Viking airfare

[Kstornado]

We are taking a Caribbean ocean cruise in February & the airfare is free. I understand there is a deviation fee if we want to go into Miami early. Does anyone know what airlines Viking uses & if their bookings are usually fairly direct. We don't live in a city with nonstop air to Miami.

[sinned19]

We just booked a sky  cruise for Feb. We wanted to go a day early, that would be a deviation fee of $100 per person. We paid the $50 per person air upgrade fee which allowed us to some flexibility for the various direct flights available for the morning of the cruise. Well worth  extra the money. We are flying from New York to Miami.   

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, Kstornado said:

We are taking a Caribbean ocean cruise in February & the airfare is free. I understand there is a deviation fee if we want to go into Miami early. Does anyone know what airlines Viking uses & if their bookings are usually fairly direct. We don't live in a city with nonstop air to Miami.

 

Yes, there is a deviation fee (usually $100pp) plus the custom air fee (usually$50). Still, it is February and it is just less stressful to arrive a day (or two even) early.

 

Viking uses most major carriers. If you go on one of the compare flight prices websites, you will get a good idea of what your choices might be for flights from your home airport to MIA.

Edited September 24, 2019 by Peregrina651

[AuntieWerewolf10]

We are flying home from Miami to Madison, WI through Viking Air on American Airlines. The deviation fee is $100 per person.

[Kstornado]

Did Viking restrict you to a certain airline?

[AuntieWerewolf10]

No, looked for best connections. My travel Agent worked with Viking Air.

We flew United last year to Newark. I flew Delta in 2017 to Munich for a Viking River Cruise. 

Pay the $49 extra to have a say in your flights. Check out the flights out of your area using Kayak or other booking site. 

Booked the flight from Miami earlier this year, the airline changed the flights about a week ago, giving us 5 hour layover in Philadelphia. Had TA adjust those arrangements, rerouted through Charlotte, with a better final arrival time. 

[sinned19]

we chose from Delta, American and a few others...

[Heidi13]

15 hours ago, Kstornado said:

Did Viking restrict you to a certain airline?

When we booked our flights, with custom air I received the airlines & specific flights I requested. We are using Air Canada & British Airways.

[lackcreativity]

5 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

When we booked our flights, with custom air I received the airlines & specific flights I requested. We are using Air Canada & British Airways.

We have used the custom air three times so far, and have always been booked on the flights we had chosen. While they always caution that you may have to pay any difference in airfare over the Viking contract price, so far we have not had to pay additional on any flights. We have flown British Airways, American Airlines, and Delta.

[Clay Clayton]

Similar experience here. For our TA last spring, I researched and provided our Travel Agent with 1st, 2nd & 3rd choices on flights both from Raleigh to San Juan and then from Rome back. We got our first choice in both directions. Only question is would we have gotten those flights if we hadn’t paid the $50 custom air fee. 

 

Since we wanted to go in a day early (too many missed the crossing last year due to a winter storm) and we were leaving 8 days after the cruise and from Rome not Barcelona where we disembarked we had to pay the deviation ($100) fee too. 

 

For our flight hime from Hong Kong next month we didn’t pay any additional fees and surprisingly were booked on the Cathay Pacific non-stop to Seattle rather than much cheaper flights we were expecting through Japan. 

 

So in this case spending the custom air fee would have been a waste. 

[Cruisin Kay D]

We are using free Viking air to NYC and from SJU back to Tennessee.  When we filled out the  Air Info request form, V asked for our frequent-flyer numbers....I provided our AA, Delta & Southwest numbers.  We got the flights I wanted on AA.   The customer service person told me they don't work with SW, but do work with major lines.  

Last year Viking gave us exact flights we wanted on British Air going & AA return when taking a Viking River cruise in Provence, south end of France.

 

[mjobtx]

We just ran into a surprise when speaking with the Viking Air Plus agent. We are booked on an Alaskan cruise, flying DFW/ANC. Viking buses arrivals at Anchorage to Seward (126 miles) which is the embarkation port for our cruise. We planned on going a day or two early. We also aren't returning directly to DFW. We are going on to Toronto to visit friends before returning.

 

We learned that Viking Air Plus could not handle our air. We expected that they could handle DFW/ANC and YYZ/DFW. We knew they could not handle YVR/YYZ. That would be up to us. As it turns out, they cannot handle our air for some unclear reason. The best I can guess is that they can only handle air if we fly to the embarkation airport and return from the disembarkation city.

 

We were also told that if we arranged our own air, we would have to find our own transfers to Seward from Anchorage. They will not sell transfers.

 

I know our situation is not the norm but it was a surprise to us. 

[Cruisin Kay D]

Not sure about the Air situation of yours....but I know if do ANY sort of deviation, arrive early or stay late, then they will NOT provide transfer.   

[Peregrina651]

16 minutes ago, Cruisin Kay D said:

Not sure about the Air situation of yours....but I know if do ANY sort of deviation, arrive early or stay late, then they will NOT provide transfer.   

 

Agreed. Transfers are only included with air fare if you arrive on Day 1 of the cruise and depart on the last day. Pre- and post-cruise extensions booked with Viking count in determining arrival and departure days.

[Clay Clayton]

16 hours ago, mjobtx said:

We just ran into a surprise when speaking with the Viking Air Plus agent. We are booked on an Alaskan cruise, flying DFW/ANC. Viking buses arrivals at Anchorage to Seward (126 miles) which is the embarkation port for our cruise. We planned on going a day or two early. We also aren't returning directly to DFW. We are going on to Toronto to visit friends before returning.

 

We learned that Viking Air Plus could not handle our air. We expected that they could handle DFW/ANC and YYZ/DFW. We knew they could not handle YVR/YYZ. That would be up to us. As it turns out, they cannot handle our air for some unclear reason. The best I can guess is that they can only handle air if we fly to the embarkation airport and return from the disembarkation city.

 

We were also told that if we arranged our own air, we would have to find our own transfers to Seward from Anchorage. They will not sell transfers.

 

I know our situation is not the norm but it was a surprise to us. 

We flew out of Rome eight days after disembarking in Barcelona after our Transatlantic last year.  Of course we had to pay the deviation fee. It is my understanding that 30 days is the max period pre or post cruise that they allow. 

 

However both our inbound and outbamd flights were from the same place RDU. Maybe that is the issue?  

 

We had a “free” air promo on our cruise leaving this Friday 😊🤞🏻😊 from Beijing.  We had hoped that Viking would pay for our air from Japan to Beijing and then back to US after the cruise. Alas, they said they would pay to get us to Beijing but only from their US gateways.  Maybe you need to look at the cost impact of either flying to the cruise from Toronto (with a purchased DFW/YYZ Ticket) or see if they will fly you to/from Buffalo or some US city near Toronto?

[deec]

My question involves using MILES to upgrade to first class on Delta.  Trip will be to Shanghai home and from Beijing will do pre/post with Viking.

Has anyone used miles to upgrade?

[CTBob]

32 minutes ago, deec said:

My question involves using MILES to upgrade to first class on Delta.  Trip will be to Shanghai home and from Beijing will do pre/post with Viking.

Has anyone used miles to upgrade?

My TA said that it can be done, but we haven't tried so I'm not really sure.  I think you work directly with Delta after you have been ticketed.  Bob

Edited September 29, 2019 by CTBob

[mjobtx]

4 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

We flew out of Rome eight days after disembarking in Barcelona after our Transatlantic last year.  Of course we had to pay the deviation fee. It is my understanding that 30 days is the max period pre or post cruise that they allow. 

 

However both our inbound and outbamd flights were from the same place RDU. Maybe that is the issue?  

 

We had a “free” air promo on our cruise leaving this Friday 😊🤞🏻😊 from Beijing.  We had hoped that Viking would pay for our air from Japan to Beijing and then back to US after the cruise. Alas, they said they would pay to get us to Beijing but only from their US gateways.  Maybe you need to look at the cost impact of either flying to the cruise from Toronto (with a purchased DFW/YYZ Ticket) or see if they will fly you to/from Buffalo or some US city near Toronto?

 

After spending an hour on the telephone with the Viking Air representative, he gave up and so did I. As it turned out, our flight DFW/ANC and return YYZ/DFW cost the same as the Viking Air. I did have to pay for YVR/YYZ but that was expected. Now we are free to go to ANC whenever we wish and return to DFW on our schedule. In this particular case, Viking air was no bargain but that isn't always the case. I always compare the cruise line air to the market. On several occasions, buying air independently was less expensive especially is it was business class. You do lose transfers though but that has never been a big deal. 

[Clay Clayton]

Glad it worked out.  To transfer to the ship from Anchorage, consider renting a car. We did this for our three days precruise and were able to drive to Talkeena, Denali, and then ourselves to Seward(not sure where Viking ports, this was another line years ago) where we dropped the car with little or ki drop off charge. The cost was more than the train from Anchorage but the drive is beautiful. We stopped so often it took all day to drive the 120 miles!

 

Have a great cruise!

[vnb2003]

On 9/28/2019 at 12:40 PM, mjobtx said:

We just ran into a surprise when speaking with the Viking Air Plus agent. We are booked on an Alaskan cruise, flying DFW/ANC. Viking buses arrivals at Anchorage to Seward (126 miles) which is the embarkation port for our cruise. We planned on going a day or two early. We also aren't returning directly to DFW. We are going on to Toronto to visit friends before returning.

 

We learned that Viking Air Plus could not handle our air. We expected that they could handle DFW/ANC and YYZ/DFW. We knew they could not handle YVR/YYZ. That would be up to us. As it turns out, they cannot handle our air for some unclear reason. The best I can guess is that they can only handle air if we fly to the embarkation airport and return from the disembarkation city.

 

We were also told that if we arranged our own air, we would have to find our own transfers to Seward from Anchorage. They will not sell transfers.

 

I know our situation is not the norm but it was a surprise to us. 

We had the same situation though different airports. We went with Viking Air Plus on the flight to our port. We bought our return tickets ourselves. Play with flights and see what is best for you. You might do the same things we did. 

[Vineyard View]

On 9/29/2019 at 6:01 AM, deec said:

My question involves using MILES to upgrade to first class on Delta.  Trip will be to Shanghai home and from Beijing will do pre/post with Viking.

Has anyone used miles to upgrade?

Hi Dee. I am not sure if it makes a difference domestic vs international. Or/and if the airline makes a difference. We booked Viking Air on AA  SFO-JFK, then SJU-SFO. We were told the economy could be upgraded using miles or USD. We booked and when we called AA we were only able to pay for Economy plus. No Business or First. When I asked I was told by AA reservations that the economy fare was booked in a special group rate that they could not view from a cost to us standpoint, so they were unable to allow us. 

I might suggest having Viking do one of their bookings, then before ticketing call the airline directly to find out?  It is frustrating having a ton of miles and not being able to use them. 

Sounds like another fantastic journey on your calendar! 

[deec]

thanks for your help!!!

we leave for France's Finest a week from tomorrow and then Midnight Sun next summer before the China trip next fall!  Glad you too are planning trips again!!!  Great News.

[Vineyard View]

It is great news!  Thank you Dee!

Hopefully your miles can be put to use! Let us know how that plays out? 

Really interested in hearing about France’s Finest. We have had our eyes on that one for a while now. 

[Cruisin Kay D]

We have done 2 Viking cruises with Free Air.  One we paid extra to arrive a day early and leave 3 days late, so no transfers.   The problem we had without Viking transfers was that when we arrived at Avignon's train station, it was nearly an hour to find taxis for the 6 of us & luggage to the river boat.  Again we had that problem at the train station in Bayeux in Normandy.  The Free Air was a huge benefit flying from Tenn to Europe.  

With the second cruise with Free Air, we are doing it on the days & flights Viking chooses with Viking's transfers.   

 

Edited October 2, 2019 by Cruisin Kay D

[CCWineLover]

12 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Hi Dee. I am not sure if it makes a difference domestic vs international. Or/and if the airline makes a difference. We booked Viking Air on AA  SFO-JFK, then SJU-SFO. We were told the economy could be upgraded using miles or USD. We booked and when we called AA we were only able to pay for Economy plus. No Business or First. When I asked I was told by AA reservations that the economy fare was booked in a special group rate that they could not view from a cost to us standpoint, so they were unable to allow us. 

I might suggest having Viking do one of their bookings, then before ticketing call the airline directly to find out?  It is frustrating having a ton of miles and not being able to use them. 

Sounds like another fantastic journey on your calendar! 

 

We experienced exactly the same on our Caribbean cruise on the Sea last February.  Viking Air booked us on AA from SFO-MIA-SJU and then SJU-DFW-SFO and also were told we could upgrade with miles.  Similar - AA told us best we could do was buy E+, which we did.    I also wondered if perhaps this was due to domestic versus international. 

For international though - we always do our own airfare.    So far in 4 tries, I have always found cheaper premium economy or business class fares on my own versus Viking to international cities.