NCL Free/Reduced Air Compilation

[drcarp4]

49 minutes ago, snorklinbarb said:

So did we.  But as time went on they changed.  Originally BCN-MAD-JFK and now BCN-JFK.

Not sure what will be the final version. Some posters making big decisions based on the initial listing but it may be way too early to come to any conclusions.

I'm hoping as ours get closer, they change to non-stop as we are flying in the day of (unavoidable) and we have to catch the transfer from Montreal to Quebec City (3 hours).

Quote

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by drcarp4

[snorklinbarb]

1 hour ago, drcarp4 said:

I'm hoping as ours get closer, they change to non-stop as we are flying in the day of (unavoidable) and we have to catch the transfer from Montreal to Quebec City (3 hours).

 

Have you considered paying the $25pp deviation fee and flying a day earlier? 

Not sure how much wiggle room NCL will leave you In case flight is late but they do a nice job on those Montreal-QC transfers (I was on Dawn last fall but did B2B of 11 and 9 nights, so wasn't an issue for me personally).  

 

On our embarkation we have LGA-MIA and will go a day early.  I learned (thanks to this thread) that one can do a same day departure change for $75pp.  I'm assuming (we shall see) that even a day early NCL will access the same first of the morning flights.  If we are assigned an early morning flight, good to know we have a low cost option.

 

We are extremely happy with the reduced air price we got so very little to complain about no matter what we are assigned.  It would be a real gift should we truly be assigned BCN to NYC nonstop but a stop in MAD isn't bad, either.  We're just rolling with it and wish NCL would repeat this perk but there have been so many complaints,  who knows.

[PSU78]

We will cruise on the Escape Transatlantic from NYC to Rome. Because we travel by bus from PA to NYC, we requested a one-way flight from Rome to Newark.

 

Return Departure City:  FCO

Destination:  EWR

Airline used:  American operated by British Airways

Number of Connections:  1 (FCO to LHR/ LHR to EWR)

Inbound Flight Times:  12:55 PM/2:40; 4:45/7:35

Did you pay for a Deviation:   YES, 2 days for $25

Number of days Prior to Departure flights were ticketed:  70 days

 

These are the connections posted from the start when we booked the cruise last July. As soon as we received confirmation of our flights, we searched the reservation and upgraded our seats on the British Airways website. We are 100% pleased with the flights especially since we paid $199 each for the reduced air and AA posts the flight at just shy of $2000 each!

[drcarp4]

On 2/7/2020 at 6:52 PM, snorklinbarb said:

Have you considered paying the $25pp deviation fee and flying a day earlier? 

 

I would love to do a deviation, but the Wife's work will not allow it.

 

Edited February 9, 2020 by drcarp4

[Toledosfinest]

We are on the N.C.L Getaway May 8-18  out of Rome.. We booked our air with N.C.L. for $599, which we are very happing doing so far.

Depart DTW May 7 2020 5:25 pm non - stop Rome Italy - Delta Airlines

Arrive  May 8 8:15 am.

No Deviation

Depart Rome May 18 12:30p,  on Air France to Paris. Hour and ten minutes layover, then Non -Stop Paris -Dtw on Air France, arriving in Dtw at 6:45pm

Only reason we know flights is that Air France changed our flight time and sent an email. Biggest problem is that we picked our seats on the Delta flight from Dtw/Rome, but after about 30 days our seats disappeared. Delta suspects that since N.C.L has only held seats and not officially paid for them and ticketed them, that our seat assignments aren't secured. We're not happy losing our window/aisle seats, and being forced to take middle seats, but for the price, we understand. Just wish N.C.L would pay for the tickets earlier. We are 83 days out, and no official tickets yet.

 

 

[snorklinbarb]

Outbound City:  NYC/LGA to MIA

Return Departure City:  BCN

Destination:  JFK

Airline used:  American (outbound), Iberia (return)

Number of Connections:  Both nonstop

Outbound time:  6:00 am arrive MIA 9:03 am

Inbound Flight Times:  5:10 pm arrive JFK 8:15 pm

Did you pay for a Deviation:   1 day early

Number of days Prior to Departure flights were ticketed:  approximately 60

 

Plan of action:  24 hours in advance pay for same-day change to book a later flight to MIA

 

**PSU76, you posted you were able to upgrade your BA flights.  Did you do that with miles?

Looking on AA, it states for BA and Iberia upgrades one must have Full Fare Economy priced seats?  Haven't checked the actual NCL ticket to see what "code" was used but would have my doubts.  How did you manage it?  Also does BA charge for a checked bag or was that included in your booking?

 

All in all, very pleased with NCL's booking.  For the late return from BCN I've booked a tour with airport drop-off, only available for flights after 4:30 pm.  So there are ways to turn things around rather than sit at airport all day.

 

Note that for both flights, seats were assigned.  With record locator I was able to change our middle seats on AA.

 

For Iberia, seats are same row but aisle on one side and window on the other side.  To change seats would incur a fee but 24 hours prior to flight I can check availability.  Iberia has various levels of economy, the lowest of which does not include a checked bag or a meal.  Agent checked our booking and NCL's allows a checked bag each, one carry on and one personal item....and dinner!  If Iberia includes wine like some international airlines, so much the better!

 

[SAmome]

Does anyone know if 2 days is the max can deviate?  Can you do 3 days?

[FlashbackAlternatives]

2 hours ago, SAmome said:

Does anyone know if 2 days is the max can deviate?  Can you do 3 days?

 

I was told two days max for my cruise in August.  I wanted to get to Rome three days early, but NCL only allowed two.  That said, we  leave three days ahead of the cruise, and depending on the flight, will get to Rome some time Friday morning (cruise is on Sunday).  I was afraid they were going to count the flight day as one of the two days, but that is not the case.

 

Ed

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by FlashbackAlternatives

[mismal]

And now the reality sets in!

Thrilled with the times/layovers etc; now to work on upgrades from coach for the return trip from Rome.  I have minimal status w/ America, was hoping for Delta, oh well!  My price was $299/person so couldn't beat the price

 

Return Departure City:  Chicago O'Hare, ORD

Destination:  Transatlantic so not round trip, LaGuardia outbound, Rome return

Airline used:  American 

Number of Connections:  Outbound 1 (ORD to PIT/PIT to LGA) Inbound 1 (FCO to PHL/PHL to ORD)

Inbound Flight Times:  7:10 am/Noon;

Outbound Flight Times: 11:50AM/7:50PM

Did you pay for a Deviation:   NO

Number of days Prior to Departure flights were ticketed:  67 days

[PSU78]

On 2/14/2020 at 4:26 PM, snorklinbarb said:

Outbound City:  NYC/LGA to MIA

Return Departure City:  BCN

Destination:  JFK

Airline used:  American (outbound), Iberia (return)

Number of Connections:  Both nonstop

Outbound time:  6:00 am arrive MIA 9:03 am

Inbound Flight Times:  5:10 pm arrive JFK 8:15 pm

Did you pay for a Deviation:   1 day early

Number of days Prior to Departure flights were ticketed:  approximately 60

 

Plan of action:  24 hours in advance pay for same-day change to book a later flight to MIA

 

**PSU76, you posted you were able to upgrade your BA flights.  Did you do that with miles?

Looking on AA, it states for BA and Iberia upgrades one must have Full Fare Economy priced seats?  Haven't checked the actual NCL ticket to see what "code" was used but would have my doubts.  How did you manage it?  Also does BA charge for a checked bag or was that included in your booking?

 

All in all, very pleased with NCL's booking.  For the late return from BCN I've booked a tour with airport drop-off, only available for flights after 4:30 pm.  So there are ways to turn things around rather than sit at airport all day.

 

Note that for both flights, seats were assigned.  With record locator I was able to change our middle seats on AA.

 

For Iberia, seats are same row but aisle on one side and window on the other side.  To change seats would incur a fee but 24 hours prior to flight I can check availability.  Iberia has various levels of economy, the lowest of which does not include a checked bag or a meal.  Agent checked our booking and NCL's allows a checked bag each, one carry on and one personal item....and dinner!  If Iberia includes wine like some international airlines, so much the better!

 

We used the record locator provided by NCL on the AA site and this redirected to the British Airways site. We were not assigned seats so we selected and paid to upgrade as my husband needs an aisle seat and prefers additional leg room. I do not believe we should need to pay for checked bags.

[Grandmafreddie]

Do you know if they charge for luggage

 

[PSU78]

14 minutes ago, Grandmafreddie said:

Do you know if they charge for luggage

 

If you're asking about British Airways, they allow one free checked bag per passenger. I was able to search baggage information on the website.

[gmbhardy]

We are 77 days out. Flying into Rome on May 1 for our May 3 cruise on the Escape. Still no word on our flights. Hard to make plans not knowing when our flight gets in. I have a chronic medical condition that requires me to have a specific seating assignment so I had my TA call to see if could get any preliminary flight information but no dice. My son recently cruised on the Encore in January. He received his flight information two months before final payment. Go figure.

[subtlefantasy]

On 11/26/2019 at 12:10 PM, subtlefantasy said:

For Transatlantic April 2020 -

Now, this came by email via my TA.  When I look up the flight confirmations, it says my West Jet flight is cancelled.  I called Norwegian and was told the accurate info will be sent 45-70 days before my cruise. The email was pretty specific with flight times and confirmation codes. I'm not sure why they sent this if it's not my TRUE ticket info.  It sure looks like TRUE ticket info.  ??  I will update you when I get more info.

 

Home Departure City -  Toronto  (YYZ)

Arrival/Destination City - New York (LGA)    

Airline(s) used -  West Jet (WS)

Number of Connections -  0

Outbound Flight departure/arrival time - 0710 - 0844

 

Departure City -  Rome  (FCO)

Arrival/Destination City -Toronto     (YYZ )

Airline(s) used -  TAP Portugal

Return Flight departure/arrival time - 1345-1550 / 1825-1940

Number of Connections -  1 Lisbon (LIS)

 

Did You Pay for a Deviation (before or after cruise)? no

# of Days Prior to Departure Flights Were Ticketed?  153

 

Okay, so now at 63 days we received an email from NCL with the e-tickets.

Some changes to the times, but still the same flights.  I have been able to see the tickets from the TAP website the entire time.  It even displayed the price payed for the tickets of $719

 

 

Home Departure City -  Toronto  (YYZ)

Arrival/Destination City - New York (LGA)    

Airline(s) used -  West Jet (WS)

Number of Connections -  0

Outbound Flight departure/arrival time - 0710 - 0842

 

Departure City -  Rome  (FCO)

Arrival/Destination City -Toronto     (YYZ )

Airline(s) used -  TAP Portugal

Return Flight departure/arrival time - 1350-1600 / 1825-2140

Number of Connections -  1 Lisbon (LIS)

[Mikiejag]

We just went into double digits.  Someone had posted their free air took them from Chicago to New York then down to Ft Lauderdale.

 

Looking at the sheet I didn't see any flight this bad.  Any one have any truth to this?

[shelleymp]

Mikiejag-
Our free flight in January went from Philadelphia to Chicago to Orlando 🙄.   I thought there might be a stop (Dallas, Atlanta etc) but Chicago? So we had to worry about winter weather in the midwest and the east coast.  Luckily the weather was perfect that day in both locations and we had no issues.  The return flight was great -Non stop 2:30p-5:00p.   BTW we received our flight information the day before Thanksgiving for a Jan. 21 flight.   

When is your cruise?  

[Mikiejag]

Not until May 31st.  Looking at all flights out of Chicago to Miami, there are only three that would get us there on time.  So I don't know if this is of concern, but there are 7 of us, so I could just see 4 direct and 3 routed to New York or something.

 

Did you happen to know if Philly flies direct to Orlando? Although, Philly to NY or something would still have made more sense then Chicago.

 

 

[tvlworm]

Must have been a busy month for the NCL air department, the list grew quite a bit 🙂  Maybe someday I'll find lots of extra time to have fun with some pivot tables LOL!  

NCL Air Compilation.xlsx

[shelleymp]

4 hours ago, Mikiejag said:

Not until May 31st.  Looking at all flights out of Chicago to Miami, there are only three that would get us there on time.  So I don't know if this is of concern, but there are 7 of us, so I could just see 4 direct and 3 routed to New York or something.

 

Did you happen to know if Philly flies direct to Orlando? Although, Philly to NY or something would still have made more sense then Chicago.

 

 

That time of year is a plus.  No snowstorms and the busy summer travel season hasn't kicked in yet so less chance of flight delays.  Yes we do have direct flights out of PHL to Orlando.  We originally did have a non-stop flight noted but as soon as we deviated to come in the day before it changed to a connecting.  If you're flying in the same day as the cruise it seems they will make alot more of an effort to get you there in time. 

 

If you haven't heard by 60 days out I would start checking your edocs every day to see if flight info has been loaded.  You'll find out about it sooner that way and if you have concerns its worth trying to contact them right away.    

I see you're from the Quad Cities-I was born in Davenport :).  I know the waiting game is not fun but we did have a great cruise.  I hope everything works out with your flights and you have a fantastic vacation!!

[shelleymp]

tvlwork-this really has grown!  Thank you for all the time spent creating the spreadsheet & keeping it updated.  I think its been helpful to many of us!

[Named-Tawny]

On 1/31/2020 at 7:18 PM, All-ready2cruise said:

 

May I ask how soon after receiving your info for the flights you called the premium air number? I called within 2 hours of rec'g the email. ,

I wonder if some of the reason could be that I cruise solo, (so just 1 flight) however,

I don't know whether it has any impact

or

if it's b/c I've cruised with NCL enough to be Plat. almost Plat +

or

whether I was just fortunate enough to build good rapport with the rep before asking them to look into a better flight

or

b/c I had booked a flight and hotel with them. 

 

I'd be interested in knowing if any of that had any impact on their decision to accommodate my request. 

 

Hi, former travel agent here, who also worked in ticketing.  😃

So generally, cheap air tickets have a lot of restrictions for changeability - many of the cheapest fares are non-refundable/non-changeable.  So, once they're purchased, if you wanted to change them, you'd pretty much have to rip them up and buy new ones.  That's likely why NCL, once the tickets have been purchased, wouldn't change them.

BUT!

Tickets, if it's still the same day (before midnight in the time zone of the ticketing agent) they were purchased, can also be voided (assuming they were ticketed through the system and through a major carrier).  Voided tickets aren't refunded - they just never really existed in the first place (kinda.  Close enough.)  As long as it doesn't happen too often, airlines just shrug off voids - they never got the money in the first place.

So yeah, based on what you've said, my best guess would be that NCL was able to void your tickets and issue new ones, while with other people, that deadline had passed.

[gravitar]

On 2/9/2020 at 8:47 AM, drcarp4 said:

I would love to do a deviation, but the Wife's work will not allow it.

 

I am departing out of Quebec City for the 9 October maratime cruise.  My original flights were to Montreal. I called the air department and asked them how they were getting me from there to the port. There was a long pause and then was told it was fixed. I looked at my confirmation and saw i was now flying to Quebec City. 

 

[Named-Tawny]

9 minutes ago, gravitar said:

I am departing out of Quebec City for the 9 October maratime cruise.  My original flights were to Montreal. I called the air department and asked them how they were getting me from there to the port. There was a long pause and then was told it was fixed. I looked at my confirmation and saw i was now flying to Quebec City. 

 

 

Mine too!  I'll see you on the cruise.  😃  Also flying in to YQB instead of YUL (She said that the specific flights might change, but that regardless, they'll keep me into YQB)

[tvlworm]

32 minutes ago, shelleymp said:

tvlwork-this really has grown!  Thank you for all the time spent creating the spreadsheet & keeping it updated.  I think its been helpful to many of us!

Thank you 😊 it’s been fun watching all the additions! 

[Nola26]

On 2/7/2020 at 4:52 PM, snorklinbarb said:

So did we.  But as time went on they changed.  Originally BCN-MAD-JFK and now BCN-JFK.

Not sure what will be the final version. Some posters making big decisions based on the initial listing but it may be way too early to come to any conclusions.

 

 

We got Nonstop RT EWR (Newark) to BCN(Barcelona) on United for our Sept 2019 trip. In between we had several connection itineraries shown (probably due to the 787 Max issue). Hopefully you'll land with the nonstop as we did. We also had no problem upgrading to Premium Economy (comp upgrade due to staus, but friends paid and had no issues either), good luck.

 

We just booked the Athens departure cruise on the Spirit. We don't cruise until September, so not even near final payment yet. It will be interesting to see what flights we are provided. We haven't deviated yet, but we will likely do so for 1 day to give us some time to tour Athens; have to see the Acropolis, right.