Viking Air Plus help please

[JTor]

Hello - we are taking our first Viking cruise in October, Budapest to Bucharest.  I opted to book with airfare included and paid extra for "Air Plus" on the understanding that I would have some say in my flights. I contacted Viking in early March and the agent was MOST unhelpful; I tried again late March and reached someone who seemed very helpful but he required me to pay an additional "deviation fee" (which I paid) and told me my flights would be posted according to my requirements within "3-4 business days".  That was almost a month ago; nothing is posted; I've called 3 times to "his personal extension" but he never picks up and the voicemails I have left were not returned.  I called and spoke to another agent who told me there is nothing in the system for me and no notes about my requirements - she was willing to help but it would be essentially starting over.  Is this normal? is it some kind of scam? What do I need to do to sort out our (complex) flight arrangements? I've now spent an extra $500 over the price of the "cruise with airfare" and I don't seem any farther ahead.  Thanks for any advice/tips.

[CCJack]

this sounds troubling..   I would first check to make sure who the merchant is for the $500 charges to your credit card.   If it is indeed Viking, then I would call and ask to speak to a manager at Viking and try to get it sorted out.  

 

 

[JTor]

thank you will do

[CDNPolar]

On 4/26/2024 at 1:15 PM, JTor said:

Hello - we are taking our first Viking cruise in October, Budapest to Bucharest.  I opted to book with airfare included and paid extra for "Air Plus" on the understanding that I would have some say in my flights. I contacted Viking in early March and the agent was MOST unhelpful; I tried again late March and reached someone who seemed very helpful but he required me to pay an additional "deviation fee" (which I paid) and told me my flights would be posted according to my requirements within "3-4 business days".  That was almost a month ago; nothing is posted; I've called 3 times to "his personal extension" but he never picks up and the voicemails I have left were not returned.  I called and spoke to another agent who told me there is nothing in the system for me and no notes about my requirements - she was willing to help but it would be essentially starting over.  Is this normal? is it some kind of scam? What do I need to do to sort out our (complex) flight arrangements? I've now spent an extra $500 over the price of the "cruise with airfare" and I don't seem any farther ahead.  Thanks for any advice/tips.

 

No offence intended by this statement, but I don't understand why you are having this problem as we have used Air Plus on now about 8 Viking cruises - river and ocean - and had a great experience.

 

First question - are you calling the Air Plus department or general reservations?  Call the Air Plus, or they should be connecting you to Air Plus from the general reservations department.

 

Here is how we do it.

 

1) We book and pay for Air Plus

2) We start to look at flights 270-300 days out from the cruise.  We look at Google Flights and direct with airline websites and start to pick our first, second, and so on choices.

3) We decide if we are going to have a deviation on either side of the cruise.

4) We call Air Plus and give them our booking number.  Now it seems that you must pay for Air Plus and Deviation fees at the time of booking the flights even if this is before final payment date.

5) We give our first choice to the Air Plus agent.  We wait for their comments back and sometimes the flights we choose are in Viking contract rates and sometimes they are not.  If not then we give our second choice or look at options that Viking offer.

6) We choose and we book, pick our seats and we are done.

7) We ask for our chosen flights to be ticketed as soon as possible.

 

We then move to the airline website and manipulate our seats if necessary.  This won't happen until your flights are ticketed.

 

I don't understand why you are being told to wait until your flights are published on MVJ.  If you wait for this you don't have to pay the Air Plus, but you will have to pay the deviation fee if you are not going with their per and post cruise dates.