$50 Air Plus Fee pp + $100 Deviation Fee pp...

[NavyCruiser]

Viking proudly advertises One of their "What Viking is Not":  No nickle & diming...

 

We've always paid the $50 pp Air Plus fee, so we can have control of our preferred flight schedules 10 months out.  No issue there.

We also gladly paid $95 fee to extend a "stop-over" for a days in between flight segments to visit London last year.  No issue there either because we drastically changed from direct non-stop to a one-stop stopover for a few extra days.

But flying to Europe from middle America, we always fly in a few days early & stay a few days after, & never on the same exact day of.  

Viking air dept charges $100 pp for Deviation fee to just change from exact dates to few days earlier & later, on exact same flights, no changes/deviation, just different dates.

We also lose the included to & from Viking airport transfers from airport to ship.

 

Don't understand why does it matter to Viking that we're being prudent to fly in & out of exact same embark & debark port, on exact same airlines/flights, but just a few days earlier & later.  Then charges us the $100 deviation fee, just because they can.  

Sorta defeats the "No nickle & diming" mantra...

 

 

[Azulann]

It is the price one  adds to using Viking Air. The only other alternative is to book your own air and fly in and stay in port  days before and after. 

I find  when Viking Air flights are cheaper than what I can find on my own and add into $100 deviation fee each way it is still cheaper , especially like you flying form Midwest to Europe and back. 

Next cruise I am going to Alaska. I will do my own air and fly in  two days before and stay a day after cruise, easier  from the midwest. 

[trtog7]

Also there fare does not include going one day early to avoid missing the cruise ship.

You pay the deviation fee just to be sure you arrive on time to make the cruise.

 

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, trtog7 said:

Also there fare does not include going one day early to avoid missing the cruise ship.

You pay the deviation fee just to be sure you arrive on time to make the cruise.

 

This is the one thing I would love to talk to Karine or Mr. Hagen should they ever be on a ship with me. I can sorta understand loosing the transfers since it would require them to run shuttles at all sorts of times, but it has always seemed to me that it would make since for them to make it easier for you to fly in a day early. 

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

This is the one thing I would love to talk to Karine or Mr. Hagen should they ever be on a ship with me. I can sorta understand loosing the transfers since it would require them to run shuttles at all sorts of times, but it has always seemed to me that it would make since for them to make it easier for you to fly in a day early. 

 

OTOH, if they make it easier for passengers to fly in/out on multiple days (other than sail and arrive days), then it puts a different picture to the airline contracts.  If right now, let's say 70% of people go with "standard" Viking Air, then it is easier to have contracts to/from departure ports.  Change that so only 30% come in "day of", and sprinkle folks 1 to 4 days out on either end, that puts a different spin on how they would negotiate, and buy, bulk tickets from the airline.  Or so I would presume from my basic knowledge.

 

This is my supposition and informed guess.  It is not an authoritative "here's why", but my best guess on why there are the plus and deviation fees - they add to the cost of doing business.

 

 

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

OTOH, if they make it easier for passengers to fly in/out on multiple days (other than sail and arrive days), then it puts a different picture to the airline contracts.  If right now, let's say 70% of people go with "standard" Viking Air, then it is easier to have contracts to/from departure ports.  Change that so only 30% come in "day of", and sprinkle folks 1 to 4 days out on either end, that puts a different spin on how they would negotiate, and buy, bulk tickets from the airline.  Or so I would presume from my basic knowledge.

 

This is my supposition and informed guess.  It is not an authoritative "here's why", but my best guess on why there are the plus and deviation fees - they add to the cost of doing business.

 

 

That is also my assumption.

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

OTOH, if they make it easier for passengers to fly in/out on multiple days (other than sail and arrive days), then it puts a different picture to the airline contracts.  If right now, let's say 70% of people go with "standard" Viking Air, then it is easier to have contracts to/from departure ports.  Change that so only 30% come in "day of", and sprinkle folks 1 to 4 days out on either end, that puts a different spin on how they would negotiate, and buy, bulk tickets from the airline.  Or so I would presume from my basic knowledge.

 

This is my supposition and informed guess.  It is not an authoritative "here's why", but my best guess on why there are the plus and deviation fees - they add to the cost of doing business.

 

 

 

21 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

That is also my assumption.

But don’t  most fares for airlines go higher as the available seats reduce? So wouldn’t spreading out the number of passengers trying to fly to the same port be good for the airlines?

[Heidi13]

Just now, Clay Clayton said:

 

But don’t  most fares for airlines go higher as the available seats reduce? So wouldn’t spreading out the number of passengers trying to fly to the same port be good for the airlines?

 

The bulk contract flights are negotiated well in advance, with Viking Air acquiring flights for both pax & crew, based on the ship's schedule. When purchasing in bulk they are most likely in a stronger negotiating position, so if everyone uses Viking Air on day of embarkation/disembarkation, they probably get better pricing. They will also have metrics that will provide a fairly good indication of how many will use Viking Air and from what hubs. If the pax load is spread out over more days, the metrics are probably less accurate, which could negatively impact their negotiating position.

 

Purchasing for additional pre-cruise/post-cruise days will have less volume, so they probably can't negotiate similar prices. It also takes additional administrative effort to negotiate contract pricing for additional days.

 

As per Flyer Talker, this is just my thoughts, as I have not been involved in flight procurement, as my purchasing experience/negotiation is limited to lifesaving, fire fighting, navigation and other safety equipment.

[Clay Clayton]

12 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

The bulk contract flights are negotiated well in advance, with Viking Air acquiring flights for both pax & crew, based on the ship's schedule. When purchasing in bulk they are most likely in a stronger negotiating position, so if everyone uses Viking Air on day of embarkation/disembarkation, they probably get better pricing. They will also have metrics that will provide a fairly good indication of how many will use Viking Air and from what hubs. If the pax load is spread out over more days, the metrics are probably less accurate, which could negatively impact their negotiating position.

 

Purchasing for additional pre-cruise/post-cruise days will have less volume, so they probably can't negotiate similar prices. It also takes additional administrative effort to negotiate contract pricing for additional days.

 

As per Flyer Talker, this is just my thoughts, as I have not been involved in flight procurement, as my purchasing experience/negotiation is limited to lifesaving, fire fighting, navigation and other safety equipment.

Understand. I was basing my assumptions (and you know that that makes me!😂) on how quickly and cheaply Viking booked our return air after our half Transatlantic.  Based on the AA points we recieved, they paid $38 for a flight we could have booked for $78. So I figured (assumed) they had some sort of standard percentage (about 50%) off any airfare. 

[NavyCruiser]

Doesn't make sense.

We also has $900 airfare credit pp for our upcoming Holland Amer cruise out of Amsterdam.  

We can check prices daily & book the best flights right on HAL's website.

We can see that it costs $850 for flying in any day into London, & out of Amsterdam a few days earlier & later, exact same cost for every day for each of the dozen or so days, on multiple airlines.   Thus no cost for us, since it's under $900.   No nickle & diming $50 AirPlus fee & no $100 pp "deviation" fee.  

Same price for booking directly on HAL's website or with their Air Dept rep.

 

So I don't think it cost more to Viking to book our flights on the 14th (or 12th or 13th) for embarkation date of the 15th of the month.  

I think the charge the $100 deviation fee, because they can...

Extra profit for Viking, since they probably think that since you've already paid $5K for your cruise, so what's another $50 here & $100 there...?

Those nickles & dimes adds up....

 

[FlyerTalker]

Navy Cruiser -- Ever consider that there may be a difference in the contract terms between the Viking contract and the HAL contract?

 

Unless one knows those specifics of the contract, and that is considered proprietary information, we are all making informed guesses.

 

I would be more influenced if you found differences in the air pricing between different parts of the Carnival spectrum of brands.  But comparing the air for Viking vs Carnival Corp. is apples and oranges.

[NavyCruiser]

Our other traveling companions also suggested that we just keep the orig same day embark & debark dates for flights, keep the included transfers to/from airport/ship.  

Once ticketed, we can change/update the flights with the airlines directly.

So would Viking really care that we took the (reduced) risk fly in & out earlier & later...?

 

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, NavyCruiser said:

Our other traveling companions also suggested that we just keep the orig same day embark & debark dates for flights, keep the included transfers to/from airport/ship.  

Once ticketed, we can change/update the flights with the airlines directly.

So would Viking really care that we took the (reduced) risk fly in & out earlier & later...?

 

Once ticketed, I would be surprised if you have the ability to change the tickets independently but if you do, I would expect that you will be responsible for any cost difference. Once you don’t arrive on embarkation day or leave on disembarkation day, you loose the Viking transfer. This has never been a big deal for us but depending on you cruise could be important.  For example, for cruises in China, the port was almost 3 hours from the airport.  It was what made us decide to book the Pre-cruise excursion.  

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, NavyCruiser said:

Once ticketed, we can change/update the flights with the airlines directly.

 

As mentioned, NO you cannot do this.  You are not buying published fare tickets from the airline - you are buying negotiated bulk rate tickets on a contract with Viking.  You have no ability to change those flights on your own, even paying a fare differential.

 

For everyone -- the tickets bought from the cruiseline are a completely different animal from the ones sold directly by the airline.  And trying to apply the same experiences from one to the other is a fool's errand.

 

Different pricing, different fare rules, different in all the important ways.  And let's not get into "But I was able to select my seats".  That's nothing but a red herring.

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, NavyCruiser said:

 

Once ticketed, we can change/update the flights with the airlines directly.

So would Viking really care that we took the (reduced) risk fly in & out earlier & later...?

 

 

Having flown all over the World, both working and as a pax, with cruise line flights, this has not been my experience.

 

If the cruise line books the flight, it is subject to the contract fare rules. I don't ever recall having the ability to make changes to any flights that were booked by a cruise line.

 

Many years ago, when flying out to join a ship in Malta, another Cadet and I both missed the flight. We could not deal with BA directly, as we had to contact the company and have them make changes to the flight.

 

With our included flights on the World Cruise, if we wanted to make changes, we had to advise our TA, who then contacted Viking Air. The only changes we could make directly were the assigned seats and meal/assistance preferences.

[Moonlion]

I know from recent experience that you can't do this.  We used Viking Air Plus for our flights.  Our return flight on United was cancelled (by the airline).  I called United to see if they could move us to an earlier flight on same day.  UA agent said I had to go through Viking to make any changes. 

[dottythecat]

I worked for an incentive travel company for  many years. We booked contracts for the groups so we were sure to be able to get large numbers of passengers in/out on the same day. If the guests wanted to do something different (deviate) they were offered a  a $ amount up to the value of the bulk air rate so they could book their own flights. This option was usually chosen by guests who were FF with particular airlines and wanted to upgrade. If they wanted us to book flights outside of the group dates/airlines we charged a fee. If the guests arrived/departed on the designated group dates they were transferred.