How does booking flights through NCL work? Looking at a 2023 cruise leaving out of San Juan.

[Jezo]

Departing from PR so we would need to fly there.  The pricing on the website has the additional option of adding on flights, which doesn't seem too out of line from doing it myself.

 

How does this work?  It says the flights wont be assigned until a few months out from the trip, which would be 2022.  Do they let you select the times or do they just give you something and you need to make it work?  Would we be able to fly in a day or two early, get our own hotel, and then go on the cruise or can we only go with what they will give us?  I figure if we are leaving out of San Juan we might as well spend a day or two there as if it were a normal port day and don't want to be rushed getting to the airport at 4 in the morning to get on a ship at 10 in the morning to depart at 2. 

 

As we have never flown for a cruise before looking to see who has done this and how it works.

[hallux]

MANY threads discussing the free-at-sea flights.  If that's what you're using, just need to tell them if you want to deviate a day or two at either end (or both).  NCL then books flights based on criteria in the T&C's for the promo.  You get no choice for airline or flight times.  Flights are booked around 45-60 days before the cruise (sometimes even a little later) and once you get your confirmation numbers you might be able to pick your seats and pre-pay for your baggage through the airline website.

 

If you're using NCL Premium Air, you get a different experience.

[Sailing12Away]

Price it out on your own, and if the pricing on NCL is significantly cheaper it may be worth it to let them handle the flights. If the savings is negligible, most folks prefer to control the reservation themselves as with NCL you have no say in the airline, flight times, layovers, etc.

 

We've used the air promo many many times and as long as the pricing is still in my favor I will let them handle the flights for me. I haven't been able to even come close yet in getting their pricing, and our flight times have been fine 9/10 times (one time we had a late 4pm flight home so we sat in Miami for longer than we would have liked).

 

It all depends on where you're flying into/out of. I fly out of JFK, so there's 100's of options that work for us and we usually get fine times for more than half of what it would cost on our own. With all that savings I can easily book us on another cruise or 3.

 

The next trip we have coming up with flights included is Feb 2023 with a one way from LA to Miami. For 2 of us the total flight cost was <$200. Total. For 2 people. No way I'm beating that price on my own with 2 one-way flights for 2 adults.

[YVRteacher]

Did it once.  Never again.  They choose the cheapest flights which often involve transfers.

[Sailing12Away]

23 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

Did it once.  Never again.  They choose the cheapest flights which often involve transfers.

I've used their service 5 times. We've never had a transfer, except to Hawaii as there are no direct flights for that long of a journey (that I know of). It all depends on where you're going to and flying from.

[YVRteacher]

Not sure why you quoted me in your post.  I had my experience, you had yours.

[Sailing12Away]

8 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

Not sure why you quoted me in your post.  I had my experience, you had yours.

Because you're making it seem as if they fly you out on Frontier or Spirit Airlines and intentionally make a journey that should take 4hrs become an 8hr endeavor. 

[DCGuy64]

We've only sailed with NCL once, and had a great experience. Dirt cheap flight, nonstop from DC to Miami and we used our loyalty program with American to get free checked bags. Would do it again in a heartbeat. Literally no way we could have beaten the price we paid. Not in a hundred years.

[Sue Do-Over]

I shop for the cheapest airfare within the US, and am fine booking economy.  BUT, like a lot of you, my criteria changes for international flights.  I'm bracing myself for the upgrade fees to get into premium economy or business class for the long flight leg(s).

 

We live in Ohio, and are cruising out of Rome in June.  We OK'd a diversion, giving NCL some leeway to book us up to 2 days early coming in or 2 days late afterward.  We could get a couple of bonus days in Rome, but will have to cover our own hotel and (I think) the transfer to the port/airport.  That's fine... we've been in Rome several times and can manage that.

 

In a dream world, we could have those extra couple days in a connecting city... but I know I'm dreaming.  Like fly in via Paris or Munich (which are connections on several flight paths) and take a looooong layover, enjoying a day or two before flying in to Rome itself.   I know, I know... but a girl has to dream!

[jimsig]

Depending on how far out you are booking some cruise lines will let you know the flights right away.

 

A few years back my brother and his wife went to book on NCL a FLA Bahamas cruise few months out.  They knew the cost of booking the flights on their own and asked NCL to come up with a price with and without the flights.   They had to fly in the same day and wanted the protection of booking through the cruise line. There wasn't much of a difference if any by taking the air from NCL, but they would have to wait to get the airline and flight times.  They then put as hold on it.  They then called RC and basically got the same cruise itinerary and were told the flight times and airlines and it was the same price as NCL would have been.  They booked on RC.  When they called NCL to cancel the NCL agent asked why and my brother told him.  The agent told him he gets quite a few cancellations because of people not wanting to wait for their airline times etc.  

[hallux]

7 hours ago, jimsig said:

but they would have to wait to get the airline and flight times

Sounds like they were using the promo airfare, which has been covered earlier in the thread.  If they used the Premium Air service I think they could have chosen the flights but they probably would have also paid more for it...

Edited April 3, 2022 by hallux

[Katarae]

Our first cruise was the Asia leg in Singapore on the jewel December 2019. We were able to still get our flight deviation but had booked the cruise right around the 75 day mark. I actually paid for the hotel through them because we did it so close. But my boyfriend is 6'4" and when looking at flights from Dallas to Singapore, you could not come anywhere near what NCL was charging us. I think it was $650 a person when outside of NCL was $1200 a person. We were able to pay more to get better legroom and I was totally fine with that!

 

We are allowing NCL to book our flights for our Alaskan cruise this May. The price was close, but I like not having to worry about much, and there's a dedicated phone line to call if your NCL flight was delayed ect

[jimsig]

On 4/3/2022 at 7:56 AM, hallux said:

Sounds like they were using the promo airfare, which has been covered earlier in the thread.  If they used the Premium Air service I think they could have chosen the flights but they probably would have also paid more for it...

They were never given that option, they were told there was no way to find out.  It was quite a few years ago though.  

 

Funny part is when they ended up on RC they sailed the same ship my wife and I sailed a few years prior.  They were assigned the exact same cabin we had.