NCL Air/Sea Program...Tell Me About Your Experience...

Great!

OK...

Sucks...

We have had great experiences with the NCL Air programs.

It is so nice to not have to worry about anything.

In 2006 on the Dawn, we were notified two days before our return that we would not be docking until 10:00 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m.. It became a mad rush for the computers on board as people tried to re-arrange their air arrangements. We got a letter from NCL saying that ours would be taken care of and we would be told the next day of the changes.

The next day, we got a letter in our cabin with a new flight assignment (different airline) for a later time and our e-ticket numbers. We were a group of 12 and NCL was able to get all of us on the same itinerary for the return. Now, if we had had to handle our own air changes, there would have been no way that we probably would have gotten all 12 of us on the same flights.

This year (although it was RCI), our flight from here to Detroit was cancelled making it impossible for us to make our connecting flight to Newark. Northwest Airlines changed our flight (for 8 of us) and notified RCI. RCI then called to confirm with us and make sure we had been notified. RCI also made arrangements to change our transportation from the airport to the ship in Newark since we were arriving much earlier (non-stop flight) and at a different terminal. Everything worked great. It was also nice on the return to be escorted past all the people waiting for taxis and private transfers to the airport to the waiting RCI transfer busses and off to the airport we went.

Since we fly in the day of the cruise, Cruise line air is much more convenent for us. Yes it costs a little more, (about $125 a person this year), but it was worth it for the no worry factor.

I always get the air from the cruise line. Even if it costs more it's worth the peace of mind and in fact at times it's not more. Twice I went to Europe and it was cheaper.

We just got back from our cruise on the Jade this past Sunday. Our experience was not good. Previous experiences with NCL have been no trouble so we elected to use their air/sea program again this time.

We were orginally booked to leave Tampa at 6:49pm on a Saturday with a connecting flight in Washington to London @9:40pm. Mind you arrival time in Washington was 9:05 and we were terribly concerned about our luggage getting to London so we packed 3 days worth of clothing in our carry-ons. At any rate the ticket agent in Tampa informed us our flight was delayed and since we could no longer make our connecting flight to London, he was putting us on British Air out of D.C. leaving at 11:00 that evening. (I had done my check-in via a self service kiosk and had no idea this was happening but we overheard a ticket agent tell the couple traveling with us this info while we waited next to them. The new arrangement went just fine but our luggage didn't show up for 5 days into our two week cruise! Luckily we had packed that extra clothing in the carry-on for the first time in all our travels all over the world!!!

The part that angered me was the fact that I tried to call customer service at NCL to inform them we were coming into London at a different time and terminal. Because the original booking was thru a travel agent she REFUSED to take down the new information. As a result we were stranded at terminal 4 instead of terminal 2 and only with the help of the Crystal Cruise Rep were we able to connect with the person who met the other passengers in #4 while she was on her way home, having finished for the day and getting her to come back and assist us since the ship was homeported in Southampton, a mere 100 miles away!!!! P.S. The ship waited. We came aboard AFTER the muster call......

I have gotten NCL's Air/Sea if I am going overseas or cutting it close time-wise. Gives me peace of mind. I can get my own air if I am going in a day early and leaving real late reurning.

NCL air package was more than $700 per person for a flight from Boston to Seattle via United with a stop in Denver; I was able to book a non-stop flight on JetBlue for slightly more than $400 per person.

It depends on the person and the timing. I have done groups where some have chosen the air/sea and others not. If you are the uptight type, are traveling during normal bad weather season or want to arrive just hours before the ships is schedule to depart, pay the extra and do the air/sea. We normally do not do this, but fly in a day prior to sailing, giving us time in case something doesn't go as planned.

Nita

I tried NCL's Air program for the first time this year on a Hawaii Cruise. It was an absolute disaster. After booking the cruise I wanted to add an extra day, so I sent an email to their Air Dept. No Response. Second of all they never sent me the airline booking information. I had to constantly call and inquire and every time up to 39 days out there was no information available. It took a concierge person (we booked a suite) to finally get me the information. Third, what they don't tell you is that the "class" of ticket you might get may not allow for seat upgrades. I am a Delta FF and the "class" of my ticket doesn't allow for upgrades. So I called to inquire about changing the "class", to main cabin. They wanted $1041 to make the change. Mind you I could book a brand new ticket for half that cost. After being frustrated with this entire experience I sent a note to their customer service dept. No response. I took three cruises with NCL in the past 12 months and while I like their ships & food, their customer service is the worst I have ever experienced. It is right up there with Spirt Airlines. As of this writing my issue still isn't resolved. Ugh. I would recommend to everyone to book your own airfare and stay away from the NCL Air Program. Also be aware their Customer Service is bad, so if you ever need help, you will be out of luck.

...

The part that angered me was the fact that I tried to call customer service at NCL to inform them we were coming into London at a different time and terminal. Because the original booking was thru a travel agent she refused to take down the information. ... the ship was homeported in Southampton, a mere 100 miles away!!!! P.S. The ship waited. We came aboard AFTER the muster call......

I don't know why you called customer service instead of the Air Emergency number you are given when you book NCL air. When we had a delayed flight I called emergency air and they took care of notifying their airport rep of our changes and they also held our transfer bus from London to Dover until we were aboard which was during muster call.

Can you add on a flight after you've already booked?

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Can you add on a flight after you've already booked?

 

 

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Yes you can add a flight to your booking.

Yes you can add a flight to your booking.

Trying to look online and I do not see where I can add it to my booking. I only saw it when we were booking the actual cruise, now when I am on the vacation summary page it shows me some phone numbers to call. I wanted to see if I could get a quote online like I did when I booked the actual cruise.

Also, is it true what I have read that you can just make payments on it like you can your cruise booking? Thanks for any answers. I have always just booked my own flight.

I don't know why you called customer service instead of the Air Emergency number you are given when you book NCL air.

They probably can't remember why they did, as it was nearly nine years ago. :)

They probably can't remember why they did, as it was nearly nine years ago. :)

I saw that also. The original thread was from 2008!

Trying to look online and I do not see where I can add it to my booking. I only saw it when we were booking the actual cruise, now when I am on the vacation summary page it shows me some phone numbers to call. I wanted to see if I could get a quote online like I did when I booked the actual cruise.

 

Also, is it true what I have read that you can just make payments on it like you can your cruise booking? Thanks for any answers. I have always just booked my own flight.

Call your TA and she/he can arrange for you or at least give you pricing when they call NCL direct. NOt sure if your aTA can set up three-way calling but mine could. Later I called the regular NCL number even though my TA is not NCL to ask a few questions about the pricing and the person was helpful even though she could not book because my TA was not an NCL one. This was a month after booking when we first started looking at air fares (we booked way-way in advance).

I am worried about the kind of seats they give with the air land program.  We are thinking of a European vacation and would like at least comfort seats with Delta since the flight is so long. What do they give you when you let them choose? 

We are getting our flights through NCL as well for our August cruise.  As this is our first time doing this, I’m stressing a bit.  We will be flying from Houston to London so we felt it was best to let NCL handle the flights.   However, we want to be able to upgrade our seats to business or first class.  We have tried calling the Air number but only managed to sit on hold for 1/2 hour each time.   Has anyone been successful in upgrading their seats before?   Any idea which airline Norwegian May use for a Houston to London and Stockholm to Houston trip?

1 hour ago, CruiseFuse said:

We are getting our flights through NCL as well for our August cruise.  As this is our first time doing this, I’m stressing a bit.  We will be flying from Houston to London so we felt it was best to let NCL handle the flights.   However, we want to be able to upgrade our seats to business or first class.  We have tried calling the Air number but only managed to sit on hold for 1/2 hour each time.   Has anyone been successful in upgrading their seats before?   Any idea which airline Norwegian May use for a Houston to London and Stockholm to Houston trip?

NCLdoesn't do seat upgrades. Once you are booked you can work that out directly with your carrier. 

It is noted in the details or FAQs for the program.

On 3/30/2019 at 11:58 AM, CruiseFuse said:

We are getting our flights through NCL as well for our August cruise.  As this is our first time doing this, I’m stressing a bit.  We will be flying from Houston to London so we felt it was best to let NCL handle the flights.   However, we want to be able to upgrade our seats to business or first class.  We have tried calling the Air number but only managed to sit on hold for 1/2 hour each time.   Has anyone been successful in upgrading their seats before?   Any idea which airline Norwegian May use for a Houston to London and Stockholm to Houston trip?

In these situations where you are traveling overnight, any idea if NCL arrangements account for or force the need for hotel?  I can't imagine the stress of a flight schedule that arrives the same morning/day as cruise departure.  Some sort of buffer would be nice.  Not to mention if you wanted to fly in a couple days earlier to see the city.

I spoke to the Norwegian Travel people today....learned a lot.  You CAN call and get upgraded seats ($$$$) if they are available in the time block that NCL is using for your particular cruise.  (We won’t since it equals another cruise easily.  I’ll just have an extra drink to uncramp my joints after the flight).  

      Also, from the chit-chat it appears that they will time our flight to arrive on the morning of embarkation.   We have never had the nerves to do that but at least have the peace of mind that in the event of a delay, since NCL is getting the tickets, they will get us on board.   As for debarkation, I know she was looking at flights that were noon or later.   If we flew in earlier or left a day later then I believe hotel costs would have been on us.

3 hours ago, CruiseFuse said:

I spoke to the Norwegian Travel people today....learned a lot.  You CAN call and get upgraded seats ($$$$) if they are available in the time block that NCL is using for your particular cruise.  (We won’t since it equals another cruise easily.  I’ll just have an extra drink to uncramp my joints after the flight).  

      Also, from the chit-chat it appears that they will time our flight to arrive on the morning of embarkation.   We have never had the nerves to do that but at least have the peace of mind that in the event of a delay, since NCL is getting the tickets, they will get us on board.   As for debarkation, I know she was looking at flights that were noon or later.   If we flew in earlier or left a day later then I believe hotel costs would have been on us.

I spoke to a very helpful NCL rep today as well. 

We’re planning a Med cruise from Rome. My concern was flight schedule and arriving the same day. When I inquired about arriving 1-2 days early, he informed of a flight deviation option, costing $25 p/p. And no requirement to use a NCL assigned hotel. Also deleted the arrival transfer costs. 

Very satisfied with the outcome. 

its been horrible, we chose to arrive 2 days early and we booked the hotels through NCL. about 40 days out they informed us they had no hotels left, no big deal, we told them that is fine, we will book our own hotel but we still wanted to arrive 2 days early. 30 days out we get our flight and its for the day off. we call to let them know it was supposed to be 2 days before. they said they made the mistake but cant do anything since their are no flights left, all they can do is give us FCC. we told them we have no plans of sailing with NCL again after all the problems we have had. they said they can escalate it and we would hear something in about 3 days. that was almost 2 weeks ago. our cruise is in 3 weeks and we still have no plane tickets that we already paid for. since the flight is in 3 weeks we are now looking at almost 1kUSD per ticket. NCL is a joke. never again. RCCI and Carnival i have never had issues. 

I am sorry you had an issue with the NCL air program, but the 2 times I have used it (3rd coming up) I have never had an issue, both day of flights and 2 day deviations.  We were going to be delayed getting back to NY (hurricane) and even before we left Bermuda, we already received new flights from NCL. 

Cruising is risky, anything could cause a port to be missed.  You need to weigh the cost of a cheap NCL air promo against your level of risk and flexibility.  I would not count out a cruise line just because the flights/hotel did not meet your standards.  NCL books "bulk" rates and normally are the least flexible.

I have used it twice, first time was great, second time my flight was canceled and NCL could care less.  They told us to deal with the airline and refused to give us cruise credits or anything if we missed the boat.  The airline said they had limited options as NCL was the purchaser of the ticket and they need to handle it.  In the end our travel agent, not NCL, spent hours on the phone with United and got us all there, but I had to rent a car and drive 4 hours from the only airport I could get to to the port.  Not sure I will use it again as NCL does not back it at all, they just say it’s my problem and not theirs.

I had a similar experience to jtrollin.  NCL would not help at all when airline delays caused me to miss the cruise.  i had to pay over $600 to get to the port from the airport.  I have seen websites selling cruises that advertise it is best to get airfare from the cruiseline so the cruiseline will get you to the port if anything goes wrong.  i suggest getting everything in writing so you have a backup plan...just in case!