Until September 30, 2014, Viking River Cruises has some interesting special offers on – and they just might save you a bundle on 2014 and 2015 river cruise departures if you’re able to pay in full at the time of booking.

Until the end of the month, Viking is offering discounted roundtrip airfare on its Europe, Russia and China river cruises for 2015. The company is also offering a similar promotion for Europe, Russia and China river cruises departing this year. If you book and pay in full by September 30, 2014, Viking is offering discounted roundtrip airfare from a number of gateway cities on applicable sailings.

For ocean cruisers, the notion of booking and paying in full – right at the time of reservation – might seem a little foreign. After all, many cruise lines frequently raise and lower prices in advance of the typical final payment window of 90 days before sailing, and numerous cruisers will use their savvy travel agents to take advantage of those price fluctuations.

River cruises are night-and-day different: many popular departure dates and itineraries for 2015 are completely sold out already, and only a handful of departures remain for 2014. For 2014 sailings, at this point, most departures for the remainder of the year would require full prepayment at time of booking anyhow, as all but the latest December departures would fall inside the 90-day payment window.

So, if you have to pay in full anyhow, why not get heavily discounted airfare at the same time?

Obviously, this offer won’t appeal to everyone – it’s a bit of a hit on the pocketbook all at once – but if you’ve been on the fence about a last-minute sailing this year, or one for next spring, this could be just the push that was needed.

More information on Viking River Cruises can be found by visiting our company overview here on River Cruise Advisor.