Viking air ‘upgrades’

[seaquay]

I have recently tried to upgrade our flights via Viking Air.  Having checked the fare on the airlines own website for the exact flights and dates I have been given I was surprised when the amount quoted was more than I could purchase the tickets for myself.
 

Upon talking to Viking Air they also advised that if I wanted an allowance for the economy fare already included in my cruise cost taken off my final balance I would then loose my transfers. 
 

So not an offer of an upgrade at all but in actual fact an opportunity to buy a business class ticket for the same flights I have already paid for an economy booking on with Viking pocketing the additional monies.  

 

[TayanaLorna]

The Viking Air fare for any given itinerary is sometimes less then you could book for yourself and sometimes more.  It depends on the market and their contracted fares with airlines.  It pays to do thorough research beforehand.  We usually include Viking Air in our booking contract as it could go up.  Then we do research.  We like to choose our flights with Viking and go a day or 2 early.  So adding the Air Plus and the Deviation Fees often makes the flights cost more.  We book flights ourselves and get a refund for the Viking Air.  Finding transfers to/from the ship is usually cheaper too then paying for Viking transfers.  And yes, we only get free Viking transfers if we use Viking Air or a Viking pre or post extension.

 

Viking gave us a one way fare of $899 for Manaus, Brazil to San Juan.  Add deviation and Air Plus to make it $1,149.  We got the same flights for $619.00.  The reserved in advance taxi fare to the airport was $80 for 4 people.  The difference paid for our 2 hotel nights, our transfers, and 2 days of private excursions with money left over to pay for our meals, wine and taxi from airport to home.

Edited February 8, 2023 by TayanaLorna
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[CCWineLover]

Lorna - well stated.  Couldn't agree more.  It always pays to check both options (Viking Air and on your own).   We've seen it greatly favor one or the other many times.  One additional consideration if it is important to you:   If you book on your own, you can get ticketed and then immediately get your seats and/or have opportunity to upgrade direct with airlines (miles, added $).  This can be helpful if your flights are a long ways away.  With Viking Air, you'd have to wait, potentially until good options are gone, until they ticket you (seems to vary between 60 and 75 days).  You may think you are guaranteed to have the seats that show on your reservation via Viking Air, but not so until it is ticketed.  By that time good seats and/or upgrade options may be gone.  Not only that, you may have paid and booked for Prem Economy or Biz class with Viking Air, and by the time it is ticketed, the airlines have downgraded you (probably because they got higher paying regular customers to pay $$).   So you really aren't even guaranteed your PE or Biz class section with Viking Air.

If seats and upgrades are not important to you, then it's probably a moot point.

Edited February 8, 2023 by CCWineLover

[fountainpen]

I think the OP is talking about in the UK market, they seems to  always include the airfare. In the US and Canada,  airfare is excluded unless at promotional periods, then it is reduced or free airfare.

[oskidunker]

The problem booking your own is when the ship leaves from one port and ends in another. Then you are forced to buy two one-way tickets,unless the airline will do multi.

 

on March 20 cruise we go  on Klm and back on British air. Not sure how that would work booking your own.

[CCWineLover]

24 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

The problem booking your own is when the ship leaves from one port and ends in another. Then you are forced to buy two one-way tickets,unless the airline will do multi.

 

on March 20 cruise we go  on Klm and back on British air. Not sure how that would work booking your own.

We've done that exact thing - book 1 way KLM and 1 way BA from SFO.  Works just fine.   In the old days 1 way tickets were often way more than half the roundtrip.  Nowadays I've found it is nearly always exactly 1/2 of the round trip fare.  That also gives you flexibility to pick different airlines each way.  

[mhb1757]

We have also done both Viking Air and made our own arrangements. If the costs were close I tended to favor using Viking Air because of included transfers and then if something changed (cruise dates, port arrival time etc,) Viking would take care of it. We always paid the $50 fee for Air Plus and could pick our flights and have them ticketed long in advance so we could upgrade to medallion or extra legroom seats, etc. 

 

However, since Covid, Air Plus has been outsourced to some company in the Philippines that has very poorly trained agents that seem to know virtually nothing about air travel. Dealing with them ranges from laborious to the stuff nightmares are made of. Additionally, the fee has gone up from $50 to $100-150. So unless Viking offers free or almost free air I think I’m done using them for the foreseeable future. The awful service has reversed the equation. 

[Cienfuegos]

2 minutes ago, mhb1757 said:

SNIP

 

However, since Covid, Air Plus has been outsourced to some company in the Philippines that has very poorly trained agents that seem to know virtually nothing about air travel. Dealing with them ranges from laborious to the stuff nightmares are made of. Additionally, the fee has gone up from $50 to $100-150. So unless Viking offers free or almost free air I think I’m done using them for the foreseeable future. The awful service has reversed the equation. 

Good info, thanks for sharing.

 

Transfers to the airport can vary widely in their cost, quality, and need depending on how much work the traveler is willing to do

[OnTheJourney]

CC,  I agree with your thoughts. I’d rather book my own air and be able to choose seats right away. My TA had expressed to me several times that she has no great love for dealing with Viking air. If trip offers included air, then I’ll go sometimes with that and upgrade if available. 

[OnTheJourney]

4 hours ago, mhb1757 said:

We have also done both Viking Air and made our own arrangements. If the costs were close I tended to favor using Viking Air because of included transfers 

 

 

Doesn’t seem to be a problem though requesting transfers if doing your own air. 

 

 

 

 

[HSBC]

Does 'Free Air" include free seat selection and one free checked bag?

Thanks!

[OneSixtyToOne]

54 minutes ago, HSBC said:

Does 'Free Air" include free seat selection and one free checked bag?

Thanks!

It all depends on the the airline. I’ve yet to have to pay for the first bag on an international flight. However some regional carriers will assign free seats at check-in only and to get an advanced seat assignment, you have to pay. This happened recently on the Florence to Munich leg of our last trip. It was only serviced by Air Dolomiti (Lufthansa codeshare) and I had to pay $25 for an advanced seat reservation. If you fly on the same major carrier all the way, bag and advanced seat assignment will be free.

Edited February 9, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[FlyerTalker]

On 2/8/2023 at 11:58 AM, oskidunker said:

The problem booking your own is when the ship leaves from one port and ends in another. Then you are forced to buy two one-way tickets,unless the airline will do multi.

 

Not a problem at all.

 

What you are calling "multi" is known in the industry as an "open jaw".  Open jaws work in either of two ways:

 

Flight from A to B, and return from C to A   or

Flight from A to B and return from B to C

 

Think of it as a triangle with only two flights and one "open jaw", either after the first flight or after the second.  Open jaws are priced as one-half of the round trip price for each flown leg, added together.

 

There is one caveat to open jaw pricing: the open segment must be the shortest distance of the triangle.  So open jaws don't work for most ocean crossings (though there are exceptions)

 

Open jaws are very common in the industry.

[FlyerTalker]

On 2/8/2023 at 11:25 PM, OnTheJourney said:

Doesn’t seem to be a problem though requesting transfers if doing your own air.

 

My recent experience:  Viking would only sell me a transfer if I was arriving on the day of the cruise, and only from the airport to the port.  And their transfer price was significantly less than what I could get elsewhere (which is not always the case)

 

We were arriving 3 days earlier to enjoy the city.  Solution:  Just tell Viking that you are arriving on the day of the cruise, give them a phony flight number and time on the request form, and just make your way back to that airport so that you "arrive" around when the flight does.  They don't have access to the airline manifests, so there's no way to "check" that you actually came in that same day.  Find the Viking agent outside the customs area and you are good to go.

[SJD117]

5 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

We were arriving 3 days earlier to enjoy the city.  Solution:  Just tell Viking that you are arriving on the day of the cruise, give them a phony flight number and time on the request form, and just make your way back to that airport so that you "arrive" around when the flight does.

I thought about doing this in order to get a transfer from the Venice airport to Chioggia, Italy (the embarkation port for Viking’s Adriatic cruise). I decided, however, that I’m not comfortable putting “phony” information on the Viking transfer request form. Whether I’m likely to get caught or not isn’t the issue for me. I just don’t like to falsify documents. 

[CDNPolar]

11 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

My recent experience:  Viking would only sell me a transfer if I was arriving on the day of the cruise, and only from the airport to the port.  And their transfer price was significantly less than what I could get elsewhere (which is not always the case)

 

We were arriving 3 days earlier to enjoy the city.  Solution:  Just tell Viking that you are arriving on the day of the cruise, give them a phony flight number and time on the request form, and just make your way back to that airport so that you "arrive" around when the flight does.  They don't have access to the airline manifests, so there's no way to "check" that you actually came in that same day.  Find the Viking agent outside the customs area and you are good to go.

 

Is there not a cost for you to get back to the airport and is the hassle of going back to the airport and meeting Viking and then doing the transfer worth all that?  Just asking.  Seems like a lot of bother to save 50 or 60 bucks.  Also to my experience, generally Viking are at the luggage carousel before you exit that area.  You may not be able to get back into the luggage carousel area to meet them?

[LindaS272]

7 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Is there not a cost for you to get back to the airport and is the hassle of going back to the airport and meeting Viking and then doing the transfer worth all that?  Just asking.  Seems like a lot of bother to save 50 or 60 bucks.  Also to my experience, generally Viking are at the luggage carousel before you exit that area.  You may not be able to get back into the luggage carousel area to meet them?

You will likely see the Viking transfer bus outside arrivals so no problem. If coordinating with an actual flight coming in, it shouldn’t be hard to find which terminal & which baggage carousels to wait outside of.

[CDNPolar]

16 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

You will likely see the Viking transfer bus outside arrivals so no problem. If coordinating with an actual flight coming in, it shouldn’t be hard to find which terminal & which baggage carousels to wait outside of.

 

Should not be hard to find the buses, but in Ft. Lauderdale for the Panama cruise, the bus was a 10 minute walk from the luggage area following the Viking Rep.  I would venture to say that you would not find these busses if you were not in the group.  Also the busses are not Viking Branded, so again, not a given that you will find the buses.

[LindaS272]

4 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Also the busses are not Viking Branded, so again, not a given that you will find the buses.

My experience has been that there are signs in the windows. If we’re able to pay in advance for the transfer, I expect Viking will tell us where/how to meet them.

[CDNPolar]

18 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

My experience has been that there are signs in the windows. If we’re able to pay in advance for the transfer, I expect Viking will tell us where/how to meet them.

Absolutely, but this discussion is about someone not arriving that day but is coming to the airport to get a transfer as though they did arrive that day.  The initial meeting always happens - in my experience - at the luggage claim and that is a restricted area that you cannot enter if you are just coming tot he airport.  My point being that the buses are not always easy to find.

[Squawkman]

12 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

Absolutely, but this discussion is about someone not arriving that day but is coming to the airport to get a transfer as though they did arrive that day.  The initial meeting always happens - in my experience - at the luggage claim and that is a restricted area that you cannot enter if you are just coming tot he airport.  My point being that the buses are not always easy to find.

We always use Viking air and have met Viking both in the restricted baggage area as well outside the carousels in the public area. I guess it depends on the airport.

[LindaS272]

3 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Absolutely, but this discussion is about someone not arriving that day but is coming to the airport to get a transfer as though they did arrive that day.  The initial meeting always happens - in my experience - at the luggage claim and that is a restricted area that you cannot enter if you are just coming tot he airport.  My point being that the buses are not always easy to find.

I recognize your point, but it’s not insurmountable. If we were able to figure out Termini train station on our first trip to Rome, I think we’ll be able to find a Viking rep at an airport.🤷‍♀️
 

I’m also not sure about your statement that luggage claim is restricted. It’s not restricted at our US airport, for instance. Even if restricted at a foreign airport, one can always inquire, as well as have the information from Viking as to where to meet the bus. Also, you can always call the ship if there’s a problem—we had to do that in Vietnam on our cruise in 2019.

[FlyerTalker]

7 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Absolutely, but this discussion is about someone not arriving that day but is coming to the airport to get a transfer as though they did arrive that day.  The initial meeting always happens - in my experience - at the luggage claim and that is a restricted area that you cannot enter if you are just coming tot he airport.  My point being that the buses are not always easy to find.

 

And my experience is that the meeting is outside the customs area.

 

Even if the initial meeting may be inside, you will still find lots of people gathered together outside waiting to go to the buses.  Just look for people wearing those red circular Viking stickers.  Or the red Viking luggage tags.

 

 

[Squawkman]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

And my experience is that the meeting is outside the customs area.

 

Even if the initial meeting may be inside, you will still find lots of people gathered together outside waiting to go to the buses.  Just look for people wearing those red circular Viking stickers.  Or the red Viking luggage tags.

 

 

Don’t they check to see if your name is on their list? 

[FlyerTalker]

5 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

Don’t they check to see if your name is on their list? 

 

Where all those Viking passengers are, you will also find some Viking ground personnel.  Or did you think they would just be left alone to find buses on their own?