Bobcubsfan

I have had a similar problem with my upcoming June 17 cruise on the Crown. Originally EZ Air was quoting a fare of 922 but when Princess tried to book got error and price increased to 997. I tried to modify flights as I kept checking before flights were to be ticketed at 45 day out mark and multiple times over different days and times whether the price difference was 20 cents or a refund, I would get error message. As far as not being able to get DL comfort seats , if you are Plat or Diamond which means you are eligible at time of booking you can request comfort seats after reservation has been ticketed which is usually 45 days from you flight departure, which I was able to do with my last EZ Air booking.

Well, at least I am not the only one getting an error. Princes cannot excuse this issue blaming the airlines. All looking at EZ Air can rightly assume that this is a Princess operation. An analogy is going into a department store and finding a watch repair inside that takes the department store's credit card. If there is a problem with the vendor, the department store cannot say it is not responsible. Why? Because customers can rightly believe that the watch repair is part of the department store. Besides, it is not good business practice and is bad faith not to take ownership of a problem.

Again, the Princess agents had the same issue. So you think they should have rebooted etc?

While looking for something else, I happened on this thread and wanted to comment. I use EZAir very early on and then keep a weekly eye on my reservation both there and with the airline involved. I like the idea that if I stumble across a huge reduction in fares from the airline I can jump on it and cancel my WZAir reservation. Those of you who are vigilant about tracking your air reservations know that this can happen!

 

I found a much better connection with the airline than I had with EZAir and when I called Princess to ask why that flight was not offered the rep checked and got me that flight at a lower price than my original reservation!

 

One thing I did learn was that EZAir books at "bulk rate" which means they must take what is offered by the airlines and that is constantly changing WHICH could have a lot to do with many of these problems that are being addressed in this thread. In addition, "bulk rate" comes with restrictions that Princess does not address. For example, if your flying Delta and would like to upgrade to "comfort seats" that is not possible at "bulk rate".

That is even more worrisome. If Princess is purchasing in bulk, then flights that don't really exist are being posted, That is fraud.

But why would that prevent the Princess agents from taking care of it?

There would have been no problem if the flights/fares were actually available. That was not the case. They were "offered" but could not really be purchased or changed to. Error. Error.

What . wanted was the lower fare that was available this morning. Error. Error. Over and over again. The Princess agent had the same issue. Also, the lower fare flights were non-stop unlike the flight to LHR via Amsterdam which added 2.5 hours to the trip, and the return flight that made a stop at JFK. That added about 5 hours to the trip.

You are very lucky, I guess. In our experience as I have stated we could not reserve flights nor could the agents at Princess

Good luck to you. If you purchased the flexible fare, you might be able to find something better before the cut off date?

Missing the point. We were unable to choose any change in flights because of an error message. It could have been free and it would not have mattered. This is pure bait and switch. Show an item at a price, but, oh, not available at THAT price. Want to pay more? Then maybe you can buy it. But not in this case. Impossible to correct. We canceled the cruise.

I agree. My trip... Boston to Seattle to Fairbanks and then home, Vancouver to Seattle to Boston, is $650 pp. I chose the flexible EZAir and adjusted/re-booked three times later to get that price. The times were perfect and no red-eyes. I chose connection times under three hours each way (could have chosen less, but didn't want to chance it). No one I could find could beat the price for the times I wanted.

My issue was not the price so much as the inability to do anything. We had a chance this morning to change our horrible flights to/from LHR from LAX to non-stops, and save some money too, but kept getting an error. Someone from the cruise planning department called us. He offered us plane fares that were $600 more than we already paid. We said okay, what can you do to compensate us? Comp gratuities? Onboard credit? Sorry, I CAN'T do that. Yes, he used the "C" word, so we used the "N" word: NEVER. As in we will probably never sail with Princess again.

I agree that computers can be the source of the problem, but the Princess agents had the same issue on their end.

I agree Princess should have stepped up and fixed the issue when you called. They can be pretty thick headed at times.

Wondering why you would settle for these awful flights when you could as you say use Kayak or other online services, you can choose flights and book them in real time?

You are correct in using Kayak, etc, but since we wanted to arrive on the day of the cruise, concerned about a flight delay. If booking through Princess, they take care of late arrival.

Sometimes, for example, the problem is that there is only 1 seat left at that price, so when you try to book 2 seats at that price, it glitches. That problem originates with the airline's computer inventory (and bad programming), so there's not much a consolidator or Princess et al can do to fix that.

 

I've run into online-purchasing glitches over everything from inventory to segments being sold through partners with different rules to trying to book with kids. Glitches happen. And if the glitch didn't start with Princess, it's hard for them to fix it.

Yes, but we tried for at least an hour on 3 different days. Even late a night when most people on the East Coast are asleep. We are in Los Angeles. On the web page for airlines, that never has been an issue. Jet Blue, Southwest, United, American, Virgin America etc. Never had a problem booking flights. I wonder how NCL handles it? They have a number to call where a an agent will book flights.

We are using EZ Air this fall for the first time. I had no trouble making a flexible reservation on-line. About 3 months later someone on our roll call (thanks Astro Flyer!) said a sale (price dropped $200 per person) was going on. I was nervous about cancelling and re-reserving the same flights and not losing our bulkhead seats so I called Princess Customer Support and the agent was incredibly helpful (and had no issue providing assistance even though we were booked through a TA). He congratulated me on the great savings and even mentioned that it was a good thing I called right away since in the past he had been on the line with other passengers when the price increased. He worked with the EZ Air Support Desk and within 5 minutes the new reservations appeared in my Personalizer and everyone confirmed that we still had the same seat reservations - he even waited while I checked the United website to insure that all was well. Hopefully all will go well in October.

That is the way it SHOULD work, but we had to opposite experience. Princess agents could not or would not fix the issue.

Honestly, I've had glitches booking with just about every system over the years, whether dealing with online consolidators or even the airlines themselves (Southwest had the glitchiest, IME). The problem probably doesn't start with Princess . . . although whenever you add a middleman, it becomes more difficult to diagnose the problem.

Agreed, but Princess agents not willing to fix the problem is the real issue. Our policy is to not do business with companies whose policies we do not like.

If a flight shows 8 seats available, I can understand that there might be an issue booking it. But, if there is no indication that there are limited seats available, it should not be a problem. Flights should not appear in a list if they are not available. And, posting cost that is not correct is close to consumer fraud.

Last September we booked flights using EZ Air and had no issues. Clearly, Princess is having computer issues, but won't take ownership of the problem.

We recently booked a UK cruise on Princess. After spending over an hour trying to book flights and getting error messages over and over and over, I finally succeeded in reserving awful flights that were long and required a stop. So, the next day, I attempted over and over and over again to change the flights. Two non-stops appeared, at a lower cost, and I attempted to book them. It was impossible. I kept getting an error message. Then the cost of the airfare went up.

Calling Princess was useless. The company policy was that they would not compensate us for what is clearly a computer glitch in their system. The agent(s) said that it was the airlines' fault. Bunk. If you use Kayak or other online services, you can choose flights and book them in real time. I have done it.

So we canceled the cruise, and Princess has lost us as customers.