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Princess Air cannot book seats early


calliecat
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Just booked air thru Princess to Australia in January, 2019. Went thru the whole booking process with seat assignments only to be told at the end of the booking that I needed to contact AA for seat assignments. I called AA with my flight information only to be told that because the reservation wasn't ticketed, a seat could not be assigned. We did the flex reservations where we could cancel or change the flight with no penalty but I don't want to be randomly assigned a seat for such a long flight. That is one of the reasons we are booking early. Anyone else have any suggestions (other than cancelling and going thru AA which is what we might have to do)?

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We did the flex reservations where we could cancel or change the flight with no penalty but I don't want to be randomly assigned a seat for such a long flight.

 

You nailed it there. You don't have a ticket. Until such time that it is paid for, you have at best a reservation.

 

Go to AA and get a ticket and you will get a seat assignment. You will also have paid for the ticket and be subject to cancellation and change penalties.

 

You take your choice. TANSTAAFL.

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I've booked EzAir thru Princess for AA. I got to select my seats right away . Sometimes when you book Economy seats . You can't book right away .

 

Did you buy a ticket that you could cancel and change without a penalty?

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Are all of your flights on AA metals? There have always been issues in the One World Alliance when you are ticketed as one carrier but operated by another. If your final leg to Australia is actually on QF you can try plugging the booking number into their website. This works for some of AA's partners (not for IB as I learned the hard way) if you book direct, but may or may not for cruise air.

 

Just be aware that even if you are able to make a seat selection it is only a request and not confirmed until Princess pays for your ticket which could be as late as only 45 days before departure.

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We have decided that we will go ahead and pay, in order to get seat assignment. When we do, the airfare is non-refundable. And yes, unfortunately we have economy seats, not being independently wealthy.n We will just have to "suck it up" for the long flight and I don't want to be stuck in a middle seat somewhere unless my husband is on the aisle.

 

Do you also know if you book thru Princess, can you still get your miles thru American? They (AA) put our FF numbers in when I called them, but the agent didn't know the answer.

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[quote name=calliecat

 

Do you also know if you book thru Princess, can you still get your miles thru American? .[/quote]

 

Sometimes, maybe, not always.

 

Tickets bought the cruise line affiliated air programs are not the same ticket as you buy directly from the airline. Those tickets are bought in bulk and the benefits are negotiated to get lower prices. Some of those negotiation points can be but not always FF miles, seat assignments, transferable to other airline in case of operations problems, etc.

 

If nothing goes wrong, these purchases can be a great deal. If things go TU, you can be in a world of hurt.

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I just booked our flights through Princess for our cruise in September. I was able to choose our seats even though I have not paid for the flights or the cruise other than $100 per person deposit. Perhaps it's because our cruise leaves sooner we were allowed to. On the other hand, when we flew back from London last summer, I could not choose seats on our Virgin Atlantic flight to NYC until three days beforehand. I think Virgin has changed its policy as of this spring.

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I am very new to this whole art of cruising and cruise air. I too wanted to select my seats now for a flight to BCN for an Oct 2018 cruise. I was told by a rep at Princess Air that these tickets are just" place holders", the rates are" flexible" and seats cannot be assigned until 45 days prior to the flight. If I want a seat assignment now, I have to pay for the cruise and air in the entirety then I will have a guaranteed non-refundible ticket and I can choose a seat through the airlines.

So as I understand, I either gamble that I am getting a low priced fare but I am also gambling on seat options as well. I have monitored the flights I would like, both on the carrier website and the Princess Cruise Air site and have noted that in the last few months more and more of the seats on my preferred flight are no longer available. I am assuming that people are purchasing seats directly or through third parties such as Expedia and paying for their tickets and selecting their seats. Princess clearly states that your preferred seating will be sent to the carrier, but there is no guarantee you will get that seat. There is also no guarantee you will be seated with your travel companions.

Edited by gma rae
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I

So as I understand, I either gamble that I am getting a low priced fare but I am also gambling on seat options as well. I have monitored the flights I would like, both on the carrier website and the Princess Cruise Air site and have noted that in the last few months more and more of the seats on my preferred flight are no longer available.

 

That pretty much sums it up. ;)

 

 

Generally a super low fare will come with some other trade-off. In this case, it's that your seat selection will be a big gamble.

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I am very new to this whole art of cruising and cruise air. I too wanted to select my seats now for a flight to BCN for an Oct 2018 cruise. I was told by a rep at Princess Air that these tickets are just" place holders", the rates are" flexible" and seats cannot be assigned until 45 days prior to the flight. If I want a seat assignment now, I have to pay for the cruise and air in the entirety then I will have a guaranteed non-refundible ticket and I can choose a seat through the airlines.

So as I understand, I either gamble that I am getting a low priced fare but I am also gambling on seat options as well. I have monitored the flights I would like, both on the carrier website and the Princess Cruise Air site and have noted that in the last few months more and more of the seats on my preferred flight are no longer available. I am assuming that people are purchasing seats directly or through third parties such as Expedia and paying for their tickets and selecting their seats. Princess clearly states that your preferred seating will be sent to the carrier, but there is no guarantee you will get that seat. There is also no guarantee you will be seated with your travel companions.

 

 

We've booked with EZAir for years, it depends on which airline whether you can book your seats through Princess or not. When we find a flight we like, we then go to the airlines site and do a mock booking and see what seats are available. If there are seats available that we like, we call Princess and pay only for the air portion of our cruise, then you can go to the airlines site and book your seats. So far we've not had a problem doing this Of course once you pay for your air tickets they become restricted and you can't make a change unless you pay a charge. As an example, our cruise isn't until September but we wanted to book our seats now so we could get comfort seats so we called Princess and paid for just our air only, they put us on hold and contacted the airline and in just a few minutes we were ticketed and we were able to go to the airline's site and book our seats. We also upgraded to comfort seats and paid the difference to the airline. We'll pay for the rest of the cruise when it's due in June. Hope this helps. :):)

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I am very new to this whole art of cruising and cruise air. I too wanted to select my seats now for a flight to BCN for an Oct 2018 cruise. I was told by a rep at Princess Air that these tickets are just" place holders", the rates are" flexible" and seats cannot be assigned until 45 days prior to the flight. If I want a seat assignment now, I have to pay for the cruise and air in the entirety then I will have a guaranteed non-refundible ticket and I can choose a seat through the airlines.

So as I understand, I either gamble that I am getting a low priced fare but I am also gambling on seat options as well. I have monitored the flights I would like, both on the carrier website and the Princess Cruise Air site and have noted that in the last few months more and more of the seats on my preferred flight are no longer available. I am assuming that people are purchasing seats directly or through third parties such as Expedia and paying for their tickets and selecting their seats. Princess clearly states that your preferred seating will be sent to the carrier, but there is no guarantee you will get that seat. There is also no guarantee you will be seated with your travel companions.

 

BCN is Barcelona, right?

 

Do you know which airline you will fly with? It can be British Airways and if it is you won't be able to choose your seat for free until you check in for the flight. (Unless you have a higher tier in their frequent flyer program but it sounds like you don't.)

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it depends on which airline whether you can book your seats through Princess or not.

 

It's not just a matter of which airline; it's also about which type of ticket or fare class you can book. Ex. typically on Delta you can choose your seat in advance. But if you buy, or the cruise line sells you, a "basic economy" ticket (fare class E, I believe) you cannot choose seats in advance no matter what....not even if you are a Delta diamond medallion with 2 million miles to your credit.

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Each airline seems to have its own policy...which can even vary based on the type of seat booked. For example, when we recently used EZAIR to book flights from JFK to Singapore and then Vancouver to PHL...we were able to immediately go onto the two airline sites (China Air and American) and get our seats. The difference was that we booked Business Class.

 

One possible solution for the OP is to ask Princess to immediately ticket their flights (which means you have to pay and lose the flexibility).

 

Hank

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How much are you saving by booking your flights through Princess?

 

 

In our case we paid just about $2000 per person for Business Class (China Air) from JFK to Singapore plus Business Class AA from Vancouver back to Phila. The cost of doing this on our own would have been in excess of $4000 per person. To be very honest, we have never spotted deals this good on our previous cruises.

 

I recently posted about our China Air experience and it was near perfection. We had lay flat reverse herringbone seats on a sparkling 777. They had a tiny bar/cafe area for Business that had items like Johnnie Walker Blue :). We were served decent French Champagne, 2 meals plus a decent snack (on a 16 1/2 hour flight) and service was near perfect.

 

On various airline blogs there have been numerous reports of excellent deals (from many cruise lines) when it comes to Business Class. Savings on Coach/Economy are not nearly as generous. As to Premium Economy...this is really hit/miss.

 

Hank

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In our case we paid just about $2000 per person for Business Class (China Air) from JFK to Singapore plus Business Class AA from Vancouver back to Phila. The cost of doing this on our own would have been in excess of $4000 per person. To be very honest, we have never spotted deals this good on our previous cruises.

 

I recently posted about our China Air experience and it was near perfection. We had lay flat reverse herringbone seats on a sparkling 777. They had a tiny bar/cafe area for Business that had items like Johnnie Walker Blue :). We were served decent French Champagne, 2 meals plus a decent snack (on a 16 1/2 hour flight) and service was near perfect.

 

On various airline blogs there have been numerous reports of excellent deals (from many cruise lines) when it comes to Business Class. Savings on Coach/Economy are not nearly as generous. As to Premium Economy...this is really hit/miss.

 

Hank

 

That's a great deal for business class. We can fly direct to Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne so going Air China wouldn't be an option, flight's long enough without making it any longer ;) We've done it a couple of times now and have always booked the bulkhead for an extra $125 pp. Business class sure would be nice though. My last trip was $1040 pp Canadian before seat selection.

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I recently posted about our China Air experience
We can fly direct to Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne so going Air China wouldn't be an option ...
Caution: Hlitner did not fly on either "China Air" (which does not exist) or "Air China" (which is not the airline which he flew).

 

Someone did point out the ambiguity and scope for confusion caused by the lazy use of "China Air" instead of that airline's actual name. Indeed, confusion was caused on that very thread.

 

It is a pity that this confusion may now have been repeated on this thread through the same inaccurate use of language.

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Caution: Hlitner did not fly on either "China Air" (which does not exist) or "Air China" (which is not the airline which he flew).

 

Someone did point out the ambiguity and scope for confusion caused by the lazy use of "China Air" instead of that airline's actual name. Indeed, confusion was caused on that very thread.

 

It is a pity that this confusion may now have been repeated on this thread through the same inaccurate use of language.

Indeed. If someone cannot even get a basic fact like the name of an airline correct, one has to question the veracity of anything else they write.

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Forums mobile app

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Indeed. If someone cannot even get a basic fact like the name of an airline correct, one has to question the veracity of anything else they write.

&

Sent from my SM-T580 using Forums mobile app

 

If you want to get picky we will specify "China Airlines." We do understand that some folks might not realize that Air means "Airline." And because some here like to play silly word games we should have called "Princess air," "Princess Cruise Lines EZAIR......a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation &PLC." After all, for those that would not recognize that "China Air is China Airlines" they may not recognize that "Princess" refers to the cruise lines rather than the late Diana :).

 

And we suppose that CC should change the name of this forum from "Cruise Air" to "Airlines booked to get passengers to and/or from their cruise vacation." That is because you might assume that they meant the air you breathe on a cruise :).

 

Hank

Edited by Hlitner
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If you want to get picky we will specify "China Airlines." We do understand that some folks might not realize that Air means "Airline." And because some here like to play silly word games we should have called "Princess air," "Princess Cruise Lines EZAIR......a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation &PLC." After all, for those that would not recognize that "China Air is China Airlines" they may not recognize that "Princess" refers to the cruise lines rather than the late Diana :).

 

And we suppose that CC should change the name of this forum from "Cruise Air" to "Airlines booked to get passengers to and/or from their cruise vacation." That is because you might assume that they meant the air you breathe on a cruise :).

 

Hank

So why did you not say China Airlines in your original post?

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Forums mobile app

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So why did you not say China Airlines in your original post?

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Forums mobile app

 

Not sure your question deserves an answer. But perhaps we made a bad assumption that somebody such as yourself would be intelligent enough to know that China Air and China Airlines refer to the same thing. Our mistake.

 

Hank

P.S. We assume you are one of the only folks on earth who called USAIR....US Airways

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Not sure your question deserves an answer. But perhaps we made a bad assumption that somebody such as yourself would be intelligent enough to know that China Air and China Airlines refer to the same thing. Our mistake.

 

Hank

P.S. We assume you are one of the only folks on earth who called USAIR....US Airways

Like British Air ?

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Forums mobile app

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