NCL Air

[crdtrnr]

I have never booked my air with NCL...Will they allow you to request arrival a day or 2 in advance of the cruise?

 

Thanks

[Colleen73]

Yes they will 😊😊 

[hallux]

It's almost as if they want you to know you can, it's right in the T&C's for the promo - 

https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions

 

Deviation Requests:

• Deviation requests up to 2 days pre/post cruise will be credited $25 USD per person per deviation for guests 1 and 3-8 on the reservation. No other deviation requests will be permitted.
• Date deviations can be added up to 75 days prior to embarkation.

[debdel]

• Just make sure you research hotels prior to requesting this. They use Hilton and charge between $430-$500 a night. Tell them you will book your own hotels.
•  

[genealogyfan]

Also be aware I have read people got stuck with red eye flights and also read the fine print too. For example, the cruise I just took ended in Quebec City. Montreal is a couple hours away. Most people who got airline tickets via NCL got stuck flying in/out of Montreal. If they had a deviation from the cruise dates, they had to arrange their own transportation to/from Montreal.

 

Personally I would rather be in control what flights/airlines I picked, including the airport.

[MyTMo777]

We booked our flights with NCL for the first time for our upcoming cruise in November because I couldn't beat their prices, especially with the 2nd person flies free promo. We asked to fly in one day early and for a two-day deviation after debarkation. We decided to add the hotels also. They were about $230 each (LA and Panama City). We just got our flights yesterday (I think we're 57 days out?) and we are very pleased. We leave at 11:30 am with one connection that has about an hour layover (we're very familiar with the airport, and we're staying on the same airline, just changing gates a few steps away), and then direct to LA. On the way home we fly through two airports with a 2 or 2.5 hour layover, and again leave at a very reasonable 9:30 am. Very pleased with the arrangements.

[Uff da]

3 hours ago, debdel said:

• Just make sure you research hotels prior to requesting this. They use Hilton and charge between $430-$500 a night. Tell them you will book your own hotels.
•  

This is not true. We were offered the Westin in Seattle for $190 per night, which was in line with what I could book it for myself if I wanted to stay there. They do not care if you book their hotel or not. We chose to stay elsewhere because we flew in early and I wanted a hotel that had laundry so I could pack less and get on the ship with everything laundered and not deal with that on the ship. 

[Atlanta07]

After reading all of the reviews and comments with NCL Air, especially in regard to their BOGO - I thought some might be interested in my recent experience. I will try to just be as factual as possible and attempt to remove emotion etc. so you can make the best decision for you regarding NCL Air and their BOGO offer. 

 

I booked a cruise the beginning of September 2022 leaving January 1, 2023 out of San Antonio (Santiago) Chile and returning from Buenos Aires, Argentina - 14 day cruise.

 

I did elect the BOGO and my gateway (departure and return) city was Orlando. I did a two day deviation - meaning I would arrive and depart two days before / after the cruise and did receive a $50 credit for the deviation. The total cost of the BOGO was $1350 for airfare. 

 

In looking up pricing for the air - The price was indeed cut in half compared to what I would get through common carriers for economy class. 

 

I did receive the air confirmation the beginning of November and I will say it looked like someone was angry when they booked the flights - especially the return. 

 

Our schedule was:

12/29 - 

MCO - MIA - Delta

MIA - SCL - Latam

 

1/17 -

EZE - LIM - Latam

LIM - MIA - Latam

MIA - MCO - Delta

 

Flights are what they are and that is what we signed up for and we got the savings so not much to complain about in reality. All is fine - we went online and booked seats for the two Delta flights without a fee, and then went to Latam and paid for seats (rather than being assigned random seats) in the amount of $300.

 

All is fine until the end of November - when our flights disappeared from the Delta website. I called Delta and they confirmed that I am not on any flight those days and although they can see some record, it looks like it was canceled by the agent. I called NCL and then NCL asked me to call Latam. I called Latam and they said all is fine - just trust the process and you'll be okay in a few days. A few days later I called NCL again - since they are they agent that booked the flight. They said that their computer shows all is good so it must be but give it a day or so. I call back two days later to NCL where they direct me to call Latam. Latam tells me to call Delta. Delta says I should call Latam or NCL but they are out of it.

 

I call NCL back and have to go through all the same things I did above. I was asked if I had insurance for the trip - as if that would be acceptable in the event the flight was indeed a problem. I convince the NCL rep to pick up the phone and CALL DELTA to see that I'm not crazy. She does with lots of hesitation and then says that okay...so there is a problem. It looks like there is a schedule change and that is the issue but it should be resolved in 5 days or less. Now you know as well as I do if you are a frequent traveler - if a schedule change happens your flight just doesn't disappear. You get the new flight info and then hopefully it works with your schedule, but it just doesn't drop from existence. 

 

So now we at December 9 and my flight leaves in 20 days - plenty of time, however at this point I've already been on the phone at least 10 hours and still no resolution. The wait time to speak with someone at Latam...1 hour minimum hold time. 

 

On Dec 15 - I call again - nothing has changed and no updates. 

 

At this point, I give up and book refundable tickets through Delta. I figure if I'm going to trust the process - I'm going to do so with some security that I won't miss my 14 day cruise. 

 

We call again a few days later to NCL and they ask me to call Latam. I let them know that I didn't book with Latam - I booked with them, they are my agent and they need to get to the bottom of this. We speak with a supervisor who then explains that she wouldn't take the chance to book with the BOGO program - obviously doesn't make us feel great. So we hang up and call the concierge hotline since we are in a suite - explain everything to them and mostly just see if anything can be done to get a refund of the flight - that we've booked our own at this point. We don't trust them or the process. Not sure what was said or we just finally spoke with someone competent but about 10 minutes later we get a call from the Director of Escalations. Went through the process with him, and he got it - understood the issue with the first leg, and also realized that if we miss that first leg, all other legs of the flight would be canceled. 

 

He and his team were amazing and within about 2 hours our flights showed back up on Delta. 

 

Confident at this point that we had a contact and flights showing, we canceled our refundable flights - even though they offered a much better schedule, we would have lost the BOGO price of $1350 on top of the flights we paid for of another $2550. 

 

So flights there were fine - no issues and Latam other than a bit chaotic with boarding was fine (from Miami). Meal on the plane was fine. The flight started with Delta so we had no issues getting all of our tickets and checking our bags etc. 

 

Return flight - we check in WAY early which is great. We were then slapped with a $240 price per bag to check our bags - which of course we didn't have on the inbound flight as it was with Delta and they don't charge a baggage fee for international flights. We checked one bag each - so two bags - $480 plus international CC charges. There was no other option other than not getting our bag checked. We then had to go to a separate line to pay the fee or the bags wouldn't be released to the aircraft. 

 

Ultimately as you can see from the above we wish we would have just booked our own flights at the $2550. We would have been able to book our own flights with better schedules, not had 15+ hours of phone calls and frustration and in the end we didn't save all that much money. We had $850 of increased costs from the original $1350 we paid. Had NCL booked us with the first leg with Latam that price would be an additional $550. So we actually saved total $500 in our scenario...not worth it to me, but you make your own decision.

 

NCL Air is not an advocate - they are a booking service ONLY. They will step in if you demand assistance but will always defer you to someone else rather than taking care of the issue. 

 

Thanks and happy travels!