55 Days Out - Still No Viking Air Booking

[LucilleMS]

We are 55 days from our Rhine cruise, actually 53 days from departing flight (based on a day early arrival). We opted for air through Viking and have not received our flight itinerary yet.  Anyone have a similar experience? I've been told it has been with Quality Control for 13 days.

[meg1021]

We are first time river cruisers, and first time Viking customers, so I'm no expert on how these things work.  I can only tell you what our experience has been.  We are a little further out than you, since our cruise doesn't leave until July 31.  When we booked, we opted to pay an additional fee for custom air through Viking.  I gave our TA my top 3 choices of flights.  Within a day or two, the airfare was booked with my first choice.  A few days ago, Viking changed my airfare  to less desirable flights, and I'm not exactly sure why that happened.  But we do have confirmed flights, with record locater #s from the individual airlines.  I would call you TA, or Viking .  I'm not sure what flight itineraries in Quality Control means.  With everything else going on with Covid and Ukraine, you really don't need the added stress of not having confirmed flights!  Good Luck!  Please post what happens with Viking and educate the rest of us as to how these flights are handled.

[Roz]

I don't understand what Quality Control has to do with booking flights.  You should have flights booked and confirmed by now. 

[greydog]

8 hours ago, LucilleMS said:

We are 55 days from our Rhine cruise, actually 53 days from departing flight (based on a day early arrival). We opted for air through Viking and have not received our flight itinerary yet.  Anyone have a similar experience? I've been told it has been with Quality Control for 13 days.

We've used V-air+ a couple times but we always pay the +$50 each for 'custom' air.  Then you search your preferred airline and flight connections and tell the Air+ agent which flights you want.  This can be done months ahead of trip to get best selection.

 

 Now that you are inside 60 days, I don't know if you can change anything.  As far as I know, Q-control is checking the flight booking choices.  Others say that if you get an inconvenient itinerary, challege it immediately and ask if paying the $50 fee gets you better choices.  Good Luck

[bethellen71]

We are 63 days out from our Rhine Getaway cruise and have our flights scheduled.  They are shown in the Air section on my viking journey.  We did not pay the extra fee.

Edited May 19, 2022 by bethellen71
spelling correction

[greydog]

4 hours ago, bethellen71 said:

We are 63 days out from our Rhine Getaway cruise and have our flights scheduled.  They are shown in the Air section on my viking journey.  We did not pay the extra fee.

Hopefully the assignment wizard gave you an air itinerary you are ok with.  Sometimes folks don't like extra short/long layovers or 3 connections depending on originating airports.  In that case. you should challenge the assignment (know what alternative you prefer) and it might be changeable or sometimes at extra fee. 

 

Suggest you check your airlines locator codes to verify/adjust seat selection too. Finally, check regularly for last min. changes in flights - happens a lot in pandemic era.

 

The $50 pp V-air+ fee is a bargain compared to others (Oceania was $175 pp)  GOOD LUCK

[LucilleMS]

Thank you @greydog @bethellen71 @Roz @meg1021 for your feedback/suggestions.  I've called Viking Air and my travel agent has called Viking Air and we are still being told it is booked but the details will not be released until after quality control.  Very frustrating. I just keep refreshing MyViking. I appreciate the tips to act quickly (once received) if the itinerary is inconvenient.  

[loge23]

We had a similar experience - "in quality control" whatever that is! We're on the Zurich to Paris trip.

As it slipped past the 65 day mark, we called Viking Air and the fellow we got on the line booked us right away (we knew what we wanted). In fact, on our return flight, he first booked us on an early AM flight from Paris back to Zurich to catch the flight back to the US (we live fairly close to a one-flight airport). When we asked him for the later evening flight direct from Paris to our airport (Miami), he immediately keyed it in. Now we have basically another good day in Paris before our flight!

As for the My Viking "Air" section, it still is not populated yet. Viking told us that the air itinerary will show up when the flights have been ticketed, so I suppose that will be around the 30 day mark. 

Have a great trip! 

 

 

[Nettie8019]

My family is traveling on the Rhine in late June with Viking. We received our air assignments around 50 days out and made our seat assignments. Recently it’s showed up on our Viking itinerary. I’ve read that we need a lot of patience traveling internationally in these crazy times. Hopefully this will be the worst of our troubles. Enjoy your cruise!

[LucilleMS]

Update: we called Viking Air again this weekend and told the rep that we would like to finalize our air reservation if at all possible.  She took care of it over the phone. The itinerary posted to My Viking was incomplete (no seat assignments) but we were able to use the reservation number to access the booking on the carrier's website and finalize seat choices.  (Our TA emailed us the next day: "Your airline portion is booked!" 😂) I don't understand why it took this phone call, but if someone else is facing a similar issue -- I wanted to post our update here.

[meg1021]

1 hour ago, LucilleMS said:

Update: we called Viking Air again this weekend and told the rep that we would like to finalize our air reservation if at all possible.  She took care of it over the phone. The itinerary posted to My Viking was incomplete (no seat assignments) but we were able to use the reservation number to access the booking on the carrier's website and finalize seat choices.  (Our TA emailed us the next day: "Your airline portion is booked!" 😂) I don't understand why it took this phone call, but if someone else is facing a similar issue -- I wanted to post our update here.

I'm glad that Viking finally sorted out your air reservations.  Did you get your first choice of flights?  Did you get any explanation of why this matter was in Quality Control for such a long period of time?  Have a great cruise, and post your impressions, if you can.  As I mentioned, we are first time river cruisers, and first time Viking cruisers, so this would be of interest to me.

[LucilleMS]

1 hour ago, meg1021 said:

I'm glad that Viking finally sorted out your air reservations.  Did you get your first choice of flights?  Did you get any explanation of why this matter was in Quality Control for such a long period of time?  Have a great cruise, and post your impressions, if you can.  As I mentioned, we are first time river cruisers, and first time Viking cruisers, so this would be of interest to me.

No explanation on the delay. Our flights are ok. We live in a small market (not a hub) so we knew we would have 2 stops flying to Basel.  Departure times and layover times are workable. Our assigned seats were not great (for us) -- the 2 of us were placed in a 3 person row instead of a the 2 person row across the aisle and on the overnight flight we were given 2 seats surrounded by bathrooms (expect a lot of congregating). But those were relatively easy to change. 

[medskis]

First time River Cruisers, First time Viking…LONG time international flyers, do it yourself bookings. Today I spoke with Viking Air and paid $100 fee for deviation dates and arrival city  ( had already scheduled August in Scotland then added on Rhine getaway more recently).  Lovely agent, got dates and flights all settled.  HOWEVER, my question is SEAT SELECTION on British Airways.  Our flight info is all in Our PNR booking when I log onto BA.com.  Seat Remarks say Seat Selection will be available during checkin, 24 hours before flight!  I even logged into my BA Executive Club FF account (lowest blue tier but lots of miles from non-flight bonuses).  Evidently there are many options to PAY either cash or with AVIOS miles to select a seat now but no matter which way I try, I cant even get into a seat map.  It mentions even paying in advance might not enable seat selection for certain group based fares.  One leg of our return flight is on an AA operated flight and seats were assigned/ displayed (last row of plane…. Makes me even more discouraged re what my overnight to LHR flight from Philly might look like)

Does anyone have any idea how to be able to select/ pay for seats on BA flights in advance , especially if VIKING AIR did your booking ?  
fyi,  I asked agent about Premium Economy and was told that would cost $ 799 pp (yikes) 

[greydog]

1 hour ago, medskis said:

  HOWEVER, my question is SEAT SELECTION on British Airways.  Our flight info is all in Our PNR booking when I log onto BA.com.  Seat Remarks say Seat Selection will be available during checkin, 24 hours before flight!  I even logged into my BA Executive Club FF account (lowest blue tier but lots of miles from non-flight bonuses).  Evidently there are many options to PAY either cash or with AVIOS miles to select a seat now but no matter which way I try, I cant even get into a seat map.  It mentions even paying in advance might not enable seat selection for certain group based fares.  One leg of our return flight is on an AA operated flight and seats were assigned/ displayed (last row of plane…. Makes me even more discouraged re what my overnight to LHR flight from Philly might look like)

Does anyone have any idea how to be able to select/ pay for seats on BA flights in advance , especially if VIKING AIR did your booking ?  
fyi,  I asked agent about Premium Economy and was told that would cost $ 799 pp (yikes) 

Hi - we couldn't pick BA seats (PRG to LHR) and then got email from BA a month? later signalling seat selection available for fee (didn't reserve thru V).  We were doing W-Traveler Plus fare and the first 4 rows were blocked for loyalty seating and fee was $70 pp 2 rows away from lavavtory, $35 pp bulkhead and across from lav. It looked likely those with no loyalty staus would get least desirable seats without paying pre-select fee.  We're spoiled by Delta ATL hub, Comfort+ option.

 

V has offered me +$999 P-E upcharge a couple times in last 2 years (rd trip).  I guess your $799 is for one way upcharge in current raised fare environment.  Hopefully paying the 799 PE would avoid poor main cabin assignment.  I'd not be happy camper either if stuck in unfavorable seat on long haul.  Can you change carrier/flt to avoid this headache?  - V air+ should be responsive to your preferences, especially if switching/adding PE.   Good Luck

[medskis]

48 minutes ago, greydog said:

Hi - we couldn't pick BA seats (PRG to LHR) and then got email from BA a month? later signalling seat selection available for fee (didn't reserve thru V).  We were doing W-Traveler Plus fare and the first 4 rows were blocked for loyalty seating and fee was $70 pp 2 rows away from lavavtory, $35 pp bulkhead and across from lav. It looked likely those with no loyalty staus would get least desirable seats without paying pre-select fee.  We're spoiled by Delta ATL hub, Comfort+ option.

 

V has offered me +$999 P-E upcharge a couple times in last 2 years (rd trip).  I guess your $799 is for one way upcharge in current raised fare environment.  Hopefully paying the 799 PE would avoid poor main cabin assignment.  I'd not be happy camper either if stuck in unfavorable seat on long haul.  Can you change carrier/flt to avoid this headache?  - V air+ should be responsive to your preferences, especially if switching/adding PE.   Good Luck

Just to make this more interesting I already had flights booked nonstop EWR to Edinburgh Premium Economy for about $775 pp one way……sooooo…..the thought of paying $799 pp just to add premium economy to our Phl - LHR seems very wrong,   We already had plans to be in Scotland for two weeks and do additional traveling after that…..it was not too far to get to AMS.  We will have to book our own LHR-EDI flight and of course EDI to AMS later.

my other option is to forget viking air going over and just stick with heading to EWR for our existing non stop PE booking to EDI (but if we cancel that the $1500 can go into a UAL travel credit we will use for western ski trips.)  there is no advantage for me to pay $1600 to upgrade on BA and then still have to get to EDI on our own. 

   I got some additional information later today from Viking.  I will get more i formation closer in and after actual ticketing….but I am still not sure about the quirks of BA seat selection.  The AA leg is more visible and apparently can be changed.   
i will wait a little and see how things settle. 
thanks for your information.

Edited May 27, 2022 by medskis