Penalized for Disembarking Before Final Port

[sandbug2]

My sister and I are sailing from Berlin to Brooklyn on the Regal Princess this fall, but applied to and were accepted to disembark in Halifax, the stop before New York, as we live there and it would save the travel back to Halifax from New York. No problem. Then- when I went to use Princess to book my airfare, I was unable to access it, and was told upon enquiry that because we had changed our route (i.e. get off two days before completion) EZ Air was not available to us. At all. Not even for one way. No explanation. So I just booked our own airfare and moved on. Today, a cruise critic member shared a refare which would give us $1000 OBC- so I called my TA to obtain it, and they were told by Princess, that nope, you can't refare as you are disembarking early. So there seems to be an issue here- which I hopefully I thought would be resolved by saying NVM- we will get off in New York. You win. So now it seems there is a potential problem in that even though the promotion runs until June 19th, it may be all gone and the OBC may not be available. I am hoping that Princess will assist in resolving this through the Captains Club service, as we are Platinum members and have enjoyed our cruises with Princess, as I hope to enjoy this one. Has anything like this happened to anyone else? How could I have been forewarned about these restrictions?

[moki'smommy]

I can understand that you can't book EZ Air in Halifax, but I don't understand that you can't use it for the "departure" portion of the cruise.

 

I'm doing a B2B, and to book, I had to go to the first leg and select "departure only" and book that flight. Then I had to go to the second leg and select "return only" and book that one. I could have booked either one and arranged private travel in the other direction. In fact, for our April cruise, I did just that--I used EZAir for the arrival because it was the cheapest I could get. On the way home, I could get a better deal booking on my own, so I did that.

[elaine5]

I was told no EZair with deviation before we submitted request.

[Thrak]

Must be the Landmark Sale. It did state specifically that there was a limited number of slots for that sale so you may well be out of luck for getting the $1,000 OBC. Bummer. We wanted the OBC too but the cabin has gone up by that much since we booked so we would actually lose due to higher insurance, etc. D'Oh! In your case I would imagine it would have been to your benefit to just disembark at the "real" end of he cruise and deal with getting back home but that's hindsight - which is always so much clearer. I hope you get the perk but, if you don't, give a shrug and enjoy the heck out of your cruise anyway.

[AE_Collector]

Anything odd with EZ Air online is resolved by having a service rep do it for you by phone I believe. The program is just not able to handle all the possible variations.

[sandbug2]

Anything odd with EZ Air online is resolved by having a service rep do it for you by phone I believe. The program is just not able to handle all the possible variations.

Would think so, but no. Because of the change I made to the original cruise, EZ air is not available to me. I would have been booking Halifax-Berlin either way, and had been able to use EZ air to do so prior to shortening the cruise-but hadn’t made a decision- then it was gone from the cruise personalizer and I was told I could not use it. I am booked now (on my own)- just want others to be aware of these issues.

[-Lew-]

You're booked for 22 days from Berlin to New York. Did you inquire about booking your cruise as a B2B, Berlin to Copenhagen and Copenhagen to New York? That way your deviation on the second cruise might not affect eZAir and OBC eligibility on the first cruise.

[Hlitner]

What a mess. I guess the lesson (for us all) is to not seek Princess permission for an early disembarkation until late in the time-line....after all other arrangements have been made.

 

Hank

[tanzer22pilot]

I always thought it would be a great plot point for a spy or mystery novel for have a character to go on a cruise and then just never get back on a ship at some random port.

[sandbug2]

I always thought it would be a great plot point for a spy or mystery novel for have a character to go on a cruise and then just never get back on a ship at some random port.

 

Ha! Good idea! Probably would pick a different port than where I live- not so mysterious. At the end of the day there is a lesson to be learned here about timing, as Hank has so wisely pointed out, and now we get to sail into New York Harbour and spend an extra two nights on the ship. Its all good. Looking forward to a great trip.:D:D:D:D

[cbnewfie]

We were considering trying to disembark in Halifax on our next TA but now, maybe not. Thanks for posting your experience with the process.

[TracieABD]

To the OP: I am glad you got it to work out for you.

:)

[DrivesLikeMario]

Lew's option is the best advice. Book it as 2 separate cruises. That way, you can use EZ Air for the first portion.

 

When we did a deviation, we booked air on our own.