Viking Air suddenly feels like a Bait & Switch...

[SantaFe1]

10 minutes ago, mariavii said:

it was done "on a different booking platform."

On my invoice, I have two booking numbers, one for United and one for Lufthansa.  Maybe you have that too.  I am starting to think there are as many Viking Air stories as there are Viking Air customers!  

Edited August 11, 2022 by SantaFe1

[mariavii]

11 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

 I am starting to think there are as many Viking Air stories as there are Viking Air customers!  

Indeed!  In one of these threads someone made the comment that the difference between pre-cruise Viking and on-board Viking was staggering.  That is so true.  

 

All four of my flights are non-codeshare Lufthansa so I only have the one number and the flights appear on the LH website.  Just can't do anything with them.  Well, as MVJ says...only 145 days to go!  Ha!

[FetaCheese]

2 hours ago, mariavii said:

Success (sort of) with the Air...  My TA called her regular non-Air number yesterday just to verify Air vis a vis final payment/air plus payments and when they are due.  The guy was super helpful and, of course, verified everything we all already know about booking flights.  He also told her how best to get through the automated menus.  After another extremely frustrating conversation with the Air folks (who 'surprisingly' had no issue booking my flights - although they insisted the flights my TA had were Air Canada even though they were non-code share Lufthansa flights) she was told we may see the itinerary on MVJ in two weeks or so as it had to go through the airline etc etc.  Again my TA was perplexed by that - she typically receives the flight details via email soon after she makes the reservation w Viking Air.  

She hung up and figured she'd try again today - she obviously wanted to see the itinerary to make sure it was correct.  But not 5 min after the call ended, the new itinerary was emailed to both my TA and me.

 

There is a question here.... How long should it be for the flights to show up on MVJ so I can try to change seats? 

My air+ flights were on MVJ about 5 minutes after V air agent reserved them.

[OnTheJourney]

On 8/10/2022 at 9:06 AM, Peregrina651 said:

As long as you arrive at the airport on Day 1 of your Viking package and/or depart Day Last, you can buy transfers;

I don't feel I should have to buy any transfers being that they are included with both extensions. There's nothing in the extension description that says transfers are only provided if one uses Viking air. That would make no sense. 

Edited August 12, 2022 by OnTheJourney

[OnTheJourney]

On 8/9/2022 at 6:37 PM, longterm said:

if you booked a pre-extension, they meet you at the airport when you fly in, move your you and your bags to the hotel; then on the day of embarkation they pick you up and transfer you and your bags to the ship.

Can't see why it shouldn't work this way. Cost of the transfers is built into the pre or post extension package. If it wouldn't be, they should have a statement indicating that transfers are only provided if booking air with them. 

Edited August 12, 2022 by OnTheJourney

[hqarangrsl]

On 7/15/2022 at 9:09 AM, OnTheJourney said:

Starting to think that booking flights, at present, is dicey at best with the pilot shortages / delays / cancellations, and so forth. Amazing how Delta was offering $10k per passenger just awhile back due to an overbooked flight. I've been putting off contacting Viking for our January cruise - need flights to Rome and then back to the US from Athens. They probably can't do much for me at this point anyway. 

OTJ - Are you doing the Antiquities/Holy Land cruise?  We are on that and I started getting flight skeds about a month ago.  Started out with flights we really hated.  Then came one with a flight to Rome that we are OK with - return from Athens not so good.  Then yesterday we got a new change that put us back on the original flight to Rome (still hate that for numerous reasons), but gave us a change for the return flight from Athens that we like.  TA says to just wait until just before ticketing and if we don't have what we want - then pay the fee and tell them what we want.

 

Just curious if you are getting these kinds of changes so frequently...

[FlyerTalker]

6 hours ago, hqarangrsl said:

TA says to just wait until just before ticketing and if we don't have what we want - then pay the fee and tell them what we want.

 

Which is all well and good if there is available inventory, in the appropriate fare buckets, for the flights you want.

 

If there isn't.....too bad.  Viking, or any cruiseline, can't just make inventory appear out of thin air.

[OnTheJourney]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:26 PM, hqarangrsl said:

Are you doing the Antiquities/Holy Land cruise? 

Yes

 

On 9/20/2022 at 6:26 PM, hqarangrsl said:

Just curious if you are getting these kinds of changes so frequently...

I decided not to go through Viking at all. My TA agreed based on a few phone calls with them. Neither she nor I like the uncertainty of not being ticketed (they couldn't even guarantee when this'd be done even if paying for "early ticketing"), not knowing seats, etc. So I booked flights on my own directly through Delta. I do like the idea of having everything through Viking in case something goes sideways with the trip, but I paid extra for fully refundable flights. Hopefully all will go well...for all of us. In this day and age, who knows anymore. 

Edited September 21, 2022 by OnTheJourney

[OnTheJourney]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:26 PM, hqarangrsl said:

Started out with flights we really hated.

I failed to mention that we ran into a pretty major glitch a few weeks ago. Our early a.m. flight out of Athens (to Paris) was canceled by Air France, so they put us on a flight (also to Paris) that leaves 6 hours later... hours after our connection from Paris to Newark is scheduled to leave. Tough to be on two planes at the same time especially when the first plane has already been in the air for awhile 😆 You'd THINK someone would have noticed that the connection doesn't work, but....no. So I chatted with them and they verified that the flight was indeed canceled (actually just about all of them) and that I'd have to make corrections through Delta (since it was codeshared anyway). Get this....I talk to a Delta rep (after being on hold for over an hour listening to the same 3 songs over and over again) and he said that, on their end, nothing had changed. I actually saw that - on the Delta website all looked fine - so then he said that he'll have to contact Air France and verify that some sort of change was made. Oooookay dude....you do that. Came back about 20 minutes later and said......wait for it......"yes, I see that your flight was canceled". YEA...we're making progress now oh boy. So then ensued a crazy search for a flight out of Athens that would work. The rep came and went several times, so I was on hold intermittently. All told I think the process took a bit over 2 hours. The whole inbound schedule had to be changed being that we now come into LHR instead of Paris. I'm holding my breath for further changes before January. I guess these sorts of situations are when it is nice to have a cruise line air department take care of things, but this way at least I could work with the airline directly to find the itinerary that suited me (though actually there weren't a whole lot of options). I went on the Delta website afterwards and changed a few seats. I like that aspect of doing it myself also. 

Oh Lordy.....car trips are nice.....

Edited September 22, 2022 by OnTheJourney

[hqarangrsl]

OTJ, I feel your pain!  I haven't gotten my TA involved yet, but I am watching the daily changes and cringing every time I get an email.  However,   I am beginning to get to the belief that Viking Air is probably not as much to blame as the airlines are.  

We are taking a cruise (northern Europe on NCL - we had old credits that were going to expire) leaving on Monday.  We booked our air on our own because we had credits from a previous United Polaris Business Class flight that, because of a plane change at the last minute, was not Polaris - but an old plane with business that is what current Premium Economy is.   We booked Premium Economy on the flight for this cruise.  Today (we leave tomorrow) we get notified that they have a plane change and our new plane doesn't have Premium Economy - so we get Economy....and I can't get seat assignments until we get to the airport because they need to "reflect us in premium economy in their records" in case they go back to a plane with that class of service.  Oh, and if we want to get our money back for the increased price we paid for premium economy vs economy - we have to provide "documentation" to them after we return in a request for a refund.  

Maybe Viking air is doing the best they can with the sorry state of airlines today????

For now, I am going to go enjoy my this month cruise and worry about January after we return!

[OnTheJourney]

19 hours ago, hqarangrsl said:

We booked our air on our own because we had credits from a previous United Polaris Business Class flight that, because of a plane change at the last minute, was not Polaris - but an old plane with business that is what current Premium Economy is.   We booked Premium Economy on the flight for this cruise.  Today (we leave tomorrow) we get notified that they have a plane change and our new plane doesn't have Premium Economy - so we get Economy....and I can't get seat assignments until we get to the airport because they need to "reflect us in premium economy in their records" in case they go back to a plane with that class of service.

Oh good Lord. What a crazy goings-on. We had very nice premium economy heading over to Rome for the Chairman's cruise, but then on the way home from Barcelona that premium economy was basically economy with a slightly better seat - plus free wine. I know we had the same food as economy.  I had paid for United's "Premium Plus" (quite nice) going both ways and only got it going over. Complained to the airline once we got home, and they gave us each $100 in airline credit. Oh well..at least something.

 

I agree...much of this stuff is not under Viking control. 

Edited September 23, 2022 by OnTheJourney

[SempreMare]

Huge ❤️ thanks ❤️ to the Chicago couple from the Viking British Isles Explorer cruise also on the Copenhagen to Chicago flight who pointed me in the right direction to get to my gate on the new (re-booked via Viking) extra 3'rd leg of my flight home.

 

The connection time arranged via Viking Air seemed insufficient if there were ANY delays, and there are frequently delays when I travel via Chicago.

I ended out with 1 hr 15 min to go

from: arrival the Chicago International terminal 5

to:  an American Airlines domestic terminal 3 flight

late on a Saturday night, which is not a particularly heavy travel time.

 

I: 

• Cleared immigration where the Chicago Global Entry lines probably took longer than the regular passport lines.  The machine readers did not work like they do in most cities so they had this strange semi-manual blue card process. 
• Re-cleared  physical security scans. 
• Race-walked in between all the humans.

 

By the time I reached my domestic gate, the BIG "FLIGHT CLOSED" sign was already on the screen and the darkened gate was empty except for the agent + maybe 1 other person.  I could see the plane was still parked.   

 

I did not want to spend the night in Chicago and must have looked dejected at the thought.  The gate agent sighed and said "Ma'am are you supposed to be on this flight?"   I just nodded, looked sad, and tried to catch my breath. 

 

He sighed and motioned for me to come over.  They re-opened the gate door! 

The heavens opened and angels sang.

 

Circling back to other questions / comments, 

• YES I did pay for Viking Air Plus.
• YES I did request to be ticketed with what Viking showed me when I agreed on the price. 
• YES My direct connection LHR --> Austin flight still existed.  It was NOT canceled as part of any flight cancelation.   
• Just to mess with my feelings about this a little more 😥, TripIt app kept sending me cheerful  announcements about my old itinerary...  how on those flights were.  ...All while I was many more hours away from getting home on an itinerary I would never have selected at any price discount.

 

For others traveling through Chicago, I definitely would have missed the connection if I had ANY checked luggage to pull off the conveyor belt and re-check.  I shipped my luggage via Luggage Forward which also made the 1 hour 15 min actual connection time possible.

 

Summary:  

The business class ticketing I agreed to when I approved payment was:   

• 2 flights with a real business class on both flights
• arriving on a Saturday at 4:35pm

 

The ticketing I ended out with was: 

• 3 flights long
• one segment in coach seating
• one segment with an insufficient connection time at a frequently delayed hub - though the cause of last nights delay was SAS's fault, not Chicago
• arriving Saturday at 11:00pm
• issued by a carrier (SAS) that has declared Bankruptcy in the US.
  I overheard a lunchtime discussion at this at the historic Engrebret restaurant our Oslo tour guide recommended.  Something about concerns re: whether or not the judge would accept the bankruptcy. 
  
  Wonder what was the actual cost to Viking of my changed booking via SAS 
  vs my original booking via British Airways...

 

 

 

 

[hqarangrsl]

Just wanted to provide some follow-up to my post about United changing our plane.  When we got to Houston to get on our flight to London we got texts from United that we had been upgraded to Business Class.  So, the change of plane was a good thing in the end for us.  I think I have the lovely United person who I talked to after we got the text that the plane had changed.  I think she took pity on us and flagged us for the upgrade before all other Premium economy passengers - so sometimes being nice to an airline rep has benefits!

[SempreMare]

FYI for those with flights planned with connections via Amsterdam Schiphol 

 

Keep an eye out for communications about flight cancellations.  Connections via certain cities might be more likely to be affected by "Green Cap".

 

TripIt has always been the first to alert me of a flight cancellation, long before the airline contacted me.

It would throw an alert to my iPhone, something like below:

 

" KLM Flight 123 can no longer be monitored.  Contact the airlines..."

this might be a TripIt Pro feature

 

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/breaking-news/298753/klm-outlines-potential-network-reduction-due-to-schiphol-green-cap/

 

 

[Nippy Sweetie]

Our flight to London from Edinburgh for the Northern Lights cruise next March was recently rerouted via Amsterdam! Crazy. I phoned Viking and the lady I spoke to immediately saw my point and rebooked us on a direct flight to London. Apparently it was a computer decision to fly us via another country! Flights from Edinburgh to London typically take less than one hour. 

I'll be keeping a very close eye on any future flight changes.