Flight Ease Credit

[Billthekid]

Recently we booked an Holiday Cruise for 2019 while on our last cruise.  HAL was running a special which included an outside cabin at the price of an inside, token discounts on excursions, some SBC and $500 off the booking of air on flight ease.  As a side note, we were quoted two prices.  One without the air and one with.  The difference in the cruise fares was $400 so in effect you were only saving $100 on the air.  Anyhow this week I booked the air with Flight Ease and loved the quote.  The question I have "is the air fare quote inclusive of the $500 credit or will it be applied when the final cruise payment is due?"  Asked TA and was told yes, but the invoice and the quote had no mention of the credit.  Talked to Flight Ease who told me reservations would know.  Talked to reservation and was told only my TA was only allowed to talk to them unless I was given permission to talk to them.  (excuse me).  Does anyone know when the $500 credit is applied?

[Hawaiidan]

1 hour ago, Billthekid said:

Recently we booked an Holiday Cruise for 2019 while on our last cruise.  HAL was running a special which included an outside cabin at the price of an inside, token discounts on excursions, some SBC and $500 off the booking of air on flight ease.  As a side note, we were quoted two prices.  One without the air and one with.  The difference in the cruise fares was $400 so in effect you were only saving $100 on the air.  Anyhow this week I booked the air with Flight Ease and loved the quote.  The question I have "is the air fare quote inclusive of the $500 credit or will it be applied when the final cruise payment is due?"  Asked TA and was told yes, but the invoice and the quote had no mention of the credit.  Talked to Flight Ease who told me reservations would know.  Talked to reservation and was told only my TA was only allowed to talk to them unless I was given permission to talk to them.  (excuse me).  Does anyone know when the $500 credit is applied?

 I wish I could...HAL probably is confused too       I solve this problem  by booking my own flights and use FF miles which accrue over the years.    I do ask  the company to quote me a price with air   and what the credit is.   I then ask for the fare to be reduced, well my agent does, and save all the potential problems  I get to pick my flights before and after according to my wants.  No fees or such to  do so.     You might consider  in the future  this option.  I have been using it for the past 15 years.   

[oceanmom]

When we booked on-line ourselves last fall (west coast US to Europe), FlightEase showed two prices, one price in slightly smaller font just above the line and another on the line saying Flexible Fare total: xxxxx which happened to be the price above the line minus the flight credit.

 

On the HAL guest confirmation we received after booking the air with the pricing breakdown, it shows the actual price which includes the credit. I had a large selection of flights and options for which plane cabin (Business, premium and coach) and was able to book seats right away. I understand this can be an issue with some airlines.

 

We did use FlightEase for a Christmas cruise as I wanted the assurance of them getting us to the ship if there were flight glitches since we were coming from three different locations on the Friday and Saturday before Christmas. Didn't save us very much $$ but it was worth it. 

 

It will be a long time before we do another madhouse Christmas cruise.

[msmayor]

I normally book air on my own but for the Eurodam cruise my husband and I are planning for October we couldn't pass up the savings.

 

We will need to fly from Philadelphia to Vancouver to embark, and then home from San Diego at the end,  When I started checking prices for tickets, two seats in Economy were going to cost me upwards of $1500 putting the cruise on the list of 'maybe some other day'.  With the air credit though, two tickets dropped to just $400, saving us $1100.  We could have saved even more, getting two tickets for just $198 but that had a flight into Vancouver on day of embarkation.  We wanted a cushion so asked for a flight the day before.

 

We were able to get a casino rate on the cruise as well, and we had $150 in OBC through our Next Cruise certificates... so the cruise and flight turned quite reasonable so we booked

[Billthekid]

The subject is not whether to use to use Fight Ease or not and its values, but did the $500 Flight credit associated with our cruise fare get applied.  There was no mention on the invoice and reservations department and flight ease group will not let me talk to them only my TA.  So did the Flight Ease quote include the $500 discount or will the final cruise payment reflect the credit.

[oceanmom]

13 hours ago, oceanmom said:

On the HAL guest confirmation we received after booking the air with the pricing breakdown, it shows the actual price which includes the credit.

 

 Once you book FlightEase,  the air price shown on the booking confirmation is the price you pay. The credit was included in the price you were quoted when you booked the flights on FlightEase. It is easy to miss on FlightEase if you don't look for it, don't know what you're looking at, don't wonder why you're seeing two prices on the screen, and don't keep screenshots.

 

The air price on your booking confirmation  includes the credit as the credit is associated with your name and your booking number when you booked the cruise and received access to the FlightEase air credit.

 

At least, that's the way it has worked for us on several different FlightEase transactions. And one reason we keep our bookings with HAL until we work out all the details and then transfer to a TA if it is worth it to us.

 

I believe your TA is correct and you have received the credit.

[Auburn Traveler]

1 hour ago, Billthekid said:

The subject is not whether to use to use Fight Ease or not and its values, but did the $500 Flight credit associated with our cruise fare get applied.  There was no mention on the invoice and reservations department and flight ease group will not let me talk to them only my TA.  So did the Flight Ease quote include the $500 discount or will the final cruise payment reflect the credit.

I believe I did this right.  The credit should of been applied at the time you got the quote for airfare from your TA with Holland.  Or are you using an outside travel agency?  When we booked ours, we worked with our TC from Holland, she gave us the pricing for air minus the air credit.  The beauty of booking with HAL for your air, your payment for the air isn't due until you pay for your cruise.  Unless you are doing one of those restricted fares.  We have found HAL air pricing to be very good.  And once your get the booking and airline confirm #, you can go to the airline web site and change your seats if you are not happy with your selection.  Hope this answers your question

[Billthekid]

Thanks for the input.  Finally was able to talk to Reservations at Holland.  The Flight Ease credit was incorporated into the air quote.  So no more discounts will be forthcoming.  I mentioned that perhaps the air credit should be reflected somewhere within the process.  In the quote, or on the invoice.  Don't know if it fell on deaf ears or not.  Meanwhile, the quote received for business class to Argentina and return out of Chile was fantastic.  Nearest airline quote was at least a couple of thou higher.

[Auburn Traveler]

On 2/23/2019 at 4:00 PM, Billthekid said:

Thanks for the input.  Finally was able to talk to Reservations at Holland.  The Flight Ease credit was incorporated into the air quote.  So no more discounts will be forthcoming.  I mentioned that perhaps the air credit should be reflected somewhere within the process.  In the quote, or on the invoice.  Don't know if it fell on deaf ears or not.  Meanwhile, the quote received for business class to Argentina and return out of Chile was fantastic.  Nearest airline quote was at least a couple of thou higher.

That’s great you finally got an answer. I was surprised they didn’t provide that to you when you first started asking them. Our travel consultant with Holland gave us that info. We’ve worked with her for many years. She’s great. When she was out of the office for a couple of months last year her replacement was horrible to deal with. I finally talked with a supervisor and voiced my frustration. Thank goodness Megan is back.  Our business class airfare from sac to Amsterdam and then fll back  to sac came to $1100 each.  Would like to know how you like this cruise you’re going on. Have fun.