Anyone Know ? Air Services ??

I will be calling Viking directly later today but wonder if anyone here might have an answer. We booked a cruise last Winter while onboard the Star and paid a $300 fee for “Air Deviation and/or Stopover” as we wanted to spend a few days I Madrid prior to joining Viking for an extension and ultimately the cruise in Rome.

We have received our air itinerary and are generally pleased. We would, however, like to consider changing the return flights to ones that are a little more “direct” and will get us home to Chicago a little earlier in the day. If we were to contact air services and change this leg of the journey will we have to pay an additional $50 (or has it gone up?) per person forthe changes or does the original $300 cover subsequent changes in itinerary?

I will admit to being slightly irritated that they re-instated this charge. "Custom Air" used to be "free" after you had sailed with Viking for a specific number of cruises. I did have it waived once by the agent who booked our cruise but the people in the air department are not so accommodating. It seems a little thing to offer loyal and frequent cruisers.

Just wondering.

I will be calling Viking directly later today but wonder if anyone here might have an answer. We booked a cruise last Winter while onboard the Star and paid a $300 fee for “Air Deviation and/or Stopover” as we wanted to spend a few days I Madrid prior to joining Viking for an extension and ultimately the cruise in Rome.

We have received our air itinerary and are generally pleased. We would, however, like to consider changing the return flights to ones that are a little more “direct” and will get us home to Chicago a little earlier in the day. If we were to contact air services and change this leg of the journey will we have to pay an additional $50 (or has it gone up?) per person forthe changes or does the original $300 cover subsequent changes in itinerary?

 

I will admit to being slightly irritated that they re-instated this charge. "Custom Air" used to be "free" after you had sailed with Viking for a specific number of cruises. I did have it waived once by the agent who booked our cruise but the people in the air department are not so accommodating. It seems a little thing to offer loyal and frequent cruisers.

 

Just wondering.

Fees paid once per cruise. Additional dollars possible depending on the change you are making.

What I don't understand is if you paid the custom air fee, you should have been in on the selecting of your flights, not waiting to find out what they were going to be.

Agreed! Sorry they discontinued the free after three but then again I think that they use the fee as a deterrent to price shoppers who tied up the agents with endless questions and then in the end book elsewhere. So if the fee is actually a cost saving measure, then I'm happy to oblige (albeit a bit grudgingly).

Peregrina,

We have only used the custom air once and that time it was "given" to us "gratis" by the agent who booked the cruise. We are generally fine with the air arrangements but have noticed that they are getting "quirkier" as time goes on ... for example we did the British Isles cruise this summer and did the pre-extension in Edinburgh. To get back to Heathrow they had us fly to Brussels and connect to Heathrow from there. That was bad enough but our morning flight from Edinburgh was at 6:00 AM so we were headed to the Edinburgh airport with our bags o' breakfast at 3:30 AM. That was brutal! And to add insult to injury most of the others on the extension flew directly to Heathrow and left at 10:00 AM. I opted not to make any changes ( ie: custom air plus) but was kicking myself the entire trip!

FWIW ... Spoke with Viking and any changes will incur another charge as the "deviation fee" we paid at booking is not "custom air".

Peregrina,

 

We have only used the custom air once and that time it was "given" to us "gratis" by the agent who booked the cruise. We are generally fine with the air arrangements but have noticed that they are getting "quirkier" as time goes on ... for example we did the British Isles cruise this summer and did the pre-extension in Edinburgh. To get back to Heathrow they had us fly to Brussels and connect to Heathrow from there. That was bad enough but our morning flight from Edinburgh was at 6:00 AM so we were headed to the Edinburgh airport with our bags o' breakfast at 3:30 AM. That was brutal! And to add insult to injury most of the others on the extension flew directly to Heathrow and left at 10:00 AM. I opted not to make any changes ( ie: custom air plus) but was kicking myself the entire trip!

 

FWIW ... Spoke with Viking and any changes will incur another charge as the "deviation fee" we paid at booking is not "custom air".

Molymoo, thanks for the clarification. I just learned something new. I didn't know that you could do a deviation without also incurring the custom air fee. Although we lucked into it, we have always used custom air and have always been involved in choosing our flights.

We have been using custom air since we started sailing with Viking in 2010 if for no other reason than to avoid some of the things you described-- pre-dawn trips to the airport, long layovers and out of the way flight plan.

We stipulated our first choice of airline at the time of booking, even outlined what time of day we wanted for flights, and it simply happened.

As soon as the airline published it's schedule (about 11 months before the cruise), the bookings were done, we opted for business class upgrade, and the details automatically appeared on our phones. We were able to book our favourite seats on the flight, and that was pretty much instant on our phones - and now it's almost time to think about packing!

Full marks to Viking though, for the cruise documents pack - it's lovely.