Airfare with NCL questions

[skittl1321]

I'm looking at a Baltic Cruise in August based on NCL's 48-hour cancellation policy. 

 

I suppose I could call them, but I wanted to see if anyone here knew the answers, as talking to people is scary...

 

1) When NCL books your air- do they always fly you in same day, or is there an option of arriving the day before?  We once did a Galapagos cruise where we planned to fly in 3-days early (self booked) and through a series of incredibly unfortunate events, ended up there about 4 hours before the charter flight to the ship left.  Thank goodness we planned way ahead... (we did have insurance, which paid out for the hotel cancellation, but missing a once in a life time cruise would have been awful).

 

2) The airfare for the children (3-year old and 1-year old) is more expensive than the adults (I assume the adults get "free or reduced air") does this mean they are giving the infant a seat? I do not want a lap child to Europe!

 

3) Is airfare booked through NCL refunded the same way as the cruise is under their 48-hour policy? (Which I assume is only due to coronavirus, they haven't been this generous in the past.)

[julig22]

1.  they will usually fly you in the morning of the cruise - they will also include shuttle transportation from the airport to the cruise (for a charge of course).  If you have a family of 4, it might be cheaper to arrange your own transportation - they don't like to take it off but they will if you argue long enough! 

You can request a 2 day deviation either before or after the cruise - I think they might charge to do the deviation, but don't always.

2.  If they are charging airfare for kids, I would assume they get a seat.  But no experience with that one.

3.  Airfare should be refunded the same as any other cancellation as far as I know.

[Nola26]

We used the Free/Reduced to Barcelona last September. We paid $25pp to deviate our airfare to arrive a day early, we could have arrived two days year for the same $25 fee. We had a nonstop flight from Newark on a Friday night and arrived 9am Saturday morning.

 

I really liked this perk and having the airfare handled by NCL and the price, was great. We have used it again for a Greece cruise this September, but we're likely to cancel that trip.I'm nervous about travel within Europe (assuming a layover somewhere).

 

I suggest reading the fine print on the Peace of Mind to understand the cancellation policy with airfare. Also make sure you understand how refunds/FCCs are returned (do you kids get refunds because tickets are in their names?).

[Cruise4life44]

With our May 1 cruise (which has been canceled) we had booked air thru NCL.  We had planned to go three days before the cruise to Rome and we’re staying two days after in Amsterdam.  We also had purchased the transfers and hotels thru NCL. No problem with changing the air travel so we would have more time pre and post.  Not sure if that was your question, but just trying to help.

[skittl1321]

Thanks all. That's helpful.

 

Still very unsure if we want to book a cruise or not, even with the current sales going on, it is still a pricey thing.  The idea of a cruise might be a bit much for us still.... oh, coronavirus.