NCL's 2-for-1 airfare deal is a sensitive issue for many who cruise that line. The cruise line does a good enough job of providing flight itineraries to keep the majority of cruisers who choose this option very happy. In my case, as a solo traveler, NCL gave me a 50% discount on the flights I took between Newark, NJ and Honolulu, HI. Although my flights were sub-optimal, NCL's choices were reasonable and I got good value from this option. Yet, there have been enough complaints about this option that I feel there is something that inexperienced cruisers should be aware of before choosing this option.
If NCL did not do a good job of purchasing/providing "reasonable" flight itineraries for the many, few people would choose NCL Air for their flights. Yet, there are a number of people for whom NCL did not do a good job which makes me wonder how good a deal NCL really offers. The people complaining about excessively sub-optimal flight itineraries often have good reasons to complain, as NCL does not guarantee a reasonable itinerary, nor does it give the person who chooses this option a way to push back when NCL chooses a totally unreasonable flight itinerary. For example, many of the complainers note that NCL has given them either excessively tight connection times between flights, or NCL has abandoned them when an itinerary that NCL has chosen did not allow for the cruisers to make their flights on time. So, people can and will get upset when NCL staff does a poor job of buying 2-for-1 air tickets.
I wonder if NCL has reasonable guidelines for ticket purchases which its customers can view before deciding to take the risk of NCL buying their air tickets. Also, I wonder if NCL does any double checking of itineraries to insure they are reasonable before committing customers to use these tickets. It would be nice to know if NCL has any internal procedures to deliver reasonable itineraries to the customer, as well as a process for customers to push back when NCL fails to do so.
NCL chose my flight itinerary for me to get to and from Hawaii. A drawback I found in NCL's airfare deal is that NCL will choose the airport one flies from. Although it is much, much easier for me to reach JFK airport in New York City, I was given an itinerary that used Newark, NJ (EWR) for the start and end points for my trip. This was not a big issue for me, as I'd have had to both rent a hotel room for an overnight stay, as well as find a place to park my car for 11 days.
The flight itineraries assigned by NCL often have no relation to customer preferences, nor do they provide an option for a customer to pay a small amount more for customer preferences to be included in NCL's choice of flight itineraries. The only guarantee they make (as I understand it) is that all people traveling in the same cabin (usually a couple) will be booked on the same flight. This can be a headache for large families traveling together. Although it is reasonable for NCL to choose airlines and flights for each person's flight itinerary, cruisers do not know which airlines NCL may use in building flight itineraries. I wouldn't want to be assigned to a discount air carrier, and would choose to buy my own air tickets if I knew NCL might ticket me on that airline. NCL often chooses sub-optimal itineraries. If there had been an available option, I'd have selected a daytime flight from Honolulu to the West Coast, then take a "Red Eye" home that evening. Instead, my return from Honolulu to be sub-optimal at best, as I had a 10:45 pm Red-Eye flight to the West Coast, connecting to a 6:30 am flight to Newark, bringing me home late in the afternoon.
Did I get what I paid for? Yes. Was I satisfied for the price I paid? Yes, again. But, would I use it again for a similar cruise? Of that, I am not sure. When I see a 1-in-20 rate of people getting sub optimal air ticketing choices, I don't want to be in that 5% when I'm taking a bucket list trip. I don't need to see how many people have had good or bad results from choosing this option. Instead, I'd love to find out what criteria NCL uses to make its ticketing decisions, and whether there is anything that could be done (with little cost to NCL and the customer) to improve their ticketing process.
What do you think?
Recently, someone mentioned in another forum that NCL has an option called the Interactive Air program. For a $250 non-refundable deposit, NCL will provide options for a flight itinerary based on the available carrier routing options and the guest's preferred departing and returning gateway. It sounds like a decent deal, but NCL can still substitute service for scheduled air carriers without prior notice. Given the experience many people have had with NCL's flight booking, I'm not so sure of whether I'd choose this option, or book my tickets independently. At least, it got me to read NCL's terms for its air/sea program.
