Mike07

Interestingly enough, when you do get on your Viking Cruise (you've mentioned it elsewhere where you're off to... maybe Chilean Fjords during the reposition for the Antarctic season.... nobody cares how you got to the cruise ship. I wish there were a way to DM or email people. Otherwise, you're alright island lady and you could hit me up and I'd try to answer your questions as best I could.

So, when you're dealing with Flyer, words matter and first class and business class are two different and distinct products.

I was thinking that... any of us can now become the majority shareholder of VIK.... though if we had that kind of money, we probably wouldn't be sailing Viking either.

274 days out is a long time. I've never seen a 50%+ full plane 9 months out from departure. Maybe the 2024 Olympics could have been like that. I'm curious as to the seat availability if you were to go to the carrier's webpage and book yourself a seat on that plane.

Have only been on Viking River ships and my guess is that space is such a premium that they can't do tables for two. Plus, the ship is so small it's much easier to mingle. Though, I can appreciate the challenges of people with hearing difficulties as the dining rooms are not that big

In terms of V versus O... competition is good and at least it keeps both on their feet.

And we don't know.... any number of factors could have affected that itinerary since we have not seen, nor are we entitled to see, Viking's air contracts with the carriers. There are still 8 months left in the year, and thus, plenty of time for us to continue to debate the wonders and surprises of Viking Air and itineraries with less than ideal time, cattle class seats when business air still has free seats, and routes that could be non-stop but have connections. I guess this is CC Viking's version of the gratuities debate that comes up in many other subs here.

A few people here claim to have gotten their first choice, non-stop flight from their home airport to their destination from Viking Air... I'm unsure if they used Air Plus or had to pay extra for said non-stop flight. But, my personal opinion is that Viking Air opts for the cheapest contracted flights they can find for their guests without unreasonable layover times... my max layover has been about 5 hours, so 3 fewer hours than 8 hours and 7 fewer hours than 12 hours.

You may have to pay the difference between the provided discounted or free Viking Air flight and the non-stop flight. The non-stop flight could be the cheapest, but that is less likely as its everybodies preference to have a non-stop flight.

When you're booking Viking Air, especially free air, I always suspect that Viking sticks you with the cheapest contracted flights that they can get you. Unfortunately, that doesn't always guarantee non-stop flights. We may need to get a stickied thread going on "Viking Air", because many people don't understand it or have champagne tastes on beer budgets.

What do you mean by this?

I'm not one that needs wine or beer at lunch or dinner. Though, I know some households that open a bottle of wine almost every evening meal. Truth be told, I think alcohol consumption would plummet on a Viking ship if said drinks were with a package or by the glass/bottle. When TH says Viking is for the "thinking" crowd, sometimes I roll my eyes as the lectures are too basic, IMHO. But, I would say the crowd Viking attracts is not really the drink, smoke, and joke crowd either. I don't really envision the Viking crowd to be the ones that are on Viking one week and then down in Margaritaville the rest of the time trying to stay forever young and soaking up the sun.

With the way Viking river cruises are organized... I agree. I tend to drink 3-4 cokes at lunch to get rehydrated and take the caffeine.

Agreed... Big box offers 3% back in travel on their Citi branded card. While I normally do e-check, I had a last-minute trip pop up and paid for it via my card. Can confirm that the Viking merchant code Viking used activated the 3% travel bonus.

I would hope that VIK is thinking of stuff they could do for stockholders, but my gut tells me it won't be OBC. The reason being is that for many of us, we're not spending tons of money on-board, because VIK is all-inclusive (we have a different thread if you want to debate "all-inclusive"; though that thread might have been mod-locked and deleted, b/c it became so contentious) My guess with CCL, RCCI, and NCLH is that they're betting that you spend on the monies on alcohol, SD, gift shop, ShoreX, etc. Maybe VIK could do a discount of $100 or $200 for a charged port excursion? IDK.... I do know that getting a bunch of Viking jackets is going to get old.

Same -- the reason being is that you don't know OBCs will be added mid-cruise for missed ports or calamities that happen on the ship. There is only one time I think a reader here might consider pre-paying gratuities, and that is on a Viking river ship since pre-payment is charged in USD and onboard, it's charged in Euros. So, there are a few dollars savings there.

Not sure where you're getting said list. if it's from this site, it's but a pittance of total cruisers worldwide. I forget how many tens of thousands of cruisers per day travel through Port of Miami and Port Everglades every day.... often to embark on an unremarkable Caribbean cruise. The ships need bottoms in beds. Otherwise, they're not making money.

I agree. Eventually people will get burned out by cruising. Some won't, but every cruise I'm on, you increasingly realize the experiences are quite similar but with different views.

Viking Air is a contentious topic that has been debated ad nauseum in dozens of threads at many different angles. It doesn't work for everybody.

Patient Zero that then led to this bump

Yeah, so to sum hundreds of hours of Fighting on this board.... Viking Air is not for you.

And they're not necessarily the best possible flights in terms of time and layovers.

Absent of the Olympics, I wouldn't consider 5 months out to be "booking late" on airfare. I think most carrier schedules go up about 330 days out.

Completely agree. Don't buy as an expression of loyalty. It's an investment, nothing more, nothing less. VIK will get wrapped into a lot of index funds already on day one.