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Midnight Sun Air


mariavii
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I am in the process of booking Midnight Sun for 2018 (Bergen to London). I have read most of the posts that have to do with Air but I have a few questions. My TA is great but I still want a little more "been-there, done-that" knowledge from the CC hive mind before I decide to not use Viking Air.

 

  1. PHL flights to Bergen. Does anyone have experience with this routing? Will Viking do anything other than Icelandair through KEF on both legs? Since we are returning from LHR, I really would prefer the non-stop AA or BA on the return. I'm not sure it's worth the extra 1.25 hr drive to get more options from EWR.
  2. What is the difference between Custom Air and Air Plus? TA said Viking offered AirPlus for our flights ($150pp) - is that just early confirmation of flights and seats? Is it worth It?

Any and all thoughts are appreciated!!

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I am in the process of booking Midnight Sun for 2018 (Bergen to London). I have read most of the posts that have to do with Air but I have a few questions. My TA is great but I still want a little more "been-there, done-that" knowledge from the CC hive mind before I decide to not use Viking Air.

 

  1. PHL flights to Bergen. Does anyone have experience with this routing? Will Viking do anything other than Icelandair through KEF on both legs? Since we are returning from LHR, I really would prefer the non-stop AA or BA on the return. I'm not sure it's worth the extra 1.25 hr drive to get more options from EWR.
  2. What is the difference between Custom Air and Air Plus? TA said Viking offered AirPlus for our flights ($150pp) - is that just early confirmation of flights and seats? Is it worth It?

Any and all thoughts are appreciated!!

 

Book air with Viking now because you can cancel it later; at least you have a back up plan if you don't find what you want at a price you are willing to pay. Your TA can find out from Viking the exact details of the cancellation policy for air, i.e., how many days in advance you must cancel in order to get a refund. Then start looking at what is out there for flight plans. If you book your own flights, you will have to worry about transfers but you should be able to buy them through Viking (something you will have to add to the cost of booking your own flights).

 

 

Yes, Viking might do better than routing you through KEF. We flew non-stop from Boston to London. If fact, we had two tickets, one RT BOS-LHR and second ticket for the one-way flight Bergen to London. We flew coach and my personal opinion is that you have more of chance to get non-stops if you fly coach versus business class when you book through Viking. I heard some of the routings that people were put on because they had chosen business class and they went all over the place. Also, the wisdom of this crowd is that most of the time, those who wish to fly business can do better booking on their own.

 

 

Viking does not offer Custom Air on itineraries that start or end in Bergen. Custom Air is the ability to have some say in your flights. You can extend your trip or choose to fly from Oslo ( $150 fee) but my understanding is (and Viking is constantly changing how this works) that you still get no say in what your flights will be. Hopefully someone who is on this cruise in 2018 can clarify what the current situation is

 

 

Not much difference flying out of PHL vs EWR so figure parking/shuttle and convenience into the pricing equation.

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Viking does not offer Custom Air on itineraries that start or end in Bergen. Custom Air is the ability to have some say in your flights. You can extend your trip or choose to fly from Oslo ( $150 fee) but my understanding is (and Viking is constantly changing how this works) that you still get no say in what your flights will be. Hopefully someone who is on this cruise in 2018 can clarify what the current situation is

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm a seasoned independent traveler, but new to Viking and how they do things so its a bit odd. I had read on the boards that there is no "Custom Air" with Bergen, but our tentative invoice has Air Plus listed and the fee so I'm wondering what that covers, and if anything has changed relative to Bergen and Custom Air. I'll add that to the list of question for the TA.

 

We are looking at Economy only for now to keep our options open.

 

What I am hoping to find out is if anyone who has flown/is booked PHL-BGO through Viking and was given in itinerary on anything other than Icelandair.

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I shall be taking the London to Bergen route in July. Although Viking offers a $500 off discount, I opted to do my own. Reason is the high Viking list price ($1795?) and extra cost for air deviation and ability to choose own flights. I also want to include a stop in Iceland and Norway in a Nutshell from Bergen to Oslo. I booked with Icelandair. The total fare is only $660 plus $125 luggage fee (includes $50 for the flight from Oslo to Iceland that every Viking Air customer must pay to fly to Iceland). Details of my flight are as follows:

1. EWR to LHR with one stop 1 hr 25 min stop in KEF (Reykjavik, Iceland),

2. OSL to KEF nonstop flight (from Oslo to Iceland), and finally

3. KEF to EWR nonstop flight back home.

You can use Expedia to search flights to/from PHL to get best price and route. My conclusion is better price and control by booking own air.

 

I shall be staying in Bergen, Oslo, and Reykjavik for a few nights each, just enough time to do all top sightseeing’s (per TripAdvisor). If you like, I would be happy to share more about these interesting things to do/see and guided day tours.

 

If you do not want to do Norway in A Nutshell (scenic fjords train/bus/hydrofoil ride), you can still take an express train to get to Bergen from Oslo. This way, you have a choice/control of better air arrangement and an opportunity to explore Oslo (to name a few: Bigdoy Island for Viking ship Museum, Polar Bear Museum, and Norwegian Cultural history Museum, and etc.).

 

The Viking Air includes complimentary airport transfer if you take the flights on the embarkation and disembarkation dates. Since the starting/ending ports are always interesting to warrant extended travel days, I do not always make good use of the complimentary airport transfer. Besides, there is always efficient and cost effective airport shuttle service available.

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Thanks for all the info. Due to the dearth of good flight options from PHL, we are booking RT on Icelandair with no KEF stopover. Just PHL-KEF-BGO; LHR-KEF-PHL arriving a day early in Bergen. We decided to book on our own because it was more reasonable...and our TA did NOT like the attitude of the Custom Air desk at Viking.

 

As much as we'd love to add extra time on both ends of the cruise, we have a finite amount of vacation time. And really...we have to leave ourselves a reason to visit again.

 

Booking these flights made me realize how lucky I was for the 20 years BOS was my home airport... 8 million ways to get anywhere in Europe!

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Another option to dramatically increase your air choices is to fly to Oslo and take the very scenic train ride to Bergen. We are doing the British Isles Explorer (Bergen to Greenwich), and were able to get very favorable flights on BA from JFK to OSL (via LHR of course) and then non-stop home from LHR to JFK. Viking Air was willing to work with us, but even with the discount their fares were considerably higher than booking with BA direct [even before I took the AARP and the 'points and cash' discounts with BA]. IIRC there were also good choices on Delta.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Be careful on choosing Icelandic Air. Everyone says their seats are the most uncomfortable of any airline. We just did a cruise that began in Reykjavik and we flew United but several passengers we traveled with got a great price from Icelandic, and they were disappointed in the quality of their flight. If you are flying business class you will be ok.

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Be careful on choosing Icelandic Air. Everyone says their seats are the most uncomfortable of any airline. We just did a cruise that began in Reykjavik and we flew United but several passengers we traveled with got a great price from Icelandic, and they were disappointed in the quality of their flight. If you are flying business class you will be ok.

 

They can't be any more uncomfortable than the first time I flew on Icelandic airlines--prop-jet from JFK--refueling stop in the middle of the night--then on to Luxembourg. It sounds like have upgrade the engines since then but are still using the same seats.

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My traveling companions (as I) had trouble sleeping on Icelandair - probably read comments from them on CC. They flew Wash DC to KEF and tried to sleep - very difficult. If you can, take a cushion, like one that fits on a kitchen or dining room chair - or SOMETHING to put under you. Also might want to take food, although they DO offer sandwiches on board. Ham and cheese on baguette wasn't bad, and they heat it up. Icelandair flights are only OK - or good for the price! Iceland, however, was incredible.

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  • 2 weeks later...
My traveling companions (as I) had trouble sleeping on Icelandair - probably read comments from them on CC. They flew Wash DC to KEF and tried to sleep - very difficult. If you can, take a cushion, like one that fits on a kitchen or dining room chair - or SOMETHING to put under you.

Thanks for your suggestion. I bought Therm a Rest seat cushion from Amazon. It it light and compact. It weighs only 5-6 oz, and you can roll it up.

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  • 1 month later...

I am also on the Midnight Sun cruise in July 2018 from London to Bergen. The cruise ends in Bergen on Aug 7, with the itinerary showing we are in Bergen on the 6th as well. We called Viking, and they said the embarcation wasn't until 9 am on the 7th - which means we couldn't get flights until noon or so. Is that what others have experienced? It seems odd that if we are in port for 2 days, that we couldn't leave as early as we want to.

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It sounds odd, and I'm wondering if that's the time that everyone is supposed to be off the ship - i.e., the latest you can get off. While Viking DOES take care of luggage and immigration arrangements that day, I can't imagine they would hold people until 9 that day. I'd call, explain you're going to be traveling (flying) as an independent guest, and ask them if they know in advance what the earliest time is that you can leave the ship on the 7th. You may also want to confirm that if you put your luggage outside your door by the specified time the night before, it will be taken off the ship by Viking personnel. When we cruised in June, I believe everyone was asked to disembark by 9 (and it's DISembarkation when you leave), I don't remember a specific time "start" time for disembarkation. I DO remember that they had breakfast open quite early for the early risers, but since you'll likely have plenty of time to kill in the airport, that may not be important to you!

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They can't be any more uncomfortable than the first time I flew on Icelandic airlines--prop-jet from JFK--refueling stop in the middle of the night--then on to Luxembourg. It sounds like have upgrade the engines since then but are still using the same seats.

Yes, I think Icelandair has come a long way. I remember years ago when they first came out with flights from the Washington/Baltimore area, I SO wanted to go to Iceland! The flights (and opportunities to fly to Europe) were so tempting, although of course any cheap flight can have a minus or two to outweigh the plus!

 

The flight back from Bergen to Reykjavik in June was unusual. The plane made a stop in Trondheim, Norway where I believe people could board but people flying on to Reykjavik could not get off. One of the flight attendants had to go up the aisle, asking people to identify each bag in each overhead compartment. I never found out if that was a security requirement or what and I had never experienced anything like that. It was no big deal, but it DID add an extra 30-40 minutes (included in the schedule) to that particular flight from Bergen to Reykjavik.

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