Double check your flights...

[MikeyB]

If your not happy with your service at Air Plus, you just need to call them back and request a supervisor.  I waited 45 minutes today to speak to one, but all is good now.

And the supervisor told me that if the client requests, you can be ticketed at 120 days

[Heidi13]

7 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

I started flying when you could book and you were charged when you took the flight.  You could change and cancel without any penalty...  this of course was when an airline ticket had 15 carbon copies in a booklet kind of thingy...  was a dream to fly then.  Now, it is the most dreaded part of the trip - for me.

 

We book, give them CASH up front for months in advance and there is absolutely no responsibility to the customer at all.  

 

I recall the days back in the mid-1970's when BA introduced the shuttle service from Glasgow to LHR. No ticket required, simply turn up 10 mins before departure and you were guaranteed a seat. If the flight was full they had a standby aircraft available. Could also pay onboard, although I recall the unions curtailing that service. Hourly departures.

 

We hear lots of complaints about Viking wanting early PIF, but nothing about the airlines, which want payment in full upon booking these days.

[millybess]

19 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

We hear lots of complaints about Viking wanting early PIF, but nothing about the airlines, which want payment in full upon booking these days.

Respectfully Andy, I have to take issue with this. We have never had to pay for a flight 2 years in advance. We currently have 3 cruises booked with Viking. We were going to book the Grand Pacific Explorer for September 2024. Full payment is (was) due December 2022 — 22 months in advance! For us, Viking’s terms are becoming unacceptable for many of their most popular voyages. 

[SantaFe1]

You make a good point about the airlines.  But please remember that once you have a booking with Viking, you can, in our experience anyway, negotiate a future cruise final payment to six months out.  Call, ask, try several sources.  Get a supervisor. And, up to 120 days in advance, you can cancel  for $100 pp.  that’s really not too bad, in our opinion.  

Edited October 28, 2022 by SantaFe1

[FlyerTalker]

13 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We book, give them CASH up front for months in advance and there is absolutely no responsibility to the customer at all.  

 

You do know that you can buy your ticket the day before your flight.  Or you can buy a 100% refundable ticket and get your money back at any time.

 

OTOH, don't complain that the cost of those tickets is "crazy".  You want that kind of ticket, you pay for that kind of ticket.

[CDNPolar]

5 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

You do know that you can buy your ticket the day before your flight.  Or you can buy a 100% refundable ticket and get your money back at any time.

 

OTOH, don't complain that the cost of those tickets is "crazy".  You want that kind of ticket, you pay for that kind of ticket.

I absolutely know that I can buy a refundable ticket.  I do know that I can buy a ticket the day before my flight.  I am not complaining that the cost of any ticket is crazy?  Did I say any of this?  I simply stated that airlines have all our money, and all the "power" and we have no recourse if they change, cancel, or whatever.  You have misunderstood my position here.  The airline have us in an unfair advantage in my opinion.

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

I absolutely know that I can buy a refundable ticket.  I do know that I can buy a ticket the day before my flight.  I am not complaining that the cost of any ticket is crazy?  Did I say any of this?  I simply stated that airlines have all our money, and all the "power" and we have no recourse if they change, cancel, or whatever.  You have misunderstood my position here.  The airline have us in an unfair advantage in my opinion.

 

I have not misunderstood your position.  You complain that they have your money and the power.  Yet you voluntarily walked into that situation. By your own choice.

 

You can buy airline tickets where they do NOT have your money until almost the day you fly.  You can buy tickets where you have complete ability to change or cancel flights.  But you choose not to buy those tickets.  Voluntarily.

 

You don't want to accept that, in exchange for a pre-payment, you get a better price than if you wait and buy your ticket the day before your flight.  You don't want to accept that, in exchange for having restrictions on your ticket, you get a better price.  You want to have your cake and eat it too, plus have another one in reserve.

 

If you are THAT concerned about the airline having the power, switch to buying full-fare walk-up tickets.  Or NetJets.  Oops, I forgot that you don't want to pay that kind of money.  Silly me.

[janetcbl]

A little less “snark” on this site would be welcome. People are just asking questions.  Thank you. 

[Heidi13]

14 hours ago, millybess said:

Respectfully Andy, I have to take issue with this. We have never had to pay for a flight 2 years in advance. We currently have 3 cruises booked with Viking. We were going to book the Grand Pacific Explorer for September 2024. Full payment is (was) due December 2022 — 22 months in advance! For us, Viking’s terms are becoming unacceptable for many of their most popular voyages. 

 

I also would not make PIF more than 1 yr in advance. Don't like a year early, but can live with it.

 

They can request earlier PIF, but they certainly wouldn't get any more than a deposit 2-yrs in advance. If Viking can't accept that, I wouldn't complete the reservation.

[FlyerTalker]

2 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

They can request earlier PIF, but they certainly wouldn't get any more than a deposit 2-yrs in advance. If Viking can't accept that, I wouldn't complete the reservation.

 

Folks lose sight of the fact that these are VOLUNTARY transactions.  Don't like paying for a cruise 2 years in advance - don't book that cruise with those conditions.  It's your choice.

 

Oh, but I want to be sure I can be on that sailing, and in the cabin that I prefer.  Well, think of that as a condition of sale -- you want to buy it, but you don't want the conditions that go with it.  Please show me the gun that's being held to your head.

 

It's like the folks that buy a house in an HOA that has restrictions on what you can do with your home.  Paint color, additions, landscaping and the like.  And after buying, they complain about how they can't do what they want.  

[millybess]

11 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Folks lose sight of the fact that these are VOLUNTARY transactions.  Don't like paying for a cruise 2 years in advance - don't book that cruise with those conditions.  It's your choice. 

Which is precisely why we cancelled the cruise.  In this case, it cost us nothing to do so.

[CDNPolar]

2 hours ago, janetcbl said:

A little less “snark” on this site would be welcome. People are just asking questions.  Thank you. 

Thank you for this comment.  I am not sure why this member is being so argumentative with everyone today....

[CDNPolar]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

I have not misunderstood your position.  You complain that they have your money and the power.  Yet you voluntarily walked into that situation. By your own choice.

 

You can buy airline tickets where they do NOT have your money until almost the day you fly.  You can buy tickets where you have complete ability to change or cancel flights.  But you choose not to buy those tickets.  Voluntarily.

 

You don't want to accept that, in exchange for a pre-payment, you get a better price than if you wait and buy your ticket the day before your flight.  You don't want to accept that, in exchange for having restrictions on your ticket, you get a better price.  You want to have your cake and eat it too, plus have another one in reserve.

 

If you are THAT concerned about the airline having the power, switch to buying full-fare walk-up tickets.  Or NetJets.  Oops, I forgot that you don't want to pay that kind of money.  Silly me.

You are on a soap box that is not speaking for my "position" and you do not understand my "position" on this.  Silly you.

[dcl999]

KLM has canceled some of the European early morning flights into Amsterdam for November. Fortunately I caught it early and Delta was able to rebook us with reasonable connection times but an overnight in Paris. The message system has worked quite well, especially when we are traveling. 

Another thing I have been doing is checking where the flights are coming from. If there’s a history of late flights that could make us miss connections I try to keep track of the incoming flight (flightaware).This happened on our last flight from Amsterdam. I messaged with an agent as soon as I knew our flight was delayed enough so we would get stuck. We managed to eliminate a stop and get home earlier. 

[CDNPolar]

1 hour ago, dcl999 said:

KLM has canceled some of the European early morning flights into Amsterdam for November. Fortunately I caught it early and Delta was able to rebook us with reasonable connection times but an overnight in Paris. The message system has worked quite well, especially when we are traveling. 

Another thing I have been doing is checking where the flights are coming from. If there’s a history of late flights that could make us miss connections I try to keep track of the incoming flight (flightaware).This happened on our last flight from Amsterdam. I messaged with an agent as soon as I knew our flight was delayed enough so we would get stuck. We managed to eliminate a stop and get home earlier. 

We do a lot of research on flights and where they originate especially as in North America we are moving to winter.  If my flight is originating out of Chicago in January, I am going to be concerned with weather conditions, however in the winter the weather can be a cascade impact from many other locations the day before, etc.

 

We often now fly a day early, so that we have that buffer.  Yes, it costs an extra hotel night, but that is a piece of mind that we are willing to pay for.

[hqarangrsl]

We got frustrated with the changes we kept seeing for our flights for a Jan 2023 Antiquities and the Holy Land cruise about two weeks ago.  We fly premium economy and they kept putting us in Lufthansa and United flights coming and going.  All of the United flights they were offering went through Chicago - and ORD in Winter is a recipe for disaster.  And, Lufthansa says they have premium economy - and they charge an increased rate for it, but they do not include the typical Premium Economy perks of priority boarding, a small separate "cabin" on the plane, better than "economy" meals, etc.  So, we don't want to pay for something that just means your seat is in the front of the economy cabin rather than the back.  So, we paid for Air Plus.  We provided 4 flights for each direction that were acceptable to us (one of those was the flight from Athens to home that Viking had us on).  Our flights were immediately changed to one of our 4 choices.  We were happy and felt it was worth the $200 extra to feel secure.

Skip forward one week later and we receive a schedule change - Viking had put us back on the United and Lufthansa return trip.  Contacted them and they said there was nothing available unless we paid an additional $1053 each.  I got on the web and found flights on Delta and American that got us there and back at good times with seats available and called Viking Air to try to get those flights.  They said they could not see those flights available to them.  So, we booked flights we wanted with assigned seats all the way, cancelled our Viking Air and Air Plus, and purchased transfers from Viking to get us to and from the ship and the cost was only $50 more.....well worth it for the peace of mind we get for the next 2 1/2 months!

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

45 minutes ago, hqarangrsl said:

I got on the web and found flights on Delta and American that got us there and back at good times with seats available and called Viking Air to try to get those flights.  They said they could not see those flights available to them. 

 

Exactly.  The difference between inventory available to the public at large and inventory available under the negotiated cruiseline contract.

 

47 minutes ago, hqarangrsl said:

well worth it for the peace of mind we get for the next 2 1/2 months!

 

The peace of mind you should have is that you are ticketed.  You do not have a guarantee that you will fly those exact flights, as you may still have an airline-initiated schedule change before your travel date.  The one thing you won't have is a cruiseline-initiated rearranging of your itinerary.

 

Also, if there is some change, you won't have a middleman in between you and the airline.

 

 

[hqarangrsl]

7 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Exactly.  The difference between inventory available to the public at large and inventory available under the negotiated cruiseline contract.

 

 

The peace of mind you should have is that you are ticketed.  You do not have a guarantee that you will fly those exact flights, as you may still have an airline-initiated schedule change before your travel date.  The one thing you won't have is a cruiseline-initiated rearranging of your itinerary.

 

Also, if there is some change, you won't have a middleman in between you and the airline.

 

 

Understand and agree with your comments

[millybess]

49 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

You do not have a guarantee that you will fly those exact flights, as you may still have an airline-initiated schedule change before your travel date.

 

 

Right you are!  In May, we were to fly Santorini-Athens-Toronto. I went online to choose our meals for Athens-Toronto and the flight wasn’t there!  It took a lot of scrambling to change the Athens-Toronto flight to Rome-Toronto and then to get a flight from Athens to Rome. It was only after all that, that we received an official email from the airline that the Athens-Toronto flight had been cancelled. 🙄

[PKNC]

I didn't realize that you can cancel Viking Air and Air Plus but keep the rest of your booking, is this standard? Anyway, it sounds like others have had the same experience as me with Viking revoking an itinerary after providing it, even though the itinerary may be available to the general public. 

 

Does anyone have suggestions on how I can change my flight from London to Basel, or buy a new ticket on British Air, if my AA flight arrives early and I have enough time to catch the morning flight from London to Basel? Right now, I  have a 5 hour layover. In general, it looks like the AA flight arrives early, which would give me 1.5 hours to transfer to the British Air AM flight instead of the noon flight, which I'm currently booked on. I don't mind buying a new ticket if I have to. My concern is making sure my luggage makes it. Not sure if I could rebook as soon as I get off the plane or even while on it.

[CDNPolar]

41 minutes ago, PKNC said:

I didn't realize that you can cancel Viking Air and Air Plus but keep the rest of your booking, is this standard? Anyway, it sounds like others have had the same experience as me with Viking revoking an itinerary after providing it, even though the itinerary may be available to the general public. 

 

 

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.

[CDNPolar]

15 hours ago, hqarangrsl said:

 And, Lufthansa says they have premium economy - and they charge an increased rate for it, but they do not include the typical Premium Economy perks of priority boarding, a small separate "cabin" on the plane, better than "economy" meals, etc.  So, we don't want to pay for something that just means your seat is in the front of the economy cabin rather than the back. 

 

 

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.

Edited November 7, 2022 by CDNPolar

[Mitina]

46 minutes ago, PKNC said:

I didn't realize that you can cancel Viking Air and Air Plus

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.

[LindaS272]

28 minutes 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.

No. If you aren’t ticketed you can get a refund of your Air Plus fee. If your booking (not ticket) is not acceptable to you with Air+, the Air+ dept. has not provided a service, thus a refund.

[LindaS272]

15 hours ago, hqarangrsl said:

And, Lufthansa says they have premium economy - and they charge an increased rate for it, but they do not include the typical Premium Economy perks of priority boarding, a small separate "cabin" on the plane, better than "economy" meals, etc.

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.