No transfer if arriving early?

[janetcbl]

Because of the uncertainty of travel these days, we booked our flights to arrive a day early, planning to stay overnight at an airport hotel and joining the Viking transfer the day of the group flights. We paid for the transfers, sent in our Transfer request form (months ago) and waited. Finally I sent an email to Viking asking for the time and place of the transfer and finally received an answer….I couldn’t book a Viking transfer because I was arriving a day AHEAD of the group flight. Viking canceled my transfer, said they were refunding my payment, and I had to get to the ship on my own. This is our fourth trip with Viking….haven’t heard of this restriction before. Anyone else run into this?

 

 

 

 

[TayanaLorna]

The only way we get the Viking transfer to the ship is if we use Viking Air and arrive on embarkation day or take a Viking pre cruise extension.  If we take the precruise extension, the transfers come with the package whether or not we used Viking Air.

 

Even if we use Viking Air Plus and pay the additional Deviation Fee to fly in early, we do not get the transfer.

 

If we do our own air, we can pay for the Viking transfers to or from the ship but only on embarkation or disembarkation days.

 

Others have claimed using Viking transfers outside of these parameters but it never worked for us.

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, TayanaLorna said:

The only way we get the Viking transfer to the ship is if we use Viking Air and arrive on embarkation day or take a Viking pre cruise extension.  If we take the precruise extension, the transfers come with the package whether or not we used Viking Air.

 

AND, if you decide to arrive a day or two early for the pre-cruise, you still have to get yourself from the airport to the pre-cruise hotel, even if you have gotten your flights through Viking.

 

 

 

 

[TayanaLorna]

22 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

AND, if you decide to arrive a day or two early for the pre-cruise, you still have to get yourself from the airport to the pre-cruise hotel, even if you have gotten your flights through Viking.

 

 

 

 

Never considered doing a pre cruise on my own before a Viking pre cruise.  

[Peregrina651]

4 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

Never considered doing a pre cruise on my own before a Viking pre cruise.  

 

There are still folks who want to arrive a day early just to make sure they get there on time and don't miss any of the extension. Or, as in my case, to get over the jetlag after a long flight.

[janetcbl]

3 hours ago, janetcbl said:

Because of the uncertainty of travel these days, we booked our flights to arrive a day early, planning to stay overnight at an airport hotel and joining the Viking transfer the day of the group flights. We paid for the transfers, sent in our Transfer request form (months ago) and waited. Finally I sent an email to Viking asking for the time and place of the transfer and finally received an answer….I couldn’t book a Viking transfer because I was arriving a day AHEAD of the group flight. Viking canceled my transfer, said they were refunding my payment, and I had to get to the ship on my own. This is our fourth trip with Viking….haven’t heard of this restriction before. Anyone else run into this?

 

 

 

 

Easily made adjustments. Booked a hotel in Greenwich (same “brand” as the Heathrow one), and booked a private transfer from Heathrow to the hotel ( which is less expensive than our two combined transfers!) An extra day in Greenwich is better than a day spent hanging around Heathrow, IMO.

[Mich3554]

2 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

AND, if you decide to arrive a day or two early for the pre-cruise, you still have to get yourself from the airport to the pre-cruise hotel, even if you have gotten your flights through Viking.

 

 

 

 

All of this.  Our cruise last month, we were booked through Viking Air.  We stayed in Amsterdam on our own a few days, and expected to need to get ourselves to the ship under our own power.

We have only once found Viking transfers to make sense, and the situation was unique.  It was when we were getting off in Valparaiso, and needed to catch a flight out of Santiago the following day.  It was a couple hour drive from Valparaiso to Santiago and we had OBC that we needed to eat or lose.  Viking offered a private driver to take us to our hotel.  It wasn’t cheap but it ate up the rest of our credits,  

[sabrefan]

We are doing an Alaskan cruise Vancouver to Seward this Sunday. We did our our air travel through Viking air. We are arriving in Vancouver two days before the cruise and will take a cab from the airport to the hotel. After the cruise ends in Seward we intend on staying in Alaska five more days on our own. I have a rental car reserved at the Anchorage airport. There are buses taking passengers to this airport to fly home. Viking will not take us to the airport because we are staying in Alaska on our own. This makes no sense to me and as a result I had to pay $140 for my wife and I to get bused to the airport by an independent company. This is a really stupid policy and not really the kind of policy where you want to motivate repeat customers.

[DebraLeeW]

Also had to pay for a car (used Blackberry) from Heathrow to our London hotel. We used Air Plus for flights but no transfers because of an independent 3 nights. Service was good and very reasonable. Getting to Tilbury was much more challenging because I had to use another service-very expensive. Tuesday-Friday in London was worth it! 

[CILCIANRQTS]

Viking transfers are priced for bulk transfers by bus on embarkation day, not customized Mercedes car service two days before that. While Viking provides great customer service, even they have economic limits of how far they can go.

[tsakishuman]

We are arriving in Toronto at 0615 on departure day. We have Viking air. Will Viking still pick us up if we arrive that early?  We won’t be able to get on the ship for several hours I believe. 

[WisRiver]

We have traveled with Viking several times.  We book our own travel and usually arrive several days early to spend time in and around the departure city.  It is not hard to make your own transfer arrangements often at considerable savings.   While we speak some foreign languages, most transfer services in major cities can book in English.  For example we had a departure from Athens.  We made arrangements for a six day tour to islands where the Viking Ocean was not going to stop.  At the end of the tour we made our way to the hotel where the Viking Cruise started. 

[Peregrina651]

56 minutes ago, tsakishuman said:

We are arriving in Toronto at 0615 on departure day. We have Viking air. Will Viking still pick us up if we arrive that early?  We won’t be able to get on the ship for several hours I believe. 

 

Don't panic! It is confusing but when people say "arriving early," they mean "arriving before DAY 1," which Viking calls a "deviation."

 

As long as you are arriving on DAY 1 of your itinerary Viking will meet you at the airport and transport you to the ship. There will be some time-killing involved, waiting at the airport or at the port, but Viking will be watching for you once you leave the restricted immigration area. Regardless of what the clock or the paperwork says, Viking will start boarding arriving guests just as soon as local authorities have cleared the ship for boarding. 

 

 

[Mrs Miggins]

On 6/8/2022 at 10:57 PM, DebraLeeW said:

Also had to pay for a car (used Blackberry) from Heathrow to our London hotel. We used Air Plus for flights but no transfers because of an independent 3 nights. Service was good and very reasonable. Getting to Tilbury was much more challenging because I had to use another service-very expensive. Tuesday-Friday in London was worth it! 

Another reason to opt for a cruise from/to Greenwich if possible.

[Eletheer]

Apparently this is still the policy.  We plan to arrive a day early and stay adjacent to the airport.  I requested a transfer as we could show up at an appointed time at the airport to catch the transfer.  Nope--not going to happen.  This makes no sense to me, but it is their policy.  I asked the reason for the policy, and was told so they could arrange an appropriate sized vehicle to pick up passengers arriving that day.  Nowadays most savvy travelers arrive a day or two or three early in the event the flights get cancelled, etc.  Obviously Viking wishes to hire the cheapest form of transport and hence, their policy of not allowing transfers unless you arrive the day of the cruise. 

[Peregrina651]

Well I don't think it is out of cheapness because when there were just two couples arriving very early on Day 1 of our cruise, we were put in a limo rather than having to wait around for a bus to fill up.  

 

Viking's policy is to provide transfers only for those whose flights land on Day 1, including for those who arrange their own flights and wish to purchase transfers. To be fair to all, they do not allow any exceptions to this rule.  Those of us who want to arrive early have two choices.  We can handle our own transfers or we can book with another cruise line.   

 

 

[SoBaycruiser]

On 6/9/2022 at 1:46 AM, CILCIANRQTS said:

Viking transfers are priced for bulk transfers by bus on embarkation day, not customized Mercedes car service two days before that. While Viking provides great customer service, even they have economic limits of how far they can go.

I am being forced to pay for a private car from LHR to Tilbury.  This is our first Viking cruise.  We are flying into London from California.  Because of all the recent airline interruptions we decided to fly in one day early and stay at an airport hotel and then return to the terminal the next day for the transfer.  We were not allowed to do this.  Some suggested we lie and say we were flying in the same day but we weren’t comfortable with that.  At our age we aren’t up to lugging our luggage on the train.  So we HAD to hire a car service.  I can’t believe that when an embarkation is so far from the airport, they don’t provide some transport.  I am sure some of the buses meeting arrivals on the day of departure have some space for people staying at adjacent hotels.

[springtravel]

9 minutes ago, SoBaycruiser said:

I can’t believe that when an embarkation is so far from the airport, they don’t provide some transport.  I am sure some of the buses meeting arrivals on the day of departure have some space for people staying at adjacent hotels.

Our cruise is out of Venice, or so it said when we booked.  We decided to fly in 2 days early and I checked with Viking to see where the terminal was.  Of course, that has since been changed to Chioggia, which is about 1.5 hours away. We got a nice little note saying to contact Viking to arrange transportation.  But, not for us.  I even offered to depart from the pre-cruise hotel, but no, we are on our own.  It will still be less expensive than booking the Viking pre-cruise for 2 nights, but more trouble.  Our hotel, in my opinion, is so much better that the one Viking was offering.  

[Jim Avery]

A cab I pay for is always better than a bus for transfer to airports.  

[longterm]

28 minutes ago, SoBaycruiser said:

Some suggested we lie and say we were flying in the same day but we weren’t comfortable with that.

I doubt you could get away with that, because Viking probably has access to passenger manifests so that I knows what flights to monitor for arriving passengers. 

[springtravel]

8 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

A cab I pay for is always better than a bus for transfer to airports.  

I think this would be true in most cases.  But a cab to Chioggia is about $200, from what I have read, and we would still have to get to the transportation area.  In this one case, it would have been much simpler to use the Viking transfer.  But, we are up to the challenge. We will take a Vaporetto to Lido and take the ferry/bus to Chioggia and enjoy our little adventure.

[LindaS272]

17 minutes ago, longterm said:

I doubt you could get away with that, because Viking probably has access to passenger manifests so that I knows what flights to monitor for arriving passengers. 

No, they don’t have access to flight manifests. If you’re using Viking Air, they know your details. If you book your own air, they want you to fill out their form with your flight details, as SoBaycruiser said. They could accommodate early arriving pax who go back to the airport or the pre-extension hotel on the day of embarkation—you pay $100 after all—but they don’t want to. It’s not that they can’t, it’s just their policy—somewhat churlish IMO for those who want help and will pay.

 

We have no trouble arranging our own transfers and always have, but I don’t understand why Viking doesn’t offer this service for those who want it. Particularly for the cruises that advertise Venice but go out of the far distant port at Chioggia with expensive, lengthy and/or difficult transfers.

Edited March 3, 2023 by LindaS272

[SoBaycruiser]

18 minutes ago, longterm said:

I doubt you could get away with that, because Viking probably has access to passenger manifests so that I knows what flights to monitor for arriving passengers. 

Or the flight is canceled and therefore they aren’t there to meet us.  So many pitfalls.  I’m willing to follow the rules… but I don’t have to like them.

[LindaS272]

2 minutes ago, SoBaycruiser said:

Or the flight is canceled and therefore they aren’t there to meet us.  So many pitfalls.  I’m willing to follow the rules… but I don’t have to like them.

No more pitfalls than if you have Viking Air and that flight is cancelled. There’s a number they give you to call while traveling for just such pitfalls, plus you can always call the ship. 

[SoBaycruiser]

59 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

No more pitfalls than if you have Viking Air and that flight is cancelled. There’s a number they give you to call while traveling for just such pitfalls, plus you can always call the ship. 

I was referring to why I wouldn’t lie to Viking about which day I was flying in so I could get their transportation.  Of course, every traveler deals with flight cancellations.