Viking Air / Business Class pricing

[CharTrav]

11 minutes ago, duquephart said:

 

You select from among the airlines has agreements with. Outside the box = extra.

Not just the airlines but specific flights. 

[SantaFe1]

I even give them my seat choices.  I’ve always gotten everything I ask for.  Just be sure to call the air plus number, rather than the generic Viking Air number.

[CCWineLover]

5 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

Yes - you can choose your airline and even specific flight. The question is whether the flights you ask for are in what I call their "bucket" of tickets. Sometimes - it's true - the flights you ask for aren't and require a differential. We always use Air Plus. What I do is research the flights myself and prepare a prioritized list of flight itinerary choices. Sometimes I've gotten my first choice; other times my 2nd; and in other cases none of my choices were in their bucket or the differential was more than I wanted to pay. Then we would discuss alternatives that would require no or a small differential. What I've found is that I should always include Lufthansa in my alternatives (my preferred airline btw is United) given that their flights are usually in their bucket and I can still get miles added to my United frequent flier account. Bottom line - yes you can choose your flights but you need to do your own research beforehand. They actually appreciate folks who call up already prepared. 

Thanks for the helpful advice, CharTrav.

 

I realize it likely changes a lot, but it would be nice to know what airlines are typically in their "bucket" and which are typically not.   i.e. Lufthansa/United as you say, and by the other poster's comments, likely Delta is not in the bucket.  That would help as well in prioritization.

Sounds like quite the back and forth process between Travel Agent and Viking.  And we thought selecting a cabin number was interesting .... 🙂

 

[JerseyMom]

I booked a 2022 transatlantic, when I booked I was told that I could not get Air Plus on a transatlantic.  Has anyone had any experience using Viking Air business class on a TA?  I really would like to get a guarantee for business class since I have a history of DVTs and I fly business if I have a flight longer than about 3-4 hours.  The Viking rep I spoke with suggested I just book the Viking Air economy and then as it gets closer call whatever department handles air to see if we could get upgraded. 

[CharTrav]

22 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

I even give them my seat choices.  I’ve always gotten everything I ask for.  Just be sure to call the air plus number, rather than the generic Viking Air number.

Yes. 

[CharTrav]

6 minutes ago, JerseyMom said:

I booked a 2022 transatlantic, when I booked I was told that I could not get Air Plus on a transatlantic.  Has anyone had any experience using Viking Air business class on a TA?  I really would like to get a guarantee for business class since I have a history of DVTs and I fly business if I have a flight longer than about 3-4 hours.  The Viking rep I spoke with suggested I just book the Viking Air economy and then as it gets closer call whatever department handles air to see if we could get upgraded. 

Look into the lower cost alternative of Economy Premier seats. Basically the old style business class seats (not lay flat) with the same amenities as business class. When you say transatlantic are you referring to the cruise or the flight?

[duquephart]

Flying home from Vancouver (Delta) we got to get up at 2AM so we could make a 6PM flight. Compliments of Viking Air/Air Plus.

[CharTrav]

22 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Thanks for the helpful advice, CharTrav.

 

I realize it likely changes a lot, but it would be nice to know what airlines are typically in their "bucket" and which are typically not.   i.e. Lufthansa/United as you say, and by the other poster's comments, likely Delta is not in the bucket.  That would help as well in prioritization.

Sounds like quite the back and forth process between Travel Agent and Viking.  And we thought selecting a cabin number was interesting .... 🙂

 

I spent many years dealing with my company's online travel reservation system learning how to trick it into giving me the flights I wanted without having to check off any justification boxes! (Retired from that company last year after 37 yrs). 

[SantaFe1]

27 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

likely Delta is not in the bucket

We have Delta both ways on our Panama Canal cruise in Dec.  I requested flights and seats.  Then turned over to our TA.

[CharTrav]

On 3/17/2021 at 1:46 PM, SDHusker said:

Do you receive frequent flyer miles with Viking Air?

Yes - if your flight is on one of your frequent flyer airlines. Make sure to add  your frequent flier member number to your Viking Air profile. Also keep your boarding passes so that if your miles don't get added to your account you can contact that airline directly to get it done. 

Edited March 20, 2021 by CharTrav

[JerseyMom]

22 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

Look into the lower cost alternative of Economy Premier seats. Basically the old style business class seats (not lay flat) with the same amenities as business class. When you say transatlantic are you referring to the cruise or the flight?

Both.  It would be a transatlantic cruise out of San Juan and a flight back to the U.S. from Barcelona.  Don't you also need to go through Air Plus for the Economy Premier? 

[CharTrav]

45 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Thanks for the helpful advice, CharTrav.

 

I realize it likely changes a lot, but it would be nice to know what airlines are typically in their "bucket" and which are typically not.   i.e. Lufthansa/United as you say, and by the other poster's comments, likely Delta is not in the bucket.  That would help as well in prioritization.

Sounds like quite the back and forth process between Travel Agent and Viking.  And we thought selecting a cabin number was interesting .... 🙂

 

Another thing - what I've found is the bucket is not a matter of only flights by a specific airline or airlines but more by routing. For ex - when I was trying to be on United to Budapest the flight I'd wanted thru Frankfurt wasn't on their list but the one thru Munich was. It's a matter of looking thru tools like Kayak and for me United's flight schedules to make up my own list of what I want and would find acceptable and then hoping that one of them works. 😉

[CCWineLover]

27 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

I spent many years dealing with my company's online travel reservation system learning how to trick it into giving me the flights I wanted without having to check off any justification boxes! (Retired from that company last year after 37 yrs). 

 

Ah yes, I remember also years figuring out the travel on-line system at my company to get what I wanted!  Also retired.  Think we were both systems engineers or similar.   It was like a puzzle game to me and I got pretty good with it.  Here - there is an intermediary (i.e. we have to go back and forth with an agent or Viking).  Just more time-consuming.

[CharTrav]

5 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Think we were both systems engineers or similar. 

Yes - my title included systems engineer.  The game was to trick the system into offering up a "lower cost alternative" that was what I'd wanted in the first place. Guaranteed no demand for checking off justification boxes. 😉

Edited March 20, 2021 by CharTrav

[Heidi13]

16 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Thanks for the emphasis.  It is a really important point.  

 

The only thing we can't tell you is how many days prior to departure Viking tickets. 

 

I know WC's are different, but in our experience we had Viking book our flights shortly after the return flight was published, when we paid in full. So outbound flight was 6 months and inbound flight was 10.5 months. When both flights were booked, we received etickets the same day.

[CharTrav]

1 minute ago, Heidi13 said:

 

I know WC's are different, but in our experience we had Viking book our flights shortly after the return flight was published, when we paid in full. So outbound flight was 6 months and inbound flight was 10.5 months. When both flights were booked, we received etickets the same day.

There's an important distinction between reserving a flight and ticketing it. What you did 10.5 months out was reserve it. The tickets themselves were not actually cut until 60 -70 days out. 

[Heidi13]

1 minute ago, CharTrav said:

There's an important distinction between reserving a flight and ticketing it. What you did 10.5 months out was reserve it. The tickets themselves were not actually cut until 60 -70 days out. 

 

Negative, we received the etickets from both Air Canada and British Airways on the day of booking. No further tickets were received from either airline. The eticket info was also posted in MVJ.

[CharTrav]

1 minute ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Negative, we received the etickets from both Air Canada and British Airways on the day of booking. No further tickets were received from either airline. The eticket info was also posted in MVJ.

Wow! I stand corrected. 😁

[SantaFe1]

1 minute ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Negative, we received the etickets from both Air Canada and British Airways on the day of booking. No further tickets were received from either airline. The eticket info was also posted in MVJ.

Same for us.

[Clay Clayton]

3 hours ago, CharTrav said:

Yes - you can choose your airline and even specific flight. The question is whether the flights you ask for are in what I call their "bucket" of tickets. Sometimes - it's true - the flights you ask for aren't and require a differential. We always use Air Plus. What I do is research the flights myself and prepare a prioritized list of flight itinerary choices. Sometimes I've gotten my first choice; other times my 2nd; and in other cases none of my choices were in their bucket or the differential was more than I wanted to pay. Then we would discuss alternatives that would require no or a small differential. What I've found is that I should always include Lufthansa in my alternatives (my preferred airline btw is United) given that their flights are usually in their bucket and I can still get miles added to my United frequent flier account. Bottom line - yes you can choose your flights but you need to do your own research beforehand. They actually appreciate folks who call up already prepared. 

My experience had been similar except since we have only used Air Plus once we got our first choices.  I had given them three in each direction. Our preference was to be booked on AA from RDU to Miami and from Rome to RDU so that we could use upgrade certificates on the domestic legs and points+cash to upgrade to business on the long haul return for three of us. Additionally, by selecting and providing them with our preferred flights, we stood better chances of the upgrades being cleared as I selected flights with the largest premium cabins. It worked out great, only the PHL>RDU leg wasn’t in First-only one of us got to sit upfront. I think I offered it to my DMIL but she decided she would rather sit with someone so I “had” to sit up there. 😂

[Clay Clayton]

3 hours ago, JerseyMom said:

I booked a 2022 transatlantic, when I booked I was told that I could not get Air Plus on a transatlantic.  Has anyone had any experience using Viking Air business class on a TA?  I really would like to get a guarantee for business class since I have a history of DVTs and I fly business if I have a flight longer than about 3-4 hours.  The Viking rep I spoke with suggested I just book the Viking Air economy and then as it gets closer call whatever department handles air to see if we could get upgraded. 

We paid for Air Plus for our TA. See my last post on this subject. I never actually spoke to them. I provided my preferred flights along with two alternatives for each leg to my Travel Agent. She dealt with Viking and next thing I knew we had our preferred flights-in economy.  I then used the AA app to move us into exit row seats (extra fee) and put us on the upgrade list. Which as I noted above cleared (so the exit row fees were refunded). We also paid the deviation fee to fly into San Juan a day early rather than have my DMIL have to set her alarm for 2 or 3 am to get to the airport for a 5:30 am flight.  While I don’t know that this early morning flight was the one they would have booked, I suspect it would have been since the later morning flights all arrived in San Juan well after 2 pm so I suspect Viking wouldn’t have booked those. This is the other reason to check potential flights from your airport.  It may help you decide given your personal comfort level on running at airports whether you’d rather arrive a day ahead. Paying the deviation fee ($50?) allowed us to arrive a day early so DMIL in addition to sleeping in on fly day also got to see a bit of San Juan before we sailed away. Additionally, this same fee covered us flying from Rome eight days after disembarkation in Barcelona.  Should be noted that if you deviate, you loose the included transfers. 

2 hours ago, JerseyMom said:

Both.  It would be a transatlantic cruise out of San Juan and a flight back to the U.S. from Barcelona.  Don't you also need to go through Air Plus for the Economy Premier? 

I would think (but don’t know) that Viking Air should be able to price this when you book just like they are happy to price business.  

[JerseyMom]

35 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

We paid for Air Plus for our TA. See my last post on this subject. I never actually spoke to them. I provided my preferred flights along with two alternatives for each leg to my Travel Agent. She dealt with Viking and next thing I knew we had our preferred flights-in economy.  I then used the AA app to move us into exit row seats (extra fee) and put us on the upgrade list. Which as I noted above cleared (so the exit row fees were refunded). We also paid the deviation fee to fly into San Juan a day early rather than have my DMIL have to set her alarm for 2 or 3 am to get to the airport for a 5:30 am flight.  While I don’t know that this early morning flight was the one they would have booked, I suspect it would have been since the later morning flights all arrived in San Juan well after 2 pm so I suspect Viking wouldn’t have booked those. This is the other reason to check potential flights from your airport.  It may help you decide given your personal comfort level on running at airports whether you’d rather arrive a day ahead. Paying the deviation fee ($50?) allowed us to arrive a day early so DMIL in addition to sleeping in on fly day also got to see a bit of San Juan before we sailed away. Additionally, this same fee covered us flying from Rome eight days after disembarkation in Barcelona.  Should be noted that if you deviate, you loose the included transfers. 

I would think (but don’t know) that Viking Air should be able to price this when you book just like they are happy to price business.  

Thanks, Clay.  I booked directly through Viking.  Either the agent was misinformed or I misunderstood him - I guess this is one good reason to use a travel agent.  We also have enough United frequent flier miles to outright purchase business class seats.

[Clay Clayton]

11 minutes ago, JerseyMom said:

Thanks, Clay.  I booked directly through Viking.  Either the agent was misinformed or I misunderstood him - I guess this is one good reason to use a travel agent.  We also have enough United frequent flier miles to outright purchase business class seats.

That’s why w haven’t always used Viking Air. Either use our points or have gotten a better deal on our own if we are paying. 

[Peregrina651]

Oops.

Edited March 20, 2021 by Peregrina651

[Peregrina651]

4 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Negative, we received the etickets from both Air Canada and British Airways on the day of booking. No further tickets were received from either airline. The eticket info was also posted in MVJ.

 

I'm wondering if it is an airline thing because the last time I dealt with Air Plus I reserved well in advance but it was not ticketed until much closer to departure. Or maybe it is a Canada law vs USA law thing.