What was your experience with NCL Air?

[Whirled Peas]

I have never used NCL’s airfare offers, but a friend is thinking of joining us on a Greek Isles cruise next August and she is interested.  She’s not on this webpage, so I offered to inquire for her.  For any of you who have used this service on NCL, please tell me:

1.  How much in advance if the cruise did you get your flight info/itinerary?

2.  Was the itinerary decent?  No long layovers or switching planes more frequently than you would if you booked the flights yourself.  (We realize there will be flight changes to get from our home inAlaska to Athens, but she just doesn’t want to play her own version of Around the World in 80 days to get there.)

3.  Is it possible to arrange a flight itinerary through NCL that would get them there 2-3 days before the cruise so they could see the sights of Athens?

Thanks, Everyone.

[julig22]

In a nutshell, flight into comes out about 45 days prior to cruise date.  You can request a 2 day deviation on either end.  Layovers limited to 2 if at all possible, no overnights. And they will not change your flights.

I've been satisfied, although some layovers a little shorter than I would have liked - but in all fairness, when I checked flights myself, NCL did a good job choosing reasonable flights from what was available. 

If you search this site, you will find NCL flights have been discussed in great detail, some good, some not so good.  As with most things, people tend to complain more than compliment but negative reports do give you an idea of what could go wrong.

[kamikazii]

I can't speak internationally, but I can speak domestically. We had a great experience with NCL Air. I think it really truly depends on how flexible you are, personally, and your personal finances. We went with it because it was the most cost effective option and we're super flexible. That being said, we couldn't have had a better experience. Our flight is bright in early on the day of (which we wanted), with a direct flight. We land at our destination at 1030, with a 4PM debarkation time. Our departure flight time is late, 7PM, but we really didn't care to be honest. It's a direct flight and we'll be home, heads in beds before midnight. We priced out the exact flight route ourselves and it would've cost us 3x more to do it ourselves. I don't need that much control over my flight pattern, personally, if it's going to save me over $500-600. 

 

We got our flight I think right around the 45 day mark. We didn't request a deviation. Once our flight was confirmed, I went into the booking and picked our seats. 

 

Like said above, some people love it, some people hate it. I think your expectations will really set the tone for what your experience is. 

[Selion]

When you receive the flight details, remember the money saved.  The flights NCL booked will not be "ideal", since your ideal flights are different from others.  I didn't get non-stop flights from east coast to west coast for my December cruise, but I also didn't have a redeye return flight that departs from LAX at 11PM on the day we disembark from the ship.  At $349 for two of us, roundtrip cross-country flights.  I'm quite satisfied.

 

Viking air on the other hand...  Dropped them and booked flights on my own.  The costs outweigh the minimal benefits offered by using Viking Air.

[tafawke]

Technically international but it's just from Canada...

 

We paid $399 for both of us to fly - to get those same flights with me booking it would be $2000+ each at the moment - more expensive then the cruise we have booked (and the upgrade bids I have submitted 🙂 ) I am more than happy to save on the price and have a bit of a milk run on the way home (flights there are great - exactly what I would have booked) two stops on the way home and it seems like it is out of the way but we will still be home before midnight.

 

[hallux]

My experience was.. acceptable.  I say it that way because the flights might not have been considered ideal, but they were what I was expecting.

 

I asked for a deviation day on for embarkation, I ended up with a 7 AM flight from my home airport in Albany, with a 1 hour layover in ATL (turned out to be about 30 minutes, which is 20 more minutes than I'd spent in ATL previously) I was at my hotel near LAX by noon.  Could have easily made the ship if we'd boarded that day but better safe than sorry when flying cross-country.

 

On the way home, I had a red-eye from LAX.  Were there better times?  Sure, but within the cost constraints for the perk airfare I didn't expect them, and it gave me and my travel partners the opportunity to see some sights around LA since we'd never been there before.

 

I had my expectations set prior to booking, and had set them for my travel companions as well, we knew what we could be getting (and got exactly what I anticipated, even if it wasn't ideal).

[bstel]

using NCL air for the first time for a January 30, 2022 cruise, so i will let you know around December 15th. 😉

[cooncat_mom]

We’re using them for the first time in April - looking forward to hearing about your experience.  I’m a little leery about flying in on embarkation day, but it’s a short flight so hopefully will go well.

[Hadacareer]

We are flying Orlando to Rome (through London england) for our transatlantic and then Miami to Orlando.  Timings are all good..except we got American Airlines and could not upgrade seats, and seat selection costs if you wanted to do it before the 24 hour free zone before the flight.  Because the form we had to submit for travel to Europe required flight and seat details I booked the seats..and it did cost $500 more for nothing special seats for 2..but still cheaper for us

[Chris_FL]

I recently cancelled my discounted air for a flight from FLL to San Juan PR.  My trip was three months away, but NCL placed a temporary itinerary that had us flying to Atlanta, then San Juan.  We would have been traveling more than seven hours for what should have been 2.5 hours.  I was able to get non stop flights at the same price as the BOGO special.

[By the Sea I’ll Be]

My experience wasn’t great, but that’s because we chose to fly on the day of embarkation. Our plane was not able to land in Orlando due to a storm and we were sitting on the plane in Jacksonville at all aboard time. NCL did hold the ship because there were several of us on the flight, but it was a very stressful way to start a vacation. I would use NCL Air again, but I will never plan to arrive on the day of the cruise again…whether booking my own flights or using NCL air. Lesson learned!

[sparkygirlfamily]

We are using NCL Air for the first time on an upcoming cruise January 16, 2022.  Final Payment is next week and then I am hopeful we will have our ticket information in the near future.

[Debifluff]

1 hour ago, sparkygirlfamily said:

We are using NCL Air for the first time on an upcoming cruise January 16, 2022.  Final Payment is next week and then I am hopeful we will have our ticket information in the near future.

You won't get your flight information until after final payment.   I got mine at around 55 days out from the cruise.  They don't want to pay for your air tickets until you pay them.

[ohflvaz]

We are leaving on a cruise December 12.  We took the deviation for one day early.  We did that because of the routing they gave us.  We are leaving from Phoenix to San Juan.  They have us leaving at 11:57 pm from Phoenix to NEW YORK!!!  Then New York to San Juan.  YIKES!!!!  Why New York????  Decided to leave a day early after seeing that because there may be snow (we don't see snow in Phoenix).  Not too pleased with the terrible routing to say the least!!!  Someone said they don't use red eye.  NOT!!!!!

[jkrislc]

I'm learning it's a total crap shoot. We haven't received final flight info yet as we're 47 days out, but our departure flights appeared again and were the same they were months ago. We were booked on a redeye from the west coast with a 5.5 hour layover. Our friends on the same cruise, however, were booked on a direct flight the following day and they booked about a week after us. It looks like we will have a direct flight back, but they will have a connection.

[MrsBlackross]

I think a big factor is also where you are flying from as far as size of nearest airport, whether it is a hub to a major airline, etc.  We live near Atlanta, which is THE major Delta Hub and the middle of the country, so both times we have used the NCL air we got decent direct flight itineraries, including flights to Miami in January 2020 and our upcoming Christmas cruise out of San Juan.  When our itineraries arrived, I was able to go to my Delta app, find the booking #, and add it to my profile.  From there I added our skymiles # and TSA precheck #s as well as picked our seats.  Not all airlines do that, but I love Delta for it.

 

For the upcoming one,  NCL charged us $599 for both of us ATL to SJU, arriving 2 days prior to embarkation...I priced flights before booking the cruise and had alerts set up with a couple of booking sites, and I could not have booked the same flights without paying at least twice what we paid NCL.

 

For us, $600 was worth rolling the dice, knowing that we had extra time to get there and are not in a big rush to get home, so a later flight home just means more time to explore before going to the airport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pebbs48]

11 hours ago, MrsBlackross said:

I think a big factor is also where you are flying from as far as size of nearest airport, whether it is a hub to a major airline, etc.  We live near Atlanta, which is THE major Delta Hub and the middle of the country, so both times we have used the NCL air we got decent direct flight itineraries, including flights to Miami in January 2020 and our upcoming Christmas cruise out of San Juan.  When our itineraries arrived, I was able to go to my Delta app, find the booking #, and add it to my profile.  From there I added our skymiles # and TSA precheck #s as well as picked our seats.  Not all airlines do that, but I love Delta for it.

 

For the upcoming one,  NCL charged us $599 for both of us ATL to SJU, arriving 2 days prior to embarkation...I priced flights before booking the cruise and had alerts set up with a couple of booking sites, and I could not have booked the same flights without paying at least twice what we paid NCL.

 

For us, $600 was worth rolling the dice, knowing that we had extra time to get there and are not in a big rush to get home, so a later flight home just means more time to explore before going to the airport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wish I had thought about that when I made our reservation.  We have to drive 3-4 hours to the nearest major airport so I picked JAX because it's closer & smaller than ATL and was a little cheaper through NCL.  But now I'm "stuck" with JetBlue to PR & American on the return.  I would much prefer Delta. 

 

I was able to pick & pay for seats on the American flight home but can't for the JetBlue flights.  When I called NCL, the rep said "I didn't even know that we used JetBlue."  LOL 

 

I'm with you on rolling the dice for $600.  Booking flights on my own would have been at least double that.