NCL AIR

[KKB]

2 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

I have no doubt they will likely get you there, I'm more unhappy with the airlines switching me and not notifying me when I booked the seats directly with them.  They seem to want to put everything onto NCL Air who doesn't really want the responsibility, thus putting us into a Catch 22 situation.

Yeah, will report back on actual flying experience. 

So far pleased.

[omahabob]

I'm not claiming it's a bad choice for everyone. Many people are very happy with it, and it very often saves significant money. I just very much like to be in control of my travel arrangements, and I'm willing to pay for that privilege.

[Daniel A]

1 minute ago, omahabob said:

I'm not claiming it's a bad choice for everyone. Many people are very happy with it, and it very often saves significant money. I just very much like to be in control of my travel arrangements, and I'm willing to pay for that privilege.

If it was just me personally, I wouldn't really care, and I'd consider the cruise line air programs as long as they were cost effective.  After a few Bloody Mary's on the flight, I really don't care where I sit on the plane.  🤪  Travelling with a DW who is moderately fearful of flying and a DS who can feel severely claustrophobic I need to pay more attention to seating types and locations.  

[omahabob]

Just give them a few Bloody Marys too. 🤪

[kessdarln]

On 6/20/2023 at 7:52 AM, 9tee2Sea said:

In Feb of this year, we had a cruise from Dubai-Athens, in which we took advantage of the NCL BOGO airfare.  I called NCL and told them I wanted 2 days post/pre-cruise deviation ( you cannot do that online, must call to get the deviation).  Our flight to Dubai was Non-Stop from Los Angles - Dubai ( 15.5 hours) on Emirates Air.  Once I got the ticket info, I went onto the airlines website and paid to upgrade my seats to exit row ( which only had two seats in that row).  Our flight back from Athens, we flew Ageaen Airlines from Athens- London ( 2 hour layover on London), then flew non-stop London-Los Angeles ( Virgin Atlantic).  We had no issues .  Just remember, you MUST call NCL and ask for a two day deviation ( they will also subtract the transportation fee to/from ship).  MAKE SURE to read the airlines luggage allowance fees once you get your tickets.  Aegean Air charges for using the overhead carryon compartment ( Could not even put a small backpack in the overhead, had to go under the seat in front).  Purchase a small handheld luggage scale so you can make sure you are under the check in bag allowance weight  ( and carry on weight allowance).  Since this was the first time using NCL BOGO, I would  do it again for any overseas trip ( the BOGO perk saved me over $2,000).  I don't use it for any cruises in the USA.

How full was your Emirates flight? I had a long flight in economy and I could have 10 rows to myself. Wonder if that is normal, since upstairs pays for the fight 🙂 

[kessdarln]

On 6/19/2023 at 3:32 PM, Tutone56 said:

We flew into Honolulu from SFO 2 days prior to our cruise, good flights, no problems at all.  And that was the first week of March 2020, at the start of covid.  We were on the last POA cruise before everything was canceled.   

Which airline to Hawaii? Thank you. 

[omahabob]

We usually use Delta to Hawaii.

[Luv2bcruising56]

8 minutes ago, kessdarln said:

Which airline to Hawaii? Thank you. 

I think we used Delta as well. 

[kessdarln]

18 minutes ago, Luv2bcruising56 said:

I think we used Delta as well. 

From NCL? Just making sure I worded that correctly. 🙂 

[Luv2bcruising56]

32 minutes ago, kessdarln said:

From NCL? Just making sure I worded that correctly. 🙂 

Actually I stand corrected, NCL booked us with United. 

[omahabob]

We don't use NCL Air.

[Uff da]

I get so sick of people bagging on NCL air. We've done it 3 times in the last year with great success and zero issues, including a flight to Panama and back. If you can go with the flow it can save you a lot of money and there is nothing wrong with that. If you want to pay twice as much, fine. Do it. 

As for the OP's original question, we always deviate 2 days everywhere we go. We research and book our own hotels and any transportation needed. It's not hard and it's really nice to visit the embakation city prior to the cruise. We've had no issues...Orlando, Seattle, Panama with more to come. Fear not and have fun!

Happy sailing! 

[step78]

We done it three times as well. No problems, never 🙂

[brer111]

9 hours ago, Uff da said:

I get so sick of people bagging on NCL air. We've done it 3 times in the last year with great success and zero issues, including a flight to Panama and back. If you can go with the flow it can save you a lot of money and there is nothing wrong with that. If you want to pay twice as much, fine. Do it. 

As for the OP's original question, we always deviate 2 days everywhere we go. We research and book our own hotels and any transportation needed. It's not hard and it's really nice to visit the embakation city prior to the cruise. We've had no issues...Orlando, Seattle, Panama with more to come. Fear not and have fun!

Happy sailing! 

Thanks for your comments to my question. I agree we have done NCL air from PHX to many states on NCLair with no issues. We always deviate when making our reservations for our cruise. Since this is our first international trip with NCLair we were wondering if our 2 day deviation before the cruise will be more like 1 and 1/2 or a true 2 days. I do a lot of research and planning of our trips. My husband still stresses about everything. I alway go and look for seats as soon as NCL sends my info. I have booked my hotel in Rome and some tours in Rome etc. Just have to wait for my flight into and I will book my transportation to hotel and ship. Thanks again for any and all info in regards to my questions. I was not looking for people to bag on NCLair. We take the chance and accept it. And we have no direct flights to Rome from Phoenix. 

[Daniel A]

6 minutes ago, brer111 said:

Thanks for your comments to my question. I agree we have done NCL air from PHX to many states on NCLair with no issues. We always deviate when making our reservations for our cruise. Since this is our first international trip with NCLair we were wondering if our 2 day deviation before the cruise will be more like 1 and 1/2 or a true 2 days. I do a lot of research and planning of our trips. My husband still stresses about everything. I alway go and look for seats as soon as NCL sends my info. I have booked my hotel in Rome and some tours in Rome etc. Just have to wait for my flight into and I will book my transportation to hotel and ship. Thanks again for any and all info in regards to my questions. I was not looking for people to bag on NCLair. We take the chance and accept it. And we have no direct flights to Rome from Phoenix. 

If it helps, we are flying into Rome with a two-day pre-cruise deviation.  Our cruise sails on the 3rd of the month, and we are scheduled to fly out using NCL BOGO on the evening of the 31st and will arrive in Rome in the afternoon of the 1st.  So, for us it looks like the two days is actually 1 1/2 days.  That first 1/2 day on the 1st, is going to be our jetlag recovery day.  Hopefully our internal clocks will have reset in time for our boarding at Civitavecchia on the 3rd.  

[9tee2Sea]

14 hours ago, kessdarln said:

How full was your Emirates flight? I had a long flight in economy and I could have 10 rows to myself. Wonder if that is normal, since upstairs pays for the fight 🙂 

it was pretty full.  I think i saw only 2-3 empty rows ( which some folks claimed as soon as the doors shut).  At least there were no crying kids.  Best part was....I got to see the Northern Lights.

[brer111]

6 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

If it helps, we are flying into Rome with a two-day pre-cruise deviation.  Our cruise sails on the 3rd of the month, and we are scheduled to fly out using NCL BOGO on the evening of the 31st and will arrive in Rome in the afternoon of the 1st.  So, for us it looks like the two days is actually 1 1/2 days.  That first 1/2 day on the 1st, is going to be our jetlag recovery day.  Hopefully our internal clocks will have reset in time for our boarding at Civitavecchia on the 3rd.  

Thanks - our cruise is leaving on Oct 23rd (Monday) and since some important sites we want to see our not open on Sunday. We will have to tough it out on Saturday to see those sites. But Sunday we will chill until the evening for a cool tour I have booked. I am hoping maybe our flight will get us in Rome in am . Are you flying back the day you get off the ship? 

[MrsTocko]

Have done it once, so far, in 2022, ant the height of the travel issues. Absolutely no complaints.  I gave the day I wanted to land as my deviation.  So we cruised on July 3. I know that it takes roughly 24 hours (with time zone differences) to go from LAX (starting point) to London.   Requested to land on July 1.  We had a direct red eye (totally fine with that - planned to sleep on the plane) on June 30, Landing July 1.  Paid to upgrade our seats together into an exit row.

 

our return from Reykjavik we requested 2 nights in Reykjavik, post cruise.  Only switched one seat to have us sit together. Total airfare cost with upgrade was 400 each, rt to Europe.  No way could I do better on my own.

 

my next 3 cruises are closed loop cruises.  I am checking airfare for the first one.  But so far I can’t get better than 500 for 2 round trip.  Again, asked to land 2 days before on the first one (Caribbean out of Galveston) and 1 day before on the other 2 (Hawaii on POA, and Alaska out of Seattle. Have been to Seattle 2 times before, so  we are good to do whatever strikes us).  If I can get (for example) 1st class airfare, for the 2 of us for the same $ or a little more, I will book myself. We do get travel insurance. My decision making process of how many days is based on where we are going, when (could weather be a factor in layovers or flight delays), time zones, how long it will take to get there. I also do my own researching of possible flights, to give me an idea.

 

We always have at least one night before in the hotel.  Even the 2 times we have left out of home port (20 minutes from home) we go to a hotel the night before right near the port. 

[kessdarln]

3 hours ago, 9tee2Sea said:

it was pretty full.  I think i saw only 2-3 empty rows ( which some folks claimed as soon as the doors shut).  At least there were no crying kids.  Best part was....I got to see the Northern Lights.

Darn. Yah! and WHOA! That sounds like a wonderful flight ❤️ 

[Daniel A]

4 hours ago, brer111 said:

Thanks - our cruise is leaving on Oct 23rd (Monday) and since some important sites we want to see our not open on Sunday. We will have to tough it out on Saturday to see those sites. But Sunday we will chill until the evening for a cool tour I have booked. I am hoping maybe our flight will get us in Rome in am . Are you flying back the day you get off the ship? 

No, we booked a one day deviation post cruise.  We leave Rome at about 1:30 PM and arrive in NY at 8PM ET after a layover in Montreal.  The good thing about this itinerary is that we clear U.S. CBP in Montreal and not at JFK in NYC.

Edited July 15, 2023 by Daniel A

[Daniel A]

15 hours ago, Uff da said:

I get so sick of people bagging on NCL air. We've done it 3 times in the last year with great success and zero issues, including a flight to Panama and back. If you can go with the flow it can save you a lot of money and there is nothing wrong with that. If you want to pay twice as much, fine. Do it. 

I am hoping that your statement about 'bagging' on NCL Air wasn't directed to me or my posts.  Most of us use cruise critic to learn about others actual experiences (both the good and the bad) and learn about some good tips for getting the most out of our cruising experiences.  In my posts on this thread, I have only put out the facts of what I am currently experiencing using NCL Air.  As a matter of fact, I even took care to place my concerns directly on the air carriers, not NCL Air.  I am 'bagging' on airlines that send you a written confirmation and then renege after getting some additional money, but that's really a different discussion for another day.  I truly wish that the fact patterns of this air booking process were different, but it isn't and as Joe Friday says: 

 

 

[julig22]

28 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

 Most of us use cruise critic to learn about others actual experiences (both the good and the bad) and learn about some good tips for getting the most out of our cruising experiences.

Very true. Actual experience is always good. But sadly, many of the negative comments regarding issues with NCL-arranged flights seem to come from people who don't actually have any personal experience.

[Daniel A]

35 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Very true. Actual experience is always good. But sadly, many of the negative comments regarding issues with NCL-arranged flights seem to come from people who don't actually have any personal experience.

Understood.  I have only posted what I am actually experiencing.  As I wrote earlier, if it were just me and not two nervous flyers travelling with me, I would probably think NCL Air a good deal all the way around.  It may not be the best option for other people who want better control over their air bookings.

[NCMtnBoys]

I had never used NCLs BOGO promo and said I never would... but never say never because I did end up using that promo for an upcoming Greece/Turkey cruise round trip from Athens in September. We got our flight assignments this past week and I'm very happy with what we got with one exception. Our outbound flights are CLT-JFK-ATH and we leave CLT at 1:20pm, 4 hour 40 minute layover in JFK, arrive Athens at 1:15pm the next day. Two day deviation. For the return we got ATH-YYZ-CLT and we leave Athens at 1:10pm the day we disembark, have a 2 hour 35 minute layover in Toronto and arrive back in Charlotte at 9:30pm. Our information says our outbound flights are Virgin Atlantic but operated by Delta, and our return says they're United but operated by Air Canada. So we were able to choose our seats for Air Canada, but cannot choose our seats ahead of time for Delta (the one exception that I am not real happy about). I've tried choosing the seats but since we're booked in Basic Economy I haven't been able to select seats at all for Delta. 

 

Booking the BOGO promo saved us A LOT of money and I can't complain considering the good flights we were assigned. There are folks on our roll call who also used the BOGO promo and ended up with two connections, so I'm glad just to have one. I had been searching for our flights for months and prices were running about $1800+ per person for one connection flights with decent layovers that left Athens at a reasonable time and did not have an overnight connection. Thinking that seemed really high, I finally decided to add the BOGO promo on our reservation and just hope for the best. I've seen multiple reports that NCL books the cheapest flights they can and sometimes that's why people aren't happy with what they got. But the day after we got our flight assignments I went online to do a mock booking of airfare and selected the flights NCL gave us and it came up to $3239 per person for economy. That's far more than flights I had been looking at and considering. We paid $1450 total with NCL through the BOGO promo. And if I had been booking flights on our own, I would not have booked the flights they gave us (except the return... the return flights they gave us are exactly the ones I had been eyeing and hoped to get). I wish we could choose seats ahead of time for our outbound flights to Athens but it looks like we'll have to wait until check-in and maybe hope that we can change seats at that time to sit together if our seats are not together at check-in. But it's not the end of the world if we can't and, for me, worth the savings.

 

All in all I'm very happy so far with my first BOGO experience. We'll see how it goes between now and flight time, and with our flights, but so far so good. 

Edited July 15, 2023 by NCMtnBoys

[Sailing12Away]

15 hours ago, NCMtnBoys said:

Our information says our outbound flights are Virgin Atlantic but operated by Delta, and our return says they're United but operated by Air Canada. So we were able to choose our seats for Air Canada, but cannot choose our seats ahead of time for Delta (the one exception that I am not real happy about). I've tried choosing the seats but since we're booked in Basic Economy I haven't been able to select seats at all for Delta. 

 

I wish we could choose seats ahead of time for our outbound flights to Athens but it looks like we'll have to wait until check-in and maybe hope that we can change seats at that time to sit together if our seats are not together at check-in. 

Double check your air confirmation page. There will be a different record locator number for Delta. If you have the same airline there and back (whether direct or with their partners) it's one number. But when you switch from United to Delta on the front and back ends - there is a different number for Delta. When you log in for the first half, they won't let you pick your Delta seats because they don't work with Delta. Go directly to Delta with your Delta number and you can.

 

The only warning - at least for our upcoming flight - Delta will let you pick seats, but will not let you pay for an upgrade. First time we were not allowed to pay more for a seat. They'll let you pay $40/seat to sit in a closer row, but if I'm in coach I don't care about row 26 vs row 29. Coach is coach. First time ever that we can't pay for comfort plus or beyond.

 

-Just reread your info, sounds like its the other way around with Delta first. Still double check that you've got the right number on Virgin's website directly - not Delta even though they're the ones 'operating it'.