Advice for possible air travel problems

[Packman1000]

Just looking for some advice with Viking air.  In watching the news the last couple of days it appears there will be flight problems again over the July 4th US holiday.  We leave on Sunday, July 2nd, for Montreal on the only non-stop flight of the day.  Hopefully all goes well (thunderstorms are forecast).  But if our flight gets canceled, or significantly delayed,  I am preparing for what to do.  Viking tells me to call their emergency number.  I assume they will try to get me on another flight.  There aren't many to choose from.  All will have connections.  All will arrive very late - some the next day (the ship will still be in port until 6 PM the next day).  Other than working with Air Canada,  the airline we are booked on, is there anything else we can do?  I have been told to contact the ship if we will be getting there after 11PM.  Advice?

 

Love cruising - hate flying!

[OneSixtyToOne]

25 minutes ago, Packman1000 said:

Just looking for some advice with Viking air.  In watching the news the last couple of days it appears there will be flight problems again over the July 4th US holiday.  We leave on Sunday, July 2nd, for Montreal on the only non-stop flight of the day.  Hopefully all goes well (thunderstorms are forecast).  But if our flight gets canceled, or significantly delayed,  I am preparing for what to do.  Viking tells me to call their emergency number.  I assume they will try to get me on another flight.  There aren't many to choose from.  All will have connections.  All will arrive very late - some the next day (the ship will still be in port until 6 PM the next day).  Other than working with Air Canada,  the airline we are booked on, is there anything else we can do?  I have been told to contact the ship if we will be getting there after 11PM.  Advice?

 

Love cruising - hate flying!

 

Which cruise?

 

On our last Mediterranean Cruise there was an Italian air traffic controller strike on embarkation day combined with the ship leaving Venice early because of weather. Several passengers boarded at the next port of call in Split. Not sure if they were bussed overland or flown there.

 

In 2019 we almost missed our connection in Toronto for Barcelona. Only next available flight was through Montreal the next day. They had already remove our luggage and we had to plead with the gate agent to let us board. There was a couple that got bumped from 1st class and were put in the last row in economy. Since then I always make sure to arrive a day or two early and never fly Air Canada.

Edited June 28, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[millybess]

36 minutes ago, Packman1000 said:

Just looking for some advice with Viking air.  In watching the news the last couple of days it appears there will be flight problems again over the July 4th US holiday.  We leave on Sunday, July 2nd, for Montreal on the only non-stop flight of the day.  Hopefully all goes well (thunderstorms are forecast).  But if our flight gets canceled, or significantly delayed,  I am preparing for what to do.  Viking tells me to call their emergency number.  I assume they will try to get me on another flight.  There aren't many to choose from.  All will have connections.  All will arrive very late - some the next day (the ship will still be in port until 6 PM the next day).  Other than working with Air Canada,  the airline we are booked on, is there anything else we can do?  I have been told to contact the ship if we will be getting there after 11PM.  Advice?

 

Love cruising - hate flying!

Long weekend here too!  Canada Day 🇨🇦 Yay!  Please come back and tell us how that went.🙂

[TayanaLorna]

I would suggest relying on Viking Air PARTIALLY.  But taking command of your fate.  Research all the flight combos possible to get you where you need to be.  Know what your best case scenario might be.   Have each airline website either bookmarked or their app downloaded.  Don't be clueless, take charge if necessary.

[CILCIANRQTS]

Work with Viking first.

Air Canada will only try to put you on their flights.

Viking will have additional options to get you there.

Not sure presenting options helps in times of air traffic meltdown.

[Meander Ingwa]

with hard weather on the east coast, unfortunate short staffing by the federal authorities and high booking numbers it will be a challenging long week.  

 

I agree that Viking is the first stop for getting you to your destination.  I find Google Flights to be a handy tool for knowing what possible flights meet your needs.  Unfortunately last minute changes may mean that your time schedule gets very stretched out.  There are not a lot of options when it comes to flying non-stop west to east and you lose so much time with the zone changes , naturally.  With the issues that impacted travel this last week I certainly hope there is no issue for you, or at best Viking is well prepared to deal with the situation.  There is nothing that you can do about the weather.  I am not sure if there is value with talking to Viking and moving your depart one day to saturday to build in a safety day buffer.

 

This is a key time to have baggage trackers in your suitcase ( tile or air tags) 

[FlyerTalker]

Beg to differ.

 

Viking (or any cruiseline) should only be the first stop for resolving your issue if you are an individual who wants other people to do all of the heavy lifting (or even light lifting) for them.  You are introducing an additional layer between you and getting the problem fixed, with all of the overhead involved.  Especially the overhead of time.

 

I will just put a thought problem out there for you.  There is a mechanical causing either a delay or cancellation of your originating flight.   Path A says call Viking.  And while waiting for your "solution", the clock is ticking.  Path B says to go directly to the airline.  Guess what....they have a flight leaving in 15 minutes that will get you to your destination, albeit by a different routing.  You get on that flight and your trip is salvaged with minimal inconvenience.  What about those folks waiting for Viking to fix things?  Well, by that time, the alternative flight has left and gone - and you are sitting waiting for Viking to give you a new itinerary.

 

But, if you are someone that wants others to handle things, go ahead and wait for the cruiseline. Remember that convenience has its price, and sometimes that is quite steep.

 

 

 

 

[Flgreg]

We were on an Athens to Athens Viking Ocean cruise last Nov/Dec. We used Viking's custom air to fly Tampa to Frankfurt to Athens and Athens to Frankfurt back to Tampa.

 

I don't know what happened with those flights but Viking automatically rerouted us no less than 3 times on the day of departure. We ended up going Tampa to Newark to Zurich to Athens (Zurich to Athens was on Air Bosnia or something like that.) Coming back it was Athens to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Dulles and Dulles to Tampa.

 

Very long days and there were some ticketing issues both ways but Viking got us there and back without us doing anything.

 

That said, as others have stressed----be prepared to act on your own.

 

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, Flgreg said:

Very long days and there were some ticketing issues both ways but Viking got us there and back without us doing anything.

 

If you had a change on the day of flight, it was the airline that did this proactively.  Cruiselines do not have staffs sitting around monitoring all flights.

 

Since TPA-FRA was a Lufthansa flight, they rebooked you to fly UA to Newark, then Swiss to Zurich and then Aegean to Athens.  All within Star Alliance.  Pretty standard when you get a cancellation.

 

Viking's involvement was probably since they sold you the ticket, they were advised of the change by LH.  And you would have seen this in the LH app on your phone.  (You do put the airline app on your phone so that you are aware of any day-of-travel changes?)

 

 

[stephenandrew]

We recently booked our first cruise on Viking, and our TA suggested that we make use of Viking Air Plus.  In previous cruises on other lines, I have always booked my own air, but figured what the heck.  Anyway, the TA told us to call Viking to start the air reservation process, and when I spoke with Viking, they basically told me that they could not book anything for our itinerary at this point (about 6 months out) because they didn't have available flights in their system.  The Viking reps were very nice, but told me that  we might not have flights scheduled until 90 days out.

 

I'm no genius, but even I can look in google flights, and I was able to find available flights that met my needs, and the costs were comparable to what Viking was charging for airfare.  I just figured, what's the point of waiting for Viking to book something that may or may not meet my needs (and then having to work with them to reschedule if necessary) when I could book what I wanted now.  So, we went ahead and canceled the Viking airfare and just booked independently.

 

Obviously, we will need to pay for transfers, and if something goes wrong air transport wise, we are on our own.  But things have always worked out for us in the past, and it just seemed that the benefits of Viking Air weren't terribly significant.  Famous last words....we will probably be on the dock watching the ship sail away on embarkation day because our flight was delayed.  Ha!

[Flgreg]

10 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

If you had a change on the day of flight, it was the airline that did this proactively.  Cruiselines do not have staffs sitting around monitoring all flights.

 

Since TPA-FRA was a Lufthansa flight, they rebooked you to fly UA to Newark, then Swiss to Zurich and then Aegean to Athens.  All within Star Alliance.  Pretty standard when you get a cancellation.

 

Viking's involvement was probably since they sold you the ticket, they were advised of the change by LH.  And you would have seen this in the LH app on your phone.  (You do put the airline app on your phone so that you are aware of any day-of-travel changes?)

 

 

Thanks. I will add that while in an Uber on our way to TPA a rep from Viking air called to inform us of yet another change. We did already know about that one since we do know to always have all the applicable airline apps on our phones to monitor any changes and also track luggage.

 

Thanks again.

[CILCIANRQTS]

3 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

Beg to differ.

 

Viking (or any cruiseline) should only be the first stop for resolving your issue if you are an individual who wants other people to do all of the heavy lifting (or even light lifting) for them.  You are introducing an additional layer between you and getting the problem fixed, with all of the overhead involved.  Especially the overhead of time.

 

I will just put a thought problem out there for you.  There is a mechanical causing either a delay or cancellation of your originating flight.   Path A says call Viking.  And while waiting for your "solution", the clock is ticking.  Path B says to go directly to the airline.  Guess what....they have a flight leaving in 15 minutes that will get you to your destination, albeit by a different routing.  You get on that flight and your trip is salvaged with minimal inconvenience.  What about those folks waiting for Viking to fix things?  Well, by that time, the alternative flight has left and gone - and you are sitting waiting for Viking to give you a new itinerary.

 

But, if you are someone that wants others to handle things, go ahead and wait for the cruiseline. Remember that convenience has its price, and sometimes that is quite steep.

 

 

 

 

I find that when you set up your own hypothetical, you usually arrive at a favorable outcome…

And overhead is not my issue.

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, stephenandrew said:

We recently booked our first cruise on Viking, and our TA suggested that we make use of Viking Air Plus.  In previous cruises on other lines, I have always booked my own air, but figured what the heck.  Anyway, the TA told us to call Viking to start the air reservation process, and when I spoke with Viking, they basically told me that they could not book anything for our itinerary at this point (about 6 months out) because they didn't have available flights in their system.  The Viking reps were very nice, but told me that  we might not have flights scheduled until 90 days out.

 

I'm no genius, but even I can look in google flights, and I was able to find available flights that met my needs, and the costs were comparable to what Viking was charging for airfare.  I just figured, what's the point of waiting for Viking to book something that may or may not meet my needs (and then having to work with them to reschedule if necessary) when I could book what I wanted now.  So, we went ahead and canceled the Viking airfare and just booked independently.

 

Obviously, we will need to pay for transfers, and if something goes wrong air transport wise, we are on our own.  But things have always worked out for us in the past, and it just seemed that the benefits of Viking Air weren't terribly significant.  Famous last words....we will probably be on the dock watching the ship sail away on embarkation day because our flight was delayed.  Ha!

I hope you are not flying in the day of boarding the cruise 🙂

 

One of the benefits of no longer working for a living is the flexibility to fly in as many days ahead of a cruise as we want or feel comfortable with!   And on the return as well (no more 2 AM wakeups to catch the Viking transfer bus).  

[FlyerTalker]

48 minutes ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

I find that when you set up your own hypothetical, you usually arrive at a favorable outcome…

And overhead is not my issue.

 

I guess you value convenience over other considerations.

 

I've had numerous irop situations, including heading to a cruise.  In all of them, taking a proactive approach to resolving the issue was FAR better than just sitting back and waiting for someone else to handle it.  On one cruise, we made the cruise, while folks who were waiting for the cruiseline to act didn't get the alternative routing.

 

Everyone is free to take their own course of action.  Let's just say that over 2 million butt-in-seat miles of flying has given me some perspective on how best to deal with irops.

[CILCIANRQTS]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

I guess you value convenience over other considerations.

 

I've had numerous irop situations, including heading to a cruise.  In all of them, taking a proactive approach to resolving the issue was FAR better than just sitting back and waiting for someone else to handle it.  On one cruise, we made the cruise, while folks who were waiting for the cruiseline to act didn't get the alternative routing.

 

Everyone is free to take their own course of action.  Let's just say that over 2 million butt-in-seat miles of flying has given me some perspective on how best to deal with irops.

We’ll go with your opinion, then, as I spent my 40+ year career as a marketing executive for national companies and didn’t get to travel much…

[Packman1000]

Thanks for all of the advice.  I've downloaded the apps for our airlines and written down all of the alternate flights with the layover information.   I think I am as prepared as possible.   The good news is that our outbound flight to Montreal is the first of the day for that plane so it should be clean and ready to go.  Now if someone would fix the weather in Montreal, that would be great (does it rain there every day?).

 

We are very excited about our Canada/New England cruise. 

[SJD117]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

Everyone is free to take their own course of action.  Let's just say that over 2 million butt-in-seat miles of flying has given me some perspective on how best to deal with irops.

 

23 minutes ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

We’ll go with your opinion, then, as I spent my 40+ year career as a marketing executive for national companies and didn’t get to travel much…

Male plumage?

[CILCIANRQTS]

33 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

 

Male plumage?

I still have most of my hair. Why do you ask?

Pretty sure this is NOT a male/female issue, although I’m betting you view most issues that way.

[SJD117]

4 minutes ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

I still have most of my hair. Why do you ask?

Pretty sure this is NOT a male/female issue, although I’m betting you view most issues that way.

Plumage as a metaphor — as in “I know more than you do.” A common affliction for professional men.

[CILCIANRQTS]

4 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

Plumage as a metaphor — as in “I know more than you do.” A common affliction for professional men.

So you didn’t pick up on the “Let’s just say that over 2 million butt-in-seat miles has given me some perspective on how best to deal with irops” reference???

[SJD117]

5 minutes ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

So you didn’t pick up on the “Let’s just say that over 2 million butt-in-seat miles has given me some perspective on how best to deal with irops” reference???

I quoted both of you — read my post. Male plumage isn’t limited to one man.