It really is a pet hate of mine, All UK Charter airlines operate the same seat pitch of 28/29

you could consider that quite generous the CAA minimum seat pitch for economy seating [long and short haul] is 26 Inches

Thank you Goldeneye!
It frustrates me too!

As promised I am posting my experience of Viking. I have come back from Skiathos today. In a nutshell here it is... they are excellent.

1. Check in at Manchester by Viking staff excellent, quick and very friendly.
2. Plane spotless and not bad legroom I am 6foot 3
3. Stewards very smart helpful and friendly
4. Timeliness, not always under their control but excellent on time both ways

I hope this reassures anyone with any worries I will have no hesitation in using them again. They were certainly much better that others that I have used in the past.

Hi
Thanks for your posting.
Glad to hear everything went well - was concerned about some 'iffy' comments on this site.
We fly to Cyprus 7 weeks tomorrow and counting..........
We have not booked seat together just hoping the 4 of us can get to sit together.
Irene

Irene

We didnt book seats together and there were no problems either way ( their were 3 of us) I am so happy that I have booked with them last minute to go tomorrow to Egypt. I think you will be presently suprised and you really do not need to worry about the plane staff etc.

Hi

We returned from Sharm yesterday and our Viking flight was part of Sunwing. We had good flight going out and coming back and the leather seats were actually quite comfy and roomy. The staff were nice also. Shame there are only drop down TVs but it didn't bother us too much as the kids had their Psps and Nintendos to keep them occupied.

We would use them again.

Thanks

What was your flight num returning from sharm? did u go into gatwick?

We flew into Manchester.
Sorry when I said we got back yesterday the flight actually landed Sunday at 11 but by the time we got back home it was 1.30ish Monday am.

oh cool, sorry for being nosey just wondered

booked to fly with viking to corfu the price was 400 pounds cheaper than any body else at the time ,thats the only good news
flight out was delayed 5 hours due to an inward flight delay ,so a plane had to sent from gatwick ,i think this was the same plane that was posted about lanzarote .when the drinks trolley came down with xl on the sides need i say more. [we did get a 6 pound food voucher ]
flight back 9 hour delay the reason a sick cabin crew member YES A SICK CABIN CREW MEMBER
on arival at corfu airport our bags were checked in ,but we were told not to go through passport conroll .4 hours later we were taken to a lovely 5 star hotel [where we could watch the planes taking off ] .at no time was a viking representative available to update us if it had not been for a fellow passenger speaking to viking via a mobile phone we would have been totaly in the dark . at no time were we checked on or off the coach to the hotel which caused 2 passengers to miss the flight back and we had to wait for there bags to be offloaded which caused us to miss our slot for the flight back [the plane back was of a higher standard ]
they seem to lack any resources for when things go wrong .as my partner pointed out PAY CHEAP GET CHEAP

Arrived back earlier this morning fom Sharm on the Viking flight into Manchester. No water loaded on the plane in Sharm for hot drinks and very little water in the toilets for hand washing etc so they provided an antibacterial spray, first time ever out of Sharm I have been on a plane where they had no water available. Also, arrived in Manchester no bags for around 30 passengers, they had been unloaded from the plane in Egypt and not put back on. The guy at Manchester thought the pilot had explained, he never said a word! Luckily they are coming in via Thomas Cook or fingers crossed should already be at Manchester now.

Overall not impressed and I personally didn't think the flight price was that cheap. I also saw both ways all the trolleys were ex XL airways and heard a few mentioning in it on the plane. Does anyone know what's going on with all the anouncements been made in French as well as English, gets a bit tedious seeing the safety demo twice, I know Sunwing are Canadian but I don't think theres many French on these flights from the UK.

Scott B wrote:

I also saw both ways all the trolleys were ex XL airways and heard a few mentioning in it on the plane.

Some of the aircraft in the Viking fleet are leased from the same company XL leased thei aircraft from. Hence some trolleys that get moved around the airtcraft still have XL stickers on them. That's the only connection to the now defunct airline.

Darren

I suupose like any airline they have their problems, I flew with them to Skiathos then booked last minute to Sharm. My experience was positive on all four flights. Dont know why they do the French announcement because I am fairly sure there were no French people on any of the flights. But all four flights were on time luggage arrived safely and CS was good.

kelbrook wrote:

Dont know why they do the French announcement because I am fairly sure there were no French people on any of the flights

Some of the aircraft operating for Viking are on summer lease from Sunwing, a Canadian airline who operate within a population who are French-Canadian. Safety videos and cards are therefore in both languages on the 'C' registered aircraft (C-FYLC / C-FEAK).

Darren

Hello

Does anyone know which seats have more legroom in the 737-800, is it the seats in the front of the aircraft (e.g. rows 1 or 2), or the seats at the emergency exit (rows 15-16)?

Thanks!

fpa wrote:

or the seats at the emergency exit (rows 15-16)?

Welcome onboard
As far as I know, they operate the aircraft in the standard 189 seat configuration. Row 1/2 are bulkhead so don't realy provide any greater seat pitch as you can't strech your legs out (and normally designated medical seats). Rows 15 / 16 (overwing exits) are extra legroom.

Darren

Thanks for the reply and the welcome

extra legroom.......
If you want extra legroom, you want seat 1ABC ( but there is a bulkhead) or you want 15/16 but these are overwing exits, so only row 16's seats recline. just beare that in mind. as you may get the extra legroom but you wont bebale to put your seat back.

Regarding water on the flight...... someof the aircraft...only have boilers from which to get water, therefore when they are hot, you will not have cold water, but if you want it cold, you cannot have hot water! very stupid design!

Yesterday was not a good day to travel on VIK 311 to Skiathos.
The plane had technical problems at Gatwick and would be unable to reach normal flying altitude (30000 feet?) and would be limited to 20000 feet. There would be strong headwinds so more fuel would be needed. To make up for the added weight of the extra fuel, some baggage would need to be removed. According to one of the passengers, the flight followed a strange route - down through France to Marseilles, across to Naples then Corfu, across Greece and finally approaching Skiathos from the south. The passengers had been informed during the flight that some luggage had been removed but were not told whose luggage. It seems that about 50 items were removed. It was only after all baggage had been claimed from the belt that those short of bags knew they were unlucky.
Supposedly, the missing bags should arrive late this afternoon.