Viking Air Issue

[RetroRod]

Booked and paid for two business class seats with Viking Air along with our Viking Ocean HL cruise for June 2019. A week after the booking I found the same flights on Delta, in business class, for $2000 less. I had my TA cancel the Viking Air flights and she requested a refund. After 10 business days still no refund to my CC. I emailed Viking and their response was their normal process for refunds is 21 business days. That is almost a month in calendar days. I believe that amount of time is excessive so I asked that the refund be expedited. No response yet to my request. Interestingly, when the flights were booked the charge hit my card in 2 days. So, with Viking Ocean requiring cruise fare payment anywhere from 6 to 8 months prior to sailing this is another example of Viking holding our $$.

[cocopico]

I had a similar experience, albeit for a lot less money, with an onboard credit of a couple hundred dollars that was supposed to be refunded to me. Instead of just crediting it back to my credit card (which the folks on the ship said would happen) the "home office" mailed a paper check. It took three weeks to get the refund. I always find this amazing considering Amazon issues refunds typically when the package containing the returned item is dropped at the shipper -- they don't even wait until they receive it before putting it back on your card or crediting your Amazon account. Given that Viking is happy to take your credit card or even an electronic payment directly from your bank account, they don't seem all that interested in taking advantage of the same means to provide a refund. (Although I will say that shore excursions booked and cancelled before a cruise typically do result in credits on the credit card rather than the issuance of a check.) I guess with all those new ships in the pipeline they need the "float" of delayed refunds!

[azdrydock]

Booked and paid for two business class seats with Viking Air along with our Viking Ocean HL cruise for June 2019. A week after the booking I found the same flights on Delta, in business class, for $2000 less. I had my TA cancel the Viking Air flights and she requested a refund. After 10 business days still no refund to my CC. I emailed Viking and their response was their normal process for refunds is 21 business days. That is almost a month in calendar days. I believe that amount of time is excessive so I asked that the refund be expedited. No response yet to my request. Interestingly, when the flights were booked the charge hit my card in 2 days. So, with Viking Ocean requiring cruise fare payment anywhere from 6 to 8 months prior to sailing this is another example of Viking holding our $$.

 

Same with me except in my case the refund was due because Viking double charged my card. After 2 weeks and several calls to Viking I called my credit card company and formally disputed the charge. Coincidentally the credit was issued about 24hrs latter.

[RetroRod]

UPDATE: Never did get a response via email on my request to expedite my refund. I called Viking today and was told my refund was being expedited by the accounting department as of Aug 28. It will now take take 7 business days for an "expedited" request. Amazing! What a business model. More to come.

[Shoalwater]

UPDATE: Never did get a response via email on my request to expedite my refund. I called Viking today and was told my refund was being expedited by the accounting department as of Aug 28. It will now take take 7 business days for an "expedited" request. Amazing! What a business model. More to come.

 

Yes, business model = HOLD OTHER'S CASH AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

[ropomo]

Had similar experience with a referral credit. I would have been happy with OBC, but Viking said it would credit my CC and standard for Viking is 21 BUSINESS days, not calendar. Originally thinking calendar days I called after that time had passed and was told that the refund was in queue for credit. Sure enough, exactly 21 business days afterwards, credit appeared on my card. Can't blame them since it is a stated policy (not saying its a good policy), I always take advantage of "other people's money" whenever I can. In any case, I got my credit as originally stated.

[azdrydock]

Had similar experience with a referral credit. I would have been happy with OBC, but Viking said it would credit my CC and standard for Viking is 21 BUSINESS days, not calendar. Originally thinking calendar days I called after that time had passed and was told that the refund was in queue for credit. Sure enough, exactly 21 business days afterwards, credit appeared on my card. Can't blame them since it is a stated policy (not saying its a good policy), I always take advantage of "other people's money" whenever I can. In any case, I got my credit as originally stated.

 

Not a "stated " policy for me. This was correcting an error made by Viking. I called Viking and when I pointed out it was double billed all they said was they would issue a credit. On the second call a few days latter they told me the 21 business day rule. This was a final payment, paid a few weeks before Christmas and I found out about it the week before Christmas so they would have had almost the full cost of the cruise for almost 3 months. I also got the nasty over limit message from the CC company, No penalty since I disputed the charge. The Viking reason for 21 days had to do with practices in Switzerland with their Swiss bank.

Good thing is Viking listens and now they entering new markets I am sure they will start streamlining their processes.

[ropomo]

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that this was a "formal" policy, just what was "stated" to me when I called and probably applied in all cases. In your case of an erroneous billing, don't think the 21 day policy is really "just" and really should have been handled in a more expeditious manner. Mine was just a credit after final payment for a subsequent referral.

[RetroRod]

UPDATE: Never did get a response via email on my request to expedite my refund. I called Viking today and was told my refund was being expedited by the accounting department as of Aug 28. It will now take take 7 business days for an "expedited" request. Amazing! What a business model. More to come.

 

UPDATE: My expedited refund did not take 7 business days as stated. It hit my credit card in 2 days. Surprisingly, for my inconvenience, Viking CS "granted" my shipboard account a credit for use once we board. This will help for our Silver Spirits packages:(

[zitsky]

UPDATE: My expedited refund did not take 7 business days as stated. It hit my credit card in 2 days. Surprisingly, for my inconvenience, Viking CS "granted" my shipboard account a credit for use once we board. This will help for our Silver Spirits packages:(

 

Why the frowny face? You don't like having a credit? :(

[RetroRod]

Fat finger mistake on my part. It definitely should have been :D

[zitsky]

Fat finger mistake on my part. It definitely should have been :D

 

I figured something like that. I have a problem where I can't see the smiley until I post or preview. It started happening a few months ago.

 

:loudcry:

[Azulann]

UPDATE: My expedited refund did not take 7 business days as stated. It hit my credit card in 2 days. Surprisingly, for my inconvenience, Viking CS "granted" my shipboard account a credit for use once we board. This will help for our Silver Spirits packages:(

 

 

As the TS, thank you for posting the resoultion to your issues.

I read lots of threads where the TS never comes back and no one knows what eventually happened .

[teamflames]

I just noticed this thread, sounds amazingly similar to ours (posted in different thread), very poor policy

 

 

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[teamflames]

Similarly continues, after the delay payment was made 2 days later rather than the 7 suggested. Difference was no obc , in fact little in the way of an apology.

 

 

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