Changing flights in MVJ

[Squawkman]

While the flights we were assigned were OK, last night I decided to take a look at our air choices on MVJ. I found better flights on a different airline (United) where we have frequent flyer accounts for $154pp. During the process, we discovered the few economy seats offered would not work for us. This morning, I thought about it again and realized these flights were significantly better - and we should just take whatever seats we could and then change them on United’s website. The only seat upgrades offered by Viking in MVJ were to business class at $3,500pp - not worth it to us. Now here comes the interesting part:

 

The cost this morning was now $14 each! So I started the process but was stopped after filling out the payment screen as the flight was now “sold out”. So I thought a bit, and figured it wouldn’t hurt to check for other alternative fights. So I start the process over again and - lo and behold - these same flights are available again - at a cost of $74 each! So I paid Viking, got the flights, and then went on to United’s site where I was able to upgrade to decent “preferred economy” seats for $51pp per flight. The only standard economy seats offered by United were the same exact undesirable seats offered by Viking.

 

Has anyone else experienced anything like these Viking price changes?

[OneSixtyToOne]

Grabbing popcorn and awaiting @FlyTalker reply

[CDNPolar]

37 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

 

 

Has anyone else experienced anything like these Viking price changes?

 

We have always purchased Air Plus before.  This is the first time we have not and we are anticipating flights to be populated in about 60 days.  That is when we will be looking at all of this, so I am excited to see where this goes with other experience.

[FlyerTalker]

Just now, OneSixtyToOne said:

Grabbing popcorn and awaiting @FlyTalker reply

 

Ask and ye shall receive.

 

Those aren't "Viking price changes".  They are a result of dynamic inventory availability and pricing.

 

First key is to remember that what you have available through Viking (or any cruiseline) is merely a subset of the overall inventory and pricing available from the airline directly.  As such, it may be many different forms of inventory (and of pricing).  A not-so-brief explainer coming up.

 

The first type may be a "hard block".  This is a fixed number of seats, sold by the carrier to the cruiseline.  It's now up to the cruiseline to determine their retail price, given that they have already purchased the seats for their resale.

 

It could be a "soft block", where the cruiseline agrees to a certain number of seats, but has the ability to return all or part of any unsold inventory back to the airline under pre-agreed terms.

 

Another form is "moving block", where the inventory block may vary depending on pre-negotiated conditions.  As inventory systems become more and more dynamic, this is becoming more prevalent in the airline industry.  Inventory may be added, or removed, due to conditions of the overall yield management of a specific flight or flights.

 

An airline may also give the cruiseline "free sale" or "open sale", which means that they have full rights to sell all seats and all inventory.  This is usually at the spot market price for tickets, and tends to fill out the gaps when contract blocks become unavailable (usually because the agreed upon block has been sold).  There may be contract provisions where the airline can stop or limit this type of sale.

 

Since the specifics of airline contracts is a trade secret of both parties, one can only make informed guesses as to what's happening behind the scenes.

 

I'm going to guess that you got into a moving block situation - tickets were available, then they were available at a lower price, then they weren't, then they were, at still a different price.  Highly indicative of changes in inventory.  Which can be because of ticket sales through Viking or because of yield management calculations by the airline, or both.

 

Also, it's important to remember....airline tickets are not like the box of cereal on the grocery shelf.  They have different fare rules, are associated with different fare buckets, and have dynamically variable quantities available at any given time.  Trying to compare them with products that are not dynamically priced is a waste of time.

 

So, to the OP:  Congratulations.  This time the system worked out for you.  You lost out on inventory, found it again, and had the price be lower than what you would have paid originally.
 

 

[Mike07]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Since the specifics of airline contracts is a trade secret of both parties, one can only make informed guesses as to what's happening behind the scenes.

 

 

 

 

There you go.

 

We have no idea how Viking Air selects flights.

[CCWineLover]

3 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Ask and ye shall receive.

 

Those aren't "Viking price changes".  They are a result of dynamic inventory availability and pricing.

 

First key is to remember that what you have available through Viking (or any cruiseline) is merely a subset of the overall inventory and pricing available from the airline directly.  As such, it may be many different forms of inventory (and of pricing).  A not-so-brief explainer coming up.

 

The first type may be a "hard block".  This is a fixed number of seats, sold by the carrier to the cruiseline.  It's now up to the cruiseline to determine their retail price, given that they have already purchased the seats for their resale.

 

It could be a "soft block", where the cruiseline agrees to a certain number of seats, but has the ability to return all or part of any unsold inventory back to the airline under pre-agreed terms.

 

Another form is "moving block", where the inventory block may vary depending on pre-negotiated conditions.  As inventory systems become more and more dynamic, this is becoming more prevalent in the airline industry.  Inventory may be added, or removed, due to conditions of the overall yield management of a specific flight or flights.

 

An airline may also give the cruiseline "free sale" or "open sale", which means that they have full rights to sell all seats and all inventory.  This is usually at the spot market price for tickets, and tends to fill out the gaps when contract blocks become unavailable (usually because the agreed upon block has been sold).  There may be contract provisions where the airline can stop or limit this type of sale.

 

Since the specifics of airline contracts is a trade secret of both parties, one can only make informed guesses as to what's happening behind the scenes.

 

I'm going to guess that you got into a moving block situation - tickets were available, then they were available at a lower price, then they weren't, then they were, at still a different price.  Highly indicative of changes in inventory.  Which can be because of ticket sales through Viking or because of yield management calculations by the airline, or both.

 

Also, it's important to remember....airline tickets are not like the box of cereal on the grocery shelf.  They have different fare rules, are associated with different fare buckets, and have dynamically variable quantities available at any given time.  Trying to compare them with products that are not dynamically priced is a waste of time.

 

So, to the OP:  Congratulations.  This time the system worked out for you.  You lost out on inventory, found it again, and had the price be lower than what you would have paid originally.
 

 

Amazing rendition and explanation.  Well worth the popcorn!  🙂

Thank you so much.

This should be required reading for the many people who continually complain about Viking Air choices and changes and blame Viking all the time.

[FlyerTalker]

29 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Amazing rendition and explanation.  Well worth the popcorn!  🙂

Thank you so much.

This should be required reading for the many people who continually complain about Viking Air choices and changes and blame Viking all the time.

 

You are very welcome.

 

The most important parts are:

 

First key is to remember that what you have available through Viking (or any cruiseline) is merely a subset of the overall inventory and pricing available from the airline directly.  As such, it may be many different forms of inventory (and of pricing).

 

and

 

Also, it's important to remember....airline tickets are not like the box of cereal on the grocery shelf.  They have different fare rules, are associated with different fare buckets, and have dynamically variable quantities available at any given time.  Trying to compare them with products that are not dynamically priced is a waste of time.

 

 

[CDNPolar]

13 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Ask and ye shall receive.

 

Those aren't "Viking price changes".  They are a result of dynamic inventory availability and pricing.

 

First key is to remember that what you have available through Viking (or any cruiseline) is merely a subset of the overall inventory and pricing available from the airline directly.  As such, it may be many different forms of inventory (and of pricing).  A not-so-brief explainer coming up.

 

The first type may be a "hard block".  This is a fixed number of seats, sold by the carrier to the cruiseline.  It's now up to the cruiseline to determine their retail price, given that they have already purchased the seats for their resale.

 

It could be a "soft block", where the cruiseline agrees to a certain number of seats, but has the ability to return all or part of any unsold inventory back to the airline under pre-agreed terms.

 

Another form is "moving block", where the inventory block may vary depending on pre-negotiated conditions.  As inventory systems become more and more dynamic, this is becoming more prevalent in the airline industry.  Inventory may be added, or removed, due to conditions of the overall yield management of a specific flight or flights.

 

An airline may also give the cruiseline "free sale" or "open sale", which means that they have full rights to sell all seats and all inventory.  This is usually at the spot market price for tickets, and tends to fill out the gaps when contract blocks become unavailable (usually because the agreed upon block has been sold).  There may be contract provisions where the airline can stop or limit this type of sale.

 

Since the specifics of airline contracts is a trade secret of both parties, one can only make informed guesses as to what's happening behind the scenes.

 

I'm going to guess that you got into a moving block situation - tickets were available, then they were available at a lower price, then they weren't, then they were, at still a different price.  Highly indicative of changes in inventory.  Which can be because of ticket sales through Viking or because of yield management calculations by the airline, or both.

 

Also, it's important to remember....airline tickets are not like the box of cereal on the grocery shelf.  They have different fare rules, are associated with different fare buckets, and have dynamically variable quantities available at any given time.  Trying to compare them with products that are not dynamically priced is a waste of time.

 

So, to the OP:  Congratulations.  This time the system worked out for you.  You lost out on inventory, found it again, and had the price be lower than what you would have paid originally.
 

 

 

10 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

You are very welcome.

 

The most important parts are:

 

First key is to remember that what you have available through Viking (or any cruiseline) is merely a subset of the overall inventory and pricing available from the airline directly.  As such, it may be many different forms of inventory (and of pricing).

 

and

 

Also, it's important to remember....airline tickets are not like the box of cereal on the grocery shelf.  They have different fare rules, are associated with different fare buckets, and have dynamically variable quantities available at any given time.  Trying to compare them with products that are not dynamically priced is a waste of time.

 

 

 

Thank you @FlyerTalker as I have learned so much from your explanations.  You have a great way of explaining these things in easy to understand terms. 

 

I work with a lot of online platforms (not travel related) that the pricing algorithms are so complicated that move with the time of day and the volume and the fees you are paying and so many elements that they are almost impossible to explain.

 

This should be required reading for anyone using Viking Air in MVJ.

[FlyerTalker]

One other thing to keep in mind.  It's not so much that the prices are changing, but rather then underlying inventory numbers change.

 

Prices, both for cruiseline air and for air from the carrier, are pretty well determined in advance.  Fares are "filed", that specify fare routings, rules and price.  Then each is coded with a fare designator, so that each ticket is tied to a specific "fare" (which is not the same as price).

 

Let's hypothetically say that XYZ sets 10 different fares between A and B.  These run at $20 intervals from $300 up.  So there are now fares at $300, $320, $340, $360, $380, $400, $420, $440, $460 and $480.  What happens now is that a certain number of tickets are put into the various "buckets".  Let's say you get a distribution of 10 in each to start.  People will start to buy the lowest cost ticket, so the $300 bucket sells out first.  Now, it's not that the price went up - it's that there is none for sale in the lowest bucket.  So it appears that they raised the price -- nope, the market snapped up the most discounted tickets and all that are left are higher priced ones.

 

Now, because yield management systems are so sophisticated, they can monitor how flights are selling and adjust so as to get the maximum return for the flight.  They do this by moving inventory between the various buckets.   A flight isn't selling well -- move seats into the lower buckets.  Higher than expected demand -- move inventory towards the higher buckets.  All done with very complex algorithms created by very bright mathematicians.

 

Which is why tickets from A to B are often priced differently.  More desirable flights have greater demand, resulting in tickets being in higher buckets.  That flight at 6am - seats move downward to try to stimulate demand there.

 

So, when you see prices "disappear", it's just that there is no longer availability at that dollar amount. And when you see it "appear" or drop, that's an inventory move - either because of cancellations or because YM says "add inventory".

 

 

[Squawkman]

Thank you again Flyer Talker! Your knowledge is a great asset for our group.

[OneSixtyToOne]

One other variable that I just encountered, equipment change. We had flights all set (not ticketed yet) then got a notification from the airline that the type of aircraft was changed and we had to confirm the changed leg or change flights. The change didn’t really impact our seats so we re-confirmed. We are now ticketed and ready to go.

 

Edited April 19 by OneSixtyToOne

[FetaCheese]

@FlyerTalker

Sorry, Not Viking, but a general air question.

 

Perhaps you can shed some facts/insights to this air newbie.  I finally have enough miles on AA to use/book a one-way MIA/PHL in December 2024 for a repo cruise on Oceania -- NYC/MIA. Have never booked using miles -- just a leisure flyer. (Not using O air, will Uber to Manhattan from Philly.)

 

I've been checking AA nonstops using miles.  Earlier in the week was 17K miles.  Yesterday 15.5K. Today 12K, for 2:30pm flight (preferred) or 9K for a later afternoon flight.  All nonstops.

 

Called AA, said I can cancel flight booked with miles, and miles would be replaced into account. (I would then be able to book with less miles, if they go lower, but don't know how long AA takes to replace miles).

 

Am tracking flight with Google flights, and fares have been reduced $20 or so, each of those days, more or less corresponding with miles reductions.

 

Any insight or advice will be appreciated.

 

Thanks, really have learned so much about fares/cruise contract fares and other nuances re: airfares, from your posts.

 

FetaCheese 

Edited April 20 by FetaCheese

[CDNPolar]

5 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

@FlyerTalker

Sorry, Not Viking, but a general air question.

 

Perhaps you can shed some facts/insights to this air newbie.  I finally have enough miles on AA to use/book a one-way MIA/PHL in December 2024 for a repo cruise on Oceania -- NYC/MIA. Have never booked using miles -- just a leisure flyer. (Not using O air, will Uber to Manhattan from Philly.)

 

I've been checking AA nonstops using miles.  Earlier in the week was 17K miles.  Yesterday 15.5K. Today 12K, for 2:30pm flight (preferred) or 9K for a later afternoon flight.  All nonstops.

 

Called AA, said I can cancel flight booked with miles, and miles would be replaced into account. (I would then be able to book with less miles, if they go lower, but don't know how long AA takes to replace miles).

 

Am tracking flight with Google flights, and fares have been reduced $20 or so, each of those days, more or less corresponding with miles reductions.

 

Any insight or advice will be appreciated.

 

Thanks, really have learned so much about fares/cruise contract fares and other nuances re: airfares, from your posts.

 

FetaCheese 

 

I know that you are looking for @FlyerTalker to respond...

 

We all want a deal and the best price or lowest miles possible, but when we book we select what we feel is the best deal that day, or we watch for a few days, but once we book, we don't look back.  I never want to have remorse thinking that if I had waited I would have saved $$ or miles.  

 

I have a friend that constantly surfs all these sites looking for the best deal and he holds out so long he usually ends up paying more than the deal he could have had in the first search.  He will only admit that quietly on the side....

[Squawkman]

FetaCheese - I’m sure @FlyerTalker could explain the air issues - I just want you to be aware of cost and traffic issues you may face Uber-ing to Manhattan. You may want to consider using Amtrak from Philly to NYC as the cruise piers are a short cab ride from Penn Station. In fact, you could walk to the piers - it’s about 1.5 miles. If you’re over 62 and want to save some $$$, you can switch trains to NJ Transit in Trenton (same platform) and pay a lot less as seniors get a 50+% discount - and NJ Transit is cheaper to begin with.

[FetaCheese]

12 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

FetaCheese - I’m sure @FlyerTalker could explain the air issues - I just want you to be aware of cost and traffic issues you may face Uber-ing to Manhattan. You may want to consider using Amtrak from Philly to NYC as the cruise piers are a short cab ride from Penn Station. In fact, you could walk to the piers - it’s about 1.5 miles. If you’re over 62 and want to save some $$$, you can switch trains to NJ Transit in Trenton (same platform) and pay a lot less as seniors get a 50+% discount - and NJ Transit is cheaper to begin with.

@Squawkman

Thank you for the information and advice.  Not really convenient to 30th Street, so would have to get there (taxi or friend/family), and at this stage in life, I do not want to handle luggage myself, and do not mind paying for door to door.  Since not using Oceania air, allowance was $700 pp, so still saving some money.

 

Will reserve Uber in advance (now up to 90 days), and when reserving in advance, a more experienced driver is assigned.  Will allow plenty of time for traffic issues.  Have used Uber successfully several times.  Actually, our 1st ever Uber trip was from JFK to home, due to a weather related flight CXL (ironically was from an Oceania cruise with air.)  Was the only flight JFK/PHL that day.

 

Was expensive, but covered by travel insurance.  After ordering Uber, guy was there in about 3-4 minutes.  In my experience, there are Uber drivers who want longer trips.

[lackcreativity]

On 4/18/2024 at 3:54 PM, CDNPolar said:

 

We have always purchased Air Plus before.  This is the first time we have not and we are anticipating flights to be populated in about 60 days.  That is when we will be looking at all of this, so I am excited to see where this goes with other experience.

We have always purchased Viking Air, but for the first time I felt we did not get any value from it for our trip this June. For the itinerary I wanted, from our usual gateway on our usual British Airways through Heathrow, they wanted to charge us another $500 to $700 pp depending on when we called.

 

The flights they picked seemed ridiculous: outbound we fly from Baltimore to Detroit to Paris to Lyon, and the return leg is similar to our preferred route (Marseille to LHR to BWI). The only reason we accepted that is based on favorable timing. The trip to France will take place during daytime hours, departing at 10:50 AM. I will accept some inconvenience to avoid those overnight flights in coach! 

 

My overall point is that since Covid (I know, tired of hearing that) air travel just seems in turmoil. Even our routine trips from Baltimore to Boston are much more expensive than they used to be.

[rbslos18]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:10 AM, FlyerTalker said:

One other thing to keep in mind.  It's not so much that the prices are changing, but rather then underlying inventory numbers change.

 

Prices, both for cruiseline air and for air from the carrier, are pretty well determined in advance.  Fares are "filed", that specify fare routings, rules and price.  Then each is coded with a fare designator, so that each ticket is tied to a specific "fare" (which is not the same as price).

 

Let's hypothetically say that XYZ sets 10 different fares between A and B.  These run at $20 intervals from $300 up.  So there are now fares at $300, $320, $340, $360, $380, $400, $420, $440, $460 and $480.  What happens now is that a certain number of tickets are put into the various "buckets".  Let's say you get a distribution of 10 in each to start.  People will start to buy the lowest cost ticket, so the $300 bucket sells out first.  Now, it's not that the price went up - it's that there is none for sale in the lowest bucket.  So it appears that they raised the price -- nope, the market snapped up the most discounted tickets and all that are left are higher priced ones.

 

Now, because yield management systems are so sophisticated, they can monitor how flights are selling and adjust so as to get the maximum return for the flight.  They do this by moving inventory between the various buckets.   A flight isn't selling well -- move seats into the lower buckets.  Higher than expected demand -- move inventory towards the higher buckets.  All done with very complex algorithms created by very bright mathematicians.

 

Which is why tickets from A to B are often priced differently.  More desirable flights have greater demand, resulting in tickets being in higher buckets.  That flight at 6am - seats move downward to try to stimulate demand there.

 

So, when you see prices "disappear", it's just that there is no longer availability at that dollar amount. And when you see it "appear" or drop, that's an inventory move - either because of cancellations or because YM says "add inventory".

 

 

@FlyerTalker you are a wealth on knowledge! Are there any circumstances when you would use Viking Air.

[FlyerTalker]

21 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

I finally have enough miles on AA to use/book a one-way MIA/PHL in December 2024 for a repo cruise on Oceania -- NYC/MIA. Have never booked using miles -- just a leisure flyer. (Not using O air, will Uber to Manhattan from Philly.)

 

No disrespect, but what are you smoking?

 

An uber from PHL to New York will be at least $200 dollars.  For that, you could just fly from Miami.  Is there some other factor at play here?

 

21 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

I've been checking AA nonstops using miles.  Earlier in the week was 17K miles.  Yesterday 15.5K. Today 12K, for 2:30pm flight (preferred) or 9K for a later afternoon flight.  All nonstops.

 

Called AA, said I can cancel flight booked with miles, and miles would be replaced into account. (I would then be able to book with less miles, if they go lower, but don't know how long AA takes to replace miles).

 

Why you would want to use miles for use a low cost trip is beyond me, unless you just want to get rid of them.  What kind of value are you getting from them?  Remember, this is NOT a free trip, as many think.  Miles/points are a form of alternative currency, given to you as a rebate for purchases.  So, are you getting an effective "exchange rate" for your miles?  Would you spend 12,000 miles for a ticket that costs only $90?  That's getting less than a penny of value back.

 

Yes, you can redeposit miles.  Then you need to have inventory available to book a new flight with miles in your account.  The redeposit usually happens within 48 hours, but you must have cancelled the trip more than 60 days before date of travel.  Otherwise, you are going through a manual process with an agent, and results may vary.

 

21 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

Any insight or advice will be appreciated.

 

Airlines want you to waste your mileage redemptions on low-value transactions.  Get value.

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

8 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

We have always purchased Viking Air, but for the first time I felt we did not get any value from it for our trip this June. For the itinerary I wanted, from our usual gateway on our usual British Airways through Heathrow, they wanted to charge us another $500 to $700 pp depending on when we called.

 

They are charging this because it's reflective of the price that THEY are having to pay for the ticket.  And there is no "usual" when it comes to contract air.

 

8 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

The flights they picked seemed ridiculous: outbound we fly from Baltimore to Detroit to Paris to Lyon, and the return leg is similar to our preferred route (Marseille to LHR to BWI). The only reason we accepted that is based on favorable timing. The trip to France will take place during daytime hours, departing at 10:50 AM. I will accept some inconvenience to avoid those overnight flights in coach!

 

Not unreasonable.  You are flying from a secondary USA airport (BWI) to a major SkyTeam hub (DTW) where you will get a transatlantic non-stop to a hub (CDG) that has numerous flights to Lyon (LYS).  Now, you want to know the likely reason you are NOT on BA to Lyon:

 

There is one flight a day from BWI to LHR, and it arrives around 9:30am.  Trouble is that BA usually only has two flights a day from LHR to LYS.  And the first leaves around 7:45am.  Oops...can't make that one.  And the next one leaves between 4:30 and 6:30pm.  So you would be sitting around the airport for 7 to 9 hours.  Do you want to do that?  Or did you just assume that there would be plenty of flights after you land at LHR?  Contrast with the 8 non-stops from CDG to LYS.

 

8 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

My overall point is that since Covid (I know, tired of hearing that) air travel just seems in turmoil. Even our routine trips from Baltimore to Boston are much more expensive than they used to be.

 

Just why is air travel "in turmoil"?  Is it because you are paying more for your tickets than before?  If so, that's a funny definition in my book.

 

Trust me....there isn't turmoil.  There is merely Econ 101 in action.

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, rbslos18 said:

@FlyerTalker you are a wealth on knowledge! Are there any circumstances when you would use Viking Air.

 

Yes.  When, all things considered it is the best alternative.  And that would likely be when it's being given to me at no cost.  Remember that Viking uses "free air" as a method to discount cruises without actually discounting the cruise itself.  I would need to know what is included in such offer, what are my options regarding travel on different dates, with different carriers and/or routings. Also what kind availability and cost for moving to either premium economy or business (depending on the flights).  I'd only fly in day of cruise if there was an easy set of "next few ports".

 

As for standard "cruise air" -- I have rarely found it to be a better deal overall FOR ME.  I can usually get a better "value" from my own choices.  And note, I didn't say better "price".  Big difference.

 

Now, a few caveats due to my personal situation, so folks will know where I am coming from.  I have no worries about getting an airline credit if situations change.  I will somehow use them.  Even credits on foreign carriers -- due to code shares and alliances, one could use foreign airline credits to buy flights on USA carriers for USA domestic routes.  Next, my financial situation is such that I don't need to worry about deferring air ticket payments until cruise payments are due.  Somewhat ties in with the first part -- it's just moving it from cash to a future flight or flight credit.  I am also particular about the carrier and aircraft configuration I'm going to be flying.  To me, it is NOT a commodity purchase.  There are great differences in product and I want what I want. I also prefer some airports over others.  Finally, my airline status on various carriers and on different alliances, and thus the benefits accrued, have a significant factor.

 

Now, for others, they may have different priorities.  And that is completely fine.  Just so that folks know what they are buying, and understand why they are making the choice they make.

 

So, to sum up for the original question:  There is no one blanket answer, either for myself or for others.  Which makes the process both fascinating and frustrating.  😀

 

 

[lackcreativity]

Flyer Talker,

 

Thanks for your input on my comments regarding Viking Air and our upcoming trip from Baltimore to France. Honestly, I was aware of much of what you said. In the past we would drive to Philadelphia or Washington to improve our flight options, but that became very tiresome in itself. I know well that for us there is only one preferred flight to Europe daily from BWI, and it is that British Airways flight to Heathrow. That was what I meant by our "usual" flight.

 

I know how much some people complain about LHR, but to us, it is familiar. I knew about the long layover, but had planned to check in to the adjacent hotel at the airport for a shower and maybe a nap. That might be less tiring that the three flight itinerary we were assigned by Viking. However, the upcharge of $500+ per person along with the cost of the hotel room was not acceptable for us.

 

We are not frequent flyers outside of one international trip a year and a couple of trips to Boston. To claim that air travel is in turmoil was an overstatement on my part. Supply and demand is certainly at play in the market now. It may be naive of me to expect to see prices from five years ago in the future!