The End of Viking Air Plus Frustrations?

[MikeyB]

Correct me if this has already been posted.

During the booking of a river cruise with my Viking agent the other day, I asked for Air Plus (I love challenges).

She said that Viking recommends not adding it to your booking.

She said my air will post at 150 days from sailing on My Viking Journey.  If it's not what I want, I can then make changes on-line.

If I'm still unhappy with what is offered, I can then call Viking air.

Now, what are they up to?

 

[CDNPolar]

I don't agree with this personally... 

 

We just booked a $25 deposit river cruise with free air.  We added Air Plus at the time of booking and this cruise is not until late 2024.

 

We will book our air about 280 days out as most airlines post their routes and fares about 310 days out.

 

We have done this with every cruise on Viking so far and this is the way that we will continue.

 

We WANT to pick our airline, our route, our connection cities and times.  If we wait until they post our air, then it could get messy... what if we want nothing that they post?  

 

No thank you.  We will continue to use Air Plus.

 

This booking was just made this past weekend and we were not discouraged to add Air Plus.

[CDR2001]

What are they up to?  I believe VA is trying to cut back on the many phone requests for changes. Guests can look at options and do it themselves. However, we use Air Plus often for same reasons as CDN. We also book our own flights sometimes. 
 

Even with Air Plus, we have seen other options for flights on MVJ. They include a price adjustment PP……and the options and prices change often due to the airlines fluid pricing.  My brother changed a flight easily on MVJ. 

Edited June 7, 2023 by CDR2001

[Baron Barracuda]

Booked the Hawaii and South Pacific 11/10/23 sailing a couple of weeks ago which included free air.  Paid for air+ and upgraded to business class.  Figured NY - LA, flights leave pretty much hourly so  getting a convenient mid day nonstop should be a breeze.  Well, Viking put us on a 6;30AM flight with a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis.  Web site gave no other options to switch to.  Spent an hour on the phone with air+ but they said they had nothing else, maybe check back in a month or two.  Called my VO sales rep who has years of air experience.  She put us on hold a dozen times while she spoke with air.  Finally came back and said Viking has no contracts with United, American or Jet Blue for NY-LA nonstops so they can't accommodate us at all.  She apologized and refunded our air money including the $100 air+ charge.  Now sitting here with my fingers crossed checking airline prices daily.

[CDNPolar]

42 minutes ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Booked the Hawaii and South Pacific 11/10/23 sailing a couple of weeks ago which included free air.  Paid for air+ and upgraded to business class.  Figured NY - LA, flights leave pretty much hourly so  getting a convenient mid day nonstop should be a breeze.  Well, Viking put us on a 6;30AM flight with a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis.  Web site gave no other options to switch to.  Spent an hour on the phone with air+ but they said they had nothing else, maybe check back in a month or two.  Called my VO sales rep who has years of air experience.  She put us on hold a dozen times while she spoke with air.  Finally came back and said Viking has no contracts with United, American or Jet Blue for NY-LA nonstops so they can't accommodate us at all.  She apologized and refunded our air money including the $100 air+ charge.  Now sitting here with my fingers crossed checking airline prices daily.

 

Free Air I believe is the culprit here.  Free air means that Viking are booking at the lowest category possible that will not have upgrades available - or if upgrade is available it cannot jump the Premium category to business.

 

We have had luck with free air and Air Plus, because when we are flying 6-7 hours or less, we just go economy or Premium Economy.  Viking have contracts with our preferred airlines for Europe so we are good.  We have also gotten the upgrade on our preferred airlines to Premium Economy when it is free air.

 

Probably many things at play here.

[FlyerTalker]

7 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Finally came back and said Viking has no contracts with United, American or Jet Blue for NY-LA nonstops so they can't accommodate us at all.

 

NYC-LAX is a very premium route, so quite reasonable that these flights would not be included in a bulk ticket contract.

 

One thing one must always remember.  Published fare tickets bought from the airline directly have ZERO relationship to bulk fare tickets bought through a cruiseline.  Different fare rules, different inventories and more.

 

Caveat emptor.

 

 

[Squawkman]

7 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

NYC-LAX is a very premium route, so quite reasonable that these flights would not be included in a bulk ticket contract.

 

One thing one must always remember.  Published fare tickets bought from the airline directly have ZERO relationship to bulk fare tickets bought through a cruiseline.  Different fare rules, different inventories and more.

 

Caveat emptor.

 

 

Viking does have direct flights between LAX and EWR (Newark) on United.

[FlyerTalker]

15 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Finally came back and said Viking has no contracts with United, American or Jet Blue for NY-LA nonstops so they can't accommodate us at all. 

 

33 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

Viking does have direct flights between LAX and EWR (Newark) on United.

 

 

I'll let you two fight it out.

 

 

[Cienfuegos]

I wonder how the cruise line contracts with the airlines are structured? It wouldn't be surprising if Viking does have contracts for some space, but chooses to apportion it based on its own proprietary metrics.

 

For example, Saturday departures between Newark and Los Angeles may be low demand period, while Thursday is a very high demand period. So, for the same Sunday cruise departure, a prior day air departure has space, while the "extension" air departure on Thursday does not.

[OnTheJourney]

On 6/7/2023 at 4:52 AM, MikeyB said:

I asked for Air Plus (I love challenges).

LOL 

[Baron Barracuda]

8 hours ago, Squawkman said:

Viking does have direct flights between LAX and EWR (Newark) on United.

Apparently not for 11/9 - 12/12 per 3 Viking reps.  Or maybe just not for Business Class.  Anyway discovered Viking was not significantly cheaper than booking on my own.  Viking was charging me $1700pp while last week I could have directly booked UAL Premium Economy going and Business returning for $1865.  Lots of seats available so waiting to see if I can do better.

[SJD117]

7 minutes ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Apparently not for 11/9 - 12/12 per 3 Viking reps.  Or maybe just not for Business Class.  Anyway discovered Viking was not significantly cheaper than booking on my own.  Viking was charging me $1700pp while last week I could have directly booked UAL Premium Economy going and Business returning for $1865.  Lots of seats available so waiting to see if I can do better.

When we tried to use Viking Air + to book a flight from Iceland to Seattle next month, we learned that Viking’s contract with Icelandair covered economy class only — not seats in the airline’s Saga Class. We had to book Saga seats on our own. So there may be a similar distinction between economy and business on your LAX-EWR route.

[Cruiseworks]

On 6/7/2023 at 2:15 AM, CDNPolar said:

I don't agree with this personally... 

 

We just booked a $25 deposit river cruise with free air.  We added Air Plus at the time of booking and this cruise is not until late 2024.

 

We will book our air about 280 days out as most airlines post their routes and fares about 310 days out.

 

We have done this with every cruise on Viking so far and this is the way that we will continue.

 

We WANT to pick our airline, our route, our connection cities and times.  If we wait until they post our air, then it could get messy... what if we want nothing that they post?  

 

No thank you.  We will continue to use Air Plus.

 

This booking was just made this past weekend and we were not discouraged to add Air Plus.

We were also told not to go for air plus until we had received our initial. We were prepared to do air plus but the flights they offered got us in later and we didn’t want to give up the time in Prague so stayed with what we were assigned initially. We were surprised to find there are no seat assignments for two of our three flights to get to Prague and every time I contact Viking I get different information. Now it appears we are not able to get seat selection until 23 hours prior to departure. Quite frustrated by this and especially the amount of time that I’ve spent calling the different airlines and departments I have been directed to.

[CDNPolar]

1 minute ago, Cruiseworks said:

We were also told not to go for air plus until we had received our initial. We were prepared to do air plus but the flights they offered got us in later and we didn’t want to give up the time in Prague so stayed with what we were assigned initially. We were surprised to find there are no seat assignments for two of our three flights to get to Prague and every time I contact Viking I get different information. Now it appears we are not able to get seat selection until 23 hours prior to departure. Quite frustrated by this and especially the amount of time that I’ve spent calling the different airlines and departments I have been directed to.

 

One of the biggest problems now with Viking is that you get different information from each person you talk to.

 

We have not done dozens of cruises with Viking but I think we are at 7 or 8 now and we have learned certain things and ask/insist on some of these things and we always get them in spite of the different information.

 

It does not make sense to tell you not to go for Air Plus until you get your initial flights?  That makes no sense to me.  Air Plus is a service that Viking offers that you pay extra for. We have used Air Plus on every cruise and always been happy with the end result.  We have also always added it at the booking stage and scoped out and added our flights at the 280-300 days out range.

 

If Viking were to refuse me Air Plus then I would just book the air on my own - unless the deal was free air through Viking.

 

[Cruiseworks]

11 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

One of the biggest problems now with Viking is that you get different information from each person you talk to.

 

We have not done dozens of cruises with Viking but I think we are at 7 or 8 now and we have learned certain things and ask/insist on some of these things and we always get them in spite of the different information.

 

It does not make sense to tell you not to go for Air Plus until you get your initial flights?  That makes no sense to me.  Air Plus is a service that Viking offers that you pay extra for. We have used Air Plus on every cruise and always been happy with the end result.  We have also always added it at the booking stage and scoped out and added our flights at the 280-300 days out range.

 

If Viking were to refuse me Air Plus then I would just book the air on my own - unless the deal was free air through Viking.

 

Yes, we have always done our own air and I’m finding this to be quite stressful to not have any control over the flights and seating. It was free air, but somehow I thought that Viking with at the very least provide seat assignments in advance. Thanks for the advice based on your past experience, and we will look into that for the next trip for sure. 

[Squawkman]

37 minutes ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Apparently not for 11/9 - 12/12 per 3 Viking reps.  Or maybe just not for Business Class. 

Your original post said:  

 

On 6/7/2023 at 7:12 PM, Baron Barracuda said:

She put us on hold a dozen times while she spoke with air.  Finally came back and said Viking has no contracts with United, American or Jet Blue for NY-LA nonstops so they can't accommodate us at all.

You didn’t specify a time period or business class in your original post. you clearly stated Viking has no contracts for nonstops. We are flying nonstop EWR - LA economy outside your time window- which is our original assigned flight (no air+). 

[SJD117]

7 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

Your original post said:  

 

You didn’t specify a time period or business class in your original post. you clearly stated Viking has no contracts for nonstops. We are flying nonstop EWR - LA economy outside your time window- which is our original assigned flight (no air+). 

My experience with Viking Air + on another route (comment #12) suggests that some of the company’s air contracts may indeed distinguish between economy and business. Other than that observation, I have no dog in your quarrel about who said what to whom, “clearly” or otherwise.

[Squawkman]

18 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

My experience with Viking Air + on another route (comment #12) suggests that some of the company’s air contracts may indeed distinguish between economy and business. Other than that observation, I have no dog in your quarrel about who said what to whom, “clearly” or otherwise.

I’m not quarreling - Baron B did not state the specifics which make sense - another reader here viewed this as a quarrel. I was only trying to let readers know Viking does in fact provide nonstop NY to LA.

[HUNKY]

Viking probably has many convoluted arrangements with their air partners.

 

For example, paid extra for “premium economy” to Iceland from the US, with a return from Norway.  This was above free air.

 

US flights are on Delta in Comfort +, transatlantic on Icelandair in Saga Class, returning from Europe on Delta in Premium Economy.

 

For my premium economy flights, Icelandair has me in their Saga Class - Viking did not call it business.

 

I was not given any alternatives on MVJ when Viking booked nor ticketed my flights. 
 

Very satisfied for the $1,099 I paid.

 

Best I’ve found on my own is nearly $4,000

[CDR2001]

Cruiseworks.. “We were surprised to find there are no seat assignments for two of our three flights to get to Prague and every time I contact Viking I get different information. Now it appears we are not able to get seat selection until 23 hours prior to departure”

Are your flights ticketed? If so, I’ve always been able to get seats directly with the airline. I use the App but my friend calls the airline. If not ticketed yet, Ask (insist) that VA ticket your flights now. They will tell you that ticketing means any changes you request will have a hefty fee. 

[RonWY]

We have Iceland's Majestic Landscapes booked for about a year from now, which will be our third Viking Cruise. Haven't used Viking Air before, but have followed the information here and elsewhere. Decided to check the price, and it compares well to what we might be able to get on our own, but this way we can lock in a good price over a year in advance,

My experience today with two Viking reps was interesting. First rep I called just for information and pricing, including cost for Air Plus. No problem with Air Plus, and first rep said if Viking Air is cancelled Air Plus would also be refunded (not what I understood). Second rep, when we decided to go ahead and add Viking Air, was pretty agressive saying Air Plus wasn't necessary, etc., etc.. Second rep also said Air Plus was not refundable. She did reluctantly acknowledge Air Plus enables you to secure your booking at 310 days out. I will likely add Air Plus at some point.

Two points. First, contradictory information from two reps, and second the pushback on adding Air Plus. I suspect either there is guidance from 'on high' to reduce the number of people using Air Plus, or more likely Air Plus is on the way out. 

[LindaS272]

I don’t know that Air Plus is on the way out. Viking has added further capability for Viking Air in MVJ—changing seats, routing, etc. and I think they are pushing that over Air Plus.

 

Also, Air Plus allows you to “select” your booking 310 days out, if the airline has posted its schedule and if Viking has contracts with them—not “secure” it. It’s only “secured” when you’re ticketed. And even then, the airlines can continue to be confounding.

[Baron Barracuda]

23 hours ago, Squawkman said:

Your original post said:  

 

You didn’t specify a time period or business class in your original post. you clearly stated Viking has no contracts for nonstops. We are flying nonstop EWR - LA economy outside your time window- which is our original assigned flight (no air+). 

Not looking for an argument but take a look at post 4 and you'll see I clearly mentioned November 10 of this year and business class.  

[yotefan37]

On 6/8/2023 at 11:24 AM, CDNPolar said:

 

One of the biggest problems now with Viking is that you get different information from each person you talk to.

 

We have not done dozens of cruises with Viking but I think we are at 7 or 8 now and we have learned certain things and ask/insist on some of these things and we always get them in spite of the different information.

 

It does not make sense to tell you not to go for Air Plus until you get your initial flights?  That makes no sense to me.  Air Plus is a service that Viking offers that you pay extra for. We have used Air Plus on every cruise and always been happy with the end result.  We have also always added it at the booking stage and scoped out and added our flights at the 280-300 days out range.

 

If Viking were to refuse me Air Plus then I would just book the air on my own - unless the deal was free air through Viking.

 

 

CDNPolar, question about adding your flights 280-300 days out.  We're now 157 days out - have AirPlus with a deviation fee, and have upgraded to business.  Pleased with our flights.  However, we'd also like ensure that we secure the seats we want.  

 

When you add your flights that early, how early do you insist they are ticketed?  We are confident that we won't be changing our itinerary (but understand the airline could).  Also, if the airline makes a significant change to the itinerary, could that result in more cost to us?

 

TIA

[Baron Barracuda]

3 hours ago, yotefan37 said:

 

CDNPolar, question about adding your flights 280-300 days out.  We're now 157 days out - have AirPlus with a deviation fee, and have upgraded to business.  Pleased with our flights.  However, we'd also like ensure that we secure the seats we want.  

 

When you add your flights that early, how early do you insist they are ticketed?  We are confident that we won't be changing our itinerary (but understand the airline could).  Also, if the airline makes a significant change to the itinerary, could that result in more cost to us?

 

TIA

The last two times we paid Viking Air deviation fee (not including the one I discussed above) the air rep got us the seats we wanted at time of booking.  This was many months before tickets were actually paid for.