NCL Free Airfare

[traveline]

I'm cruising on the Encore and NCL is giving me free airfare. Anyone who has used NCL free airfare, would you tell me what airlines do NCL use. Thank you so much for any info you  can give me. Thanking you in advance. Have a great day

[chriscec2012]

We’re flying Delta but I’ve saw others flying American. I’m sure they use whoever has the best deal, flights are usually booked around the 60 day mark. 

[Nola26]

United 

[traveline]

5 hours ago, chriscec2012 said:

We’re flying Delta but I’ve saw others flying American. I’m sure they use whoever has the best deal, flights are usually booked around the 60 day mark. 

Thank you so much.

[cruisekitty22]

American

[RedwingHockeyFan]

The answer is "it depends".  They need to know how many people are flying in for a particular cruise and which flights will get them to the port on time.  This is the reason the operator gave me on why they can not give you the flight information right away and have to wait until closer to departure.

[hallux]

What are the chances that separate bookings by people with the same last name from the same city would end up on the same flights?

[kfnesq]

17 minutes ago, hallux said:

What are the chances that separate bookings by people with the same last name from the same city would end up on the same flights?

Never know.  I have not experienced this but have read posts where people in the same group under separate bookings were on completely separate flights, with different layovers.

[skatie]

I always prefer to fly in the night before the cruise and always non stop from Toronto. Is there a way to designate those details when we sign up for that perk?

[smplybcause]

5 minutes ago, skatie said:

I always prefer to fly in the night before the cruise and always non stop from Toronto. Is there a way to designate those details when we sign up for that perk?

 

You can pay a deviation fee of $25pppd for up to two days before or after for your cruise. No way to specify anything else. 

[BarnCat1]

On 8/19/2019 at 9:06 PM, traveline said:

I'm cruising on the Encore and NCL is giving me free airfare. Anyone who has used NCL free airfare, would you tell me what airlines do NCL use. Thank you so much for any info you  can give me. Thanking you in advance. Have a great day

 

This is from their website regarding their partner airline:  

"If you choose a fly-cruise package, you’ll be flying with some of the world’s most respected airlines, which we’ve chosen as our travel partners. That means you can look forward to a more comfortable and relaxing flight. Our partners include: Air Canada, Air France/KLM, American Airlines, British Airways, Etihad, Iberia, Jet2.com, Lufthansa, Norwegian.com, Qatar, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, United Airlines, Vueling and Virgin Atlantic

[BarnCat1]

Does anyone know when you need to tell them you want to come in a day or so early and will pay the fee?  Should you tell them now, even if its over a year away or wait until it's a little closer but over 60 days out?

[reeinaz]

My cruise is in 2021 and I arranged for the deviation the day after I booked. I booked through a TA and was advised to wait until I had my flight arrangements. That didn't sound right so I called NCL and they said I could do it now so I called my TA and had it done. At least I hope it was done. I received a new invoice but it didn't show the deviation fee on it. I plan on calling NCL and checking. It's an international flight.

Edited August 22, 2019 by reeinaz

[smplybcause]

I would think you'd have to let them know before they bought your flights. I'd be worried about them getting their act together suddenly and start knocking out flights earlier and locking you in. I'd probably personally pay it just after or with final payment. One less thing to follow up on if I cancel, but then don't have to worry about paying again sometime after final. 

[K_e_short]

2 hours ago, smplybcause said:

I would think you'd have to let them know before they bought your flights. I'd be worried about them getting their act together suddenly and start knocking out flights earlier and locking you in. I'd probably personally pay it just after or with final payment. One less thing to follow up on if I cancel, but then don't have to worry about paying again sometime after final. 

 

Most flights don't get published until 10-11 months before. So a 2021 cruise doesn't even have flight options yet.

 

 

[smplybcause]

8 minutes ago, K_e_short said:

 

Most flights don't get published until 10-11 months before. So a 2021 cruise doesn't even have flight options yet.

 

 

 

Hence me saying pay at final payment which is 120 days before. I never once said pay now. 

[hallux]

I just booked a trip, my TA added the deviation on the first invoice I saw (because I mentioned that I'd need it).  However, the trip IS in October...

Edited August 22, 2019 by hallux

[reeinaz]

Even I wasn't suggesting paying now. But I do know now that I want to arrive before the cruise so that I can spend some time exploring Copenhagen. The cruise returns to Copenhagen on a Sunday and my research shows that many attractions are closed on Mondays, so staying after the cruise makes less sense to me. I'd just hate to be charged "change" fees on top of a deviation fee if I happen to notify NCL after they have already arranged my flight when I already know I want to arrive early. I also want to give them as much advance notice as possible to try and get a decent itinerary.

[Nola26]

15 hours ago, reeinaz said:

My cruise is in 2021 and I arranged for the deviation the day after I booked. I booked through a TA and was advised to wait until I had my flight arrangements. That didn't sound right so I called NCL and they said I could do it now so I called my TA and had it done. At least I hope it was done. I received a new invoice but it didn't show the deviation fee on it. I plan on calling NCL and checking. It's an international flight.

The deviation fee will be added in with your cruise fare. For us it showed after tickets were issued.

 

We leave next week for our 1 day deviation to Barcelona and fly back without a deviation. 

 

We are lucky, embarkation day is also free museum Sunday so we can check out a couple of places before boarding.

 

Understanding options before you deviate is a good plan. I didn't realize the free Sunday was the first weekend but boy are we happy for the bonus. We have booked a bike tour and Flamenco show, so freebies sound good for us, lol.

[RedwingHockeyFan]

One other thing to note, when you get the airfare perk it also includes transportation from the airport to the port and then back after the cruise.  If you pay the $25 to fly in early, there is no transportation to the port included and you will have to do that on your own.  I don't know about the return to the airport after the cruise though.

[Nola26]

7 minutes ago, RedwingHockeyFan said:

One other thing to note, when you get the airfare perk it also includes transportation from the airport to the port and then back after the cruise.  If you pay the $25 to fly in early, there is no transportation to the port included and you will have to do that on your own.  I don't know about the return to the airport after the cruise though.

Thanks, when we added the deviation NCL took off the transfer. I recently booked one online with a company that has good reviews on another site I trust. For the two of us that fee was a little less than the NCL cost, not enough to switch from NCL if weren't deviating. 

 

We will have the hotel help with a taxi to the port.

[hallux]

44 minutes ago, RedwingHockeyFan said:

One other thing to note, when you get the airfare perk it also includes transportation from the airport to the port and then back after the cruise.  If you pay the $25 to fly in early, there is no transportation to the port included and you will have to do that on your own.  I don't know about the return to the airport after the cruise though.

 

Interesting, my invoice shows the deviation AND transportation from airport to port...

[RedwingHockeyFan]

2 minutes ago, hallux said:

 

Interesting, my invoice shows the deviation AND transportation from airport to port...

 

I've never done it before and I'm just going off of what the customer service rep told me when I looked into it.  If you have a deviation and transportation from airport to port, wouldn't that mean you would get to the port a day earlier? (or however may days early your flight arrives).  Or maybe you just have to return to the airport on the day of embarkation to use the transportation?  I don't know.

[hallux]

We'll see I guess, I just gave the TA the payment info 2 hours ago, waiting for the booking to be finalized...

[Alatraveler1]

Paid in full three months ago, couldn't get NCL to give me any air info.  After calling and emailing for over a month now and either being placed on hold for up to and over an hour or no response at all from three separate NCL departments, finally got record locator last night.  Did not receive an email or other notice that this had happened.  

 

Called this morning to inquire about a change to return flight as one listed wouldn't get us home until after 1 a.m..  NCL said they had already ticketed and they would not make any changes and that it was under the control of the two airlines. 

 

Called the airline for which I wanted to inquire about a change who said since departure was on the other airline and they had the return that the other airline controlled the booking and would have to make any changes.

 

Called that airline who said no,  they had no direct relation with cruise line and although departure was on their plane, was booked through airline I originally called.  Asked if I could make seat assignments with them at least and they said sure.  I hung up and logged on to make seat assignments.  Oops, not enough contact and personal information transferred into the system to make a seat assignment.

 

Now on hold with second call to second airline to try and get those seat assignments.

 

Then I'll call the original airline with whom I want to inquire about a change and ask to speak to supervisor about it.

 

Most likely we'll be stuck with the return flight for which NCL paid $66 each for and that departs 11 hours after debarkation and gets us home around 1 a.m.

 

So to summarize, one cruise line, two airlines, three customer service departments and an exhausting next day at school and work for us after debarking.

 

NCL, love your cruises but using free or reduced air as a cost comparison to other options, never again.

 

(Your mileage may vary, objects in mirror are closer than they appear, not available in all states, offer may be changed or revoked at any time, disputes to be handled solely through arbitration, consult your physician, non-refundable, non-transferable, only available for a limited time, offer may be extended)

Edited August 23, 2019 by Alatraveler1
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