NCL Airfare Experiences

[NWA395]

Hello All,

 

My wife and I are currently looking at Alaska cruises R/T out of Vancouver OR Southbound out of Seward to Vancouver.  We see where MCL is running a special of 2nd person flies free if you book their air.   In speaking with the NCL rep, it is my understanding the you have no input on the flight selection (time/route) and can only do a 2 day pre or post arrival.

 

I am looking for any feedback (positive or negative) from those who have used NCL to book their flights.

 

Thank you

[jdc987]

Current chain ongoing now:

NCL Air Promo - Yes or N

[G-DawgMN]

 We have done it flying from Minneapolis to LA for a cruise. We did a 1 day deviation and had great direct flights to/from. We are trying it again next year when we go out of New Orleans. The cost savings were significant enough to make losing control of our travel plans worthwhile.

  Be sure to read through NCL terms below so you know what to expect (like a redeye coming home):

 

 For Domestic flights, Norwegian Cruise Line will book guests' airfare with a maximum of one connection when possible; air schedules permitting.
For International flights, Norwegian Cruise Line will book guests' airfare with a maximum of two connections when possible; air schedules permitting.
If flying from the West Coast to the East Coast of the U.S., we reserve an overnight flight allowing you plenty of time to get to your destination city.
For cruises concluding on the East Coast of the US, you may be reserved on a flight that departs up to 10:30 p.m. depending on available inventory and to offer the best schedule.
For cruises concluding on the West Coast of the U.S. with guests returning home to a city located on the East Coast or central U.S., you may be reserved on a flight that departs up to 11:59 p.m. depending on available inventory.
Guests embarking or disembarking in PortMiami may be reserved on flights arriving or departing at Miami International Airport (MIA) or Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL).
Ground transportation is available at the same cost for both airports.
Guests embarking or disembarking in Manhattan Cruise Terminal (New York City) may be reserved on flights arriving or departing at LaGuardia Airport (LGA), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) or John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Ground transportation is available at the same cost for the three airports.
Guests embarking or disembarking in Quebec City may be reserved on flights arriving or departing from Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to ensure the most convenient schedule.
Norwegian Cruise Line reserves the right to choose the air carrier, routing, and city airport from each gateway city and reserves the right to substitute commuter service and/or charter air service for scheduled air carriers without prior notice.

[debenson0723]

Do a search in this forum for NCL Air and you will find many, many experiences. I personally would never use it except possibly for an international flight with a 2 day deviation. 

[saltsandknit]

We always use the NCL air offer. We just got our flights for Prima direct flights both ways and decent schedule flying Utah to Florida. We usually have a layover, so I am happy 

[Cali82]

We actually just cancelled our trip. We requested the 2 day flight deviation and they claimed we did not. Our cruise was starting in NZ and ending in Sydney, while NCL had us arriving the day of our cruise at 6 am. As long as you can get the flight deviation (if you choose) it would be worth it. The lesson I learned was after requesting flight deviation, make sure to get a email confirmation!

[SunshineGal2022]

The consensus is it's better not to use it, but sometimes the money savings are significant enough that it's a good value and good to use.

 

If you have more than 2 people flying, there can be issues if they are all put on the same flight.  

 

If you choose to use it, make sure you also add a 1-2 day deviation into your travel plans so you know that your surprise fare will make it on time.  This deviation MUST be requested with NCL before 75 days before sailaway date.

[ontheweb]

37 minutes ago, SunshineGal2022 said:

The consensus is it's better not to use it, but sometimes the money savings are significant enough that it's a good value and good to use.

 

If you have more than 2 people flying, there can be issues if they are all put on the same flight.  

 

If you choose to use it, make sure you also add a 1-2 day deviation into your travel plans so you know that your surprise fare will make it on time.  This deviation MUST be requested with NCL before 75 days before sailaway date.

Also according to our TA it cannot be made more than 270 days out.

[Hmmcminn]

22 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Also according to our TA it cannot be made more than 270 days out.

This is not true.  I just requested a deviation for my Feb 2024 cruise on the Viva with no problem and that’s 400+ days out.

[Sailing12Away]

It all depends on where you're flying into/out of. We've used it about 4-5 times with no issues at all. 

 

For Alaska, we flew JFK straight to Seattle nonstop with decent times. Had a 1 day deviation coming in because we wanted to catch a baseball game the night before.

 

Coming home on Alaska Air they lost our luggage, but that's on Alaska Air and not NCL. Bag ended up going to San Diego instead of NY and made it back to us via a taxi drop off the following night.

 

Our next trip is in February and we have great flights. JFK to LAX leaving NY at 6am. We'll get into LAX around 9am for a 4pm cruise departure. Coming home we have an 11:30am flight from Miami, I'll be home in my living room before 3pm.

 

Going we're on AA, coming home it's on Delta. We were able to upgrade to comfort plus for about $50/person, and even with those added charges it's still half price what the same flights would have cost on our own.

 

In total we've saved several thousand dollars on flights by using the promo and haven't had an issue yet.

[ontheweb]

14 hours ago, Hmmcminn said:

This is not true.  I just requested a deviation for my Feb 2024 cruise on the Viva with no problem and that’s 400+ days out.

Ok, but there must be some limit. When we first booked the Prima for this coming summer, he requested the deviation and was told it was too soon. I don't remember the exact date we booked, but it was in 2021, IIRC sometime in the winter, well over not only 270 days but also over 400 days. He mentioned 270 in an e-mail to me, and I reminded him this December. He then was able to get the deviation we requested.

[cruiseny4life]

We received our flights today for our first BOGO airfare experience with NCL. I'm quite happy with everything, including Delta being the airline. I would prefer United as it's my preferred airline (loads of miles) and I'd rather fly directly into Miami, but I sure can't complain.

 

Here's what we received for a sailing leaving Miami on 3/18 with a requested one day pre-cruise deviation:

 

SYR (12:40 PM) > JFK (1.5 hour layover) > FLL (6:49 PM)

FLL (12:03 PM) > JFK (~2 hour layover) > SYR (6:16 PM)

 

Great layover times, not super early flight, and flights don't arrive wicked late. If all goes well on Delta, I'll be a happy BOGO customer.

[NWA395]

Thank you to all who replied. It has been very helpful

[2jeffs2]

I need to vent so I figured I would tell you about my first and last experience with NCL Air. We are booked in a group of 12 people on the Epic for Feb 5 cruise out of San Juan. We all chose to use NCL Air. 10 of us are flying from Milwaukee and 2 from Cincinnati. Us Milwaukee folks were hoping to be on the same flights but we are on 5 different flights. I knew that might happen so no big deal there. What I was not expecting is the married couple from Cincinnati was actually put on 2 separate flights that leave about the same time but connect through different cities. Seriously?

 

On top of that my DH and I were originally booked on a Southwest flight to San Juan, however when I called SWA to give them my TSA number they said they have the request but NCL never had us ticketed through them so we are not on that flight. Found out about that about 10 days before Christmas and was told by NCL (our group cruise consultant never calls back so I don’t even bother calling her) that an expert from their air department would call me in 1-2 weeks with a new reservation. No call…..so I called them last week and was told it would be escalated and I will get a call in 1-2 days since we are so close to our cruise. No call……so I called again yesterday and was told it is now “super escalated” and will get a call back shortly and to keep an eye on my email for new reservations.

 

I have been very patient and nice through this whole process but we are now about 3 weeks out from this cruise and we do not have an outbound flight. I am a bit of a Planny McPlanner so I am getting nervous. If I have to call again tomorrow I would not want to be the unlucky NCL rep that answers.

[philv]

We used NCL air in September 2022 for Hawaiian cruise. Denver to Honolulu. Flew 2 days prior. Got direct flights on United both ways at good times. Price was terrific. Very happy with experience. Just booked same cruise again for 2024 and am doing NCL air again. Air is more expensive but still better than what I found. 

[9tee2Sea]

this will be my first time using NCL air.  My Feb cruise is Dubai- Athens.  My home airport is LAX.2 days pre/post cruise deviation.  Got my tickets about 1 week ago and could not be happier!.  Leave LAX on the only non-stop to Dubai ( 17 hour flight).  Leave Athens 2 days after cruise with a stop in London ( about 2 hours, change planes) then fly non stop- London back to LAX.  I paid extra on the airlines website to upgrade to bulkhead seats.  Even got an email to bid for an upgrade to First class ( which I did...we will see how it goes).  At first I was leary, bur going thru NCL BOGO saved me over $2,000.  I was prepared for long layovers and doing some quick sight seeing in the lay over city.  I would not do it for coast to coast travel  Everyone has points these days

[NW Pacific]

Have a cruise with friends March 26th, told no guarantee the four of us would get same flights.  OK, got that.   What is the time line for getting airline info into your account?   We have so many cruises with NCL, but this time with another couple and they choose to use NCL flights, so we went along.

[speedyjane]

13 hours ago, NW Pacific said:

Have a cruise with friends March 26th, told no guarantee the four of us would get same flights.  OK, got that.   What is the time line for getting airline info into your account?   We have so many cruises with NCL, but this time with another couple and they choose to use NCL flights, so we went along.

We are a group flying to Rome in September. We were told that we would have to pay $100 pp, if we wanted to be on the same flight. Has anyone had this experience. Never had this problem with Princess. This is our first NCL cruise. Seems a little much to push a few buttons.

[cwtravel]

42 minutes ago, speedyjane said:

We are a group flying to Rome in September. We were told that we would have to pay $100 pp, if we wanted to be on the same flight. Has anyone had this experience. Never had this problem with Princess. This is our first NCL cruise. Seems a little much to push a few buttons.

Not sure who or why someone would have told you that info.

 

If you are doing the BOGO (1/2 price air) NCL will not guarantee you and you friends will be on the same flights even if departing from the same airport on the same day. You can do a deviation for up to 2 days pre or post but that does not cost $100.

If you are doing the regular NCL air (not the 1/2 price promo) you can just book your own air thus you are on the same flights. Final payment for a Sept departure is still a few months away so you have time to assess your air options.

[wolfcathorse]

We used NCL air for our upcoming Jewel cruise in March. When we got the details last week, they had us arriving in Athens the day after the ship left port! TA had to call and they are correcting it claiming it will take 2-2 1/2 weeks since we are within 271 days of departure. Coming home, they must have us on a red eye cuz we leave the day we get off the ship but don't get home until the next day. We don't lose a day flying back from Europe, only lose it flying to Europe.

[lfdemt]

2 hours ago, speedyjane said:

We are a group flying to Rome in September. We were told that we would have to pay $100 pp, if we wanted to be on the same flight. Has anyone had this experience. Never had this problem with Princess. This is our first NCL cruise. Seems a little much to push a few buttons.

NCL used to have a program called “travel with”  and you could pay to link reservations to be together. They cancelled that program and refunded those that had paid back in September??  Anyway they won’t guarantee that my minor children are on the same flight as their parents, so you might want to consider cancelling the air fare through them and book it yourself. 

[usctzn]

5 hours ago, wolfcathorse said:

We used NCL air for our upcoming Jewel cruise in March. When we got the details last week, they had us arriving in Athens the day after the ship left port! 

So, it is our story!

We also got our first reservation flying on the day that the ship leaving the Panama (Colon).  It seems like a common NCL approach 😂. It took NCL about 5 (five!) weeks to correct it. Using NCL Air first time, we were quite happy with price-competitive travel reservations, four hours layover in JFK, and a red eyes flight from JFK to PAN.  Silly us! Our corrected reservation was made on two different, not code-sharing airlines. Our flight to JFK was delayed for more than 3 hours (technical issues). Neither Delta nor COPA had access to each other reservation systems. They could not rebook us to get to Panama before the ship left.  NCL Air was not in help, except they eventually sent us to Costa Rica to join the ship. As a result, we waisted two nights in freezing NY, two nights in much warmer San Jose, CR, missed Panama Canal, spent over $1000, etc. NCL Air do not take any blame for our misfortune.  Now we are in communications with AON Travel Protection for expense reimbursement.

P.S. What happened with us would not prevent us from using NCL Air Travel services if the price is right. But we learned our lessons and plan to use two-days pre-cruise deviations.

P.P.S. You make your conclusions.

 

[NWA395]

Again thank you all for your replies

[CruisingBeans]

15 hours ago, lfdemt said:

NCL used to have a program called “travel with”  and you could pay to link reservations to be together. They cancelled that program and refunded those that had paid back in September??  Anyway they won’t guarantee that my minor children are on the same flight as their parents, so you might want to consider cancelling the air fare through them and book it yourself. 

This is us. Cruising on Epic out of San Juan in March. The 6 coming in from Cleveland got 2 different flights in and 3 different flights out. No biggie all adults and couples together. We are flying in from Portland, Maine. Flights all together going but coming back my 11 year old daughter leaves San Juan 2 hours after her parents and younger sister. Same airline and our second flight is all together but not sure who thought that was a good idea! So now we are in the waiting game of, “Oh we’ll try to fix it but it may take 3 weeks to move you to same flights”.  If it even happens!!!

[lfdemt]

2 hours ago, CruisingBeans said:

This is us. Cruising on Epic out of San Juan in March. 

When is your sailing? We cruise end of March and at anxiously awaiting the flight arrangement. Just wondering how much longer we might have to wait.