NCL Air package

[Milwaukee]

Hi. Does anyone know what airline, if any, NCL uses most often? Do they have contracts with certain airlines? I guess I don't really know how this works at all. I am getting curious about our flights and haven't heard anything yet. Thanks for your help!

[kazover40]

Hi. Does anyone know what airline, if any, NCL uses most often? Do they have contracts with certain airlines? I guess I don't really know how this works at all. I am getting curious about our flights and haven't heard anything yet. Thanks for your help!

 

I believe they source all scheduled airlines for the best deal, thats what NCL UK informed me anyway!

[Rumncoke]

The cheapest, and they don't care how many times you have to change planes, either.

 

Booking our own has always been cheaper, we have our choice of flights and aren't left wondering what time we'll have to leave the house until 2 weeks before the cruise.

 

I'm too much of a planner to leave things like this until the last minute.:D

[KMA0455]

If you want to book thru the cruise line that's fine but do a airline deviation...that's what we did we picked our own flight it was approved thru NCL and it was non stop and time of our choice...thats a good thing!.

[ejnsb]

Maybe we got lucky but on our flight to Hawaii for next month, we got the best connections possible through NCL and the air add-on was cheaper than anything I could come up with. We're on Delta from Orlando, one stop in Atlanta going, one change in lax coming back.

[dean8844]

i booked air though NCL from Ga to seattle, got non-stop round tirp on delta it was also cheaper then i could fine tks NCL :D

 

Dean

[Happy ks]

I would do a price comparison before booking air with any cruiseline, not just NCL. A lot depends on the destination, sometimes the cruiseline can do far better than you with one way flights, sometimes they can do better on price with Hawaii flights from the east.

 

We have always been able to find our own airfare for less, or around the same cost. We prefer to book our own so we can have control over when we fly, where we fly from and get our own seat assignments.

 

Cruise lines do not book you on the preferrable flights all the time, they do't always book you out of the most convenient airports, they don't book you on direct or non-stop flights all the time.

 

We like to go a day or two ahead of time and like to return the day after the cruise. We also don't book hotels through them (cruise prices are through the roof on hotels!) nor do we purchase travel insurance or airport transfers through them.

 

The savings you can realize doing your own bookings can be substantial. I'd rather spend my $ on spa treatments :) .

[bankofdad]

Hi. Does anyone know what airline, if any, NCL uses most often? Do they have contracts with certain airlines? I guess I don't really know how this works at all. I am getting curious about our flights and haven't heard anything yet. Thanks for your help!

 

Hi Milwaukee,

 

Where are you flying to for your cruise? We live in the Milwaukee area and have always booked our own air. We're pretty lucky here to have fairly easy access to three major airports; Milwaukee General Mitchell, Chicago O'Hare and Chicago Midway. We've flown out of all three at one time or another for our cruises and land vacations.

 

When do you cruise this time?

[KeystoneCruiser]

We have used NCL air 3 times and we have flown on Delta, United and Northwest. In 2002, we were on United going out and Northwest coming back. In 2004, it was United out and Delta back. In 2005, it was Delta both ways.

 

The problem with NCL air is that unless you buy the premium service, your party may not be seated together on the plane as NCL buys the leftover seats. On one flight, our party of nine was in nine different rows.

[rferr]

I've been on many cruises, and just booked NCL for the first time for an upcoming cruise. NCL's price was almost exactly double what I found myself for a direct flight with great times. This has pretty much been my experience with the other lines too. I let Carnival book my air two times and both times were awful with lots of crazy connections and times and cost more too. As someone else said they go for the cheapest period. Coming back both times we were waiting around at the airport for hours and then had long connection waits to. I'd never do that again.

[norcalgal]

I figured I was pretty safe in having NCL book our air from Oakland to Honolulu. After all - it would be a non-stop - right? WRONG! They booked us on American and we had to fly from Oakland - LA - Honolulu. The good news: When we got to the Oakland airport, our flight to LA had been cancelled so they took us by van to SF and got a direct flight to Honolulu. Coming home - they booked us onto a red-eye to LA - then to Oakland. Again - our LA - Oakland flight got cancelled and they re-booked us to SF from LA. arrrgghh! From now on - I check out booking our own air & travelling out of SF instead of Oakland.

[sandiegojoe]

I just got my docs for our 11-26-05 Pride of Amarica to Hawaii. We got United Airlines both ways. The flight to Hawaii is ok, but the return is leaving at 10:30pm and arriving in San Diego at 9:30am the next day. I complained and they refuse to change it. They tell me that these red eyes are par for the course so they can save a few bucks. I'm going to make the best of it this time...but I won't sail NCL again.

SanDiegoJoe

[rferr]

I just got my docs for our 11-26-05 Pride of Amarica to Hawaii. We got United Airlines both ways. The flight to Hawaii is ok, but the return is leaving at 10:30pm and arriving in San Diego at 9:30am the next day. I complained and they refuse to change it. They tell me that these red eyes are par for the course so they can save a few bucks. I'm going to make the best of it this time...but I won't sail NCL again.

SanDiegoJoe

 

 

All the lines do the same thing when you buy air from them.

[bobnpaml]

This is our first time to book air with any cruiselines. We are on the Crown leaving Nov. 5th, the flight is out of Dallas-Fort Worth to Miami. Returning from Santiago to DFW non-stop. Both were booked thru AA. I called AA directly several months ago and they told me what flight we were on, going and returning, at that time I selected our seats. I would think that when you know what flight you are on, call that airline and check available seating. We could have gotten a cheaper fare to Miami but couldn't come close to the fare on the return flight. Just one more week to wait. Pam

[sandiegojoe]

WOW!!!

I can’t believe it! My travel agent called today and told me that NCL was offering me a decent flight home…and at no charge! Now that’s what I call service. I can’t tell you all how happy we are, especially my wife. A very nice Cruise Specialist at Customer Service took the time to write a letter to the Flight Reservations Department and convinced them to change my return flight. I called to thank her and even she was surprised to hear that it actually worked.

We now have the perfect vacation booked. We can’t wait.

SanDiegoJoe

[Big Al B.]

Our Allentown, PA-Miami and LA-Allentown return from a Canal cruise were on Delta. We've done NCL air twice before and been on Delta both times. In the case of the Canal cruise, NCL was cheaper than on our own. We've been lucky with our times and routes so I can't complain. On all the flights our TA has been able to secure our seats together ahead of time.

 

I know many people say that they can save money booking flights on their own, but if I were doing that I think I'd want to go at least a day early (they will wait or get you to next port if you have cruise air, I believe). You then have the added expense of accomodations and transportation. Just a thought.

[MidtheNight]

The cheapest, and they don't care how many times you have to change planes, either.

 

Booking our own has always been cheaper, we have our choice of flights and aren't left wondering what time we'll have to leave the house until 2 weeks before the cruise.

 

I'm too much of a planner to leave things like this until the last minute.:D

 

 

We're taking a transatlantic next April Miami to Barcelona...Pricing out airfare on our own $1200+ per person....booking it through NCL $619 per person. No brainer where we booked our air through.

[denims]

I just got my docs for our 11-26-05 Pride of Amarica to Hawaii. We got United Airlines both ways. The flight to Hawaii is ok, but the return is leaving at 10:30pm and arriving in San Diego at 9:30am the next day. I complained and they refuse to change it. They tell me that these red eyes are par for the course so they can save a few bucks. I'm going to make the best of it this time...but I won't sail NCL again.

SanDiegoJoe

 

Princess does the same!

[denims]

We're taking a transatlantic next April Miami to Barcelona...Pricing out airfare on our own $1200+ per person....booking it through NCL $619 per person. No brainer where we booked our air through.

 

We are on the same cruise. We are flying out of Phoenix. The airfare thru NCL was almost half the price as the Internet or a TA!!!

 

PS: Hi Midthenight!

[7SeasLover]

NCL booked our last flight. We were to sail from Canada Place. NCL flew us to Seattle and then sent us by bus into Canada. The border patrol decided to detain our bus and was not happy becuase not everyone claimed luggage! NCL had loaded two buses at Seattle but the guests did not necessarily get on the same bus as their luggage. NCL didn't much care because both buses, after all, were going to the same destination.

 

As you all know, luggage should never be separated from its owner! The Canadians were not happy with us and we were not happy with them! NCL never told us we were not flying directly to Canada. Not nice! Instead of arriving at the ship at noon, we arrived at 3:00 p.m. 1.5 hours before sailing.

 

On the bright side, we were so late we walked right onto the ship - no lines!

 

NCL booked the flights for our trip from LAX to Istanbul. Charge is $2081 for two. I haven't found it cheaper anywhere so far! They'll probably drop us in Greenland and bus us to Istanbul!

[SHINEMAN]

For whatit's worth, buying from NCL includes the transportation from ship to airport and vice versa. This often runs to $50 per person each way. Also,unless you want to go the day before, they say they will get you on ship if there are delays.