Viking inter-China air questions/thoughts/experiences

[wallygator]

Hi we will be doing the Viking‘s “China’s Cultural Delights” in early 2010. We are doing air thru Viking with two inter China flights and multiple transfers to and from hotels/airports/ship. I thought it was the wise thing to do. We recently returned from the Viking Grand European Amsterdam to Budapest and our air was not much less than Viking’s for our China cruise/tour in fact $152.00 which did not include transfers.

 

So I ask has anyone experienced Viking air inter China flights with Viking or other river cruise lines?

Any tips, regrets, advice? Do we have to rethink our luggage on inter China flights as opposed to international flights?

 

Thanks in advance for anyone’s input. :):rolleyes:

[Mel]

We were on internal China flights (not with Viking) a while back, and one interesting piece of advice - do not even think of carrying alcohol in your carryon or putting it in your checked luggage! We knew that you couldn't put it in your carry-on, but thought it would be fine in our checked luggage, wrapped in bubble wrap. As we were waiting to board we were summoned and told that when our luggage was scanned before loading the plane it showed that there was a bottle in there which was not allowed. They made us open the luggage and take out the bottle of scotch. It was 8 am and it made for some amusing photos of members of our group having a slurp of scotch right out of the bottle rather than simply throw it away....... Other than that, all 6 of our internal flights in China and Tibet were great - all on time, no problems at all.

[no fuss travel]

Only one bag per person on the internal flights. Make sure you pack all of your toiletries in your checked baggage and then you will have no problems. The food was on par with what you will get on the plane in North America.They do weigh your baggage and sometimes you tour guide will manage so that if you have overweight luggage that you will not have to pay. We found the flights to be quite good and the airports were clean.

[dpump]

The food was on par with what you will get on the plane in North America

*********************************************

?????? We were served YAK BURGERS!!!

[Mel]

We had yak steak in Lhasa and honestly, if we didn't know that it was yak meat, I would have just assumed it was beef steak!

[wallygator]

Good to go!

[Quiltsalad]

We took many inter China Flights the year we did our Viking Cruise.....actually only used Viking for the 4 days on the boat and arranged the rest of our schedule with China Odyssey as we had previously seen all the areas that Viking offered with their cruise. China Odyssey set us up with a driver and a guide at each airport we visited, Kunming, Lijiang, Shanghai, Tunxi, Chongching and Wuhan......the flights were all on time, the baggage was practically at the carousel by the time you got their and other than trying to understand the announcements for arrival's and departures it was very simple to do. You are limited to one bag weighing 42 pounds and a small carry on (like a small backpack.) We found the wanding process pretty lax no removing of all belts, jackets or shoes and I had an artificial knee that always set things off and my husband and artificial hip and they would sort of wave a wand in our direction and push us through....not totally reassuring but easy.

[jcrandle]

As per the other Viking China thread on this board, our intra-China flights were not rigorously checked for weight issues. It would seem that Viking does enough business with the airlines that that is not a problem. We did our own flights into and out of China, so we have no experience there.

[rico567]

The food was on par with what you will get on the plane in North America

*********************************************

?????? We were served YAK BURGERS!!!

 

Yak is on the menu at the Buckhorn Exchange in Denver. When we visited in August, the four of us had quite a variety of meats: elk, bison, yak, ostrich, quail, rattlesnake. My favorite? Yak.