NCL Air Promo - Yes or No

[ontheweb]

15 hours ago, v3cruiser said:

We took the free flight promotion on our upcoming cruise out of panama city and are happy with our flights provided we can get out of our home town without delay. we knew going in we may get bad flights or red eye flights. We are thankful for what we got as the flights they assigned to us would have been very expensive if we bought on our own. We have a two hour layover coming and going back. hopefully that is enough.

 

Ncl did not let us do a 2 day deviation for a Mediterranean cruise we booked in 2025 which we are uneasy about. They said its too early.  BUT, once again, we know the risk of getting bad flights with this promo and would never chose this promo for domestic flights within us or canada. even though we did use this promo to get to seward for an upcoming alaskan cruise. We know the risk and are willing to take it to go to extraordinary places. 

2025? Seriously that is a long way off. We have a cruise this summer on the Prima that we booked in 2021. Our TA tried to get a air deviation then, but was denied as it was too early. I believe he said it had to be within 270 days. I reminded him recently, and we now have the deviation. Just have patience, and then ask when the time is nearer. And, BTW, we were each given a credit when we were given the deviation.

[Sailing12Away]

13 hours ago, laudergayle said:

FWIW…NCL air promo is (or at least was for our upcoming cruise) using SWA.  With SWA you cannot pick your seats.  You can pay $20 pp each way for Priority Boarding…but that will generally put you in the middle of the pack. 

It all depends on where you're flying from and where you're going to. We've used the NCL air promo about 4 times and have always gotten either AA, Delta, or Alaska Airlines (which is actually still AA).

[seawitch111]

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Costco recently stopped assisting with NCL flights... too many complaints.

We are having a horrible experience in regard to our upcoming Antarctica cruise.  We live in Southern California,  Los Angeles and NCL has our first flight leaving from a different  COUNTRY! Canada to be exact. We've called them half a dozen times for the past month or so and they keep telling us they are working to fix it.... LAX is the closest airport with a hundred others between L.A and Canada... 

It's ridiculous!

I will never use NCL air accommodations again..

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by seawitch111

[julig22]

25 minutes ago, seawitch111 said:

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Costco recently stopped assisting with NCL flights... too many complaints.

We are having a horrible experience in regard to our upcoming Antarctica cruise.  We live in Southern California,  Los Angeles and NCL has our first flight leaving from a different  COUNTRY! Canada to be exact. We've called them half a dozen times for the past month or so and they keep telling us they are working to fix it.... LAX is the closest airport with a hundred others between L.A and Canada... 

It's ridiculous!

I will never use NCL air accommodations again..

 

Somebody saw CA and thought Canada... They are human, they make mistakes.  DFW seems to be the common hub to get to Buenos Aires for Antarctica cruises.  But not an excuse to make fixing it a priority.

You get what you pay for - it's worked well for me. But I don't fly out of a major airport so I leave the headaches of routing to NCL- and usually get better flights because leg 1 is always to a bigger airport.

And as I post this, I'm sitting in an airport waiting for my flight home after a total rerouting of my flights and an unexpected overnight stay. NCL booked my flight but it's not up to them to fix, it's the airline. And others on the same cruise, same flight who booked on their own are scrambling just the same as me.

[SimplyAlbert]

Unless the savings is in the thousands, I'm in the I book my own airfare category.  We had the promo for our upcoming cruise out of New Orleans and ended up canceling it prior to final payment.  I was able to book flights less expensively than what we would have been charged through NCL.

[bamagirl16]

We have not flown yet but so far our experience has been great using the NCL BOGO air.  We are cruising from San Juan in early March.  Flying from Birmingham, AL to San Juan.  We requested a 1 day deviation to come in a day early and we got it. We received our flight information last Tuesday which was a little over 60 days before our cruise.

 

We will depart Birmingham at 6am (early but we will have time to see some of San Juan in the afternoon so not complaining) to fly into Miami for a layover and then we land in San Juan at 1:50pm.  These are American Airlines flights.  I just went on the AA website and upgraded our seats for both flights.

 

Our return flights are on Southwest (yay...no baggage fees!). We leave San Juan at 1pm to fly into Orlando and from there we fly to Birmingham and land at 7:15pm.  We have early bird check in so we should be able to get decent seats.

 

I priced these flights out as if I were booking direct and even with upgrading our seats on the AA flights we saved over $1000.00.  

 

Things may change and we are flexible but so far I have no complaints and would do it again.

[bonvoyagie]

I am too much of a forward planner to allow air (or any) arrangements wait until 30 days before sailing. So last night I got my own flights, yes I spent way more than NCL but I have the flights, seats, and upgrades in hand months before the cruise.

[victory2020]

I've had great luck with flights to Europe. You will get probably get red eye(best for Europe) - go a day early

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, bonvoyagie said:

yes I spent way more than NCL

That's the crux for me: I'm like you in that I prefer to have my air arrangements well ahead of schedule, but there's a tipping point. I'm not willing to have that peace of mind at any cost. At some point, I'm willing to relinquish control in exchange for more money in my pocket.

[Russiamomm]

48 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

That's the crux for me: I'm like you in that I prefer to have my air arrangements well ahead of schedule, but there's a tipping point. I'm not willing to have that peace of mind at any cost. At some point, I'm willing to relinquish control in exchange for more money in my pocket.

This is where I am too.  We used NCL’s BOGO for a cruise out of NYC.  Flight times and connections were horrible.  It wasn’t worth the $300 or so we saved.  We have a TA booked for April.  The difference in price was literally thousands.  That makes it worth the frustration and possible horrible connections.  I’m actually more concerned about connections getting to NYC than home from Rome.  There’s only so many options to get back to the States from Europe.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Russiamomm
Typos

[vacationut]

I think it really depends on where you are originating from on the flights. There are only so many flights out of our local airport so I already know the best/worst flights and what I could end up with. For our next cruise, the flights through NCL were $418. If I booked on our own it was over $1000. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by vacationut

[AnitaVacation]

Overall, we didn't save any of money using NCL air because they make you buy their insurance. BUT, now you have insurance....lol

We only used them because we had a huge pile of credit from canceled covid cruises and wanted to use it up.... but we could have booked direct flights each way for the same amount.. 

We were booked on American (1 stop) going in and JetBlue (direct) going home... 

[dexddd]

We had great flights to Europe with great times.  Saved thousands.  We didn't have to buy any ncl insurance.

[ontheweb]

56 minutes ago, dexddd said:

We had great flights to Europe with great times.  Saved thousands.  We didn't have to buy any ncl insurance.

I hope our flights to Europe this summer will also be great. 🤞 And we were not required to buy NCL insurance, though we of course did buy insurance, but not NCL insurance.

[seawitch111]

On 1/4/2023 at 1:01 AM, julig22 said:

Somebody saw CA and thought Canada... They are human, they make mistakes.  DFW seems to be the common hub to get to Buenos Aires for Antarctica cruises.  But not an excuse to make fixing it a priority.

You get what you pay for - it's worked well for me. But I don't fly out of a major airport so I leave the headaches of routing to NCL- and usually get better flights because leg 1 is always to a bigger airport.

And as I post this, I'm sitting in an airport waiting for my flight home after a total rerouting of my flights and an unexpected overnight stay. NCL booked my flight but it's not up to them to fix, it's the airline. And others on the same cruise, same flight who booked on their own are scrambling just the same as me.

I hope your flight went well...

In regards to our flight,  the thought of someone perhaps 'seeing the CA and thinking  Canada'... doesn't happen to be the story in this case.... they have our RETURN FLIGHT booked all the way through to LAX... soooo 

[cwtravel]

Like much on Cruise Critic there is quite a bit of confusion/misinformation on this post. There are a couple of different types of NCL air options that are DIFFERENT.

The current Buy one/get one free is a great option on many Europe, South America and Asian flights but has more restrictions. For the May, 2023 sailing I am on from Athens on the Jade the cost for two from the DC area is $995 including all taxes. Up to a two day deviation is available either pre or post cruise but not both. NCL can book up to two stops ( DC to Toronto to Munich to Athens as an example) but could also book a non-stop. If you are traveling with others, from the same area but are not in the same cabin there is no guarantee you will be on the same flights. However the $999 for two is about $1300 less than one could book currently on their own. 
 

The other NCL air option is much more expensive and generally the cost is similar to what one would pay if booking their own air except for a open jaw or one way type flight that you would have for a trans Atlantic or trans Pacific flight (usually the cruise air is less expensive).

 

In my opinion,  if you want business or premium economy (not economy plus)  class or want non-stop flights or a specific airline book your own air. If you need to be on the same plane as your friends, book your own air. If you can save $1300, have no issue flying economy/coach and do not care if you fly Air Canada or Air France to Europe than the BOGO promo is a great deal.

 

[cwtravel]

Just to add - I am not using the BOGO to/from Athens. We are using a combo of points and cash for premium economy one way and business the other.

[SpacemanSpiff]

We originally did, but backed out, but that was us.

 

One of the reasons we opted for it was because if you used their air package and hotel,  you could stay more than the normal two-day deviation, and we wanted to stay an extra day in Rome. 

 

We also looked at the flight combos on ITA Matrix for similar flights (RIC-ATH, FCO-RIC) and realized that most of the flights either had super-short connecting times (under 2 hours) or very long ones (6 hours or more).  We did find a few in the three to four hour wait range which we deeded to be ideal -- and figured those weren't going to be the ones selected.

 

Once we did some math (figuring the upgrade for booking our seats, and the lesser price of a hotel in a better location vs what NCL was charging), we figured the difference was minimal, so we sat on it until air tix became available, bought our air and canceled the NCL air package.

 

But, as they say, YMMV.

Edited January 9, 2023 by SpacemanSpiff

[pookel]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:43 AM, SimplyAlbert said:

Unless the savings is in the thousands, I'm in the I book my own airfare category.  We had the promo for our upcoming cruise out of New Orleans and ended up canceling it prior to final payment.  I was able to book flights less expensively than what we would have been charged through NCL.

 

Doing a mock booking for a Jan 2024 cruise out of Bangkok, with the BOGO airfare promo, NCL wanted to charge us about $2000. Two adult travelers going from North Dakota to Thailand normally costs more like $5000, so I'm definitely considering it if we do an Asia cruise for real.

[SimplyAlbert]

46 minutes ago, pookel said:

 

Doing a mock booking for a Jan 2024 cruise out of Bangkok, with the BOGO airfare promo, NCL wanted to charge us about $2000. Two adult travelers going from North Dakota to Thailand normally costs more like $5000, so I'm definitely considering it if we do an Asia cruise for real.

 

For that big of a price difference I'd do it.  I'd make sure to take the air deviation though and go in a few days early and leave a few days after the cruise.

 

Generally, from what I've been reading,  I think it makes sense for international flights.  It looks like the savings are generally in the thousands and for the most part people have been happy with their flights. 

[Candy Apple 12]

On 1/4/2023 at 8:43 AM, SimplyAlbert said:

Unless the savings is in the thousands, I'm in the I book my own airfare category.  We had the promo for our upcoming cruise out of New Orleans and ended up canceling it prior to final payment.  I was able to book flights less expensively than what we would have been charged through NCL.

 

1 hour ago, SpacemanSpiff said:

We originally did, but backed out, but that was us.

 

One of the reasons we opted for it was because if you used their air package and hotel,  you could stay more than the normal two-day deviation, and we wanted to stay an extra day in Rome. 

 

We also looked at the flight combos on ITA Matrix for similar flights (RIC-ATH, FCO-RIC) and realized that most of the flights either had super-short connecting times (under 2 hours) or very long ones (6 hours or more).  We did find a few in the three to four hour wait range which we deeded to be ideal -- and figured those weren't going to be the ones selected.

 

Once we did some math (figuring the upgrade for booking our seats, and the lesser price of a hotel in a better location vs what NCL was charging), we figured the difference was minimal, so we sat on it until air tix became available, bought our air and canceled the NCL air package.

 

But, as they say, YMMV.

Did you cancel a BOGO airfare? If so, is it considered a rebooking, or can you just cancel the BOGO airfare and let everything else stay the same?

[SpacemanSpiff]

38 minutes ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

 

Did you cancel a BOGO airfare? If so, is it considered a rebooking, or can you just cancel the BOGO airfare and let everything else stay the same?

They didn't treat it as a rebooking, just removed it from the cruise.  Of course, it was 11 months out and the cruise hadn't been paid for, either, which might make a big difference.

[SimplyAlbert]

2 hours ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

 

Did you cancel a BOGO airfare? If so, is it considered a rebooking, or can you just cancel the BOGO airfare and let everything else stay the same?

 

I was well before final payment and my TA was able to just remove it.  I don't think it can be removed after final payment.

[SpacemanSpiff]

 

3 hours ago, SimplyAlbert said:

 

For that big of a price difference I'd do it.  I'd make sure to take the air deviation though and go in a few days early and leave a few days after the cruise.

 

Generally, from what I've been reading,  I think it makes sense for international flights.  It looks like the savings are generally in the thousands and for the most part people have been happy with their flights. 

 

As I mentioned, I had been looking at some time for similar flights (same days of the week for in and out to get a feel for a "good" price).  As soon as it became available, the numbers for the flight pairs we wanted looked good and we pounced on it.  Six hours later, I checked just for grins -- and it was $600 higher round trip.  It's gone up and down since, but never below that $600 level.  Each case is different.

[Sailing12Away]

On 1/5/2023 at 6:09 AM, AnitaVacation said:

Overall, we didn't save any of money using NCL air because they make you buy their insurance. BUT, now you have insurance....lol

 

NCL does not make you buy insurance just because you use their air promotion. I've used their air about 4-5 times and never once gotten insurance.