NCL Promo Air - Booked it, now not using it - Do I let NCL know?

[laudergayle]

We currently have NCL booked on SWA for ATL to SanJuan.  We don’t like the flights so we purchased tickets on Delta using miles.  But here’s what I am curious about.

NCL air department made it very clear that once we are within 72 hours of departure, it is between us and the airline…as they no longer have liability for the reservation.  

 

SWA has a policy where you can cancel up to 10 minutes before departure time.  And, if you have a Southwest Rapid Awards number, they will credit that passenger with the cost of the fare to be used on a future flight.  They also specifically say that the credit goes to the passenger, not the method of payment.
 

I will be trying this in a couple weeks and will post.  I believe there are other airlines that may have a similar e-credit policy.  

 

For instance, I suspect with Delta, if NCL books a basic economy, and I pay to upgrade to main cabin, I could then cancel and get an e-credit to my frequent flyer account vs losing 100% of what we paid NCL.  

[lfdemt]

UPDATE.  After spending 35 mins both chatting and getting disconnected on the phone (done on purpose and I was being nice). I got to the resolution desk and when pressed about why I am not entitled to the 50% refund, she told me it wasn't done properly and refunded it immediately.  Again  they didn't send anything to break it down so I can't be sure but I think she even refunded too much.  She said the $314 and then made it $471.  SO moral of the story is go ahead and press if it doesn't show up.  

 

 

 

 

 

[lfdemt]

On 1/20/2023 at 1:46 PM, laudergayle said:

 

SWA has a policy where you can cancel up to 10 minutes before departure time.  And, if you have a Southwest Rapid Awards number, they will credit that passenger with the cost of the fare to be used on a future flight.  They also specifically say that the credit goes to the passenger, not the method of payment.
 

Ncl booked us anytime flights. And this is what southwest says about refunds since that fare is 100% refundable and not as credit like the ones lower. Specifically says to your original form of payment. I would expect that is why they book that tier. The lower tier fares say flight credit to the rapid rewards number. 

 

refundable, as long as you cancel your reservation at least ten (10) minutes prior to the scheduled departure of your flight. If you cancel, you’re eligible to receive 100% of your ticket value as a refund to your original form of payment. A Southwest flight credit from a previous reservation that is applied toward a Business Select or Anytime fare will be refunded as a flight credit. For travel booked with Rapid Rewards points, If canceled, points will be returned to the Rapid Rewards account holder who booked the ticket.

 

[ddlb]

On 1/20/2023 at 1:46 PM, laudergayle said:

We currently have NCL booked on SWA for ATL to SanJuan.  We don’t like the flights so we purchased tickets on Delta using miles.  But here’s what I am curious about.

NCL air department made it very clear that once we are within 72 hours of departure, it is between us and the airline…as they no longer have liability for the reservation.  

 

SWA has a policy where you can cancel up to 10 minutes before departure time.  And, if you have a Southwest Rapid Awards number, they will credit that passenger with the cost of the fare to be used on a future flight.  They also specifically say that the credit goes to the passenger, not the method of payment.
 

I will be trying this in a couple weeks and will post.  I believe there are other airlines that may have a similar e-credit policy.  

 

For instance, I suspect with Delta, if NCL books a basic economy, and I pay to upgrade to main cabin, I could then cancel and get an e-credit to my frequent flyer account vs losing 100% of what we paid NCL.  

I have a question for you. I decided to use my SW points for my flights instead of the Delta NCL ones which were not near as good. I chatted with Delta who told me I had to cancel through NCL but I do not want to cancel until the last minute because of the fiasco with Southwest airlines being delayed or canceled, etc. So after reading your post, would you recommend me trying to cancel my Delta flights  using the app?  I would want to do this about an hour before the Delta one leaves. The Delta rep told me if I don’t show up for the first one the second one would automatically be canceled. But Based on that 72 hour rule you mentioned NCL wouldn’t be able to help me anyway.  I know I’m out the money, but I kind of want the option to be able to take Delta home if Southwest gets canceled or delayed or whatever.  On a recent cruise Southwest canceled the flight and I had to drive all night to  make the cruise over this. Wondering if I should keep the Delta flights because presumably if something goes wrong, NCL will get you on another flight and to the cruise one way or the other. 

[laudergayle]

2 hours ago, lfdemt said:

Ncl booked us anytime flights. And this is what southwest says about refunds since that fare is 100% refundable and not as credit like the ones lower. Specifically says to your original form of payment. I would expect that is why they book that tier. The lower tier fares say flight credit to the rapid rewards number. 

 

refundable, as long as you cancel your reservation at least ten (10) minutes prior to the scheduled departure of your flight. If you cancel, you’re eligible to receive 100% of your ticket value as a refund to your original form of payment. A Southwest flight credit from a previous reservation that is applied toward a Business Select or Anytime fare will be refunded as a flight credit. For travel booked with Rapid Rewards points, If canceled, points will be returned to the Rapid Rewards account holder who booked the ticket.

 

Ahh. Our tickets were Wanna Get Away tickets. Here is the terms associated with cancels on that rate:

 

Can I get a refund for a Wanna Get Away® ticket?

Wanna Get Away fares are not refundable, but we still offer a flexible cancellation policy. When you cancel a Wanna Get Away fare, the value of the ticket becomes a flight credit that you can use to buy a future flight.

A few key points to keep in mind:

• If you have multiple people on your itinerary, each Passenger will retain a flight credit. A flight credit belongs to the individual named on the ticket regardless of who paid for the ticket.
• You must cancel the flight at least 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Otherwise, any Wanna Get Away funds will be forfeited.
• Hang on to your six-digit confirmation number (you can find it in your original confirmation email). You’ll need it when you use the flight credit to book a new flight.
•  

I guess we’ll see in two weeks if we got a SWA credit that we can use for better flights somewhere else in our future travels.  Fingers crossed.

[laudergayle]

2 hours ago, lfdemt said:

Ncl booked us anytime flights. And this is what southwest says about refunds since that fare is 100% refundable and not as credit like the ones lower. Specifically says to your original form of payment. I would expect that is why they book that tier. The lower tier fares say flight credit to the rapid rewards number. 

 

refundable, as long as you cancel your reservation at least ten (10) minutes prior to the scheduled departure of your flight. If you cancel, you’re eligible to receive 100% of your ticket value as a refund to your original form of payment. A Southwest flight credit from a previous reservation that is applied toward a Business Select or Anytime fare will be refunded as a flight credit. For travel booked with Rapid Rewards points, If canceled, points will be returned to the Rapid Rewards account holder who booked the ticket.

 

Will I get a refund if I cancel my flight?

If you decide not to travel, our normal cancellation policy applies: 

• Business Select®/Anytime tickets are refundable. You can choose to either a) receive a method-of-payment refund or b) hold the value of the ticket as a  flight credit  that you can use to buy a future flight. 

Hey, just saw these terms…maybe you can choose future credit.  Remember, NCZl seems to release air reservations to SWA at 72 hours prior to departure do yhry don’t have liability.  

Edited January 23, 2023 by laudergayle

[laudergayle]

1 hour ago, ddlb said:

I have a question for you. I decided to use my SW points for my flights instead of the Delta NCL ones which were not near as good. I chatted with Delta who told me I had to cancel through NCL but I do not want to cancel until the last minute because of the fiasco with Southwest airlines being delayed or canceled, etc. So after reading your post, would you recommend me trying to cancel my Delta flights  using the app?  I would want to do this about an hour before the Delta one leaves. The Delta rep told me if I don’t show up for the first one the second one would automatically be canceled. But Based on that 72 hour rule you mentioned NCL wouldn’t be able to help me anyway.  I know I’m out the money, but I kind of want the option to be able to take Delta home if Southwest gets canceled or delayed or whatever.  On a recent cruise Southwest canceled the flight and I had to drive all night to  make the cruise over this. Wondering if I should keep the Delta flights because presumably if something goes wrong, NCL will get you on another flight and to the cruise one way or the other. 

First, NCL won’t make sure you get on an outbound flight.  They seem to relinquish their responsibility at 72 hours out.  If you don’t take the Delta flight out, they will cancel your flight and refund NCL.  I think with Delta you may have to pay to upgrade to a main (not economy) ticket using your credit card to get an e-credit to your Frequent Flyer account.  you will have to cancel entire flight if you’re not planning to do an in/out bound.  We did two flights, one outbound and a different one  back to ATL. Don’t know if this helps you decide… hope so.

[lfdemt]

18 minutes ago, laudergayle said:

 

Will I get a refund if I cancel my flight?

If you decide not to travel, our normal cancellation policy applies: 

• Business Select®/Anytime tickets are refundable. You can choose to either a) receive a method-of-payment refund or b) hold the value of the ticket as a  flight credit  that you can use to buy a future flight. 

Hey, just saw these terms…maybe you can choose future credit.  Remember, NCZl seems to release air reservations to SWA at 72 hours prior to departure do yhry don’t have liability.  

Thank you, I didn't look hard enough since we plan to keep our southwest flights, (hoping to get the whole group on the same flight home at that 72 hour mark) but since you pointed out that, I also found. 

 

Important: If you don’t cancel your reservation at least 10 minutes before the flight’s original scheduled departure time, the value of Business Select or Anytime tickets will automatically be converted to a flight credit. Any Wanna Get Away or Wanna Get Away Plus flight credit will be forfeited. 

 

IF you don't do anything at all at the anytime fare level, they automatically make it a flight credit.  Interesting for sure.  I would be interested in knowing if anyone has had any luck with that?

[truckswain]

On 1/20/2023 at 3:30 PM, lfdemt said:

UPDATE.  After spending 35 mins both chatting and getting disconnected on the phone (done on purpose and I was being nice). I got to the resolution desk and when pressed about why I am not entitled to the 50% refund, she told me it wasn't done properly and refunded it immediately.  Again  they didn't send anything to break it down so I can't be sure but I think she even refunded too much.  She said the $314 and then made it $471.  SO moral of the story is go ahead and press if it doesn't show up.  

 

 

 

 

 

Glad you pressed the point, it did not make any sense why they took an additional penalty.

 

When I cancelled I did not get a breakdown.  The agent told me that the refund was 50% of what was charged for the air promo less the deviation credit and gave me the  final amount.  I was emailed the cruise confirmation with the credit showing while I was on the phone.

 

The credit to my original form of payment happened two days later.

[lfdemt]

1 hour ago, truckswain said:

 

 

The credit to my original form of payment happened two days later.

This is what I keep waiting for.  NCL.com has been super glitchy and it would show as a credit and then go away again.  I keep checking my card for the refund but it hasn't shown up yet. but I canceled Friday, so will give them another business day or two

[aroundtheriverbend]

On 1/13/2023 at 1:23 PM, truckswain said:

Our fist experience with NCL Promo Air was excellent so I thought I would try it again on our upcoming Encore Cruise in March.  I just received the Air confirmation and the Airline is a charter only airline ( Air Transat) we fly into and out of Fort Lauderdale, the cruise is sails out of Miami and our return flight leaves at 10pm arriving after 1am the next day.

 

 

 

This is really interesting to me, I just booked an Escape cruise in June and picked up the airfare deal, when I got the deposit receipt (final payment isn't due for another month) it showed AIRDEV - FT LAUDERDALE on the airfare column.  I asked the agent to research why it was saying that when the embarkation is out of Miami.  I really don't think I'd be super happy being on a charter flight.... do you mind my asking, where was your departure city?  I'm Charlotte NC. 

Edited January 23, 2023 by aroundtheriverbend
Bad formatting

[truckswain]

On 1/23/2023 at 6:58 PM, aroundtheriverbend said:

 

This is really interesting to me, I just booked an Escape cruise in June and picked up the airfare deal, when I got the deposit receipt (final payment isn't due for another month) it showed AIRDEV - FT LAUDERDALE on the airfare column.  I asked the agent to research why it was saying that when the embarkation is out of Miami.  I really don't think I'd be super happy being on a charter flight.... do you mind my asking, where was your departure city?  I'm Charlotte NC. 

We are Canadian and fly out of Toronto (Pearson International).

 

The Airdev on our cruise confirmation was for the fact we asked to arrive a day early and not the day of the cruise.  I thought this may have been why we were flying in and out of Fort Lauderdale, but there were just as many flights into Miami.  

 

[SunshineGal2022]

On 1/23/2023 at 3:58 PM, aroundtheriverbend said:

 

This is really interesting to me, I just booked an Escape cruise in June and picked up the airfare deal, when I got the deposit receipt (final payment isn't due for another month) it showed AIRDEV - FT LAUDERDALE on the airfare column.  I asked the agent to research why it was saying that when the embarkation is out of Miami.  I really don't think I'd be super happy being on a charter flight.... do you mind my asking, where was your departure city?  I'm Charlotte NC. 

They fly you into Miami or FLL, based on what is available and cheap for them. You won’t know until you get your flights assigned where you are going!

 

[laudergayle]

On 1/22/2023 at 9:12 PM, lfdemt said:

Thank you, I didn't look hard enough since we plan to keep our southwest flights, (hoping to get the whole group on the same flight home at that 72 hour mark) but since you pointed out that, I also found. 

 

Important: If you don’t cancel your reservation at least 10 minutes before the flight’s original scheduled departure time, the value of Business Select or Anytime tickets will automatically be converted to a flight credit. Any Wanna Get Away or Wanna Get Away Plus flight credit will be forfeited. 

 

IF you don't do anything at all at the anytime fare level, they automatically make it a flight credit.  Interesting for sure.  I would be interested in knowing if anyone has had any luck with that?

Reporting back. Our SWA flights are less than 24 hrs away. While NCL says if changes are needed within 72 hrs go through the airline. I called today to see if we could cancel and the rep said that NCL owns the reservation snd she could cancel but we would be under the terms of our NCL agreement…which I’ve read is a $100 per person cancel fee.  So…I guess we’ll just be no shows.  Too bad☹️

[Nyc2tropics]

How far out did everyone get their air assignments? I’m about 64 days away and still nothing. 

[cruiseny4life]

16 hours ago, Nyc2tropics said:

How far out did everyone get their air assignments? I’m about 64 days away and still nothing. 

I received mine, for a March cruise out of Miami, about 60 days out. Two other couples on that cruise received them at the same time. We still have one couple waiting. NCL is sticking with the line that tickets will be assigned roughly 30 - 45 days out. When I inquired about the couple waiting, the representative and the air department confirmed I was extremely lucky to get mine so long before the cruise.

 

Be patient.