NCL booking flights

[JBethM]

Update: I finally reached NCL. If you're under 1 reservation in the same room, no fee is required to ensure you fly together. Otherwise, there is no guarantee without the fee.

 

I keep seeing horror stories of NCL booking your flights. We are new to NCL, but have had no problems with Carnival booking our flights in the past. We can't fly as cheap on our own with NCL's promotion of 2nd person flying free. I'm seeing that we need to pay a $25 fee to fly together. Is this right? Has anyone been pleased with NCL booking their flights? We are scheduled to fly in 2 days early before our September cruise.

Edited April 18, 2022 by JBethM

[doclifton]

I totally agree.  We have had major problems just getting flights, seats and flying together did cost us $50 a couple (3 couples).  Airline said we had to choose seats through NCL as they booked the air, NCL said we had to choose seats through the Air Line.  Went back and forth for a while.  Finally got our seats through the air lines.

 

Never had any problems when booked through other Cruise Lines.

[MontrealCruiser]

On 4/18/2022 at 10:24 AM, JBethM said:

Update: I finally reached NCL. If you're under 1 reservation in the same room, no fee is required to ensure you fly together. Otherwise, there is no guarantee without the fee.

 

I keep seeing horror stories of NCL booking your flights. We are new to NCL, but have had no problems with Carnival booking our flights in the past. We can't fly as cheap on our own with NCL's promotion of 2nd person flying free. I'm seeing that we need to pay a $25 fee to fly together. Is this right? Has anyone been pleased with NCL booking their flights? We are scheduled to fly in 2 days early before our September cruise.

 

Does that mean I can just ignore the email that NCL sent me on Sunday?

 

"For added convenience, our new Travel With Guarantee program ensures all guests who want to travel together are booked on
the same flight. Please see additional program details below:
· All guests must have all their air reservations booked through NCL with the same ship /sail date, flight itinerary, date deviations and departure air gateway to qualify
· Maximum of up to 4 reservations per Travel With Guarantee group. Maximum of 8 guests allowed on each reservation
· All guests, 2 years of age and older, must pay a non-refundable fee of $25 per person
· The Travel With Guarantee program can be added up to 75 days prior to embarkation"

 

I only have a single reservation with me and my two teenage kids in the same cabin.  I don't mind if we are not able to get seats together on the flight but I'm not comfortable with my 14 or 15 year-old taking an international flight on their own.

 

The way I read this email, NCL wants to shake me down for an extra $25 per person so that we are all on the same flight.  There is nothing in this email that indicates that it is to get passengers in different cabins on the same flight.

 

I'm currently at 87 days prior to sailing and I feel that I need to make a decision on this.

 

What I find even more worrying is that there are only two itineraries that will get us there on time that day.  One is a directly flight and the other has one stop that is fairly out of the way.  From what I understand, NCL won't book the flight until almost the last minute.  What if there are no seats left on either itinerary by the time NCL gets around to booking?

 

This is the first time that I've ever booked a flight through a cruise line.  I wasn't able to find flights anywhere close to price in what NCL was offering.  

 

 

 

 

[masspector]

Do I understand this that you already have your flights for a cruise in September?  What are you supposed to do for hotel for 2 days before?

On 4/18/2022 at 10:24 AM, JBethM said:

Update: I finally reached NCL. If you're under 1 reservation in the same room, no fee is required to ensure you fly together. Otherwise, there is no guarantee without the fee.

 

I keep seeing horror stories of NCL booking your flights. We are new to NCL, but have had no problems with Carnival booking our flights in the past. We can't fly as cheap on our own with NCL's promotion of 2nd person flying free. I'm seeing that we need to pay a $25 fee to fly together. Is this right? Has anyone been pleased with NCL booking their flights? We are scheduled to fly in 2 days early before our September cruise.

 

[ace2542]

Just to extend this a bit further or mod create a different thread if you wish. What about checking in for NCL Booked flights any problems there.

 

Here is what we are doing. Flying Manchester to Heathrow to Seattle in 2 weeks time. The connecting flight from Manchester to Heathrow has been cancelled every day this week so far if that holds true on the day we won't be able to cruise and we won't get our money back they will just say we are no show.

 

My question is can we board the flight at Heathrow ourselves without flying down from Manchester? They are two different flight numbers?

[wil e coyote]

On 4/18/2022 at 10:24 AM, JBethM said:

Has anyone been pleased with NCL booking their flights?

We have used NCL in the past and it has gone fine. We are also using them for our cruise in June. We have the flights and the timing is no worse (or better) than what I would have ended up with if I had done my own booking.

I've always been able to choose my seats by logging into the airline website, associating the reservation with my frequent flyer account, and then choosing seats. This also lets me enter my TSA Pre Check info so we can use that at the airport. I'm not sure whether you can do any of that without a frequent flyer account.

On 4/18/2022 at 10:24 AM, JBethM said:

We are scheduled to fly in 2 days early before our September cruise.

I'm guessing you are flying in early at your request - correct? I'm pretty sure NCL doesn't fly you in early unless they have to.

[KnATL]

flying june 2

4 rooms linked so we travel together

2 different schedules (that we know of)

only 1 has the ncl email

 

on another note, 

a group that intersects with our "linked travelers" has "direct flights" :/.. but 2 cabins that did not have deviations got them...they went home early for a reason...such a problem...as they are now being told they have to pay to change the flights  $$$, not ok...ncl needs to fix their **.

 

wow. just wow....

 

on another note, got a decent upgrade 🙂

 

 

[LadygolferRetired]

I requested to travel two days early and received my flights the other day.  I already had reserved two nights in a hotel for Friday and Saturday.  The good news is that I have a nonstop flight each way from PHX to MIA.  The bad news is I am on the red eye and arriving Saturday morning at 5 AM.  I departed two days ahead....

[Rusty Shacklefjord]

15 hours ago, LadygolferRetired said:

requested to travel two days early and received my flights the other day.  I already had reserved two nights in a hotel for Friday and Saturday.  The good news is that I have a nonstop flight each way from PHX to MIA.  The bad news is I am on the red eye and arriving Saturday morning at 5 AM.  I departed two days ahead....

This is a bummer because it is technically a one day deviation.  Can you call and challenge it? (From their website, they use arrival - Guests can deviate their travel dates by arriving up to two days prior. ) I’m worried this will happen to me since I’m flying from California. In your shoes, I’d make arrangements to keep the hotel room. You don’t want to wander the city at 6:00 a.m. waiting for a 3:00 p.m. check in.

[philv]

I’ve never booked air through NCL before. Wife and I are on Pride of America inter-island Hawaiian cruise in September. We have a promotion for second person flies free. Our latest information from NCL regarding air travel is that we will receive flight information 30 to 45 days in advance of departure date. I presume we will be on same flight and be seated together. Am I correct?

[wil e coyote]

41 minutes ago, philv said:

I’ve never booked air through NCL before. Wife and I are on Pride of America inter-island Hawaiian cruise in September. We have a promotion for second person flies free. Our latest information from NCL regarding air travel is that we will receive flight information 30 to 45 days in advance of departure date. I presume we will be on same flight and be seated together. Am I correct?

Our experience with NCL Air (for upcoming cruise in June) was that we got our flight info six weeks before our cruise - so basically 45 days out. If you are in the same cabin, then you will automatically be booked on the same flights. If you are traveling with friends/family in other cabins and want to be all on the same flights, you have to pre-arrange with NCL and there is a fee for that.

NCL doesn't reserve seats in my experience - they also don't know anything about frequent flyer numbers, TSA Pre Check info, or contact info. So after I got the flight info from NCL, I had to log in to the airline's website, reserve seats, and add all the other info to the reservation. Not a biggie - just something to know.

[philv]

Thank you wil e coyote!

[MHRN]

Can I cancel the paid part of the flight and get a refund for that and just book my own flights since I haven't booked yet

[gracebest]

If you are before final payment, you can cancel airfare promotion. FYI, you are also relying to a post that is almost a year old and the info in this thread is no longer accurate.  NCL no longer offers the $25 option for people in different cabins to fly together on same flights.