Free Airfare

[Sailing12Away]

As far as direct vs layover flights, I assume a large part of that depends on where you are flying in/out of. In February I'm sailing out of Miami with GeneticFreak on the Jade. NCL picked a direct flight from JFK to Miami that gets me to the dock around noon. Pretty perfect if you ask me. Coming home is a different story, my flight doesn't leave until 4pm, but with a port excursion credit we are considering doing a short tour around Miami before heading to the airport.

 

Once I had my edocs available, I was able to find my record locator number and go directly onto the American Airlines website. Logged in, picked 2 seats together (at the time there were tons of choices) and we're all set. So the option to pick advanced seat assignments at no cost is there - just make sure all your check-in info is logged in early so your edocs are available early, and so pick out your seats early.

 

Our flights from JFK - MIA are free (plus the $32/pp transfer fee), normally would cost us about $200/pp plus transfers, so we're 100% fine with that. My next cruise will be July on POA - we're getting 'discounted' airfare of ~$600/pp - on my own it would cost us over $1K/pp. So again, for us the promo is working out great. Too early to see the flight info for the July cruise, but that one will be more complicated as I will definitely have to transfer somewhere on the West coast first before getting to Hawaii.

[allyfrizzle]

4 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Once I had my edocs available, I was able to find my record locator number and go directly onto the American Airlines website. Logged in, picked 2 seats together (at the time there were tons of choices) and we're all set. So the option to pick advanced seat assignments at no cost is there - just make sure all your check-in info is logged in early so your edocs are available early, and so pick out your seats early.

 

How were you able to choose seats? I just used your info to log into the AA site and check my reservation, but there is no option to choose seats. Perhaps I'm too early? The flight is April 7th. Thanks in advance.

[Deck boy Dave]

If you live in Denver this promotion is beyond worthless! 

I have done several mock bookings and usually I am being charged in the upper 800’s per person to Miami. 

 

NCL calling this free is a joke...LOL

[Sailing12Away]

On 1/17/2019 at 11:00 AM, allyfrizzle said:

How were you able to choose seats? I just used your info to log into the AA site and check my reservation, but there is no option to choose seats. Perhaps I'm too early? The flight is April 7th. Thanks in advance.

From the AA.com website, go to "Your Trips/Check In". Put in your information and the record locator number, then 'find your trip'. Once you get to your trip details, right up top is a huge button that says 'change seats'. Also next to the details of your flight is a column listing the assigned seats (if any). You can click on that as well to update your choices.

[Sailing12Away]

20 hours ago, Deck boy Dave said:

If you live in Denver this promotion is beyond worthless! 

I have done several mock bookings and usually I am being charged in the upper 800’s per person to Miami. 

 

NCL calling this free is a joke...LOL

Depends on where you're flying to/from. My flight from NY to Miami is free, my flight from NY to Hawaii is $600 (roughly 40% discount from what it would cost me on my own). For you to go from Denver to Miami for the same cruise would cost you over $800, but for you to go to Hawaii would only be $400 (~50% discount from what I'm seeing on my own). So it's all relative... take a credit from a sailing out of Miami, take the 'free' flight for a sailing out of Hawaii. Do what works best for you.

[Deck boy Dave]

I guess but I could get non-stop round trip tickets to Florida all day long for under or at 300 per person. But I am glad to see some destinations would be cheaper.

[Nola26]

We are going round trip Newark to Barcelona for $399pp and $50pp transfer fee. We are ecstatic as it makes the trip affordable. We Sail on Sept 1 and were told to look for flight information at 60 days ahead, so late June. I would love to fly Delta, but from Newark it will most likely be United or a partner.

 

We will fly on August 31st and arrive on sail date so no fuss with local hotel, not worried about missing ship as they take care of getting us there.

 

We have 5 ports on 5 straight days in 3 countries. I won't need any extra tour days in Europe at the end of the cruise. 

Edited January 24, 2019 by Nola26

[allyfrizzle]

On 1/18/2019 at 5:10 PM, Sailing12Away said:

From the AA.com website, go to "Your Trips/Check In". Put in your information and the record locator number, then 'find your trip'. Once you get to your trip details, right up top is a huge button that says 'change seats'. Also next to the details of your flight is a column listing the assigned seats (if any). You can click on that as well to update your choices.

 

Thanks. Looks like the option isn't available for me yet. I'm also curious how luggage works. Everything I've read from NCL says I'll have to pay the airline directly for my luggage.

[seizetheseas]

On 11/26/2018 at 4:09 PM, HeroG said:

 

Just got off the phone with my TA she told me you DO NOT have to take NCL’s transfers to and from the airport.  She said this is a trick used by NCL to get you to pay for their overpriced bus service, you can simply opt out.  The trip I’m looking at NCL is charging $77 each for 3 of us for their transfers.  Instead I will just pay for a $20 taxi ride, a savings of $190

 

Correct. If you book your cruise direct on their website and choose free air, they tack on the transfers automatically. You can just call after booking to knock it off. 

[allyfrizzle]

2 minutes ago, seizetheseas said:

 

Correct. If you book your cruise direct on their website and choose free air, they tack on the transfers automatically. You can just call after booking to knock it off. 

 

I tried to do this and was told I couldn't. For my upcoming cruise in April, I paid $70 pp for transfers from LaGuardia to the port. 

[M&JfromSDL]

I am planning to sail on Breakaway in September.  The airfare is free out of DC but I prefer to fly in the night before the cruise.  I also like to have control over my flights, seats, fare class, etc.  I can book through my TA for about $200/pp less if I forego the free airfare offer.  Between the higher fare and $50 charge to "deviate" I think it's probably a wash.

Edited January 26, 2019 by M&JfromSDL
Hit post too soon.

[MikeBTN]

21 minutes ago, M&JfromSDL said:

I am planning to sail on Breakaway in September.  The airfare is free out of DC but I prefer to fly in the night before the cruise.  I also like to have control over my flights, seats, fare class, etc.  I can book through my TA for about $200/pp less if I forego the free airfare offer.  Between the higher fare and $50 charge to "deviate" I think it's probably a wash.

 

If you book the hotel through NCL, they will get you there the day/night prior to sailing.

[M&JfromSDL]

Do you get any say in the specific flights?  

[tokidoki]

no,   as I was told when i posed same question.

[alibubba]

We are going to try this out in 2021 in South America.  I had checked on lots of flights and the only one that would get us that cheap an airfare was one that took us from Portland to Toronto to two different airports in New York, London and finally Buenos Aires.  According to NCL they have flights with only one stop out of Seattle.  We shall see, but at least we are assured that they will get us there somehow and we don't have to worry about how.  That is worth something we hope.

 

[hollytown]

I will never book my airfare thru ncl again.  Even if it is free. I just posted a comment on how to file a formal complaint that tells my ordeal with booking air thru them. As far as the transfers everyone is saying they've been quoted, I was told that our transfers were free with the airfare. That was completely incorrect. We were charged $46 each way per person. This was on a pride of America sailing.

[iloveislands24]

We booked our cruise two weeks ago for March 3rd on the Escape and chose free airfare as a perk. The flight from Columbus OH to NYC will be free, just paying for transfers. I didn't realize we could cancel the $35 pp each way transfer, however for LGA to Manhattan this charge probably isn't too bad... has anyone here used NCL transfers, was it a good experience?

Since we booked within 60 days of the cruise, we got our flight information within a couple days of booking. To my surprise the flights were both direct with Delta, my favorite airline. The flight there is for the morning of and arrives in NYC around 10:45 - I would have preferred for it to arrive earlier but hopefully we won't run into any issues. We did purchase trip insurance so if we were to miss our boat I guess we'd use that to fly to the next port to join the ship, worst case scenario. I guess this makes me feel better about paying for the NCL transfer - if we are running late, they should be able to help us communicate that to the ship and make us less likely to miss it - right? I was able to log into Delta and view our seats, they have already been assigned and are right next to each other. So far I've had a good experience with the free airfare perk, hope it goes smoothly for our trip!

[Adian80]

Booked a last minute cruise for the end of February that included airfare and got my air assignments.  We're on a direct American Airlines flight from Atlanta to Miami.  Our flight leaves at 9 AM and arrives at 11:20 AM. Our return flight is also a direct American flight that leaves Miami at 3:30 PM.  I think we're going to do a preflight tour to use our excursion credit, but I haven't decided which one yet.  I always arrive at least a day before, so I'm a bit nervous. I was also able to select our seats with our record locator.  

[Sailing12Away]

On 1/27/2019 at 1:03 PM, Adian80 said:

Booked a last minute cruise for the end of February that included airfare and got my air assignments.  We're on a direct American Airlines flight from Atlanta to Miami.  Our flight leaves at 9 AM and arrives at 11:20 AM. Our return flight is also a direct American flight that leaves Miami at 3:30 PM.  I think we're going to do a preflight tour to use our excursion credit, but I haven't decided which one yet.  I always arrive at least a day before, so I'm a bit nervous. I was also able to select our seats with our record locator.  

Sounds like we're on the same sailing and will be sitting at the Miami airport right next to you waiting to come home. Have you had any luck finding post-cruise tour options? All I see is a tour to the mall..... yeah, not interested. Looking to book our own thing and just uber it to the airport.

[Adian80]

3 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Sounds like we're on the same sailing and will be sitting at the Miami airport right next to you waiting to come home. Have you had any luck finding post-cruise tour options? All I see is a tour to the mall..... yeah, not interested. Looking to book our own thing and just uber it to the airport.

 

We're on the Jade Feb 24 sailing and decided to do the Everglade airboat tour.  Your flight has to leave after 3:30 (ours is 3:31) and after chatting with shorex today I am comfortable booking even though it's so close.  She told me that typically they drop off at the airport at 12:30 which will give us 3 hours to get through security and to our gate.  We don't plan on checking any bags, so that will help as well.  I also saw a city bus tour in addition to the mall tour.  The pickings are slim, but I'd rather do anything besides sit at the airport for an extra 5 hours! 

[Sailing12Away]

Yup, same sailing. Our flight is scheduled for 4pm. I've tried 10 times to get in touch with someone to see if they could get us on the 1:30pm flight instead but my limit for being on hold is 30 mins and I have never gotten through to a human. We found an animal sanctuary not too far away, so are thinking of heading there with Uber and getting a refund on our transfer fees. The one place said they would hold our luggage in their office while we played with the animals, still need to reach out to another facility my vet friend recommended who lives in the area. If worse comes to worse, I'll just call up my buddy and have her meet us somewhere for a long lunch I guess.

[Adian80]

11 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Yup, same sailing. Our flight is scheduled for 4pm. I've tried 10 times to get in touch with someone to see if they could get us on the 1:30pm flight instead but my limit for being on hold is 30 mins and I have never gotten through to a human. We found an animal sanctuary not too far away, so are thinking of heading there with Uber and getting a refund on our transfer fees. The one place said they would hold our luggage in their office while we played with the animals, still need to reach out to another facility my vet friend recommended who lives in the area. If worse comes to worse, I'll just call up my buddy and have her meet us somewhere for a long lunch I guess.

I tried to cancel our transfer fees and was told that I would take a penalty of the entire amount....  They were able to refund our return fee since we booked the excursion that drops us at the airport afterward.  If you have luck getting your fees refunded please let me know!  I'd rather just take an Uber or Lyft and not have to wait for them to fill the bus. Good luck with the flight change! 

 

[Sailing12Away]

8 hours ago, Adian80 said:

I tried to cancel our transfer fees and was told that I would take a penalty of the entire amount....  They were able to refund our return fee since we booked the excursion that drops us at the airport afterward.  If you have luck getting your fees refunded please let me know!  I'd rather just take an Uber or Lyft and not have to wait for them to fill the bus. Good luck with the flight change! 

 

Oh I'm giving up on that. Figure I'll wait till I'm on board to find a human who can't keep me on hold for 30 minutes.

 

This is the roll call for our upcoming trip if you haven't already looked through there: 

 

 

[jbethel11]

Apologies to bump this thread, however I am confused. How much are the baggage fees for NCL's free at sea? Am I only allowed to bring a carry-on and personal item, and nothing else?

[SailorMan20]

So I got reduced air for My cruise in December of 2020 on The NCL Encore. I will be flying to Miami from Little Rock. I am  wondering what Airline NCL uses?