So NCL air booked me on a flight leaving 11:17pm (red EYE)

[sundeckdad]

    I had signed up for the Free air deal and knew there  may be connections.  But when I checked the airlines schedule there were flights leaving at noon. 

II contacted NCL and they said contact Delta. Talked to delta and they said NCL is the official owner of my ticket and they and only they, can change it to  the noon flight.  NCL claims they wont change it on their end.  

    Really ? Ill have to kill 10 hours waiting to fly all night home. 

 

Beware. It seems NCL prefers to book customers on red eye flights.  Even when early flights are available.

 

[LaCal]

20 minutes ago, sundeckdad said:

    I had signed up for the Free air deal and knew there  may be connections.  But when I checked the airlines schedule there were flights leaving at noon. 

II contacted NCL and they said contact Delta. Talked to delta and they said NCL is the official owner of my ticket and they and only they, can change it to  the noon flight.  NCL claims they wont change it on their end.  

    Really ? Ill have to kill 10 hours waiting to fly all night home. 

 

Beware. It seems NCL prefers to book customers on red eye flights.  Even when early flights are available.

 

Yep they get the cheapest flights/packages they can 

 

I’ve even read where family members weren’t seated together or very long lay overs while waiting for the next flight 

 

All part of trying to use the NCL air deal special 

[mjkacmom]

They seem to choose the least expensive flights.

[hallux]

Yup, and I've posted that as having been my experience when I used the free/reduced airfare deal.  I took the opportunity to rent a car and do some sightseeing before checking in for the flight and going through security to wait at the gate.

 

This is what you agree to when accepting the offer - NCL gets control over booking the flights and there's no opportunity to change them.

[Yesimapirate]

I always enjoy the complaints,  both here and elsewhere,  when someone orders the baloney sandwich and then complains they weren't served filet mignon. 

 

NCL is doing exactly what they said they would do,  putting you on a flight the day of your disembarkation.   It's on the customer to do the research beforehand. Clearly it's an algorithm doing the actual reservation.  Undesirable flights is a risk you take when you have NCL book your flight.   

[TNCruiser72]

I don’t like our flights for our upcoming cruise, but you take the deal you get what you get.  This will be my first cruise and I was not very familiar with the disembarking process and how long it would take to get to Anchorage from Seward. So I let them book it and our hotel the night before. If it had been Miami or Orlando for instance I would have booked my own flights.  

[G-DawgMN]

4 hours ago, sundeckdad said:

    I had signed up for the Free air deal and knew there  may be connections.  But when I checked the airlines schedule there were flights leaving at noon. 

II contacted NCL and they said contact Delta. Talked to delta and they said NCL is the official owner of my ticket and they and only they, can change it to  the noon flight.  NCL claims they wont change it on their end.  

    Really ? Ill have to kill 10 hours waiting to fly all night home. 

 

Beware. It seems NCL prefers to book customers on red eye flights.  Even when early flights are available.

 

 

 You should be able to change the flights online to a better schedule, you'll just have to pay the difference in fare. We used the free flights last year and were booked on Delta, our return flights left at 5PM, I was able to change them to 1PM departures for about 40 bucks.

 

 

[reeinaz]

What city is the flight leaving from? Maybe NCL determined that a noon flight was cutting it too close.

[GeezerCouple]

32 minutes ago, reeinaz said:

What city is the flight leaving from? Maybe NCL determined that a noon flight was cutting it too close.

 

 They don't have to give (or even have) a "reason" for the flight choices.

 

IF what they offered, and traveler agreed to, was to have a flight home that departed on the same day that one left the ship, then this would fit the agreement.

Full stop.

 

If there were no agreements about times, number of connections, or which airlines, then... what they provide can be quite a range of experiences...

 

And it's reasonable to expect them to find the least expensive choice.  Why would they spend more?

 

2 hours ago, Yesimapirate said:

I always enjoy the complaints,  both here and elsewhere,  when someone orders the baloney sandwich and then complains they weren't served filet mignon. 

 

NCL is doing exactly what they said they would do,  putting you on a flight the day of your disembarkation.   It's on the customer to do the research beforehand. Clearly it's an algorithm doing the actual reservation.  Undesirable flights is a risk you take when you have NCL book your flight.   

 

Yesimapirate captured the essence of the situation in the first sentence.

And also the next parts as well.

 

If one cares about the choices, then one should make the travel plans, and that's likely to cost more if one wants more desirable selections.

 

GC

[geleisen]

6 hours ago, sundeckdad said:

    I had signed up for the Free air deal and knew there  may be connections.  But when I checked the airlines schedule there were flights leaving at noon. 

II contacted NCL and they said contact Delta. Talked to delta and they said NCL is the official owner of my ticket and they and only they, can change it to  the noon flight.  NCL claims they wont change it on their end.  

    Really ? Ill have to kill 10 hours waiting to fly all night home. 

 

Beware. It seems NCL prefers to book customers on red eye flights.  Even when early flights are available.

 

Delta allows free same day standby, no? So if the flight at noon has seats available, you could get on them on the day with no fee. 
Alternatively, 24 hours before the flight, when you check in, Delta will have control over your booking, and you should be able to pay to change to the earlier flight if you want without going through NCL.

[jkrislc]

We received pretty crummy flights from NCL, but it's hard for us to complain since three of us flew roundtrip to NYC from California over the holiday season for $599 total. That said, we were put on a redeye from CA to NYC and had a late returning flight. Our friends, who booked at the same time as we did, had much better flights for the same price, so it may be luck of the draw.

[mlsetc]

We’re flying to Barcelona from Boston, and then home from Tampa. All for $584, hope we get a red eye from Boston. I have had good flights through NCL, have used them to Barcelona 5 times. I couldn’t touch NCL’s price on any of the travel sites. 

[whitezin1776]

We are flying to Seattle from JFK on July 3 for the Encore cruise to Alaska.  Our flight from JFK is at 7;15 am,  but the flight back on July 10 from Seattle to JFK is at 9:35 pm.  So we are trying to figure out what to do for about 8 hours.  Considering getting a hotel room to hang out until the flight home. Flights are very expensive, so you get what you get when you pay $199 per person, instead of $1000 per person!  BTW the airline is Alaska Air.

[disneylover89]

19 minutes ago, whitezin1776 said:

We are flying to Seattle from JFK on July 3 for the Encore cruise to Alaska.  Our flight from JFK is at 7;15 am,  but the flight back on July 10 from Seattle to JFK is at 9:35 pm.  So we are trying to figure out what to do for about 8 hours.  Considering getting a hotel room to hang out until the flight home. Flights are very expensive, so you get what you get when you pay $199 per person, instead of $1000 per person!  BTW the airline is Alaska Air.

You're lucky, my family members got the 11:45pm flight back to JFK and arrived at 8am the next day.  They were beyond exhausted when they landed

Edited June 11, 2022 by disneylover89

[Named-Tawny]

On 6/6/2022 at 11:05 AM, GeezerCouple said:

 

If one cares about the choices, then one should make the travel plans, and that's likely to cost more if one wants more desirable selections.

 

This is it exactly.  My partner and I are paying about $750 (Canadian) for our flights from NCL.  That's less than half the cost of what we'd be paying if we bought them ourselves.

For us, it made sense to give up flexibility and choice to save about $1000.  For others, it may not.

[valleyvillage]

1 hour ago, whitezin1776 said:

We are flying to Seattle from JFK on July 3 for the Encore cruise to Alaska.  Our flight from JFK is at 7;15 am,  but the flight back on July 10 from Seattle to JFK is at 9:35 pm.  So we are trying to figure out what to do for about 8 hours.  Considering getting a hotel room to hang out until the flight home. Flights are very expensive, so you get what you get when you pay $199 per person, instead of $1000 per person!  BTW the airline is Alaska Air.

You will be able to use Port Valet, so you won't have to lug your bags around. https://www.portseattle.org/page/port-valet-enjoy-seattle-luggage-free

Their website even suggests some city tours.

[pghflyer]

Normal risk/ reward decision here.  Save some good money but know they are booking the cheapest (aka. worst/connecting/latest) flights they can get.  I had similar 12 ours delay between docking and flight, and the airline (United) would not allow any changes to the flight in advance without NCL authorizing.....and once we got to the airport all the earlier flights were full and we spent the day unsucessfuly standying by.  But we saved probably $500........so just things to consider next time on whether to use the offer.  Personally, I wish they would remove it because it does affect the cruise pricing (watch those prices go down once they remove the air promo as the cruise approaches).

[schmoopie17]

If you have frequent flyer miles, it might be a good time to use them. Flying to Rome from Chicago, NCL would have charged $630. But we would have been at their mercy regarding flight times, connections, seats, baggage fees, etc.

 

Using our American Airlines miles, we booked a nonstop, got to choose wider seats, got free drinks and free bags. Cost us 30,000 miles each plus $5.00 each. Easy choice...

Edited June 11, 2022 by schmoopie17

[Old Fart Cruisers]

On 6/6/2022 at 5:12 AM, LaCal said:

 

I’ve even read where family members weren’t seated together or very long lay overs while waiting for the next flight 

 

 

We were charged $25 extra per person just to guarantee that all four people in our party would be on the same flight, but it doesn't guarantee to be seated together.

[KarimaJ]

On 6/6/2022 at 9:51 AM, KSSS2013 said:

 

 You should be able to change the flights online to a better schedule, you'll just have to pay the difference in fare. We used the free flights last year and were booked on Delta, our return flights left at 5PM, I was able to change them to 1PM departures for about 40 bucks.

 

 

When I checked into Delta to pick my seats I saw a button to change the flights. I am happy with my flights so I didn’t click it but it was there.

[victory2020]

If you do air deviation, do you get a better shot at better flights? I know they charge $25 each for the service. Also, what are people's experience with going from west coast to Europe? I'm thinking that they would almost have to do non stop to get you there in time.

[ChiefMateJRK]

2 hours ago, Old Fart Cruisers said:

 

We were charged $25 extra per person just to guarantee that all four people in our party would be on the same flight, but it doesn't guarantee to be seated together.

I think you just made that up.  NCL clearly states that if on the same reservation all will be on the same flight.

[julig22]

6 hours ago, victory2020 said:

If you do air deviation, do you get a better shot at better flights? I know they charge $25 each for the service. Also, what are people's experience with going from west coast to Europe? I'm thinking that they would almost have to do non stop to get you there in time.

If only....I guess it depends on where in Europe.  I've flown to London and Rome from the west coast, never direct.  Had to get to a hub first, flew to Rome "direct" from Toronto, came back through JFK.  Still waiting for flight info for 2 upcoming overseas cruises, each with 1 day deviation. I would assume you might get better flights, depending on your definition of better, because they aren't limited to early arrivals.

And they give you a $25 credit, not an extra charge.

Their policy is no more than 3 legs, no layovers over 4 hrs, no overnight layovers. Of course, that would depend on availability of flights.  I usually fly from a small regional airport so it takes 2 legs to get to a hub, meaning I'll get priority for the direct overseas flight at that point. So while I flew direct from Toronto, the folks who live in Toronto did not.

 

[hallux]

7 hours ago, victory2020 said:

If you do air deviation, do you get a better shot at better flights?

Nope.  I did a deviation for my October 2019 cruise, I had a 6 AM flight from Albany (which didn't get off the ground until closer to 7) and I was in LA by 11 AM.  I could have easily made the ship if I had flown in the day before.

 

6 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I think you just made that up.  NCL clearly states that if on the same reservation all will be on the same flight.

You can have a travel party comprised of more than one reservation.

[Old Fart Cruisers]

6 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I think you just made that up.  NCL clearly states that if on the same reservation all will be on the same flight.

 

It is two different reservation numbers.  Two couples in our party, and NO, I didn't just make that up.