Put a hold on Breakaway cruise from NOLA, need help deciding

[nattie]

Hi, NCL cruisers!

We are not new to NCL but have not sailed this line for 10 years. I am wondering how the air promo works? I am very tempted with current deal on 2 second guest flies free. We are looking into cruising from NOLA, so cost savings on flight will be substantial if what NCL says pans out, right now in my cruise price airfare is $398 and ground transportation is $150 (that's for 3 people). Do I get to choose flights, or whatever they put me on is it? what if I want precruise stay?

Any advice is appreciated!

[oteixeira]

They pick flights and seats.  Prepared to all be in middle seats, and not together on the plane.  Also prepare for a late return flight from the cruise, they don't care what time you get home.  Last cruise I got off at 9:30AM, my flight left at 7PM, with a connection, so I was scheduled to be home after midnight.  I luckily got on some standby flights and made it back in a more reasonable amount of time.

You also can not move flights around yourself after they are booked.  That voids the terms of the NCL flight agreement with them.  (But I am not sure what the penalty would be)

[bigrednole]

We are on the NCL Air promo out of NOLA also. For us it was $448 for flights for 3 people. Just received an email promo as well for an invoice credit of $25pp. I need to research that. As far as timing goes, if it wasn't for NCL Air, we would not cruise. The flights if I booked them are over $2,000.

[smokeymtn51]

We did the ncl air 2nd guest flies free for the first time and had similar questions. We asked to go in the day before cruise. This way We avoid Ed a crazy early morning flight. We got direct flights from Mpls to Laguardia/ Newark. Reasonable times. It was interesting that they split up our seating. Since I have both airlines apps I was easily able to go in a d change seats in the app.

The other thing I noticed is that in your cruise summary, way before they issued tickets, you could at least see what airport you were flying into. I thought it worked pretty well and would probably do it again.

[nattie]

Thank you for replies!

I dont really care about middle seats/together situation or even flight timing (can always get a day stay in the hotel), more that I would really like a non-stop flight. Also there were no option for pre/post cruise package at all while booking. I am assuming NCL does those?

[Calvin]

1 hour ago, nattie said:

.... Do I get to choose flights, or whatever they put me on is it? what if I want precruise stay?

Any advice is appreciated!

One smaill piece of advice, that everyone will probably say, or agree with, is to do whatever you have to do in order to get to the embarcation port on the day before!  I bought my son and his girlfriend flights to the port, NCL set them up for the same day, and it was a very scary nightmare.  All ended up well, but I will NEVER set up flights on the same day again, and IMO, NCL wasn't nearly as helpful as I had assumed.  Please believe me when I tell you that it is worth the added expense of a hotel and/or a flight adjustment charge.

[SimplyAlbert]

i don't take the NCL airfare (personal preference) but from what I understand from reading countless threads is that you can, for an extra fee, come in a day before/fly out a day after your cruise.  You have no control over flights (non-stop, timing, etc.) or seats, although some people have reported being able to switch their seats around after being ticketed.  Some people have gotten great flights, others not so great.  

[hallux]

1 hour ago, oteixeira said:

Prepared to all be in middle seats, and not together on the plane.

At least with Delta and American I was able to log in to the airline website once the flight was confirmed and pick my seat (even paying out of pocket for an upgrade if I wanted to).  The flight is locked in, the seats certainly are not.  I was able to pick seats in the same row as the people I was traveling with.

 

2 minutes ago, SimplyAlbert said:

for an extra fee, come in a day before/fly out a day after your cruise.

In the past it's been a fee, recently it's been a CREDIT.  Unless they changed the terms again...

[nattie]

I am not sure if I am being daft or NCL website is not user friendly and wants me to call the toll free number to book anything outside of standard cruise (I HATE being on hold, so would much prefer just booking online). Where can I specify earlier flight date and add the hotel? Website packages say that option is available, but ask to call the toll free number.

[hallux]

Just now, nattie said:

add the hotel

Hotel is up to you to book.  I had a TA that handled the arrangements with NCL for coming in a day early (booked my own hotel) so I'm not certain how you would do that but it may require a phone call.

[Middleager]

29 minutes ago, nattie said:

I am not sure if I am being daft or NCL website is not user friendly and wants me to call the toll free number to book anything outside of standard cruise (I HATE being on hold, so would much prefer just booking online). Where can I specify earlier flight date and add the hotel? Website packages say that option is available, but ask to call the toll free number.

Have to call to add deviation to the original flight date.

[nattie]

Thank you everyone, again!

We have been cruising with Princess almost exclusively for past 10 years, so I kind of expected similar website/online options. Anyway, I'll call tomorrow since my hold is good till 1/13.

[icedearth15324]

When my wife and I flew to NOLA for our cruise, we were able to upgrade our seats after they were assigned directly via the airline. All-in-all, ended up being way cheaper than flying on our own.

[aimee0715]

We booked using the 2nd person flies free promo.  The NCL rep that I booked with asked me if we wanted to come in the day of, the day before, or two days before.  I told him the day before.  He said NCL wants to encourage people to come in ahead of time and they gave me a $25 credit for doing so.  Coming in a day earlier also removes the charges for the airport transfers.  So, if you want the NCL airport transfer for the trip home, you'll have to buy that separately. Also, as soon as we received the information for our flights (which were on Delta), I logged into my Delta account and picked our seats and purchased upgrades.  I did have to speak to a Delta agent to upgrade the tickets because they were showing up in the system differently than they would if I had just booked them directly with Delta.  

 

I see you said you usually sail with Princess.  So do I.  PrincessAir is different because you pick your own flights.  We just used PrincessAir for the first recently.  I was absolutely astonished at how much cheaper the fares were compared to booking directly with Delta. 

[RYMOMA]

We are doing the air promo for our 1/23/22 cruise. 
once I got my info for my flight, I went to their website and changed my seats. 
easy leash. You don’t have to just take what is assigned. 

[HonkyTonkAngel]

We were scheduled to be on the Escape right now as a matter of fact but we canceled because we had COVID. Our friends also canceled with POM. 

We have rescheduled for the Feb 20 Breakaway cruise and while my hubby and I are driving to NOLA, our friends are flying. They wanted to take advantage of the airfare deal but NCL said no, it's too close to the next sailing and they have to fend for themselves. 

Edited January 13, 2022 by HonkyTonkAngel

[hallux]

1 hour ago, HonkyTonkAngel said:

They wanted to take advantage of the airfare deal but NCL said no, it's too close to the next sailing and they have to fend for themselves.

Well, it DOES say in the T&C's  that the booking needs to be made more than 90 days before the sailing in order to get the airfare perk...

[bstel]

if you are good waiting till 60 days out to find out your flight, and are willing to fly with connections and fly really early or late (red eyes) then saving the money on the flights should be fine.

 

Me, I can't stand leaving decisions like these up to someone else.  I am sailing Breakaway on Jan 30th (hopefully) and the NCL airfare was $225 for two people.  I found my own flights, direct, and at the times I wanted, for $300 for two people.  So it was a no brainer for me to spend the $75 extra dollars for peace of mind.  I am also flying in 2 days early to mitigate any flight cancellations/changes by the airlines.

[fox02554]

we just booked Breakaway 4/17/2022 out of Nola. flights form Boston to Nola were $270 round trip each for 3 the 4 flys free. did a quick check on delta because it seems to come up the most often in comments the least expensive flight available for the 17th was $897 pp 😵  for $270 they can change planes in NY & Atlanta 🤪  and I'll sit in the middle seat