Airlines available with Viking Air Plus

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

We will be on our first cruise with Viking in September. We are considering using Viking Air Plus for our flight to Bergen and home from Barcelona. Before booking with Viking, I’d like to know if there are any airlines that Viking just doesn’t use. Or will I be able to request any airline that flies these routes? Should I have my preferred flights chosen prior to booking air with Viking? 

[CCWineLover]

26 minutes ago, Poulsbo Cruisers said:

We will be on our first cruise with Viking in September. We are considering using Viking Air Plus for our flight to Bergen and home from Barcelona. Before booking with Viking, I’d like to know if there are any airlines that Viking just doesn’t use. Or will I be able to request any airline that flies these routes? Should I have my preferred flights chosen prior to booking air with Viking? 

In our experience, the available airlines vary quite a bit - depending on where are are starting/ending and where the destinations are, whether you want Prem Econ or Biz class, as well as time of year and how close you are to traveling.

Often as you get closer to traveling to book, the seats an airlines has for Viking under contract may have been taken - so you may see them available on an airline website, but that doesn't mean you can get them.  And on some that you can get, Viking may have to charge you a slight premium for certain routings.  So - not only the airline but the specific routes you take may also affect things.

I'm guessing you are flying out of Seattle (Pousbo) - I used to live there.  Often there are more or less flights possibilities depending on whether you are originating in a larger city or a smaller feeder city as well.  From Seattle, you might have a bit better luck.

I would do my research and go ahead and request routes that makes sense to you.  Let Viking Air tell you if those are or are not available to you under their current contract. (Contracts also change rapidly, just as airlines routings change a lot these days).

We just booked Viking Air from San Francisco to Bergen and there was very little available to us to choose from.  Wound up with SAS via CPH to BGO  (You might take a look at that since SAS goes out of Seattle).

Finally - in our experience, there are and have been certain airlines that sometimes are not offered from the West Coast - specifically KLM and Delta (we tried to do these but there were no contracts out of SFO), although others on CC have used them in cities like MSP, ATL, and more.  They seem to have more availability with AA and BA from the West Coast, as well as UA/LH.

 

Still - put together a list of about 4 desired itineraries and go through them with VAP and see what happens!  Best of luck!

[Clay Clayton]

Agree (as I usually do) with the wino😂. Just to give you another data point. We had “free” air for our transatlantic in March 2019 but because we had status with AA we preferred flying on them. Additionally, we wanted to arrive in San Juan a day before embarking and rather than flying home from Barcelona at the end of the cruise, we wanted to fly back from Rome 10 days after disembarking. 
 

We therefore paid for Air+ and the deviation fee. ( As I recall it was $150 total per person for both deviations and the +).  I provided our travel agent (we use one to get the max allowable Viking shipboard credit) with three preferred  routings of flights in each direction and Air+ booked us on the first choice both ways.  This allowed us to use our status to upgrade to First from Raleigh to Miami and onward to San Juan (the last leg was in lie flats as AA uses an internationally configured plane for some flights from Miami). Coming home we were able to use points and $325 each to upgraded to business.  So while our airfare wasn’t free, we ended up believing the expenditure of $475 per person was worth it to fly in comfort. 
 

Good luck, hope you enjoy Viking as much as we do!
 

 

 

 

[The Other Tom]

I think which airlines they use depends on seat availability, but generally speaking, they'll use all the major airlines.

You should absolutely have your preferred routing handy when booking, and a backup or two in case your preferred route is not available.  FWIW, I pick the most direct route available and one with a reasonable layover if I have to make a connection.  

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

You can find a list of the airlines on Viking website, however, I have found not all of those are available.  It all depends on what Viking has at that time.  We always pay the $50 to get more choice.  With even the best planning, unfortunately things change, Viking can change your flights.  We still book with Viking Air, even with it being a bit frustrating at times, because it is all on their backs and we don't have to take responsibility if we book and the flight gets messed up.  

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

We still book with Viking Air, even with it being a bit frustrating at times, because it is all on their backs and we don't have to take responsibility if we book and the flight gets messed up.  

 

Just exactly how do you manage to avoid your own responsibility?  And let's say a flight goes mechanical on your way to the ship....do you just wait there until Viking does something to change your flights?

 

I worry that some day you will be woefully disappointed when things go pear-shaped with a flight.