Any real plus side to arranging air through NCL?

[Shellbelle28]

NCL has a promo with credits toward the cost of airfare and the quoted price is reasonably close to what I see on the flight pricing websites. Flights I'd need are international, US west coast to Sydney, Australia.

Pros and cons of cruiseline arranged air?

[gambit57]

Typically, the con is that they're a bit pricier and you have less choices.

 

If there are credits and the cost is about equal and the times work for you, there's no major downside. If there's a problem with your flight, it can be more cumbersome dealing with NCL than if you had a dedicated travel agent... but not really any worse than if you had booked through, say, Expedia.

[rtkenmore]

Biggest downside, you don't pick the flights. NCL does. And they are typically more expensive but if the credits get you close to the same, then go for it. NCL will handle your transfers to the pier and all if you book airfare through them.

[Stealthdog]

The airfare and hotel perks are not good. Hotel appears to be limited to undesirable locations. Called for airfare and they would not confirm booking until a few days out. Not a big fan of that promotion.

[QueenOfZoom]

I had NCL do my air for a TA next month, flights were confirmed about five days after booking and much better than what I could get online.

[Trimone]

Sometimes cruise companies can get better upgrade prices, I remember travelling from LHR to Singapore with BA, and paying peanuts to upgrade to business, that was with RCCL

[vacalover99]

Great question. I was wondering the same...

Also.. What if you want to fly in a day early? Do they accommodate that?

[deladypilot]

One of the down sides is they could send you the long way around. We had friend that lived 2 hrs outside Dallas. NCL sent them from their town to Atlanta, Georgia to San Francisco to Honolulu. Could have saved about 9 hrs of flight time by sending them to Dallas then to Honolulu direct

[njkate]

I called them last night regarding a distinctive voyage on a TA. They gave me OW air from Amsterdam to Newark of $706.00, I found air on Tap Portugal for $296 maybe they bump up the fares for distinctive voyage, so you think you hit pay dirt with the $400 air credit. who knows as NCL is rather slick in the gimmick department.

They also had no hotel inventory, so I said then you can not provide what you are advertising and should remove it from web site, his response " I just answer the phones".

[rtkenmore]

I called them last night regarding a distinctive voyage on a TA. They gave me OW air from Amsterdam to Newark of $706.00, I found air on Tap Portugal for $296 maybe they bump up the fares for distinctive voyage, so you think you hit pay dirt with the $400 air credit. who knows as NCL is rather slick in the gimmick department.

They also had no hotel inventory, so I said then you can not provide what you are advertising and should remove it from web site, his response " I just answer the phones".

 

Depends on when the cruise is and whether they have secured the block of rooms for the hotel. We have the Distinctive Voyage package on our San Juan in January. Originally, we went ahead and did airfare through NCL and were going to go the hotel as well. Once the hotel became available at the 6 month mark, it was a very over priced stay in our opinion. The $200 credit still left the hotel being almost $300 with taxes/fees/etc. They only book a block in one hotel so there is no choice to where you stay. If you're more than 6 months out, they haven't secured which hotel they are using at this point.

 

Realizing that, we ended up canceling the airfare portion through NCL and opted to use points on Delta instead. We could have still paid out of pocket on Delta and still been cheaper than NCL even with the DV credit.

[njkate]

Depends on when the cruise is and whether they have secured the block of rooms for the hotel. We have the Distinctive Voyage package on our San Juan in January. Originally, we went ahead and did airfare through NCL and were going to go the hotel as well. Once the hotel became available at the 6 month mark, it was a very over priced stay in our opinion. The $200 credit still left the hotel being almost $300 with taxes/fees/etc. They only book a block in one hotel so there is no choice to where you stay. If you're more than 6 months out, they haven't secured which hotel they are using at this point.

 

Realizing that, we ended up canceling the airfare portion through NCL and opted to use points on Delta instead. We could have still paid out of pocket on Delta and still been cheaper than NCL even with the DV credit.

 

Regarding hotels, yes I found out the hard way when I used NCL for hotel in Copenhagen, they charge per person, not per room so it's rather costly then if you had booked on your own, lesson learned.

I wanted a few days post cruise in Amsterdam and he said all rooms were booked and I had to take both, for a few days post cruise NCL hotels are as close to the pier/airport which would of been a ways from city center.