Viking Cruises did charter a flight for the cruise passengers, including us, out of Cairo. We ended up in Frankfurt, traveling there on a charter service out of Copenhagen.

Upon arrival in Frankfurt we were taken to a hotel and given dinner. Viking was trying to take care of its passengers, but we were still somewhat left hanging. We were told we had one night paid hotel in Frankfurt.

Again, due to booking our own flights, Viking did not provide any help in changing our British Airways bookings. But by relocating to Frankfurt, we had a new problem. If we did not board our Cairo to London flight on Saturday March 7th, our entire return would be cancelled. British Airways would not budge on this, and we got quotes of $6000 to rebook a flight home.

I’ve run into this before. It probably would have been better for us to ditch Viking and keep our return BA flight out of Cairo. Heaven forbid you “break the chain” of your original flight, even if a war is started. Another several hours were spent on the phone and e-mail with our travel agent, and finally, without any help from Viking, we were rebooked out of Frankfurt.

I am writing this at DFW in Dallas, on our way home.

What we learned; to be “taken care of” you have to let Viking book your flight.

We believe Viking overreacted, due to its demographic. We heard from a guide that other tours of the Nile were going ahead, and had not been cancelled. Egypt is still a Level 2 as far as the State Department is concerned.