgrade thru them as policy.  So when I made my air reservation with Viking I asked what their upgrade fee was and decided whether to take (it was competitive $ at that moment).

 

ALSO, I wanted best choice of (Comfort+, Prem Econ) seats so I did my air about 6 mos. early (pre-Covid days) after having looked at all my flight connection choices and seat locations available ( bulkhead legroom, away from lavatory disruption, etc).  From Atlanta, flights with prem. economy were all 1-stop connectors while nonstops to AMS were only Comfort+ planes.  In my mind, last thing I want is taking the economy 'pot luck' seat picked 60 days out from embarkation.  (Apparently you can challenge the default seat assignment and then negotiate for better but at 60-days out in normal vacation season the alternatives may be limited)  GOOD LUCK

[lucky cal]

On 8/22/2020 at 10:03 AM, greydog said:

 

My (pre-Covid) experience with Viking-air and Delta is a cautionary tale. I learned Delta would not allow $ seat upgrade with them after booking air with Viking contract air service.  I thought I could watch for Delta price sale later to get cheaper upgrade. But Delta disallowed upgrade thru them as policy.  So when I made my air reservation with Viking I asked what their upgrade fee was and decided whether to take (it was competitive $ at that moment).

 

ALSO, I wanted best choice of (Comfort+, Prem Econ) seats so I did my air about 6 mos. early (pre-Covid days) after having looked at all my flight connection choices and seat locations available ( bulkhead legroom, away from lavatory disruption, etc).  From Atlanta, flights with prem. economy were all 1-stop connectors while nonstops to AMS were only Comfort+ planes.  In my mind, last thing I want is taking the economy 'pot luck' seat picked 60 days out from embarkation.  (Apparently you can challenge the default seat assignment and then negotiate for better but at 60-days out in normal vacation season the alternatives may be limited)  GOOD LUCK

 

We had good luck with Viking and Delta for our 2019 river cruise. We booked one of their free air deals in late March for a trip that began in late July. We paid Viking an extra $50 each so we could dictate non-stop Delta flights from Atlanta. In early July, I was able to go online with Delta myself to upgrade our seats to Comfort+ despite having booked the flights through Viking's contract. I think we paid $75 per seat to Delta for the upgrades, so a total of $300 round-trip for the two of us. Well worth it to be a little more comfortable!

[greydog]

4 hours ago, lucky cal said:

 

We had good luck with Viking and Delta for our 2019 river cruise. We booked one of their free air deals in late March for a trip that began in late July. We paid Viking an extra $50 each so we could dictate non-stop Delta flights from Atlanta. In early July, I was able to go online with Delta myself to upgrade our seats to Comfort+ despite having booked the flights through Viking's contract. I think we paid $75 per seat to Delta for the upgrades, so a total of $300 round-trip for the two of us. Well worth it to be a little more comfortable!

Great result in your case - Delta may have relaxed their policy given that you did your upgrade early in month of sailing and they had unsold upgrade seats, especially to only charge +$75.  Or the 'old story' about the random draw of the Delta agent handling your transaction.  Either way, glad it worked for you.

 

MY NEW DILEMMA - currently invoiced for $799 ea. upgrade to Viking premium economy.  Now find that Atlanta to Amsterdam nonstop 8.5 hr flights only offer Comfort+, not premium economy class. To get Prem-Econ seating, need to do connection thru Paris or DTW, JFK, pushing trip to 12+ hrs.  Leaning toward dropping $799 upgrade charge and doing reduced $ nonstop Comfort+ for time saving.  

[Host Jazzbeau]

I have always preferred non-stop flights, but because of Covid I am even more careful.  NY to Porto generally requires a change somewhere.  Delta offers choice of Amsterdam or Paris – chances are that Portugal may let me in long before Netherlands or Paris will.  So in trying Plan C for our Portugal trip, I decided to book Delta non-stop to Lisbon and then – when Portugal is really open and the trip seems likely – to book TAP from Lisbon to Porto.  Not ideal, but the most practical solution I can find.  [I could fly TAP non-stop from EWR to OPO, but I have a Delta credit to use up and definitely don't want a huge TAP credit for some future trip!]

 

In your case, I would definitely take the non-stop Comfort+ rather than worry about changing planes to get Premium Economy.  Especially since - at the moment - nobody is getting any enhanced food service so why pay PE prices for a school lunch?

[greydog]

11 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I have always preferred non-stop flights, but because of Covid I am even more careful.  

In your case, I would definitely take the non-stop Comfort+ rather than worry about changing planes to get Premium Economy.  Especially since - at the moment - nobody is getting any enhanced food service so why pay PE prices for a school lunch?

 

Good thoughts, Jazzbeau.  Will probably do mixed class - nonstop Comfort+ going, and PremE home since PRG  to ATL means a connector.  I'll dream that by next July maybe some newer equipment with PE will be substituted. Using some Viking +25% FCC credit for air upgrade makes it a little more digestible.

BTW if paying from own pocket, I don't find PE treatment worth the $799 Viking fee but it may well represent a better cost/benefit proposition traveling from other distances like US west coast.  HAPPY TRAVELS

[lucky cal]

14 hours ago, greydog said:

Great result in your case - Delta may have relaxed their policy given that you did your upgrade early in month of sailing and they had unsold upgrade seats, especially to only charge +$75.  Or the 'old story' about the random draw of the Delta agent handling your transaction.  Either way, glad it worked for you.

 

MY NEW DILEMMA - currently invoiced for $799 ea. upgrade to Viking premium economy.  Now find that Atlanta to Amsterdam nonstop 8.5 hr flights only offer Comfort+, not premium economy class. To get Prem-Econ seating, need to do connection thru Paris or DTW, JFK, pushing trip to 12+ hrs.  Leaning toward dropping $799 upgrade charge and doing reduced $ nonstop Comfort+ for time saving.  

I would definitely recommend going non-stop Comfort+. The quality of Premium Economy varies depending on the airline and I’m not sure it’s worth $799 per person especially if the airlines are still operating under Covid protocols. Save the $$$ for a few upgraded excursions or your next trip. 🙂