Air Operations Specialist - Remote

Do you want to be part of a winning team at Viking? Take your career to new heights today by immersing yourself in the thrills of the air travel industry.

At Viking, we have more than 7,000 team members worldwide and the opportunities are endless.

As an Air Operations Specialist - Remote, you’ll take flight in a cross-functional team responsible for end-to-end support of guest airline reservations. We foster a challenging, fast-paced work environment with a focus on small teams, forward progress, and continuous improvement.

What you will be doing during your career with Viking:

• Booking individual and group guest reservations as well as issue tickets, refunds, exchanges in Sabre.
• Managing all aspects of a guest air reservation in Sabre and Evolution, to include quality control to ensure that all seat components are booked, confirmed and correctly reflected on all booking & invoices
• Use available reporting to identify and process changes to airline reservations; create reports as needed
• Create and update flight manifests to notify ships of guest changes, charter and block inventory, and others

• Proactively updating guests on impacts to their journey by managing notifications and communicating air
• Handle/resolve seat escalations and perform customer call outs when required
• Respond to email inbox inquiries using templates or independently created professional correspondence
• Support department as needed with special projects
• Diagnose, troubleshoot, and assist in resolving seat and special services related support issues.

You will be a great fit if you:

• Have impeccable organization skills and attention to detail. You will be involved in every aspect of managing air reservations and interacting with guests, travel agents and internal Viking departments.
• Maintain a high level of understanding of airline contracts and industry regulations related to international cruise guest travel.
• Work well with routine tasks with clear performance metrics and quotas (including schedule changes, reviewing booked reservations for accuracy and quality prior to ticketing, flight following, taking enroute travel calls from guests in distress or with trave disruptions and communicating with shipboard employees.
• Demonstrate problem solving ability, and strong organizational skills

What we offer you:

• Highly competitive compensation plan
• Base Hourly Range is $17.59-$24.15/ hour (determined by a number of factors, such as geographic location). As a result, employees working full-time for a complete year typically expect to earn between $36,587 to $50,232, depending on the number of hours worked, plus overtime.
• Full time employees are also eligible for bonus/benefits.
• Full benefits including medical, dental, vision and life and disability insurance at a highly subsidized rate (some plans are fully paid by Viking)
• Paid training, 6 paid holidays per year and a 401(k) plan with company match
• Employees accrue up to 15 days of vacation after 90 days of employment
• Employees accrue 1 hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked (use rules vary by location)
• Opportunity to take a free and/or discounted cruise
• Highly subsidized gym membership
• Discounts on theatres, theme parks, movie tickets, travel discounts through IATA membership and too many more discounts to name
• Pride and excitement of joining an award-winning team, previously named #1 in ocean, #1 in river and #1 in customer service.

To be considered for a career with us, you will need:

• 2 years of previous travel industry operations experience; ticketing, GDS, and airline contract experience required
• Minimum 1 year airline-related call center experience
• College degree in travel, business, or related field desired (or comparable work experience)
• Thorough, competent knowledge of Sabre including ability to book, ticket, refund, price, assign seats, user reference systems
• Competent intermediate proficiency on all MS Office products, particularly Excel
• Thorough knowledge and understanding of airline tariffs (pricing), contracts & airline routing
• Advanced knowledge of geography and common Viking itinerary routing
• Availability to work variable shifts, including weekends, evenings, and overnight

To be successful working from home:

• Proficiency with basic computer applications and equipment
• MS Office products (Excel, Outlook, and Word)
• Web conferencing software (Zoom, Teams)
• Windows Sound and Video Settings
• Must be able to provide:
• A distraction-free workspace/environment
• Space for a desktop computer with two to three monitors
• Stable power source and internet connection:
• Dedicated high-speed internet (minimum) of 25 Mbps Upload and Download Speeds) and ethernet connection
• Connection cannot be Wireless, Wi-Fi extenders, Wi-Fi repeaters, MiFi's, or Hotspots
• Ability to ‘plug in’ your equipment to your Modem/router during work times

Current Employee Requirements for Consideration

• Must be an employee in good standing
• Must have approval from current manager to apply
• Must have been in your current position for at least 1 year

EQUIPMENT:

• Machinery/equipment used to perform clerical functions, i.e., copy machine, calculator, personal computer, printer, telephone, file cabinet, files, pens, and pencils.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

• Working inside protected from the weather.

HAZARDS:

• None

About Viking Cruises History and Background

Viking was founded in 1997 with the vision that travel could be more destination focused and culturally immersive. In 2000, the company purchased Europe’s KD River Cruises in order to grow its fleet, to leverage 40 years of river cruising experience and to acquire rights to prime docking locations in key European cities.

The company expanded into the American market in 2000, establishing a sales and marketing office in Los Angeles, California. Since then, Viking has grown to be the leading small ship travel company, offering river, ocean and expedition voyages on all seven continents.

With an operational office in Basel, Switzerland, Viking provides destination-focused itineraries for curious travelers. Each journey includes a shore excursion in every port and an onboard and onshore enrichment program that provides deep immersion in the destination through performances of music and art, cooking demonstrations, informative port talks and carefully selected guest lecturers.

With 250 awards to its name, the company currently operates a fleet of state-of-the-art ships that have received numerous accolades since their launch from industry experts and travelers alike. For the second year in a row, Viking was voted the #1 River Line and the #1 Ocean Line by Condé Nast Traveler in the publication’s 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards. Viking was also named #1 for both Rivers and Oceans by Travel + Leisure in the 2022 World’s Best Awards making it the only cruise line to reach the top of its categories in both publications in the same year.

Viking marked its 25th anniversary in 2022; during this milestone year, Viking welcomed two new identical expedition ships, as well as two new, identical ocean ships, new Viking Longships® in Europe and new purpose-built vessels for the Nile, Mekong and Mississippi rivers.