NCL free flights

[mahasan]

Greeting to you all !

we are booked on an NCL dawn leaving Nov 9,2019. The deal includes flights....I saw on our account that they put us on a 5am flight from Tampa to NY. We called and they said this is just a place holder, final booking happens 40 days in advance. Does anyone have experience with these free flights, do we have any control ....do we have to pay whatever for checked luggage? Seems like the entire thing is a real pain 😩.

[Nola26]

It's a placeholder and you are way to far out to be worrying. You will pay baggage and seat assignments charges as applicable directly to the assigned carrier. 

 

We had a routing through Canada 10 days ago, now we are through London and back through Charlotte. We are getting close to our ticketing window, so we will see our final routing to and from Barcelona soon enough. 

 

Ignore anything you see until September. Save some extra budget for seats and bags if you need to check them.

[roger001]

I was wondering the same thing.  We've only flown SWA since all this extra fees stuff began with the airlines.   (And even SWA is slowly increasing their 'early bird" fee.) We normally have three checked bags when we cruise.  What would the average other airlines charge now for a checked bag?   What is this seat assignment fee and how much is it?  Can anyone give me something like  AAL , DAL, or maybe a UAL pricing idea?   If I've got to pay all of that, free isn't looking so good, especially since the Free wasn't even close to free to begin with.   Thanks.  

[Nola26]

13 minutes ago, roger001 said:

I was wondering the same thing.  We've only flown SWA since all this extra fees stuff began with the airlines.   (And even SWA is slowly increasing their 'early bird" fee.) We normally have three checked bags when we cruise.  What would the average other airlines charge now for a checked bag?   What is this seat assignment fee and how much is it?  Can anyone give me something like  AAL , DAL, or maybe a UAL pricing idea?   If I've got to pay all of that, free isn't looking so good, especially since the Free wasn't even close to free to begin with.   Thanks.  

Best to just go to the airline website to see their free and charges for bags. Not sure of the length of your cruise but think about whether you should bring 3 bags or just spend $ for laundry onboard or pack less. 

[roger001]

1 hour ago, Nola26 said:

Best to just go to the airline website to see their free and charges for bags. Not sure of the length of your cruise but think about whether you should bring 3 bags or just spend $ for laundry onboard or pack less. 

Thanks.    But 22 cruises later though we are finally down to just three.   

[YankeesFan4Life]

On 6/30/2019 at 2:27 AM, mahasan said:

Greeting to you all !

we are booked on an NCL dawn leaving Nov 9,2019. The deal includes flights....I saw on our account that they put us on a 5am flight from Tampa to NY. We called and they said this is just a place holder, final booking happens 40 days in advance. Does anyone have experience with these free flights, do we have any control ....do we have to pay whatever for checked luggage? Seems like the entire thing is a real pain 😩.

 

When my eDocs populated, it showed a 6am flight from Newark-Miami.  We took the air deviation, and going in a day earlier.  I asked politely if they could get me on the 10:48am flight instead. She looked, saw the pricing was the same, and she put it in.  The eDocs disappeared for a week or so, and when repopulated, the 10:48am flight showed ticketed!  See what other flights are available and ask at your own risk.  And yes...we do need to pay the $30/bag on AA, plus to get my family together on the flight down, we did pay extra (wife and I have the higher tier, forgot what they're called, but they come with FREE BOOZE! 🙂)

 

[dmdiver]

When we asked about the flight deal, we were told there was a possibility we would end up on a red-eye, as they didn't allow us to book air to arrive the day before.  Since we like more control over our flights, we just ended up booking on our own.  

[Paul Bogle]

We were able to fly in the day before departure for a $25 deviation fee. Our understanding is that you can fly in up to five days early for the $25 and fly back up to five days after the cruise returns for another $25. I'm very surprised this isn't available from the DFW metroplex.

Edited July 1, 2019 by Paul Bogle

[Nola26]

2 hours ago, Paul Bogle said:

We were able to fly in the day before departure for a $25 deviation fee. Our understanding is that you can fly in up to five days early for the $25 and fly back up to five days after the cruise returns for another $25. I'm very surprised this isn't available from the DFW metroplex.

2 days, not 5

[Budget Queen]

On 6/30/2019 at 2:40 PM, roger001 said:

Thanks.    But 22 cruises later though we are finally down to just three.   

Yikes,  that is a lot of bags.    Most airlines,  have a "lower"  cost for the first one,   then a steep charge for a second.     Figure at least $25 each way.      

 

I  have 2 free bags,  and  I still only take one,  25 " bag.    I don't want to take any more.  :)  

 

I take a lot of those early morning flights,  in fact have one tomorrow.   I really like them.   :)   Many times, back up flights available when things go array.   

[dolita22]

On 6/30/2019 at 12:52 PM, roger001 said:

I was wondering the same thing.  We've only flown SWA since all this extra fees stuff began with the airlines.   (And even SWA is slowly increasing their 'early bird" fee.) We normally have three checked bags when we cruise.  What would the average other airlines charge now for a checked bag?   What is this seat assignment fee and how much is it?  Can anyone give me something like  AAL , DAL, or maybe a UAL pricing idea?   If I've got to pay all of that, free isn't looking so good, especially since the Free wasn't even close to free to begin with.   Thanks.  

 

We, too, typically fly SWA as our primary, but also fly Delta and American, so I can speak to those two. Delta and AA each charge $30 for the first checked bag and $40 for the second checked bag. Carry-ons are still free on both airlines, though they do seem to be cracking down more on sizes of those and will request that you gate check if the bag is too large to fit in the overhead bins. Not sure if they charge to gate check; they didn't use to, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do now. We usually check bags, so I don't pay attention to any gate check charging, if it's happening.

 

As for seat assignments, Delta Comfort will have a fee, but I'm not sure if their Main cabin choice comes with a fee. For AA, Main Cabin Extra and Preferred have fees. Seat fees can start at $30 and go up to whatever First and Business class charges. When you know your flights, check out seat maps on the airlines' websites. Free seats will be listed as such if you hover over the seat choice, or if you click on one, the fee will be indicated on the page.

 

Hope that helps!

[roger001]

14 minutes ago, dolita22 said:

 

We, too, typically fly SWA as our primary, but also fly Delta and American, so I can speak to those two. Delta and AA each charge $30 for the first checked bag and $40 for the second checked bag. Carry-ons are still free on both airlines, though they do seem to be cracking down more on sizes of those and will request that you gate check if the bag is too large to fit in the overhead bins. Not sure if they charge to gate check; they didn't use to, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do now. We usually check bags, so I don't pay attention to any gate check charging, if it's happening.

 

As for seat assignments, Delta Comfort will have a fee, but I'm not sure if their Main cabin choice comes with a fee. For AA, Main Cabin Extra and Preferred have fees. Seat fees can start at $30 and go up to whatever First and Business class charges. When you know your flights, check out seat maps on the airlines' websites. Free seats will be listed as such if you hover over the seat choice, or if you click on one, the fee will be indicated on the page.

 

Hope that helps!

Holy Smoke.   What a mess.  Thanks.   

[mahasan]

16 hours ago, YankeesFan4Life said:

 

When my eDocs populated, it showed a 6am flight from Newark-Miami.  We took the air deviation, and going in a day earlier.  I asked politely if they could get me on the 10:48am flight instead. She looked, saw the pricing was the same, and she put it in.  The eDocs disappeared for a week or so, and when repopulated, the 10:48am flight showed ticketed!  See what other flights are available and ask at your own risk.  And yes...we do need to pay the $30/bag on AA, plus to get my family together on the flight down, we did pay extra (wife and I have the higher tier, forgot what they're called, but they come with FREE BOOZE! 🙂)

 

Thank you for the info !

who did you actually call ? Ncl or the airline?

[mahasan]

13 hours ago, Nola26 said:

2 days, not 5

Thank you very much....good to know. 

[wintertexancruiser]

so do you get the information when your edocs are ready?

[CruiseFuse]

We recently got our flights for our 8/2 cruise from London.  We are booked on United at a good time.  They were booked with NCL in basic economy so we called United and for a fee we’re able to at least move to premium economy for more legroom.   On our return from Stockholm we are on SAS so we called them too.  We were able to upgrade slightly there as well for $59 each and were told we could ask at the airport if any upgrading is available. Since tickets were booked through NCL we are not eligible to bid for upgrades.  We do get 1 checked bag free per person.   

   I don’t think we would use the airfare option with NCL again as the headache from it was not worth it.   

[Nola26]

6 hours ago, CruiseFuse said:

We recently got our flights for our 8/2 cruise from London.  We are booked on United at a good time.  They were booked with NCL in basic economy so we called United and for a fee we’re able to at least move to premium economy for more legroom.   On our return from Stockholm we are on SAS so we called them too.  We were able to upgrade slightly there as well for $59 each and were told we could ask at the airport if any upgrading is available. Since tickets were booked through NCL we are not eligible to bid for upgrades.  We do get 1 checked bag free per person.   

   I don’t think we would use the airfare option with NCL again as the headache from it was not worth it.   

NCL books Economy class tickets. Basic Economy is rather no frills. Can you double check your original notice and confirm that NCL booked you in Economy class, not Basic Economy?

 

Basic Economy Does Not Allow 

Selection or Upgrade of seats

Sit with family or friends 

Bring Full sized carry on luggage 

Change your flight

Earn status qualifying miles

[dmdiver]

23 hours ago, Paul Bogle said:

We were able to fly in the day before departure for a $25 deviation fee. Our understanding is that you can fly in up to five days early for the $25 and fly back up to five days after the cruise returns for another $25. I'm very surprised this isn't available from the DFW metroplex.

I would think it would be available - I suppose the person we had on the phone was not well trained.

[ute_fan]

23 hours ago, Paul Bogle said:

We were able to fly in the day before departure for a $25 deviation fee. Our understanding is that you can fly in up to five days early for the $25 and fly back up to five days after the cruise returns for another $25. I'm very surprised this isn't available from the DFW metroplex.

 

21 hours ago, Nola26 said:

2 days, not 5

Interesting, because we tried a couple of different times to change our flight times and they wouldn't let us -- and this was like 2 weeks before.  We were told since the tickets had already been issued we couldn't change them.  The first time we called we just asked if we could change times and they said no, and the second time we asked if we could change and fly in a day early -- and the answer was still no.  Don't know what we were doing wrong!

We did have the free airfare.  Flying from SLC to SEA our flight left at 10:30 and was due in at 11:45.  The ship sailed at 5, so I was feeling pretty nervous.  Coming back, we didn't leave SEA until 6:30, so we spent most of the day just sitting at Seatac.  I did end up using some of my skymiles (we were on Delta) and upgrading to first class, so that we would be off the plane as early as possible and able to get to baggage claim and get our bags and get to the bus transfer quickly.  It ended up working fine and we were on the ship by 1:30.  The added benefit that I didn't realize is that first class entitles to you to free checked bags, so we didn't have to pay the baggage fees on the way out.

[CruiseFuse]

4 hours ago, Nola26 said:

NCL books Economy class tickets. Basic Economy is rather no frills. Can you double check your original notice and confirm that NCL booked you in Economy class, not Basic Economy?

 

Basic Economy Does Not Allow 

Selection or Upgrade of seats

Sit with family or friends 

Bring Full sized carry on luggage 

Change your flight

Earn status qualifying miles

You’re correct, Nola.  I misspoke in saying Basic.   However, in looking at our flight on United we only see Economy, Premium Economy and ‘people we wish we could be’.    We might get slightly fortunate as we moved our seats to a row that is completely empty (so far).  With luck some of those seats will remain vacant and our child can sleep most of the flight.

   Our return on SAS we did move seats for more legroom.