Custom air fee waived for 3rd Viking Cruise?

[rudychance]

Hi, my DH and I sailed on the Seas last month and are looking forward to going on the Sky late this month. We're planning on booking the Mediterranean Odyssey for May 2019 while on board. I had read that for the 3rd Viking cruise, the Custom Air fee was waived. Does anyone have any info on that ? Also, does the custom air allow you to pick your flights (ie. there is a non stop from Barcelona to CLT), or just get better connections and earlier ticketing? Thanks so much in advance ;)

[Respbj]

I'm not sues about waiver of fees but I paid for custom air and I told them the exact flights we wanted. Be persistent and you'll get your flights and you can tell them what seat you want too.

[LeRenardrouge]

Hi, my DH and I sailed on the Seas last month and are looking forward to going on the Sky late this month. We're planning on booking the Mediterranean Odyssey for May 2019 while on board. I had read that for the 3rd Viking cruise, the Custom Air fee was waived. Does anyone have any info on that ? Also, does the custom air allow you to pick your flights (ie. there is a non stop from Barcelona to CLT), or just get better connections and earlier ticketing? Thanks so much in advance ;)

 

I booked Med Odyssey for Oct 2018 in August 2017. This will be our 9th Viking cruise and we did Custom Air on all that you can do it on (some itineraries are excluded). I too had heard someone recently say you got Custom Air fee waived after paying three times so I asked when talking with the Air Department rep and she said it was not true. So I paid the fee.

 

It does allow you to have a say in your flight choices but it still is usually limited to the carriers that Viking has contracts with. Also, some depends on the air fare you are getting as part of your package price. In other words, if you are getting free airfare, you may not be able to get what you want. They usually include major carriers and my experience has been good with choices. We have gotten custom air on British Airways and American which service CLT. In fact we had terrific flight arrangements on AA from CLT but most of the time fly out of ATL on Delta/Air France because we can have more nonstop options out of ATL.

 

Remember that I believe major airlines do not allow booking more than 10 months prior to flights so you may not be able to actually make selections at the time you book your cruise if it is more than a year beforehand.

 

I worry more about a nonstop at the start to minimize luggage loss than I do coming back home but nonstops are always a preference.

 

We are doing the post extension in Tuscany so have to return from Florence and no nonstop is available so will have to fly FLR to CDG to ATL with either a 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 hour layover in CDG?

[rudychance]

Thank you so much for your quick responses:) I will follow your advice; I also wish we could get a non stop departing, but there isn't one available from CLT to VCE; best itinerary I could find (for spring 2018) is a short connection through Philly.

Thanks again, look forward to reading your review for 10/18, LeRenardrouge !

[Peregrina651]

Hi, my DH and I sailed on the Seas last month and are looking forward to going on the Sky late this month. We're planning on booking the Mediterranean Odyssey for May 2019 while on board. I had read that for the 3rd Viking cruise, the Custom Air fee was waived. Does anyone have any info on that ? Also, does the custom air allow you to pick your flights (ie. there is a non stop from Barcelona to CLT), or just get better connections and earlier ticketing? Thanks so much in advance ;)

 

I believe that three then free has been discontinued.