A New (at least to me) BOGO Air question...re: travel agency

[schmoopie17]

We are contemplating booking an NCL cruise through a large travel agency that offers free gratuities, cash back, yadda yadda. The one thing they don't offer is NCL's BOGO airfare. Not sure why, but that's the case. So...if we book the cruise through the agency, can we then go to NCL and book the BOGO directly through them?

 

I did an online NCL chat and I was told that this is doable. However, I have been told other things by NCL Customer Service that turned out to be untrue. So, I'm looking for anyone with personal experience as to whether or not this is allowed. Thanks...

[RocketMan275]

Have you read the threads with experiences of NCL BOGO?

 

[julig22]

11 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

We are contemplating booking an NCL cruise through a large travel agency that offers free gratuities, cash back, yadda yadda. The one thing they don't offer is NCL's BOGO airfare. Not sure why, but that's the case. So...if we book the cruise through the agency, can we then go to NCL and book the BOGO directly through them?

 

I did an online NCL chat and I was told that this is doable. However, I have been told other things by NCL Customer Service that turned out to be untrue. So, I'm looking for anyone with personal experience as to whether or not this is allowed. Thanks...

Big box TA won't do BOGO because of issues with flights.  Since they would own your reservation, I find it very doubtful that you could get NCL to book your BOGO flights.

 

However, you do have the option of booking online and then transferring your reservation to a TA (I think you have about 2 weeks) - you might contact the TA and ask if they would accept a reservation that has the airfare included.

Edited April 7, 2023 by julig22

[schmoopie17]

8 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

Have you read the threads with experiences of NCL BOGO?

 

We've used it before with no issues. It's worth trying again.

[NW Pacific]

FYI, our recent experience ,  NCL flights are the cheapest and worse available, never again.  But we are older and willing to pay for our own flights with the times best suited for us.   check your on own prices before trying to get NCL flights.  Just my opinion

[fredflint]

The BOGO works well for international flights and two one way flights where the cruise is not a loop.

I took a cruise from Lisbon to Rio De Janeiro and we saved  quite a bit flew Delta and American flight was a little longer than we could have booked but we did save quite a bit of money.  YMMV

[schmoopie17]

1 hour ago, fredflint said:

The BOGO works well for international flights and two one way flights where the cruise is not a loop.

 

We're looking at a round-trip cruise from Rome to Rome. Flying from O'Hare to Rome and back. Can you explain how the flights are worse on a round-trip? So, you're saying that flights are better if you fly into Rome and depart from say, Athens? We may have that option, as well.

[MeHeartCruising]

NCL will make flight arrangements for you any time, with or without a BOGO promotion.  See the attached link.  However, this does not mean you will get a BOGO special rate, given that you booked with a travel agency.  Let us know if you get a BOGO deal.  If not part of a BOGO deal, I believe you have full control over what they book for you, just as if you had used the travel agency.  But you pay for it.

 

https://www.ncl.com/air-service-standards

 

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by MeHeartCruising

[fredflint]

2 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

We're looking at a round-trip cruise from Rome to Rome. Flying from O'Hare to Rome and back. Can you explain how the flights are worse on a round-trip? So, you're saying that flights are better if you fly into Rome and depart from say, Athens? We may have that option, as well.

I am just saying that you can find deals on your own  vs NCL for  O'Hare to Rome  round trip, don't forget sometimes stopping off a a different city can save you $$$.  Last cruise we went to Dublin after our cruise and saved enough money to be able to pay for the hotel.  Dublin was great but a little cool!

[happy cruzer]

The big box TA we use does do the BOGO air.  And like all the perks you can cancel at final payment if you like.  So we look at the price at final and decide if it is worth taking the chance with the cruise line booking the air.  Also it turned out flying one day early was a bit cheaper.  The TA took care of getting the quote for BOGO air dev.

[julig22]

1 hour ago, happy cruzer said:

The big box TA we use does do the BOGO air.  And like all the perks you can cancel at final payment if you like.  So we look at the price at final and decide if it is worth taking the chance with the cruise line booking the air.  Also it turned out flying one day early was a bit cheaper.  The TA took care of getting the quote for BOGO air dev.

If you are using the big C, when was the last time you booked through them??  Not booking BOGO through them is a fairly recent turn of events.

[schmoopie17]

The Big C does not offer the BOGO, which was what prompted this discussion in the first place. But they do have their current promotion of free gratuities on NCL (which expires today) and a bunch of other rebates. These help offset the loss of BOGO.

 

Having said that, we decided that having the flexibility of choosing our own flights eventually won out over the BOGO. We booked with the Big C, as opposed to booking directly with NCL. Even though we will end up paying a bit more on the bottom line after airfare, we figure it's worth it to have control over the flights. Since this is a Europe cruise, comfort on the long haul flights won out over price. Besides, we may have enough miles banked to pay for the flights by the time the cruise rolls around in a year and a half.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

[happy cruzer]

not the same TA,  we use one another one.  They did not include grats so all good for each of us.  If the air turns out to be half price then we are happy vs. the grats.