Any recent positive information on using the BOGO air?

[diverdon48371]

I tried doing searches, but did not find any recent post on the BOGO air.

 

I booked our Feb 16 cruise with the BOGO air promotion, but I'm having second thoughts. The positive is the airfare is $560 for two round trip tickets, less than half the price I can find flights online. The negative is I have no control on which airline would be used, how seat assignment work, would I be able to sit by my wife, and the flight times. I really don't want to get stuck with a late flight and have to wait at the airport all day.

 

We just got back from an Alaska cruise on princess and used their air program, but they run theirs a little different. Princess allows you to select the flights you want and then I was able to go into the airline's website a buy my seats.

 

Any experiences using this NCL promotion (good or bad) would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank You in advance

 

Don

[rodndonna]

Not sure what constitutes recent - but we used BOGO flights for our Jan 2024 and everything went smoothly.

 

We had direct flights (we were flying "day off - egad!" and there were only 2 options that could get us there so we had a good idea what we would get. We were seated together. That said we generally don't pay for seat selection. I really can't remember the last time that we were not sitting together in a flight. It has happened years ago, but it is not an issue for us. I can't remember if we had the option to purchase seat selection that trip. It may depend on the airline.

 

 

[9tee2Sea]

last year I used the BOGO for the first time.  Once we received the airlines confirmation , with the airlines confirmation code, I logged onto their website ( possibly registered ).  I paid to choose our seats to exit row, and later on, got an offer to upgrade bid for first class ( didn't get it).  Be aware of the luggage restrictions.  One of our flights ( from Athens-London), I had to pay for overhead bin space if I wanted to store my carryon, otherwise it had to fit under the seat in front of me.  Purchase a hand held luggage scale and weigh ALL your bags before you head off to the airport.  Some are very strict on maximum weight, and over weight fees can be very expensive.

[diverdon48371]

Thank you both for your comments.

 

Not sure if it makes any difference, but we will be flying from detroit to new orleans. The round trip flights from detroit to new orleans are running close to $700 per person, ncl price is $560 for 2 people round trip.

Edited Sunday at 07:20 PM by diverdon48371
Added information

[woodman6703]

3 hours ago, diverdon48371 said:

Thank you both for your comments.

 

Not sure if it makes any difference, but we will be flying from detroit to new orleans. The round trip flights from detroit to new orleans are running close to $700 per person, ncl price is $560 for 2 people round trip.

Do they tell you the airlines before you purchase it? That way if you don’t like the airlines, you don’t have to book it.

[zqvol]

28 minutes ago, woodman6703 said:

Do they tell you the airlines before you purchase it? That way if you don’t like the airlines, you don’t have to book it.

If only they did that. You really have no control. Reports are that it is good for,International travel, not so good for domestic.  
 

if you select it make sure to get at least a one day deviation on the way to,the cruise or you will be flying in the morning of the cruise.

 

With DTW to MSY you have a good chance of being on Delta. There is another active discussion about someone on Delta and being in Basic Economy and the perils. 
 

what ever decision you make do it prior to final payment because after 110 days it can’t be changed. (I know final payment is 120 days but don’t cut it so close.)

[jaapie]

We have only used BOGO once but were very satisfied. On May 13 we were notified of our flight arrangements for August 6, 2024. We were booked onto a United flight and as soon as we received the notification we went onto the United website and were able to reserve seats for no charge.

[G-DawgMN]

5 hours ago, diverdon48371 said:

Thank you both for your comments.

 

Not sure if it makes any difference, but we will be flying from detroit to new orleans. The round trip flights from detroit to new orleans are running close to $700 per person, ncl price is $560 for 2 people round trip.

 We did Minneapolis to New Orleans back in January. It was on Delta, Main Cabin, no Basic. Flights were direct and the times I would have picked. 
 We paid $250ish through NCL. I looked up the flights when they were booked at they were around $1000 a person. 
  I’ve used bogo twice and have been happy. Others, not so much. It’s a roll of the dice. 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, woodman6703 said:

Do they tell you the airlines before you purchase it? That way if you don’t like the airlines, you don’t have to book it.

No, they do not.

[v3cruiser]

We did a panama canal cruise in early 2023 round trip out of panama city, panama on the jewel. The BOGO airfare was great as well as cruise. It was $698 for two. We arrived two days early and landed in the afternoon.  We got great flights with only one connection both ways. We even got to choose our seats and upgrade if available. 

 

It looked like ncl flew a bunch of people to houston going down and we all got on a jet to panama, then on way back most cruisers going back to US where on flight to atlanta and then we all had flights back to our home city. 

 

I would not book a BOGO flight if it was domestic or atleast a flight in the lower 48 states. 

Edited Monday at 03:12 PM by v3cruiser
added price

[diverdon48371]

V3cruiser,

 

First thank you for sharing your experience.  After reading you comments it appears that you had a positive experience using NCL air. Could you elaborate on the comment  "I would not book a BOGO flight if it was domestic or atleast a flight in the lower 48 states.". Is it your opinion that the program works better for international travel?

 

Thank you

 

Don

 

[carohs]

It depends on your flexibility and flight preferences. Look up what routes are available for the day you would be flying and decide if you would be okay if you ended up getting booked on the cheapest one, including that airline's restrictions for the lowest economy fare. For domestic, NCL can give you up to one layover and for international a max of two (where possible). International will have naturally less route options that fall within these parameters giving you a better chance of a favorable flight, in addition to an increased cost delta giving you a higher perceived value for booking a BOGO flight vs booking on your own.

 

We live near an airport with enough flight options that when flying domestic, I can choose to fly all day, take a red-eye, have a connection, or not, on a domestic flight. I don't usually have a preference, but for someone who does the chances of ending up on a flight they don't like is more. If I book a BOGO fare, I may only save somewhere in the low $100s, which may not be worth enough to give up that control. For someone who lives near a smaller airport and is almost always routed through a major hub anyway, whether booking on their own or through NCL, chances are they would end up on the same flight either way. The savings then is more likely to be "worth it."

[julig22]

15 minutes ago, carohs said:

For someone who lives near a smaller airport and is almost always routed through a major hub anyway, whether booking on their own or through NCL, chances are they would end up on the same flight either way. The savings then is more likely to be "worth it."

That would be me.

[victory2020]

I've had good experiences going to Europe. This next cruise I am flying back from Quebec to LA & have a late flight that gets me into LA at 11:20pm. Not the worst scenario but there was a slightly better option. Quebec is a small airport & not a lot of flights out of there. I knew in advance that there were no direct flights.

They did book me through Air Canada (again, I knew they use airlines that are from the country you are flying into/out of) & because of this I would have to pay for seat selection & bags. If it were booked under United (share code  shows that it is also a United flight) I would have gotten those for free. In the end, I only saved about $25 on flight.

Edited Tuesday at 06:33 PM by victory2020

[nimbex1970]

This past spring, we used the bogo air for a NCL repo from san juan to Lisbon portugal.  We live in alaska.  We did a two day variance to have time in san juan and portugal, plus alot for any itinerary issues with planes and such.

 

Zero issues, saved thousands.  Once we were alerted 30 days out from departure, we could upgrade our seats through the airline, which we did for an additional fee.  

 

Perfect, cheaper and easy.  Will continue to do this. 

 

[diverdon48371]

Thank everyone for your comments,  we decided not to take the chance of getting flights that would not work well for us and I booked my own flights using airline points.

 

Thanks again.

[mskaufman]

We used BOGO to Europe twice.  Good news is that we really saved half and we made the cruise.  First time we had decent routing.  This summer we had Baltimore - Chicago - Munich (missed the connection) - Venice.  Home was Venice - Philadelphia - Charlotte - Baltimore.

[SimplyAlbert]

I've read lots of threads about this on both these boards and other on other places.  Overall, most people are happy with the price/flights, although some have conceded that the flights were not always ideal with either very early morning or very late evening flights, the inability to pick their own seats, and being booked in the cheapest cabin class with no ability to upgrade.  

 

It seems to be a system that when it works well, it works very well.  People have been able to save a lot of money and don't mind some inconvenience for not booking their own flights due to that savings.

 

The problems seem to come in when something goes wrong.  From what I've read, NCL is no help when flights get delayed or canceled.  They refer you to the airline and the airline refers you to NCL and you get caught in an endless loop.  People have reported missing cruises and being stuck coming home.

 

Personally, I'd never book it because I like having control over my travel.  The only way I'd consider it is if there were thousands of dollars in savings and we have a lot of flexibility on both ends.

[GALSews]

12 hours ago, mskaufman said:

We used BOGO to Europe twice.  Good news is that we really saved half and we made the cruise.  First time we had decent routing.  This summer we had Baltimore - Chicago - Munich (missed the connection) - Venice.  Home was Venice - Philadelphia - Charlotte - Baltimore.

Wouldn't it have been faster just to drive home from Philly, than to have to fly to Charlotte and then back to Baltimore?

[mskaufman]

Of course that's what we did. 

[cruiseny4life]

56 minutes ago, SimplyAlbert said:

The problems seem to come in when something goes wrong.  From what I've read, NCL is no help when flights get delayed or canceled.  They refer you to the airline and the airline refers you to NCL and you get caught in an endless loop.  People have reported missing cruises and being stuck coming home.

And yet you haven't used the program. Or at least that's what it seems like from your post. 

 

Here are two real world examples when issues arose, but were resolved with no issues:

 

We did have a canceled (or delayed, I don't remember) flight when disembarking. Our flight from Fort Lauderdale was canceled/delayed. Delta, not NCL, reached out to us. They rebooked us on a new flight. We didn't like the new flight, so we used the Delta app to change to a flight that got us in a more reasonable 5 PM, rather than the Delta selected flight of midnight. It worked flawlessly. 

 

On a different trip, we selected our seats for our Delta flight from SYR to JFK. Delta (not NCL) canceled our selection and put us on whatever seat is available for the flight (not standby). Since no main economy seats were available, they upgraded us to Delta Comfort Plus. We didn't care if we sat next to each other, but the seats were side by side. 

 

Do issues exist? Sure. I just wish people would stick to actual examples that happened, rather than heresay.

[julig22]

2 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

Do issues exist? Sure. I just wish people would stick to actual examples that happened, rather than heresay.

And understand that if flights are delayed or canceled, that's on the airline, not NCL. If it happens early enough (72hrs before the first flight), you call NCL. After that, you deal with the airline.

Yes, I have had issues but not because NCL booked my flights. I've been delayed or canceled more than once (fortunately on my way home) and I DID call NCL and they DID offer to help if the airline couldn't/wouldn't. Offered to book me on the same flight the airline was offering - with 1 major difference. NCL can only get you a new ticket. The airline can give you meals, transportation & hotels. And don't fall for the airline's offer of a refund instead of a replacement ticket - you have a 50/50 chance that the refund will go back to NCL and of course your replacement ticket will cost way more than what you paid NCL.

And always have insurance regardless of how you book your flights.

[surfone]

We just got back a little over a week ago on our Athens cruise and used NCL air BOGO.  Times and connections were fine.  Saved us and we were on Delta and were able to select our own seats at no cost.  We have our Quebec City cruise next week and saved again using the BOGO with very good flights.  They booked us on United going to Quebec and Delta coming back from Boston (where we debark)  I wouldn't hesitate using them again.

[cruiseny4life]

10 hours ago, surfone said:

We just got back a little over a week ago on our Athens cruise and used NCL air BOGO.  Times and connections were fine.  Saved us and we were on Delta and were able to select our own seats at no cost.  We have our Quebec City cruise next week and saved again using the BOGO with very good flights.  They booked us on United going to Quebec and Delta coming back from Boston (where we debark)  I wouldn't hesitate using them again.

Just curious - are you flying into Quebec City or Montreal? 

[surfone]

Quebec