When to Book Air Plus

[MoBro713]

I will be on the British Isles Explorer leaving from London on Aug 23 and returning from Bergen Norway on Sept 6.  How far in advance will Viking book my flights?  We're flying from Boston which has many airlines flying to London.  Any suggestions for which airline we should use?  Any other suggestions?

 

Many thanks

[OneSixtyToOne]

If you have already booked air with Viking, My Viking Journey will indicate when your airline reservations are available.

Personally, I have a trip scheduled for April and MVJ says Dec 31.

[geffric]

I am booked on a British Explorer cruise from London in April 2023.

I just did a deviation to arrive in London early as the pre excursion was sold out and they did my air plus flights at the same time. That is always subject to airlines changing flights..

[MikeyB]

Ignore what My Viking Journey tells you.  

Obviously your best opportunity to get a flight that is within Viking's contract with the airlines is to book early.  Downside is that you will likely see multiple flight changes.

For your August cruise I would be calling Viking in early January.  I am doing just that for my river cruise that is also August 2023.

[mhb1757]

If you have paid for air plus you can just watch your preferred airlines to see when they post flights for your dates, pick out what you’d like (have a back up option or 2 handy). Then call Viking Air and ignore the “We are only working with guests whose flights depart in the next 60 days…” message and see if your chosen flights are available. Generally United/Lufthansa/SAS, American/BA or Delta/Air France are available on Viking contracts. The only hang up might be the flight home from Bergen.  Options there are very limited. 

[FlaGirl13]

Going on BIE  April 2023.  Was surprised a couple months ago to see we were already confirmed on an Air Canada flight. We don’t have Air+ so not sure we have any input.  I’ve not seen very stellar reviews of that airline. It’s likely to change a few times anyway between now and then.  

[shadowlover]

2 hours ago, FlaGirl13 said:

Going on BIE  April 2023.  Was surprised a couple months ago to see we were already confirmed on an Air Canada flight. We don’t have Air+ so not sure we have any input.  I’ve not seen very stellar reviews of that airline. It’s likely to change a few times anyway between now and then.  

You should be able to plug in changes on myvikingjourney.  Have you tried that? 

We flew air canada (rouge which is the no frills version)  from Toronto to Athens and I had read horrible reviews prior which had me all worked up and worried.  It ended up being a fantastic flight.  I did pay a bit more for an upgraded seat and brought a cushion!  

[traveljkkk]

I have a cruise next year and when I logged into my American Airlines account there is my preliminary booking for the flights both directions 250 days away.  You might want to log into your airline apps just to see if there is an advance warning of what might be coming as they lock things in.  Needless to say I was shocked to see I had flights booked.

[shadowlover]

31 minutes ago, traveljkkk said:

I have a cruise next year and when I logged into my American Airlines account there is my preliminary booking for the flights both directions 250 days away.  You might want to log into your airline apps just to see if there is an advance warning of what might be coming as they lock things in.  Needless to say I was shocked to see I had flights booked.

Can you also see it on my viking journey?  Just curious if they charge the air plus if we do our own changes on  the app...

[Peregrina651]

On 10/6/2022 at 9:58 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

If you have already booked air with Viking, My Viking Journey will indicate when your airline reservations are available.

Personally, I have a trip scheduled for April and MVJ says Dec 31.

 

Some people don't want to wait until Viking assigns the flights. We want some say in the matter and we want to be among the first to choose flights, not the last. Therefore, we pay the fee for AirPlus and we have a say in which flights we get.  Airlines open booking around 300 days before departure -- some open earlier and some later.   With AirPlus, you can call and choose your flights as early as you want as long as the airlines have started booking.

 

We have done this on every flight we have booked through Viking -- and we don't always book through them. Sometimes it is cheaper to book on your own -- but you won't know that until the airlines open your dates for booking.

 

At this point, we always book Viking air as part of our initial booking. Then we decide when we have all the information needed whether we will book our own or stick with booking through Viking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Peregrina651

[traveljkkk]

20 hours ago, shadowlover said:

Can you also see it on my viking journey?  Just curious if they charge the air plus if we do our own changes on  the app...

NO.  It says the usual not available message.  I noticed this before with American and also United.  Things start to appear before shown on MVJ

[stcroixguy]

Peregrina, when you book through air plus are you ticketed too?  I am concerned about booking but not ticketed.

[shadowlover]

18 minutes ago, stcroixguy said:

Peregrina, when you book through air plus are you ticketed too?  I am concerned about booking but not ticketed.

In my recent experience, we booked through airplus when we noticed that we had flights on our united app but the dates were not what we wanted.  It was many months prior to travel and we just happened to notice them on our app.  We then called airplus and they made our changes exactly as we wanted them.  The only fees we were charged were the  airplus and deviation fees because we are flying in a week early.  These were NOT ticketed which I only realized when I read on this cruise critic about peoples flights being changed by viking not the airlines and the advice was to get them ticketed.  We called, even though the message states "please do not call viking air unless you are 60 (or 90 can't remember)  days prior to your flight" and we asked them to ticket them.  No problem- they did it.  Keep in mind, once you are ticketed you will be charged any change fees.  prior to ticketing you can change everything with airplus.

[JerryInIL]

What are the likely routes to Bergen from U.S?  LHR?

[Peregrina651]

39 minutes ago, JerryInIL said:

What are the likely routes to Bergen from U.S?  LHR?

 

Check it out on one of the airline booking sites.  The airlines are changing things every day and routes they offered in the past may no longer ger be out there. What is being offered today may not be available when booking opens for your flight dates and when it does open it is still liable to change before you fly.  

 

Also note that AirPlus might not be available for air itineraries that involve Bergen.  

[Moonlion]

57 minutes ago, JerryInIL said:

What are the likely routes to Bergen from U.S?  LHR?

It depends on the airline and its partners.  For example, United is part of Star Alliance and will typically connect through Frankfurt, Copenhagen, etc.  British Airways and its partner, American Airlines, will often connect through LHR. 

[mariavii]

2 hours ago, JerryInIL said:

What are the likely routes to Bergen from U.S?  LHR?

We did not use Viking Air for our Midnight Sun because the best flights at the time for us were Icelandair from BOS via KEF.

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, mariavii said:

We did not use Viking Air for our Midnight Sun because the best flights at the time for us were Icelandair from BOS via KEF.

 

We were on the first Midnight Sun sailings in 2016 and there were folks on board who Viking had booked Icelandair through KEF.  Is Viking no longer working with them?

[FlyerTalker]

3 hours ago, JerryInIL said:

What are the likely routes to Bergen from U.S?  LHR?

 

Probably your best approach is to work backwards.  Start with who flies into Bergen (BGO) and work back to the USA.

 

Largest operators there are SAS (partnering with other Star carriers), Norwegian Air Shuttle (partnering with none, and Wideroe (partnering with AF/KL, Finnair and SAS).  You also have service from Air Baltic (through Riga), Air France (through CDG), Finnair (through HEL), KLM (through AMS), Lufthansa (through FRA), Loganair (through EDI) and Icelandair (through KEF).

 

You may read of past service by United from Newark.  That was seasonal and will not be operating in 2023, due to poor financial performance.

[LindaS272]

2 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Also note that AirPlus might not be available for air itineraries that involve Bergen.  

Peregrina, has this happened to you? We have just booked with VA+ Seattle to Amsterdam to Bergen on Delta for a July 2023 cruise.

13 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

We were on the first Midnight Sun sailings in 2016 and there were folks on board who Viking had booked Icelandair through KEF.  Is Viking no longer working with them?

Viking is still booking with Icelandair—at least from Seattle. We didn’t use them outbound from Seattle on our free air because they don’t book Saga Class—only Economy. We booked one way Saga Class on our own dime for the return from KEF.

[JerryInIL]

For ORD to BGO, the shortest duration flights seem to be through Amsterdam or Frankfort, per KAYAK.

[dd57]

I used Viking Air for our August cruise, DEN to KEF with Saga class.  Viking considered it business class.

[LindaS272]

58 minutes ago, dd57 said:

I used Viking Air for our August cruise, DEN to KEF with Saga class.  Viking considered it business class.

They told us they didn’t have a contract with Icelandair for Saga Class out of Seattle. Even if they did, the premium  for business class over the free economy was more than if we were to book it on our own.

[dd57]

9 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

They told us they didn’t have a contract with Icelandair for Saga Class out of Seattle. Even if they did, the premium  for business class over the free economy was more than if we were to book it on our own.

They booked us in Business class for the within Europe leg of our return flight.  Normally you get economy within Europe connecting to business class for the overseas part.  I did check, for us the Saga plus both return legs in business was better than what I could do on our own.  I think it totally depends on the airports involved and the luck of when you book the air.

[FlyerTalker]

21 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

They told us they didn’t have a contract with Icelandair for Saga Class out of Seattle.

 

And that is something folks need to remember.

 

Cruiseline contracts with airlines are not just a blanket agreement with a carrier.  They are for specifically designated routings, dates and inventories.  So just because a flight exists between two cities on XYZ Airlines, it may or may not be part of the contract, regardless of whether there is an agreement between ABC Cruises and XYZ Airlines for other services.

 

Further, even if the routing is included in the contract, it may not be for all dates.  And even on covered dates, these contracts are for specific quantities of seats.