Viking Air from Australia

[midwife]

Looking at doing a Viking cruise next year. Interested in finding out about Viking Air trips from Australia. Has anyone taken Viking Air  and which airlines do they use? I would be flying from Perth to Bergen. 

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, midwife said:

Looking at doing a Viking cruise next year. Interested in finding out about Viking Air trips from Australia. Has anyone taken Viking Air  and which airlines do they use? I would be flying from Perth to Bergen. 

 

All the major OneWorld airlines, including Qantas are air partners with Viking, so you should have no issues getting a Qantas flight to LHR, then a code share on BA to Bergen. They will also have others, but I use OneWorld mostly, so they are the flights I know.

[KBs mum]

Best flight is Quantas non stop to Heathrow in business. The Perth flights will be restarting soon, possibly alternating with the Brisbane route. 

From Heathrow it's only a one and a half to two hour flight, British Airways is bearable for that long to avoid a stopover. 

[midwife]

How have you found the cost compared to booking directly with the airline? 

[KBs mum]

7 hours ago, midwife said:

How have you found the cost compared to booking directly with the airline? 

We always book through a travel agent as the prices are always better than booking direct, and gives us better regulatory protection. 

Viking UK is an own product ATOL registered travel agent, so we book with them if joining the ship straight away or if doing an extension we book that part and the flights through our usual agent. 

That said, we intend to book Viking extensions rather than independent while covid is causing chaos, in case the cruise ends up being altered, the logistics are then Viking's problem, not ours. 

[LittleFish1976]

On 1/18/2022 at 11:30 PM, KBs mum said:

Best flight is Quantas non stop to Heathrow in business. The Perth flights will be restarting soon, possibly alternating with the Brisbane route. 

From Heathrow it's only a one and a half to two hour flight, British Airways is bearable for that long to avoid a stopover. 

 

Or if you think BA isn't bearable for that long, fly with SAS (Scandinavian) directly to Bergen!

[KBs mum]

Western Australia has changed their mind about opening their borders, so the non stop flight is staying on the Brisbane route. 

Quantas is reportedly a bit annoyed

[FlyerTalker]

On 1/19/2022 at 12:10 AM, KBs mum said:

We always book through a travel agent as the prices are always better than booking direct, and gives us better regulatory protection. 

 

Two things to remember.

 

First, you will not always have a "better price" with a travel agent.

 

Second, tickets that are priced less than what you would find booking direct are RARELY the same ticket.  And by that, I mean the complete "ticket", not just the price and flights.  The underlying fare rules are usually far more restrictive, and that can be quite important in the case of irregular operations (irops) when you are trying to get to/from a cruise.

 

Until you recognize that tickets are not all the same, you are trying to compare apples and oranges.

 

Caveat Emptor.

[KBs mum]

15 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Two things to remember.

 

First, you will not always have a "better price" with a travel agent.

 

Second, tickets that are priced less than what you would find booking direct are RARELY the same ticket.  And by that, I mean the complete "ticket", not just the price and flights.  The underlying fare rules are usually far more restrictive, and that can be quite important in the case of irregular operations (irops) when you are trying to get to/from a cruise.

 

Until you recognize that tickets are not all the same, you are trying to compare apples and oranges.

 

Caveat Emptor.

I'm in the UK, we have different consumer regulations than the US. All prices quoted must be inclusive of all compulsory taxes etc. unless specifically stated as excluded. 

The regulatory protection comes from refund and compensation laws if something goes wrong. Booking flights and cruise from the same agent at the same time maximises these. Booked separately they greatly diminish. 

The agent also has more 'clout' than me if the airline's customer service fails. 

A flight can be cancelled regardless of how it is booked, so best to go for the method with lowest price and best financial safeguards. Booked as a package the agent is responsible for getting the customer to the cruise, if necessary with a different airline or route, failing that to join the ship later, with pro rata refunds for the missing days. 

UK travel agents are companies, not individuals. They have the buying power to get better prices for me than I can get on my own. They get hefty discounts per seat, even if not consolidated, they pass some of this on to us. We just tell them our preferred flight number, if we want first or business, and where in the cabin we would like to sit. We find out what the price would be if booked direct for comparison. 

All tickets/ bookings for anything will have different terms and conditions depending on how bought, what sort of ticket, flexible, refundable etc. Doesn't take a lot of effort to check that we are happy with them before paying, if not we book an alternative. 

The agent we use buys more seats per year than the cruise line we go on. 

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by KBs mum