EZ Air/Flight Ease Confusion

[mnocket]

I'm new to Holland America. To quick questions .....

 

 

1. Is it EZ Air or Flight Ease?
   
2. I can't find a link on the website. Am I just lame or is Flight Ease hidden somewhere?
   
3. Can you research airfare before you book or must you already have a cruise booked in order to access EZ Air (once I find it)?
   

[molly2kit]

I phoned to ask this question and Holland customer service told me I had to be booked and then they would look at air for me. I prefer checking is advance of booking.....wish they would do it the same as others, Princess is so easy to look at

 

 

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[kazu]

I'm new to Holland America. To quick questions .....

 

 

1. Is it EZ Air or Flight Ease?
   
2. I can't find a link on the website. Am I just lame or is Flight Ease hidden somewhere?
   
3. Can you research airfare before you book or must you already have a cruise booked in order to access EZ Air (once I find it)?
   

 

It's called Flight Ease.

 

 

You can't research air fare on the HAL site in advance of booking. What I did, thanks to the advice of those on the boards here was visit the Princess website to see what they were offering to give me an idea.

[boards]

I tried to look at flights on the Princess website and it looks like you have to have a booked cruise, at least that is the way I read it. is there another way to find the flight information?

[kazu]

I tried to look at flights on the Princess website and it looks like you have to have a booked cruise, at least that is the way I read it. is there another way to find the flight information?

 

When I did it, I chose an itinerary that had the same embarkation/disembarkation port, selected it and then was able to see the flights.

 

I didn't book anything - just was looking.

[Lady Arwen]

Yes, Princess make it so easy to shop flights before you shop cruises. I wish HAL would allow you to do this, too. With Celebrity, you can also look up flights without a booking.

[boards]

Thank you, I found out how to do it. Wants you to fly out of Toronto, when I would like to fly from Detroit.

[doublebzz]

I believe that the Princess and HAL flight programs are the same so that the fares and flights you see on Princess would be valid on HAL. On my current planned cruise, I first checked the Princess flights then reserved the HAL cruise, received a booking number and was able to confirm the flights I saw on Princess before submitting payment.

[winddawn]

FWIW, Google offers Google Matrix which is a handy airline/airfare search tool. They don't offer sales, so the information is user friendly vs. just trying to sell you something. Be aware, Southwest Airlines does not show their flights/prices there nor on any other airline booking engine, so you have to go to their website to see their information. I noticed someone mentioned wanting to fly out of Detroit, and Southwest flies from there. I like to use Google Matrix to specifically look at business class and higher fares across airlines because I've seen some great deals there for that. Maybe this will give you one more tool since HAL's website isn't very friendly.

 

https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

 

https://www.southwest.com/flight/routemap_dyn.html?clk=GSUBNAV-AIR-ROUTEMAP

[Hawaiidan]

A word to the wise, after 40 years of air travel world wide...

 

Rule1; Always shop for a fare directly from the airline not a 3rd party

 

Rule 2 always have complete control your self of your ticket and itinerary not priceline, HAL or another non airline source

any 3rd party really owns the ticket not you !! and if changes have to be made they must be made by the 3rd party NOT YOU

 

Rule 3-100: See rule #1

 

There is one exception if your wanting to fly Premium, Business or First class there are specialist agencies that focus on business travelers, not vacation people, that offer you to pick whatever airline, what ever schedule and buy the ticket for you directly from the airline with you as both the passenger and ticket owner. It can save you serious $$$ An example LAX to Rome Business class $2600.00 round trip not $8600.00 !!! LAX to Sydney Business, $2800 not $10,000.

[mnocket]

Thanks for replying everyone. It's hard to understand why HAL doesn't let you research flights before booking. As a general observation, it seems the cruise industry doesn't value or invest in their IT systems. I guess we'll have to wait until the next generation assumes leadership of these companies before we get the on-line services that are already standard in other travel sectors.

[kazu]

A word to the wise, after 40 years of air travel world wide...

 

Rule1; Always shop for a fare directly from the airline not a 3rd party

 

Rule 2 always have complete control your self of your ticket and itinerary not priceline, HAL or another non airline source

any 3rd party really owns the ticket not you !! and if changes have to be made they must be made by the 3rd party NOT YOU

 

Rule 3-100: See rule #1

 

There is one exception if your wanting to fly Premium, Business or First class there are specialist agencies that focus on business travelers, not vacation people, that offer you to pick whatever airline, what ever schedule and buy the ticket for you directly from the airline with you as both the passenger and ticket owner. It can save you serious $$$ An example LAX to Rome Business class $2600.00 round trip not $8600.00 !!! LAX to Sydney Business, $2800 not $10,000.

 

I usually follow those rules Dan, but, this time, I did use flight ease. The deal was just too good.

 

Our biz class ticket home was around $3600 versus $12,000. (DH really wanted to try KLM & the layover is MUCH better than with A/C FF). No savings really to fly to FLL but with the early booking bonus, it was so cheap it wasn't worth using the FF miles thanks to the P'dam early booking bonus.

 

I'll save my FF miles for next year ;)

[boards]

Thank you for that additional search tool.

[Hawaiidan]

I usually follow those rules Dan, but, this time, I did use flight ease. The deal was just too good.

 

Our biz class ticket home was around $3600 versus $12,000. (DH really wanted to try KLM & the layover is MUCH better than with A/C FF). No savings really to fly to FLL but with the early booking bonus, it was so cheap it wasn't worth using the FF miles thanks to the P'dam early booking bonus.

 

I'll save my FF miles for next year ;)

 

KLM has poor seats in business, they are angle lie not lie flat !!! Not the best rest you keep sliding down. As far as using FF miles you might be interested in learning that booking your flight with FF miles 5-7 days prior gets you a big discount 320,000rt of booked 300 to 10 days before your travel 120,000 rt- 140,000 booked 7 days prior !!! Play with your computer and see .

 

Air Canada is part of staralliance Lufthansa and Swiss is great to use your FF miles some great deals ticket goes for 12,000 to 15,000 You can buy all the miles needed for a Business class rt for about $4600. But through a business class broker you can get the same flights for$ 2650 Save the miles and never use for domestic First or business in N america or europe its a terrible service. International only brokers are easy to find with good ref. Take care

[kazu]

KLM has poor seats in business, they are angle lie not lie flat !!! Not the best rest you keep sliding down. As far as using FF miles you might be interested in learning that booking your flight with FF miles 5-7 days prior gets you a big discount 320,000rt of booked 300 to 10 days before your travel 120,000 rt- 140,000 booked 7 days prior !!! Play with your computer and see .

 

Air Canada is part of staralliance Lufthansa and Swiss is great to use your FF miles some great deals ticket goes for 12,000 to 15,000 You can buy all the miles needed for a Business class rt for about $4600. But through a business class broker you can get the same flights for$ 2650 Save the miles and never use for domestic First or business in N america or europe its a terrible service. International only brokers are easy to find with good ref. Take care

 

LOL - you will NEVER find a seat with A/C FF miles 5 -7 days before a flight. Unless you want umpteem million stops, which we don't. And our miles are not 320,000. It's a different kettle of fish in Canada.

 

As to KLM - we are flying during the day. No desire or need to sleep and looking forward to sitting together rather than be separate for the "lie flat" beds.

 

It's all good - we're up for the adventure. The reports I've had from other CC members and FB friends on KLM are very good and the lounge in Amsterdam is supposed to be excellent, so we'll just go with the flow ;)

 

I haven't found any consolidators that do Canadian dollar bookings that I am assured are trustworthy yet. If you have suggestions, by all means share. In the meantime, we will do what works for us ;). We Canadians have different challenges booking including, in our case, limited flights out of here.

[1of4]

. <snip>

 

But through a business class broker you can get the same flights for$ 2650 Save the miles and never use for domestic First or business in N america or europe its a terrible service. International only brokers are easy to find with good ref. Take care

 

This is the second reference to the business class broker for tickets. I have flown a lot but always booked myself and know nothing about this. Due to a medical condition economy seats are no longer a possibility. Can you elaborate on how to find a broker? Is the same as a consolidator? Can I book in Canadian $? Any info appreciated.

[doublebzz]

As far as using FF miles you might be interested in learning that booking your flight with FF miles 5-7 days prior gets you a big discount 320,000rt of booked 300 to 10 days before your travel 120,000 rt- 140,000 booked 7 days prior !!! Play with your computer and see .

 

 

I've never noticed this on either American Airlines or United Airlines frequent flyer web sites. Seems the same number of miles whenever you book. Also, for someone who requires business class on inter-ocean flights, this seems like a pretty risky strategy; there may not always be availability 5-7 days prior.

[drowelf]

I've never noticed this on either American Airlines or United Airlines frequent flyer web sites. Seems the same number of miles whenever you book. Also, for someone who requires business class on inter-ocean flights, this seems like a pretty risky strategy; there may not always be availability 5-7 days prior.

 

I've always seen it the other way, closer in, it costs more miles, if you can even find the inventory available, especially now as airlines start to implement dynamic FF mileage redemption strategies. Anytime I've want to use FF for overseas travel, I've had to hop on it as soon as the return is in the 330 day window.

 

And I too think its really risky to wait until a week before departure to try and book flights. Domestic is one thing, but internationally I would never wait that long.

[epixx]

This is the second reference to the business class broker for tickets. I have flown a lot but always booked myself and know nothing about this. Due to a medical condition economy seats are no longer a possibility. Can you elaborate on how to find a broker? Is the same as a consolidator? Can I book in Canadian $? Any info appreciated.

 

You need to be very, very, VERY cautious about considering this. Many of the brokers are using bought or (worse) stolen frequent miles, both of which are illegal and may result in you not flying if the airline finds out about it. This has been discussed many times on the flyertalk website.

[57redbird]

FWIW, Google offers Google Matrix which is a handy airline/airfare search tool. They don't offer sales, so the information is user friendly vs. just trying to sell you something. Be aware, Southwest Airlines does not show their flights/prices there nor on any other airline booking engine, so you have to go to their website to see their information. I noticed someone mentioned wanting to fly out of Detroit, and Southwest flies from there. I like to use Google Matrix to specifically look at business class and higher fares across airlines because I've seen some great deals there for that. Maybe this will give you one more tool since HAL's website isn't very friendly.

 

https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

 

https://www.southwest.com/flight/routemap_dyn.html?clk=GSUBNAV-AIR-ROUTEMAP

 

What a great site! Thank you!