Double check your flights...

[SantaFe1]

14 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

This is going to depend on what aircraft they are flying on the route you want. Different aircraft will have different configurations for some fare classes.Some routes will have different planes on different days and maybe even different connections.

Yes, we are flying back from Barcelona on Lufthansa in business class.  And our seats are “typical” European business class seats—a regular economy row of three seats with the middle seat vacant.  Fortunately, we are only flying to Frankfurt on that flight, then changing to a nice United Polaris business class seat for the long haul.  

[Mitina]

34 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

No. If you aren’t ticketed you can get a refund of your Air Plus fee.

Maybe changed the policy.  Last year we weren't eligible for a refund since we had 'utilized' their services before we opted out of Viking Air.  They did spend a bit of time trying to accommodate our choices.  

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

I believe that you can cancel at any time, but there would be additional cost if the flights are ticketed.  In the mean time, if you have Air Plus on your invoice and you have not received ticketed flights, my understanding is that you can cancel.

 

Just for emphasis: The important thing is that if you want to cancel air arrangements made through Viking, you want to do it before the flights are ticketed (which is around 60 days before departure). Once ticketed, there are cancellation fees imposed by the airlines and passed on to you.

 

 

[hqarangrsl]

7 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We have flown Lufthansa Premium many times and the Premium cabin is separate, and the seats are larger with a much better recline, and there is higher end service and food in that cabin.  Not sure where you are getting that information from?  We have always been happy with Lufthansa's Premium, in general and found it worth the extra. 

 

You get - if I remember - Zone 3 boarding with Premium.  You are not the first on, but you still have zones 4 and 5 behind you in boarding order.

I read their web site and read recent reviews on the web and all of them indicated no better meals, no priority boarding, no premium meals, and no separate cabin.  So, I just made my decisions based on those reviews.  I saw nothing anywhere that indicated what you got.   Maybe there wasn't a separate cabin on the type of plane we were booked on, because I also looked at Seat Guru and did not see a separate cabin.  Oh well.......

 

7 hours ago, Mitina said:

I’m pretty sure if you contact Viking Air and later decide to cancel the flights and arrange on your own, the Air Plus fee is non refundable.

They used the Air Plus fee to pay for our transfers to and from the ship.   So, maybe technically it wasn't refunded...but we didn't have to pay for transfers and we got a refund for the cost of airfare plus $4 - the difference between 4 transfers and Air Plus for 2 people.  

[CDNPolar]

1 hour ago, hqarangrsl said:

I read their web site and read recent reviews on the web and all of them indicated no better meals, no priority boarding, no premium meals, and no separate cabin.  So, I just made my decisions based on those reviews.  I saw nothing anywhere that indicated what you got.   Maybe there wasn't a separate cabin on the type of plane we were booked on, because I also looked at Seat Guru and did not see a separate cabin.  Oh well.......

 

 

I think that it may depend on the aircraft whether it is a "separate cabin" but there has at least been a curtain between PE and Coach.  In PE we may be served a similar meal, but received a menu with the choices, all food served on china rather than plastic tubs, and we got real cutlery too!   We go with PE for the seat and the recline.  If we are flying Toronto to most European cities and the flight is 7'ish hours we don't really care, but if longer getting into the 8-9 hours or overnight then we want the PE seat where it is just two of us on the side.  A lot of the Lufthansa flights are 747s as they retired them and then brought them back.  

[TiiiSailor]

We're new to Viking but have been looking at the cruises for years.  I don't remember reading all these "issues" regarding Viking Air and Air Plus until the last year.  Did I miss something in the past and it was the same then, or is this a new issue?

 

[SantaFe1]

Remember, you are most likely to hear from people who have had things go wrong.  People don’t usually write in about their air when everything goes fine.  We have used VA+ several times and have never had an issue.  In fact they have bent over backwards when blizzards impacted our flights.  We are booked again in February, and so far all is well.  Just a six minute flight change by the airline. Would have happened with or without VA.

[mariavii]

The equipment on my Lufthansa long haul flights (to/from FRA/PHL) in January was changed to Eurowings Discovery operated by Finnair.  EW is the LH "long haul leisure" arm and as they are expanding they can't get their hands on equipment so they are leasing from Finnair (who has excess aircraft due to Ukraine/Russia).

 

Dealing with AirPlus dept has been up and down.  They weren't ticketing when my TA asked 60 days out (said they would 55 days out).  Then when we called them 1 day later to explore alternate options, they were like...its ticketed!  hmm.  the airplus  rep confirmed my seats for all 4 flights - yes, i know what the airline giveth, they may take away -  but when I looked at MVJ the following day, the long haul seats were gone.  

 

Spoke with AirPlus again and they were able to get the PHL-FRA seat back, but were having issues with the return and would have to call LH directly.  they would send me and TA updated itinerary when they were set.  Yesterday, I still had nothing so my TA called.  no seats were in my record for the return, but they looked on the LH site and they were there for all 4 flights.  Not sure how much of this issue is technical, EW/Finnair lease, general 'post-covid' travel woes, etc.  

 

I never had issues in the past with Viking air, and since this is winter travel I definitely want Viking support once travel starts.   I have my travel insurance, silver spirits, and I'll be on vacation. The rest...Ill just roll with whatever the travel gods deal out.

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, TiiiSailor said:

We're new to Viking but have been looking at the cruises for years.  I don't remember reading all these "issues" regarding Viking Air and Air Plus until the last year.  Did I miss something in the past and it was the same then, or is this a new issue?

 

 

Yes, there especially have been issues in the post-pandemic era and usually they are caused by the airlines changing flight times or cancelling flights, which they are doing a lot more now than before the pandemic. These are problems that we face whether we book with through Viking or we book on our own.