Viking Air / Business Class pricing

[Mich3554]

5 hours 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’m not sure I would assume that Delta is not in the bucket.  Our recently aborted cruise in April 2021 had us flying Delta and Delta’s partners to Venice and returning from Istanbul.  

[Mich3554]

42 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

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.

 Maybe the length of time?  Airlines release their schedules 330 days in advance.  If you were requesting a reservation later than 10.5 months, there is no schedule yet, so no reservation.  This usually hits at the end of a trip (IME), especially if you are booking a year in advance.  
 

I discovered this a long time ago when I was trying to get to Athens on FF miles.  FF seats were booked the times I wanted to go, so I wound up booking my reservation at exactly 330 days in order to use my miles.  Luckily, I had a bit of flexibility of exactly which date I wanted to fly.

[CharTrav]

1 hour ago, Peregrina651 said:

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.

Your experience is the same as mine. Whenever I've asked Viking Air to issue our tickets earlier than they would normally so I could upgrade to EconomyPlus on United (if our flight was on United) I had to go thru the usual "yes I know that if the fare changes after this ticket is issued I'll have to pay extra" etc etc. Until the tickets were issued - not simply booked/reserved - I couldn't do the upgrade. 

 

Btw - decided to look back at our air travel record and how well we've done getting what we wanted (Inc our trip last May that was cancelled cuz of Covid) it's been pretty good. Out of 6 trips - 4 were with my United selections with no differential applied.  The other two trips already had free airfare. One was to Miami where the only choice for us was what Viking Air offered - American Airlines (6:30 am flight out). In the case of the other, all my United non-stop options had a huge differential. After some discussion we settled on flights with Lufthansa with a relatively small differential (I have no record of what our air itinerary would have been had I not intervened but believe it was not what we wanted and definitely not with a Star Alliance airline). 

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

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.

 

I assumed it was another Canada/US difference, as even when we booked our RTW flights in 2015 we received etickets as soon as we paid. With the reward flights in 2017, we also received etickets as soon as booked and those flight were booked at different times, at the day they were published.

[JM0115]

On 3/20/2021 at 10:25 AM, CharTrav said:

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. 

Hi CharTrav, we just booked our flight to Fort Lauderdale through Viking Air Plus and United says no miles will be earned for this flight. I added my frequent flyer number.  Any idea why? 

[Peregrina651]

3 hours ago, JM0115 said:

Hi CharTrav, we just booked our flight to Fort Lauderdale through Viking Air Plus and United says no miles will be earned for this flight. I added my frequent flyer number.  Any idea why? 

 

Yes, this is an airline policy of long standing. Not all classes of tickets are eligible to accrue miles.  Class means the letter designation of the ticket: Y,K, etc.

[JM0115]

9 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Yes, this is an airline policy of long standing. Not all classes of tickets are eligible to accrue miles.  Class means the letter designation of the ticket: Y,K, etc.

The flight was booked domestic first in C class which is eligible according to United. I’ll check with them.

[MarkTapley]

35 minutes ago, JM0115 said:

The flight was booked domestic first in C class which is eligible according to United. I’ll check with them.

Long time United flyer here.  You should receive miles for this flight.

 

One of the main rules in dealing with airlines is HUCA.  Hang up call again.

 

Jerry

 

 

[Squawkman]

I have only used plain Viking Air from Newark and always received United miles for United and Lufthansa flights. 

[Cienfuegos]

My wife and I received United miles for Viking Air with Lufthansa.  Miami to Frankfurt to Oslo.  The return was American Air from Barcelona to Miami, for which we also received miles.

 

While I had assumed the miles / no miles was a group purchase ticket class deal, I wonder if frequent flyer status is also an element?

[Squawkman]

4 minutes ago, Cienfuegos said:

 

While I had assumed the miles / no miles was a group purchase ticket class deal, I wonder if frequent flyer status is also an element?

I never flew that much prior to my first Viking river cruise in 2015. Prior to that, I had a Continental number that was converted to United when they bought Continental. I have not done any other flights for about 15 years.

[Heidi13]

17 minutes ago, Cienfuegos said:

My wife and I received United miles for Viking Air with Lufthansa.  Miami to Frankfurt to Oslo.  The return was American Air from Barcelona to Miami, for which we also received miles.

 

While I had assumed the miles / no miles was a group purchase ticket class deal, I wonder if frequent flyer status is also an element?

 

Can't speak for US Airlines, but with BA & Air Canada, we receive additional miles when we have higher status. We also receive additional miles for flying First or Business.

 

With some marine flights, the fare class booked does not provide any miles.

[MarkTapley]

5 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Can't speak for US Airlines, but with BA & Air Canada, we receive additional miles when we have higher status. We also receive additional miles for flying First or Business.

 

With some marine flights, the fare class booked does not provide any miles.

Same with United Airlines.  The amount of miles accrued is based on Fare Class (and thereby also by booked cabin). With extra based on passenger’s status.

[CharTrav]

Good points all. United has been making changes to its frequent flyer rules during the past few years. Very complex. And yes - some fare classes do not earn any FFMs. Some classes earn you more based on a combination of the fare class and your FF status. I confess I haven't been flying alot during the past few years. When I flew alot and even reached Premier Exec status for a while, I followed and tracked United's  FF rules like a hawk. 

[MarkTapley]

@JM0115:

 

As long as your reservation was ticketed by United (ticket number starts “016”), you should receive United miles for this flight.  Sometimes when tour companies/consolidators purchase tickets via one of United’s partner airlines (ie: other Star Alliance carriers), there could be different rules for mileage accrual.

 

Jerry

[ClevelandKid]

I think I got the answer I was looking for: Viking prices business class according to what the price is expected to be at the time they make the reservations (about 90 days out) however if you are willing to buy your tickets as soon as they are available (about 330 days out) you can save (excuse the pun) a boatload of money. Viking wanted $3500 pp for Manaus to Cleveland. I was able to buy business class for that leg plus premium economy for the flight from Cleveland to San Juan for $1500 pp by buying as soon as they went on sale. 

[CCWineLover]

5 hours ago, ClevelandKid said:

I think I got the answer I was looking for: Viking prices business class according to what the price is expected to be at the time they make the reservations (about 90 days out) however if you are willing to buy your tickets as soon as they are available (about 330 days out) you can save (excuse the pun) a boatload of money. Viking wanted $3500 pp for Manaus to Cleveland. I was able to buy business class for that leg plus premium economy for the flight from Cleveland to San Juan for $1500 pp by buying as soon as they went on sale. 

I have found similar pricing differences.  The only problem is that if/when Viking cancels, you are stuck with having to get a refund from the airlines.  We went through this 2 times from cancelled cruises in 2020 and only recently have we gotten money back from the airlines.  I must have spent 40-60 hours alone and multiple phone calls trying to get the money due me - and only when the CitiBank got involved did things move a little forward - even then, it was constant battle.  No more of that for me.

[ClevelandKid]

20 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

I have found similar pricing differences.  The only problem is that if/when Viking cancels, you are stuck with having to get a refund from the airlines.  We went through this 2 times from cancelled cruises in 2020 and only recently have we gotten money back from the airlines.  I must have spent 40-60 hours alone and multiple phone calls trying to get the money due me - and only when the CitiBank got involved did things move a little forward - even then, it was constant battle.  No more of that for me.

Fingers crossed - on the United flight I bought the fully refundable ticket.  On the Delta flight (the one from Manaus) I am (at least in theory) able to change the flight with no fees.  I was ok with that since we can use the flight for other travel.  Hopefully I won't need to do either, but we shall see.

[SoBaycruiser]

Can one use airline vouchers to pay for flights through Viking?  I wouldn’t think so but thought I’d ask.

[BQEC]

Topic:

When to "drop" Viking Air - (if buying your own)

No later than ticketing 55 to 75 days before sail or pre- date. This information is on your Viking My Viking Journey account. 

Very interesting thread on business class pricing. Thank you all.

[FlyerTalker]

On 3/20/2021 at 2:52 PM, Mich3554 said:

I discovered this a long time ago when I was trying to get to Athens on FF miles.  FF seats were booked the times I wanted to go, so I wound up booking my reservation at exactly 330 days in order to use my miles.

 

At one time, all FF award inventory was dropped at the time the schedules were released.  Now, yield management has evolved to where few award seats come out at schedule release, but others may come out as a function of inventory control.  Airline yield algorithms tend to release seats when they judge they are unlikely to be sold for revenue, so it is now a dynamic rather than static timing situation.

 

Yes, you can start your search early, but don't assume that's when all or most seats will be allocated.  In addition, the application of dynamic award pricing, rather than award charts, means that award prices will vary due to supply and demand, just like revenue tickets.  Net result - fewer FF bargains out there in the major USA programs.

[Jchivers]

Kind of a related question to the original, but someone here may  be able to shed light on it: we booked a Welcome Back cruise out of Malta, including air (business class) and originally got a very reasonable itinerary.  But then there was a flight change, and our return flight now includes a 10 hour layover.

 

It looks like there are still good options for the return, so I have no idea why Viking would make this change.  But let's say they're unable to come up with anything better -- could I cancel my air arrangements with Viking, and book on my own?  What would happen to my money -- would it become an onboard credit?  or a future cruise credit?

[Heidi13]

48 minutes ago, Jchivers said:

Kind of a related question to the original, but someone here may  be able to shed light on it: we booked a Welcome Back cruise out of Malta, including air (business class) and originally got a very reasonable itinerary.  But then there was a flight change, and our return flight now includes a 10 hour layover.

 

It looks like there are still good options for the return, so I have no idea why Viking would make this change.  But let's say they're unable to come up with anything better -- could I cancel my air arrangements with Viking, and book on my own?  What would happen to my money -- would it become an onboard credit?  or a future cruise credit?

 

Since the Viking T&C are tweaked regularily, as do many country's immigration requirements, for a definitive answer, it may be best to ask Tellus.

[BQEC]

9 hours ago, Jchivers said:

Kind of a related question to the original, but someone here may  be able to shed light on it: we booked a Welcome Back cruise out of Malta, including air (business class) and originally got a very reasonable itinerary.  But then there was a flight change, and our return flight now includes a 10 hour layover.

 

It looks like there are still good options for the return, so I have no idea why Viking would make this change.  But let's say they're unable to come up with anything better -- could I cancel my air arrangements with Viking, and book on my own?  What would happen to my money -- would it become an onboard credit?  or a future cruise credit?

I would call Viking and ask for your preferred flights. If the tickets have not yet been issued you should be able to cancel Viking’s reservation and get a refund. There could be an issue with the airline as you already have a reservation through Viking so I would try this with  Viking first. 

[greydog]

On 3/20/2021 at 4:20 PM, 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.

We only needed return air for our Apr. 2022 Danube Waltz because we did arrival via transatl on Celebrity.  On its own, our Danube River trip offered $999 Pr-Econ.  We got one-way Prem-E from the Viking agent at half the charge for rd-trip P-E.  Suggest you check for 'half' upgrade charge from V-air. GOOD LUCK