Another challenge with Viking's Air

We've booked our first river cruise on Viking and are very excited about giving this style of cruising a try. From what we've heard, we expect it will be great. We just wish the pre-trip service we experienced regarding Viking's air arrangements could have been a good experience. It wasn't. In fact, we have ended up wondering if guest satisfaction is a Viking priority.

The problem was Viking's policy not to add flights to and from their air gateway locations. We have to fly to get to the closest gateway city and expected that by paying the cost of the included air plus all the extra fees ($150 pp) for deviation of the date and custom air (what Viking calls Air Plus), we could (at cost) add the legs needed to leave from and return to our local airport on a single ticket. Turns out we were wrong - this is not something Viking would do for us.

Our river cruise is in December when it is not uncommon for flights to be delayed in our area due to the weather. As a result, we are not comfortable travelling with separate tickets for the legs in and out of our city. If the weather is bad and we are delayed, we could easily miss our flight out of the gateway airport and, so close to Christmas, could find it rather difficult to make new arrangements on the spot (not to mention costly). It would be a terrible way to start a special Christmas vacation. Conversely, when all flights in one direction are booked on one ticket and you are delayed, the airlines will do what they need to do to re-book you. With two tickets for one direction, you are out of luck if you have a weather delay and miss the first flight on your next ticket.

We would have happily paid the extra cost of the legs needed to get to and from the gateway (we certainly didn't expect Viking to add them any other way) and we were very willing to pay the $150pp in Viking's fees. So, it wasn't a matter of extra cost for Viking. In fact, we don't see that Viking would have encountered any negatives if they arranged the extra legs as part of our booking; but, there certainly were going to be downsides for us!

From our point of view, the issue here all centers on flexibility as a means of ensuring service satisfaction. It feels like Viking either doesn't care about customer service or, with their deal for air at $395 pp, perhaps they are looking for ways to discourage people from using it as this might be costing them a fair amount. It was a shock to discover this problem given how Viking describes its Air Plus program online - it certainly sounded much more flexible and oriented to accommodating guests' needs.

We have now booked our own flights and are paying many hundreds of dollars more than we would have if we could have used Viking's air. The end result? If we love our river cruise, as we expect we will, we won't be booking another one as soon as we might have given how much of our vacation budget has now gone into buying our own flights. And, when we do book another cruise, we'll be checking in advance to see if it will be possible to get all the flights we need on one ticket.

I have two hopes in sharing this: (1) I hope others considering a first river cruise on Viking learn the limitations of their custom air arrangements before they book (perhaps other lines are exactly the same which will be a shame as it is a barrier to booking and enjoying the full vacation experience but, as this is our 1st river cruise, this problem was new to us); and (2) I hope Viking revisits its policy and makes a change so other don't experience what we have encountered.

I am a little confused. I know the $395 air is from gateway cities only and you don't live in one of those cities. We don't either, but when we book our cruise Viking always quotes the air price from our home airport. That doesn't have anything to do with custom air or deviation fees. For instance if the promotion air is $395 from selected gateways and we are flying out of Cincinnati (not one of the listed gateways) we paid the $395 plus an additional $150 to fly out of Cincinnati for a total of $545. Then after the booking if I want to fly on different dates there is a $100 air deviation fee and if I want to pick my own flights then I can opt for Custom Air for $50.

Did you tell Viking at the time of booking where you wanted to fly from? If so they would have quoted you a price for air from there before you even booked. It sounds like you booked your cruise with air from one of the gateway cities and then attempted to change your departure point. Is that what happened? If that's the case then I don't think you can really blame Viking for that.

Thanks for your input. But, now I'm confused! We were trying to do exactly what you did and out TA told us that Viking would not consider adding the leg to our home airport onto their $395 included air deal. Both of the routing offers from Viking were based on the gateway and not our location. From the very beginning we were talking about needing to fly in and out of our home airport and our booking address on file is in our local city, not the closest gateway. So I have no idea why they would do this for you and not for us. Maybe things have changed and a new policy has kicked in? or???

Carnivale,

You need to get a new T.A. She doesn't know what she is doing! :eek:

TellUs@vikingcruises.com

The lead of the air department resolved my issue for my upcoming trip, although the way they handle air reservations is not to my liking.

Viking is notorious for bad air policy. I'm in the "business". I know.

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Like Di Princess, I think the problem may lie with your TA, as I had nothing but good experience getting flights I wanted from Viking air. I was aware of the added fees for air plus and deviation and paid them to allow me to book my choices

I echo others-- this is a TA misunderstanding. Viking very clearly advertises flights "from $xyz" which are from the gateway cities. You can switch to a more conveniently located airport for the increased cost, like others referenced above.

Carnivale,

You need to get a new T.A. She doesn't know what she is doing! :eek:

I agree!! This is the TA's error.

Waiting to see what happens with ours as we booked directly with Viking and the agent lists our home airport on our booking agreement for Viking air. Our home airport is not one of the gateway cities. I asked twice and the Viking agent confirmed it would be to and from our home airport (Portland, Maine).

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Many thanks to all who posted - it is so useful to have feedback from those who know this cruise line.

I'm going to take up twototravel's suggestion and email Viking to find out more. I raised my concern and dismay about the lack of a single ticket for departure from my local airport with my TA several times and she was very clear that Viking could not book air out of my local airport as it isn't a gateway. It does appear that something somewhere has fallen off the rails, so to speak.

If I might get your input on one more question related to all of this: Are any of you who have had Viking book flights out of your local airport that is not a gateway using one of their $395 airfare deals flying out of Canada? I ask as I wonder if perhaps there are different provisions for those of us in Canada?

Thanks again to those who have responded here.

Rather than run the risk of missing my International flight (we live in Rural Oregon) we ALWAYS fly to our departure airport the night before, spend the nite and fly out the next morning.

It only takes one time of a commuter flight having issues or having a weight & balance problem leaving luggage and or passengers behind to ruin an international trip. In our case Award Air in First Class. We now always get to our International Gateway, stay at an airport Hilton product and then fly direct.

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Many thanks to all who posted - it is so useful to have feedback from those who know this cruise line.

 

I'm going to take up twototravel's suggestion and email Viking to find out more. I raised my concern and dismay about the lack of a single ticket for departure from my local airport with my TA several times and she was very clear that Viking could not book air out of my local airport as it isn't a gateway. It does appear that something somewhere has fallen off the rails, so to speak.

 

If I might get your input on one more question related to all of this: Are any of you who have had Viking book flights out of your local airport that is not a gateway using one of their $395 airfare deals flying out of Canada? I ask as I wonder if perhaps there are different provisions for those of us in Canada?

 

Thanks again to those who have responded here.

May have solved the mystery. We have no knowledge of Canadian policies. I'm guessing you are flying from a US gateway but wanted to fly out of a Canadian airport to that US gateway. That may well be the issue with Viking but if so your TA should have made that clear on the front end.

This is why it's helpful to put some indication of where you are from in your Cruise Critic profile. We don't need to know the city, but if it at least said Canada you would have gotten more tailored answers from the get-go.

We are flying out of a Canadian city to a Canadian gateway so all of the booking would originate in Canada.

I was impressed that after sending an email to the suggested address on Friday later in the day I had a voice message from someone at Viking Air asking to speak with me. That level of responsiveness is great and I hope that by speaking with her things will get clearer.

Rather than run the risk of missing my International flight (we live in Rural Oregon) we ALWAYS fly to our departure airport the night before, spend the nite and fly out the next morning.

It only takes one time of a commuter flight having issues or having a weight & balance problem leaving luggage and or passengers behind to ruin an international trip. In our case Award Air in First Class. We now always get to our International Gateway, stay at an airport Hilton product and then fly direct.

 

 

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We always do this too. One extra night before and after scheduled departure. We live in Atlanta but our SmarTours flight leaves out of JFK. We fly up the day before and no stress should our flight be late getting from Atlanta to JFK. Totally worth another hotel night for peace of mind.

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Waiting to see what happens with ours as we booked directly with Viking and the agent lists our home airport on our booking agreement for Viking air. Our home airport is not one of the gateway cities. I asked twice and the Viking agent confirmed it would be to and from our home airport (Portland, Maine).

 

 

I agree, I said the same thing, they wanted me to fly from RDU which is 110 miles from my home... I said no, I am not driving 2 hours to the airport when we have one 15 miles... I want from my home airport. He said he looked and ok, it could work. I wish I had recorded everything. We shall see :)

I hesitate to respond but I'll go for it anyway. I had my own problems with seat assignments not being honored after paying the $50 Custom air surcharge. I blame that on the airlines and not Viking though. Long story. Leg room on an 8 hour flight can be tedious. No matter which airline you choose.

My own experience with using a gateway airport (RDU) was a good experience. Sure, I could have paid more but I did the math in my head and it was a whole lot cheaper to drive to the gateway airport than deviate. I drove down the day before, had the airport limo take me to the airport the next day while leaving my car at the hotel for no charge. On our return flight we were delayed, called the hotel and they held over the limo driver to meet us after midnight. So for somewhere around $200 for 2 stays at a hotel I drove maybe 4 hours and used maybe a half tank (or less) of gas. A lot less than $800.

I guess it's all in what is important to you. BTW, this was a Christmas market cruise in December so weather could have been a factor but it wasn't.

Either way, just deal with the flights and the cruise will prove to you that it was all worth it in the end.

Not cruising until October, Viking cruise included air, Buffalo is not a hub, but Viking included it at no extra cost, I didn't like the return trip, and for $50 changed to a better return, of course this was done before the flights were ticketed. Asked for them to be ticketed after the return flight change and got Delta comfort thru the airlines web site, both ways for just $200. Again TA did the change of return flight, I did the up grade myself.

I am from Ottawa Canada and will soon be going on our second cruise with Viking. We too got the cheap flight deal and for the usual extra costs have been booked on exactly the flights we wanted and on the days we wanted and on the routes we wanted. We included an overnight stop. Viking, at our TA's prompting, made the air bookings and issued the tickets early so that we could reserve two of the seats with more legroom as our mobility is limited. We did the same on our first cruise.

I agree that having a good TA is vital.