Free Air Offer NOT WORTH THE HEADACHE

[teeredi2cruise]

11 hours ago, TMO3CCO1 said:

I'm not a seasoned cruiser...our 3rd cruise is booked for June of 2020.  I'm trying to understand the "free air" promo as there will be budget minded people in our group.  I'm truly hoping some of you more seasoned travelers can help. Please forgive me if these are dumb questions.  Will try to answer what I can for you. (FULL DISCLOSURE) While some in our group have booked this promo, we have not traveled yet and others who have booked and traveled can speak better to the full experience.

 

1.  There will be many in our group flying from Phoenix to Miami.  The "free or reduced air" promo offered is $99.00.  If someone chooses to add this to their booking, do they fly from Phoenix to Miami and from Miami to Phoenix for $99.00 or are they paying a $99.00 fee to have Norwegian book them on a flight that they still have to cover the cost of the flight that Norwegian chooses? If the reduced fare from your destination is $99.00, it should be round trip per person. This is for same day departures. In our case, it is an International itinerary and even though the flight originally had our group leaving the day before, it was still having us arrive the day of the ships departure

 

2.  I was under the assumption that since you booked your flight through Norwegian that you would be guaranteed to arrive to ship or ship would wait....kind of like an excursion.  After reading through the posts, I can now see that isn't true.  If you don't make the boat because of flight delays and you've booked through Norwegian do they guarantee to get you to the boat at the next port at no cost to you? Sorry, I cannot answer this part as I have not seen any such guarantees in the terms and conditions. (SEE BELOW)

 

3.  I understand you can pay a deviation fee of $25-50 pp to arrive the day before.  In total you would be paying Norwegian the $99+$25=$124.  Again, like in question #1 is that the total for the price of a round trip ticket? or is it just a fee for them to book your flights and the flight that they choose for you, you pay in addition? The deviation in the current terms and conditions states $25/per person of up to 2 days pre/post cruise and no other deviation request will be permitted. So in your example that would be the air for 1 person if this is the rate for your chosen departure/arrival airports. I have attached the link to the terms and conditions and I am emphasizing what they are as of today as they have changed some since the beginning of the campaign, so I would encourage you to look to see what they are whenever you decide to book.

I hope this answers some of your questions

https://www.ncl.com/termsandconditions/promotions

 

11 hours ago, TMO3CCO1 said:

 

Thanks for your help!

 

[DAVLIB007]

I am going out of Dallas which is American home base. Hoping this will be a direct flight , also going in 2 days before talked to 2 people one a supervisor said it was only $25 no hotel required . What gives. do they usually use a major airlines

 

[Pauser]

Ugh! So sorry you had this experience. Sounds like the reps at the airport made a stressful situation even more stressful. Glad you got onboard with your luggage. 

 

I am too obsessive to let someone else be in charge of my travel plans LOL. 

 

Hope you ended up having a good cruise. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[broncofan99]

We used free/reduced air in March from Colo Spgs to LAX.  It was a direct flight on United and all went well.  Transfers were smooth, but much hurry up and wait on transfer to pier.   Although it went fine, I feel like I lost first day of vacation flying all day (up at 4) and added stress.   Next time I’ll come in day before.  Too many chances of delays.  Free air promo great.  No flights out of Colo to any port is cheap.  

[teeredi2cruise]

17 hours ago, DAVLIB007 said:

I am going out of Dallas which is American home base. Hoping this will be a direct flight , also going in 2 days before talked to 2 people one a supervisor said it was only $25 no hotel required . What gives. do they usually use a major airlines

 

DAVLIB007, I have seen most major airlines in the CC users that have reported back on their airlines, some of them have been direct and some with connections. We are in an American Air Hub as well, but one of our group "currently" (meaning could change since we have not traveled yet and are still ~70 days out) are booked on Delta with one connection through Atlanta and one through JFK. One other has Departure through Delta and returning on American. I have to admit I was a bit surprised that they were not on American with hub departure city. I assume it is whichever airline has seat inventory that they have contracted with. All of the times are very good and are actually better than what I was able to book for myself. Having said that, they have also been told that their itineraries can change even though they were able to go in and select their seating so we all are keeping an eye on the arrangements. We are flying in 2 days before when we booked, it was $25/per person to deviate with no hotel requirement. One of our group booked earlier and had the hotel arrangement that was required to deviate. 

 

Safe travels!

[Cruise4Twos]

On 6/20/2019 at 10:30 AM, teeredi2cruise said:

DAVLIB007, I have seen most major airlines in the CC users that have reported back on their airlines, some of them have been direct and some with connections. We are in an American Air Hub as well, but one of our group "currently" (meaning could change since we have not traveled yet and are still ~70 days out) are booked on Delta with one connection through Atlanta and one through JFK. One other has Departure through Delta and returning on American. I have to admit I was a bit surprised that they were not on American with hub departure city. I assume it is whichever airline has seat inventory that they have contracted with. All of the times are very good and are actually better than what I was able to book for myself. Having said that, they have also been told that their itineraries can change even though they were able to go in and select their seating so we all are keeping an eye on the arrangements. We are flying in 2 days before when we booked, it was $25/per person to deviate with no hotel requirement. One of our group booked earlier and had the hotel arrangement that was required to deviate. 

 

Safe travels!

We're booked on direct flights from JFK to London via AA and Venice to JFK via Delta 2 days early with no hotel requirement . We were able to pick adequate seats. It seems like if you do a generic flight search, if there are several cheap nonstop flights for the major carriers, there's a good chance to get nonstop flights. If you notice the cheapest from the major carriers have connections then there's a good chance to there will be connections. The times are good.  It's a better deal overall than I can book myself.