Flight changes were a surprise

When my wife, Susan, and I booked a Berlin-Prague cruise for Sept. 28-Oct. 6, 2014, with Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 877/668-4546, www.vikingrivercruises.com), we had the company’s air services division, Viking Air, arrange four flights for us, all on Air France in Economy Comfort.

We would fly from Los Angeles to Paris, where we would spend five days on our own, then from Paris to Berlin, staying in a hotel overnight before cruising to Prague and flying home to Los Angeles via Paris.

On Sept. 22, the day of our Los Angeles-Paris flight, the airport limo driver we hired called two hours before picking us up to say he’d been advised that our Air France flight had been canceled due to a strike (one we thought had been settled).

I immediately called Viking River Cruises’ Viking Air department and was told we were flying Los Angeles-Madrid-Paris on the airline Iberia in economy class. This meant we were leaving at a different time and from a different terminal in Los Angeles and arriving at a different airport in Paris (impacting our ground transportation arrangements there) as well as flying in less comfort.

We didn’t have time to sort out the details of why we hadn’t been notified of this radical change, but as soon as we arrived in Paris we certainly attempted to communicate with Air France about our Sept. 27 Paris-Berlin flight.

It was impossible to reach Air France by phone or email due to the strike, so we went to the Air France office. It was like a refugee camp. After standing in a long line, Susan (who speaks French) was able to talk to a bedraggled and exhausted Air France agent, who explained that Air France didn’t contact us because Viking Air hadn’t given them our email address or phone number; we were shown the terminal screen to verify this.

We gave the agent our email and phone information, and she said they would notify us if our ongoing flights were canceled or changed. 

As the departure date drew nearer, we called Viking Air in New York twice to see if our flight to Berlin had been changed. We were told they would work on our problem, but we never heard from them again.

On Sept. 26, Air France notified us that our Sept. 27 Air France flight had been canceled and that we would be flying Lufthansa, Paris-Munich-Berlin, again in economy.

Viking River Cruises representatives didn’t meet us as planned, so we took a cab to our hotel in Berlin, where we discovered that the Viking River Cruises people were truly concerned about us. They had not been advised by Viking Air of our new itinerary so didn’t know where we were. They were upset about not being able to meet us at the terminal in Berlin.

When we boarded the ship, the Viking Schumann, the next day, the cruise director was so outraged about what had happened that she insisted on giving us our cab fare without our even asking. 

The strike was settled while we were on the cruise, so we were able to fly home as originally planned. 

Since we had flown over in economy class with Iberia and Lufthansa, we were due a refund from Air France for the additional amount we had paid for Economy Comfort. Viking Air advised that we needed to make the claim, which we did on Oct. 22. The refund was made out to Viking Air on Nov. 5; we called them several times before the funds were sent to us.

In addition, Air France gave us each a $190 credit voucher as an apology for the problems caused by the pilot strike.

Viking River Cruises’ literature states that if the traveler makes a change in his travel arrangements, it is the traveler’s responsibility to notify Viking. Nowhere does it warn that Viking Air would not be responsible for informing the traveler of flight changes made without his knowledge. Nor does it state that the traveler must contact the airline and provide the airline with his contact information, information that Viking Air already would have.

Before we disembarked from the Viking Schumann, my wife and I each filled out a complaint form,* and in November I called Viking Air twice to discuss our dissatisfaction with their policy. At this writing, we have received no further response.

We are copying Viking River Cruises with this complaint, but we are not complaining about Viking River Cruises. We have taken three excellent cruise-tours with them and are about to take a fourth. Our complaint is about Viking Air only.

DAVID HIRSCH

Los Angeles, CA

*Industry-wide, survey forms turned in onboard ships or to the guides on tours often are referenced for statistical purposes and for making general improvements only. To receive a response about a specific complaint, a traveler needs to write directly to the company.

Six days after Mr. Hirsch emailed ITN (and before ITN acted), he wrote on Jan. 26, 2015, saying, “Today I received an email from Andre Jacobs, Customer Relations, Viking Cruises. He wrote, ‘Following up with our conversation, I wanted to apologize for the experience you had with the air department during the Air France strike. I understand your disappointment and concern. Please know that we are working hard to implement a process to eliminate any issues like this in the future.’”

ITN sent another copy of Mr. Hirsch’s email to Viking River Cruises and received no response.