With a $10,000 cruise on the line, a Dighton couple was left wondering if they would make it to the ship in time!
They reached out to our NBC10 Boston Responds team for help, just days before they were scheduled to set sail.
"My dad is 85 and wanted to do a trip with us,” explained Diane Chevrie. “So we had booked it through Norwegian Cruise and we worked with the personal cruise coordinator so that we wouldn't have to do any of the running around.”
Chevrie booked the two-week Mediterranean cruise two years ago and confirmed her airline reservations and seat selection. Her family was scheduled to fly to New York on April 15 to board the ship.
But in late March she discovered they no longer had guaranteed seats on the plane.
“I went in to make sure our TSA was on our tickets and found out that the airport we were going to had changed, had no notification of that,” she said. “The airline changed the size of the flight, so the seats that we had pre-purchased were no longer there. We had a ticket to get on a plane but we had no seats.”
She said reps from both Norwegian Cruise Line and Delta explained how the seats got lost in the same way:
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“When they change planes, they do not transition the seats you purchase, reserved, to the next plane. That's up to you to know that you need to go back in and rebook and pay for seats,” she said.
She told NBC10 Boston Responds she was not notified that there was a change with the flight.
Chevrie said she needed seats together in the front section of the plane to accommodate her 13-year-old autistic son who suffers from motion sickness.
She said she called Norwegian Cruise Line and Delta Airlines numerous times over two weeks, and was eventually told by the airline the flight was overbooked and she should show up at the gate, where they would have to bump passengers to make room for them.
“We got to April 14 and that was it,” she said. “And we reached out because we needed some help."
"There was no way we were getting up at 4 a.m. to go to an airport to just wait to see if we can get on our cruise.”
Chevrie contacted NBC10 Boston Responds with 48 hours to go. We reached out to the cruise line and airline and Delta responded immediately, confirming the booking was made via a third party and assigning the family seats together on both flights, resolving the problem.
“Within two hours, two hours, Delta sent us three seats side by side on that flight,” she said. “I am ecstatic that we managed to have the connection and what NBC Boston did for us.”
Norwegian Cruise Line responded later, saying the Chevries were sent a notification informing them of the flight change.
"In regard to seat assignments, as per our Air Program terms and conditions, 'for seat assignment requests, please contact the airline directly upon receiving your ticket confirmations. NCL cannot confirm seat assignments. Once seats are booked or purchased directly with the airline, NCL cannot provide a refund, adjust, or amend those seat requests.'"
Despite the seating stress, Chevrie said it was a trip to remember - but she’ll do things differently next time.
“The lesson learned for me was you can't let everybody else take care of your vacations. You have to be diligent about making sure of all your details, all the steps of the way,” she said.
Have a consumer complaint? Reach out to the NBC10 Boston Responds team online or call 1-888-521-NEWS.
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