Newbie questions about Viking flights

[carmel.1111]

All, his is my first cruise, which my in laws have generously paid for for my husband and me. We are doing a cruise in France at the end of October/ start of November and I have a couple of very basic questions about the air piece. 
 

They booked us flights to Paris from Chicago. However, we do not live in Chicago, and I want to add flights before and after from our hometown to Chicago, at our expense, to and back, so we do not land and have to drive several hours home. From my understanding, I am too close to our trip to use Viking Air for this?  The only reason I ask is that I have travelled internationally many times, but always booked all legs of my journey together, so if something was delayed everything was linked and taken care of.  If I find and book these flights separately I assume we just deal with any delays directly when we land if anything does go wrong, but how does that work if our other flights were booked through Viking (I.e., if we are delayed leaving Paris I assume Viking will help us rebook that leg, but then we’d have to separately deal with the second flight?)  

 

Also I assume there would be no way to check my bag through to PRI’s from my original departure point but we’d collect at O’Hare and check it again on the way out, or is there a way to link these reservations if we use the same airline? 

 

Please excuse likely dumb questions, but I’ve only ever booked my own travel before, and I have just been delayed many, many times on international flights and am trying to be proactive. 

[mskaufman]

If it's the same airline, I wonder if they will combine the reservation?

[CDNPolar]

12 hours ago, carmel.1111 said:

All, his is my first cruise, which my in laws have generously paid for for my husband and me. We are doing a cruise in France at the end of October/ start of November and I have a couple of very basic questions about the air piece. 
 

They booked us flights to Paris from Chicago. However, we do not live in Chicago, and I want to add flights before and after from our hometown to Chicago, at our expense, to and back, so we do not land and have to drive several hours home. From my understanding, I am too close to our trip to use Viking Air for this?  The only reason I ask is that I have travelled internationally many times, but always booked all legs of my journey together, so if something was delayed everything was linked and taken care of.  If I find and book these flights separately I assume we just deal with any delays directly when we land if anything does go wrong, but how does that work if our other flights were booked through Viking (I.e., if we are delayed leaving Paris I assume Viking will help us rebook that leg, but then we’d have to separately deal with the second flight?)  

 

Also I assume there would be no way to check my bag through to PRI’s from my original departure point but we’d collect at O’Hare and check it again on the way out, or is there a way to link these reservations if we use the same airline? 

 

Please excuse likely dumb questions, but I’ve only ever booked my own travel before, and I have just been delayed many, many times on international flights and am trying to be proactive. 

 

You or the person that booked this trip need to call Viking Air Plus and ask them a lot of questions, but beware that not every Viking Air Plus agent is wildly experienced.  You may have to call back and ask the same questions of another agent.

 

You have too many possibilities that can complicate this.

 

First, if the air is already ticketed - which is probably is - then any change will incur a change fee.  If you want to add, change, whatever, then you will pay the change fee.  Viking will make any changes before ticketing, but after you are on the hook for the airline change fees.

 

You are also talking about a whole new gateway starting city that you need airfare from going to Chicago, and depending on where you are coming from, the Air may not connect through Chicago.  They may have sent you through a different hub city.

 

And, yes, you are probably right, that if you have not booked the flights through one carrier all the way through, you would have to collect your bags and check them again, which means you have to have sufficient time to do all this which means potentially hours in the airport.  Unless you end up booking on the same airline and unless you get a very CONFIDENT YES, we can link these flights and send your luggage through, you will have to be careful that you don't arrive and have no luggage.  But, you will know this when they print your luggage tags, if they check all the way through.

 

And, yes, if you are booking flight segments on your own, you would have to deal with changes to those flights on your own.  If your Viking flight at the beginning of the trip is delayed, no problem, but if your flight home is delayed and then that causes you to miss your connection that you booked yourself, then you would have to deal with that yourself.  This will complicate your luggage too.

 

Good luck

[carmel.1111]

Thank you for the thoughts on this so far! I absolutely do not mind paying a change fee, I really just want to fly in and out of my home airport. 
 

So Viking Air Plus can still assist even though we are flying out sooner than 65 days? I honestly think it would have been so much simpler to book our own flights, but here we are. Once I personally had the info my understanding was they were already ticketed. 
 

Thank you again for any/ all thoughts! 

[CDNPolar]

2 hours ago, carmel.1111 said:

Thank you for the thoughts on this so far! I absolutely do not mind paying a change fee, I really just want to fly in and out of my home airport. 
 

So Viking Air Plus can still assist even though we are flying out sooner than 65 days? I honestly think it would have been so much simpler to book our own flights, but here we are. Once I personally had the info my understanding was they were already ticketed. 
 

Thank you again for any/ all thoughts! 

 

If Viking Air booked the flights you have out of Chicago now, then I would call them - yes.  They will make the changes and charge you the change fee.  But since you are now departing out of a different city than originally booked, I don't know how they are going to handle that.

 

Please report back so others can know what kind of response / fix you got.

[Deb922]

Questions 

How far is your home town from ORD? 
 

My personal opinion. 
 

if it’s less than 4 hours driving, at this last minute, I would drive. You can book a hotel near the airport if you feel it would be too late to drive. I feel that’s a better option than a possible lengthy layover to fly home from imo an airport that has frequent delays. 
 

Fly into ORD and you can drive home. Stay in a hotel and drive home the next day. I think it would be a minefield to change carriers and risk missing your connection on either side. 
 

Even if Viking air could change your flight, it’s going to cost. 
 

I'm assuming that the flight to Europe is a later in the day flight. I’m addressing the flights home because it’s the one that driving home after being awake so long is difficult for us. 
 

 

[TMLAalum]

Book your air r/t to ORD from your nearest airport arriving early the day you fly out and the morning after you return from Europe. Spend return night in hotel w/ free shuttle to/from ORD. 

Or, if you do drive, find an airport hotel with a park/fly package and spend the night you return from your river cruise there.

[carmel.1111]

Friends, hear was our resolution - and many, many thanks for your thoughts and comments. 
 

I spoke yesterday to Viking General Customer Service, who confirmed we already did have Viking Air Plus with our reservation, which I did not know for sure. Therefore, we were still able to use that service even though we are under 30 days from our reservation.  (I may be wrong, but I thought from the website description that if you didn’t already have ordered it 65 days out, you no longer had that service option.)

 

Today I spoke with Viking Air Plus. The rep was extremely polite, if a bit skeptical of my late request. I did pull up on my own our preferred flight modifications and then requested to see if they were available through Viking, versus having him suggest flights, although I think he would have gone through the options verbally if I had preferred.  
 

In the end, I was able to add a connecting flight from our city to our original ORD to CDG reservation, then change our entire flight home to connect through DC (IAD) to home. The fare change differential fees were $172 each person. The Viking change fees were $350 each person.  Worth it to us, given that this is otherwise a very generously gifted trip, but I understand these fees could easily have been avoided. According to my MIL,  her TA told her we had to fly from Chicago, but two Viking reps told me the trip through our home city would have been the same “included air” deal my in laws paid for within our trip costs had it been designated as the destination city for us at the outset. 
 

If anyone wants to add thoughts onto this, please do, but I want to thank everyone again! 
 

[carmel.1111]

Sorry, forgive my typos above. I was typing on my phone in a hurry 🙂 

[CDNPolar]

14 hours ago, carmel.1111 said:

Friends, hear was our resolution - and many, many thanks for your thoughts and comments. 
 

I spoke yesterday to Viking General Customer Service, who confirmed we already did have Viking Air Plus with our reservation, which I did not know for sure. Therefore, we were still able to use that service even though we are under 30 days from our reservation.  (I may be wrong, but I thought from the website description that if you didn’t already have ordered it 65 days out, you no longer had that service option.)

 

Today I spoke with Viking Air Plus. The rep was extremely polite, if a bit skeptical of my late request. I did pull up on my own our preferred flight modifications and then requested to see if they were available through Viking, versus having him suggest flights, although I think he would have gone through the options verbally if I had preferred.  
 

In the end, I was able to add a connecting flight from our city to our original ORD to CDG reservation, then change our entire flight home to connect through DC (IAD) to home. The fare change differential fees were $172 each person. The Viking change fees were $350 each person.  Worth it to us, given that this is otherwise a very generously gifted trip, but I understand these fees could easily have been avoided. According to my MIL,  her TA told her we had to fly from Chicago, but two Viking reps told me the trip through our home city would have been the same “included air” deal my in laws paid for within our trip costs had it been designated as the destination city for us at the outset. 
 

If anyone wants to add thoughts onto this, please do, but I want to thank everyone again! 
 

 

Wow... so happy you have this worked out, even if it cost you a few bucks to do so.

 

Having the air ALL as one reservation and through Viking is a real relief for you and much less hassle and anxiety than trying to coordinate two airlines or two flight schedules to match if there are any changes along the way.

 

Enjoy your cruise and please tell us about it when you get back!