Princess Air

[Capt. & Teach]

I cannot believe Princess’s policy on their Princess Air. This is our first and last time trying to use Princess Air. We were going to book with them to London next October. That is 10 months away. They will not let us buy our airfare unless we pay for the whole cruise now. I don’t think I am going to let them use my money all that time just so I can purchase an airline ticket from them.

My TA found a cheaper fare on another airline and I don’t have to give Princess a whole lot of money. My TA was on the phone with Princess all afternoon trying to get the airline ticket worked out. She kept getting a different answer every time she was switched to someone else up the line. Finally the paper work Princess sent her stated that the cruise must be paid in full for them to purchase a ticket.

This is not our first cruise on Princess. With this cruise we will become Elite.

Very poor policy.

 

Edited December 31, 2013 by Capt. & Teach

[IECalCruiser]

Remember us from the 2012 Emerald TA/Baltic that we had to cancel? Well we did the Baltic cruise with our DD this year and had a wonderful cruise. Even got an Upsell Offer to a full suite from a Cat AE mini for only $598 :) Don't know if the policy has changed since then, but we booked this year's cruise on 12/19/2012. We purchased and paid for our air on 12/24/2014 when Princess was offering their "Up to $500 Off" sale on airfare and we saved $400/person. We didn't need to make our final payment at that time. Our final payment was not made until late March. We bought non refundable tickets. There might be a different policy for the refundable up to 45 days before the cruise tickets.

Edited December 31, 2013 by IECalCruiser

[likeadisguise]

There has to be a deposit on the booking in order to add EZ Air. You can't add air to a booking with no money at all on it, but it shouldn't have to be paid in full.

 

If you choose restricted air you have to pay the AIRFARE in full when you book it, but I don't believe the whole cruise needs to paid before final payment. If you add flexible air, then that's not due until cruise final payment.

[jfgdbg]

We booked a cruise in March 2013 using FCC's. When the air options were available we booked our flights using flexible eZAir. We didn't have to pay money. Our final payment for both is due in July 2014.

[Kamloops50]

I cannot believe Princess’s policy on their Princess Air. This is our first and last time trying to use Princess Air. We were going to book with them to London next October. That is 10 months away. They will not let us buy our airfare unless we pay for the whole cruise now. I don’t think I am going to let them use my money all that time just so I can purchase an airline ticket from them.

My TA found a cheaper fare on another airline and I don’t have to give Princess a whole lot of money. My TA was on the phone with Princess all afternoon trying to get the airline ticket worked out. She kept getting a different answer every time she was switched to someone else up the line. Finally the paper work Princess sent her stated that the cruise must be paid in full for them to purchase a ticket.

This is not our first cruise on Princess. With this cruise we will become Elite.

Very poor policy.

 

 

We never pay for Princess Air when booked . If you take the flexible air option you don't pay until final payment. Then you can cancel or change up to 45 days before cruising.The other option you have to pay up front and isn't refundable. I don't know of any airline currently that allows you to book a ticket without paying up front.

[RDC1]

If you select restricted air you must pay the airfare immediately, but not the cruise portion.

 

If you choose flexible air you do not have to pay until the full payment due date for the cruise. However, your air fare is subject to change until it is paid. If you choose flexible and want to lock in your price by paying for it, then you must pay your full cruise fare as well.

[likeadisguise]

If you choose flexible air you do not have to pay until the full payment due date for the cruise. However, your air fare is subject to change until it is paid. If you choose flexible and want to lock in your price by paying for it, then you must pay your full cruise fare as well.

 

No, that's not true anymore. It used to be the way it worked, but now your flexible air price is locked in once you've booked it, and you still don't have to pay it until final payment for your cruise.

[Ethel5]

I can only go by my experience.....I booked my cruise last Mar 2013 and made my deposit with an FCC. I just added the flexible air two weeks ago. I didn't have to pay anything at the time for the air. The air will be paid with final payment in August for my October 2014 cruise.

[Hlitner]

We are puzzled by the OPs post. Recently we booked a Ruby Princess cruise for next April and decided to use EZ-Air for the one-way return flight from Europe back to the US. I simply went to the EZ-Air we site (a link from our online reservation) and booked the flights we wanted. We did not have to pay one cent for the air...as it is not paid until our final cruise payment (Feb 2014). We are free to modify or cancel that air reservation at any time up until the final payment.

 

We do have some issues with how the EZ-Air online screens work. They give you virtually no flexibility as it assumes you want round trip and you have little ability to change airports from their defaults. On Ruby cruise technically ends in Southampton...so EZ Air would only let us book flights from Gatwick or Heathrow. But we are jumping off the ship one-day early in France and wanted to fly home from CDG. It took a call to the EZ-Air folks to get them to modify our online booking form so we could shop and book our flight.

 

Hank

Edited December 31, 2013 by Hlitner

[caribill]

My TA found a cheaper fare on another airline

 

Which is why most of the advice on Cruise Critic has been to compare the cost of EZAir with what is available elsewhere.

[Pam in CA]

I can only go by my experience.....I booked my cruise last Mar 2013 and made my deposit with an FCC. I just added the flexible air two weeks ago. I didn't have to pay anything at the time for the air. The air will be paid with final payment in August for my October 2014 cruise.

If one's TA is so inexperienced with Princess and doesn't know that you don't have to pay everything upfront, time for a new TA. I sure hope the OP is getting a really nice 10-20% discount plus OBC and perks for all the trouble they're putting up with their TA.