Viking Business Class on Domestic Flights for US Cruises

[CCWineLover]

8 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Your agent should stick to selling cruises.

 

Considering that AS only flies A320 and 737 aircraft on mainline flights, there is no "business class".  DL only flies 737s to ANC, so ditto there.

 

There are a number of wide-body flights to ANC -- but they are all cargo.

Have been an Alaska Air frequent flyer for 30 years up and down the west coast.

Alaska does not have wide body planes.

 

However, I beg to differ slightly, and it may be just semantics.

Alaska Air has moderately nice first class seats on their 737's and A320's - certainly at least as good as UA and DL and AA.   When you travel business class on a code share, if you have an Alaska leg, it is in their first class (which is more like business class without flat beds, on other airlines).  I've done this many times and have one coming up back from Iceland, where it is bus class from KEF-SEA on IcelandAir and then first class on Alaska Air SEA-SFO - and it's sold as business class tickets.

 

I personally would choose Alaska over Delta, but that is mostly because of what I perceive as superior service (and I flew Delta often to DFW).

[FlyerTalker]

58 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Have been an Alaska Air frequent flyer for 30 years up and down the west coast.

Alaska does not have wide body planes.

 

I meant that there are wide-bodies flying into ANC.  Just that they are all cargo flights.   Never said AS has widebodies (as noted when I said they only had 320 and 737 for mainline).

[Clay Clayton]

3 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Have been an Alaska Air frequent flyer for 30 years up and down the west coast.

Alaska does not have wide body planes.

 

However, I beg to differ slightly, and it may be just semantics.

Alaska Air has moderately nice first class seats on their 737's and A320's - certainly at least as good as UA and DL and AA.   When you travel business class on a code share, if you have an Alaska leg, it is in their first class (which is more like business class without flat beds, on other airlines).  I've done this many times and have one coming up back from Iceland, where it is bus class from KEF-SEA on IcelandAir and then first class on Alaska Air SEA-SFO - and it's sold as business class tickets.

 

I personally would choose Alaska over Delta, but that is mostly because of what I perceive as superior service (and I flew Delta often to DFW).

And Iceland’s business class (they call it Saga) is really closer to everyone else’s international premium economy or domestic first class than it is to most international business class. 

[Clay Clayton]

On a related note, has anyone had Viking book them on Iceland Air?

[dd57]

3 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

On a related note, has anyone had Viking book them on Iceland Air?

We just flew Denver to Reykjavik in Saga class on Icelandair.  I wanted a direct flight in something better than economy.  My TA asked and Air plus delivered.

[Mehroswitha]

We requested premium economy through Viking for one of the "Welcome Back" cruises in Iceland last summer. They put us in Iceland Air's Saga Class, with which we were quite pleased. 

 

No, the seats were not the lie-flat kind, but they were very comfortable with plenty of legroom. And although meals were nothing memorable we felt they were much better than the typical economy class offering.

 

Because Iceland Air did not have its own lounge at our departure airport (Dulles) we were offered the use of a nice, if very crowded, one belonging to another line--Air France, I believe it was. Iceland Air's departure lounge in Reykjavik was comfortable and spacious. (Don't miss the rhubarb liqueur!) 

[FlyerTalker]

30 minutes ago, Mehroswitha said:

(Don't miss the rhubarb liqueur!) 

 

Which is available for purchase in the KEF duty free shops.

 

Pro tip for flying into KEF:  Stock up on alcohol at the duty-free on arrival shop.  Prices are significantly cheaper than alcohol elsewhere on the island - you can tell how the flight crews make a beeline there before heading home.  And, of course, again on the way home.

[PGI GUY]

My response in regard to Delta Premium economy and what seats would be assigned prior to the over water segment in Premium Economy was to answer Clay's question.

 

[dwlmg]

On 9/2/2022 at 8:17 PM, FlyerTalker said:

 

Your agent should stick to selling cruises.

 

Considering that AS only flies A320 and 737 aircraft on mainline flights, there is no "business class".  DL only flies 737s to ANC, so ditto there.

 

There are a number of wide-body flights to ANC -- but they are all cargo.

So the original question for this thread remains. What is Viking offering when they offer a business class fare to Alaska.

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, dwlmg said:

So the original question for this thread remains. What is Viking offering when they offer a business class fare to Alaska.

 

Probably a ticket for domestic F seating. 

[HUNKY]

DWLMG  "If" Viking tickets you on Delta thru Atlanta on your way to Anchorage, try to get on the nonstop flight on the 767-300.  THAT wide body, two aisle, plane has lie flat seating in first.  There is no "business class" on that Delta airplane.

 

Delta has Comfort +, more legroom, but no wider seats.  This might be called premium economy on other airlines.

[hqarangrsl]

On 9/8/2022 at 12:45 AM, HUNKY said:

 

 

Delta has Comfort +, more legroom, but no wider seats.  This might be called premium economy on other airlines.

We have flown Delta, United, and American and none of them call Comfort + Premium economy.  There is a significant difference (at least to us) between the economy comfort seats at the front of the economy cabin and the premium economy in a separate cabin

[hqarangrsl]

On 9/2/2022 at 11:08 AM, Clay Clayton said:

Not trying to hijack this thread but if anyone has experience with paying Viking for Premium Economy on the long haul segments I would like to know whether you got Comfort+/Main Cabin Extra/Economy Plus/extra legroom seats OR did you have to pay extra to select seats?

TIA

We were using Viking Air for our Jan 23 Antiquities cruise and booking Premium Economy.  The seats they assigned for the US legs of the flight were regular economy, not comfort class.  So were the Europe legs seats.

 

We cancelled Viking air and booked our own flights last week.  For less than what we had paid Viking Air we booked premium economy and we were able to select Comfort+ seats at no additional charge (we tested Delta and American before making our flight selection and we were able to this on both).  Additionally, when we booked United for a flight to another European cruise in Sept the comfort class seats were available to us at no additional charge.

 

Not positive this answers your question directly, but hope it helps

[Clay Clayton]

10 hours ago, hqarangrsl said:

We were using Viking Air for our Jan 23 Antiquities cruise and booking Premium Economy.  The seats they assigned for the US legs of the flight were regular economy, not comfort class.  So were the Europe legs seats.

 

We cancelled Viking air and booked our own flights last week.  For less than what we had paid Viking Air we booked premium economy and we were able to select Comfort+ seats at no additional charge (we tested Delta and American before making our flight selection and we were able to this on both).  Additionally, when we booked United for a flight to another European cruise in Sept the comfort class seats were available to us at no additional charge.

 

Not positive this answers your question directly, but hope it helps

Thanks it does.  When we booked Premium Economy for non-cruise flights to Munich next month on AA we were able to select Main Cabin Extra seats at no additional charge but I thought someone had previously posted that when they booked Premium Economy with Viking that they had to pay for the extra legroom seats. Appears Viking must had a different fare when they buy PE. 

[duquephart]

On 9/2/2022 at 11:20 PM, Clay Clayton said:

On a related note, has anyone had Viking book them on Iceland Air?

 

Yes ----- on our Homelands cruise. Iceland Air MSP to KEF to ARN.

[Clay Clayton]

19 minutes ago, duquephart said:

 

Yes ----- on our Homelands cruise. Iceland Air MSP to KEF to ARN.

Good news! Maybe they will book nonstop from RDU to KEF!

 

Were you in Econ or Saga?

[duquephart]

14 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Good news! Maybe they will book nonstop from RDU to KEF!

 

Were you in Econ or Saga?

 

We requested business class with the cruise booking and wound up with Saga something. Basically what equates to domestic first class. Were supposed to go Bergen - Copenhagen (SAS) - KEF (Iceland Air) following cruise and then KEF - MSP following extension but got stranded due to SAS strike. Wound up Oslo to AMS on SAS codeshare and then AMS - ORD - MSP on United Polaris.

[LindaS272]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Thanks it does.  When we booked Premium Economy for non-cruise flights to Munich next month on AA we were able to select Main Cabin Extra seats at no additional charge but I thought someone had previously posted that when they booked Premium Economy with Viking that they had to pay for the extra legroom seats. Appears Viking must had a different fare when they buy PE. 

Depends on their contract with the airline, Clay. Their contracts are all over the map. We have paid for the PE upgrade on “free air” on Bergen to Iceland cruise in July. So far, we’re only using air to get to Bergen & paying on our own dime home from Iceland in Saga class because there are no airlines that do PE out of KEF to the U.S.

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, LindaS272 said:

Depends on their contract with the airline, Clay. Their contracts are all over the map. We have paid for the PE upgrade on “free air” on Bergen to Iceland cruise in July. So far, we’re only using air to get to Bergen & paying on our own dime home from Iceland in Saga class because there are no airlines that do PE out of KEF to the U.S.

I know @HUNKY took advantage of a promo price from Viking for Premium Economy on the cruise we are all doing together in July (July 19 Reykjavik to Bergen) and is hoping that if they end up on Iceland Air to KEF that PE will become Saga.  Did you ask before you decided to buy your own return?

[oskidunker]

Icelandic Air has no lay flat seats. 

[LindaS272]

5 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

I know @HUNKY took advantage of a promo price from Viking for Premium Economy on the cruise we are all doing together in July (July 19 Reykjavik to Bergen) and is hoping that if they end up on Iceland Air to KEF that PE will become Saga.  Did you ask before you decided to buy your own return?

Yes—we were hoping that because they call it Saga “Premium” that it would count as “Premium Economy”, but no such luck. Icelandair considers Saga business class and has no contract with Viking for PE. For the up charge you pay to Viking for business on free economy, it’s cheaper to book it on your own. We got Delta PE going into Bergen from Seattle via Amsterdam, but have booked our own one way Saga Icelandair out of KEF.

[Clay Clayton]

20 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

Yes—we were hoping that because they call it Saga “Premium” that it would count as “Premium Economy”, but no such luck. Icelandair considers Saga business class and has no contract with Viking for PE. For the up charge you pay to Viking for business on free economy, it’s cheaper to book it on your own. We got Delta PE going into Bergen from Seattle via Amsterdam, but have booked our own one way Saga Icelandair out of KEF.

Was afraid of that!  Thanks. 
 

We don’t have any “free” air on our booking so hoping to book Iceland Air ourselves since it’s nonstop from RFU to KEF. If we can’t get Saga for a good price may end up booking an extra ticket to make sure we have an empty middle. 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Clay Clayton

[LindaS272]

16 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Was afraid of that!  Thanks. 
 

We don’t have any “free” air on our booking so hoping to book Iceland Air ourselves since it’s nonstop from RFU to KEF. If we can’t get Saga for a good price may end up booking an extra ticket to make sure we have an empty middle. 

Good luck! We have enough miles on Icelandair partner Alaska Air to get Saga class tickets but they have not opened any inventory for mileage awards yet on that routing and we didn’t want to wait. Will use those miles elsewhere.

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

Good luck! We have enough miles on Icelandair partner Alaska Air to get Saga class tickets but they have not opened any inventory for mileage awards yet on that routing and we didn’t want to wait. Will use those miles elsewhere.

 

Better check on the redemption price for those tickets.  You are likely to get poor value for your points.

[SJD117]

7 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Better check on the redemption price for those tickets.  You are likely to get poor value for your points.

 

Mr. Linda here. Of course we check on the redemption price — we’ve been booking mileage awards with Alaska Air, its partners, and other carriers for almost 40 years. And as Linda wrote, the price issue is moot for Iceland Air Saga class in July 2023 (for us at least) because there’s no inventory available and we didn’t want to wait for inventory to become available. We’ll use our mileage elsewhere, and we’ll do our best — as we always try to do — to get good value in return.