EZ Air problems

[Wiggums]

All,

 

I just wanted to vent about my frustration with EZ-Air for our upcoming cruise.  My group consists of 7 cruisers (3 adults and 4 teenagers) and we are booked on the upcoming July 13, 2019 14 day Athens > Rome cruise on the Emerald Princess.  We decided to try EZ-Air and it's been nothing but a nightmare dealing with Princess.

 

Back on a Friday in September 2018 we called our travel agent about switching cabins.  She called Princess and was put on hold for quite a while.  She said they could do the switch, but since the cabins were also linked to EZ Air, that would have to be changed to.  I IMMEDIATELY said STOP, DO NOT DO ANY AIRLINE CHANGES (as the cabin change was not that important) and we will keep our cabins as-is.  She said OK, but was still on hold with Princess.  Well... the Princess agent went ahead and did the change, and lost one of our kids business class seats on the airline in the process.  She put our daughter in economy for the return leg of the trip.  Our travel agent said the Princess agent apologized and said it was her fault.  I said that it was unacceptable and would like to speak to a Princess Cruise Supervisor.

 

Again, after a wait I had a 3 way conversation with our travel agent and and the princess agent who apologized for the mix-up and also agreed it was Princess’s error.  She said she tried to re-book our daughter, but the Air office was closed and wouldn’t open until Monday, September 10, 2018.  The Princess Agent said she would call them first thing Monday morning and get back to me.  I was on the phone from 2:20 to 4:45, and had no resolution and got to spend the rest of the weekend worried about our air.

 

The Princess agent did call me Monday about noon.  She said she was sorry, but all the Business class seats were sold out.  I pointed out to her that looking on-line you could see there were a lot of open Business seats still available (including the seat we had originally booked).  My suggestion was that Princess pay the difference from EZ Fare Economy ticket to whatever the business class ticket was to get her back on.  The Princess Agent said unfortunately that wasn’t an option for them.  I asked her to check for any other non-stop direct flights from Rome to LAX on any dates within a few days of the end of the cruise.  She found the same flight on 7/29/19 was available with Business class seats.  I told her to book that.  We went over seat preferences, and have the same seats on the 29th that we have on the 7/9/19 flight from LAX.  We also went from a single confirmation number with the airline to four new confirmation numbers (One # for 3 people, another for 2 people, and one each for our youngest teenagers...sigh).

 

I thanked her for her help, but said this was a major mess up and very upsetting to all of us.  I felt we should have some sort of compensation.  Princess offered us $100 per cabin on board credit or dinner for the family at the Steak House.  I told her neither were really adequate, but she gave us the $100 per cabin credit.  I asked her who else I could speak/write to.

 

Fast forward to last Saturday 6/8/2019.  We had already paid for all of the cruise and airfare in full (almost 3 months ago).  I noticed that we were within the 45 day window and the E-tickets had not been issued yet.  I called princess and explained that we were paid in full and our e-tickets had not been issued.

 

The agent told me there would be a long wait to talk with the airfare people and she put me on hold for 2 1/2 hours (after which the princess system hung up on me without anyone ever coming back on the line).

 

When I checked our account on Monday I noticed that of the 4 confirmation numbers we had, 3 had been tickets (4 of our 7 travelers now had tickets).  So I called Princess again and this time they said I should wait a few more days (give it to the 13th they said) before checking to see if our final confirmation number has received it's e-tickets.

 

I checked early this morning and nothing so I called Princess this afternoon.  After talking to someone to explain that we still don't have our e-tickets, they put me on hold and after 1 1/2 hours the princess system hung up on me again.

 

I just logged into the Princess Website and as of 7:00 p.m. the airfare and confirmation number for my final 3 people in our group of 7 has been DELETED from the princess site.  My airfare is gone and I am on the phone with Princess now trying... TRYING not to lose my S*** at how horrible of an experience this has been with their air travel.

 

We are now a month away from the cruise and I can only pray that they can fix this... Hopefully customer service/marketing folks from Princess read this forum to understand the pain that is EZ-Air and make it better for others.

 

So regarding the original issue, I did snail-mail princess a formal letter of displeasure and after some negotiations we did receive a reasonable OBC for the cruise.  It's really a wash since we needed to spend an extra night in Rome (at our expense) to all be on the same flight.  I am really hoping this new fiasco does not screw all of the current reservations up as we are now only a month away and there's no way I am going to get new hotels, etc.

 

Please princess, if you are reading this... JUST FIX IT! I don't want more OBC, I just want to go on a cruise and relax.  😞 

 

 

[Sea Day Cruiser]

Wow! What was the outcome of this? 

[DrivesLikeMario]

Wow, what a nightmare!  I really don't understand why they couldn't change your cabins.  That has nothing to do with your EZ Air bookings.  It just doesn't make sense to me.  Hoping it's all worked out for you now.  Please let us know.

[BRANDEE]

Sorry to hear all your troubles.  Your story does not give me hope in straightening out my current problem.

 

I dealt with EZair three years ago and was pleasantly surprised how easy booking our airfare with a week extended stay  pre and post cruise was.  I even got our airfare price decreased a few times. We flew into London and home from Paris.  

 

This year is a totally different story.  I am booked on a b2b..Sydney to New Zealand..back to Sydney then to Fiji ...return to Sydney. All on the same ship and same room.  (28 days) Trying to book my airfare with EZair (that showed many great flights as well as prices)  is a disaster.  I am not allowed to book a roundtrip fare, because when I get back from the first cruise..Sidney is considered my home.  If I try to book airfare for the second leg of the b2b..Sydney is considered starting from home and I can only book airfare starting from the day I return.  

 

I can book two one way fares, but the price increases $2400.

 

After 90 minutes on hold, absolutely no help from the EZair representative. She admits it is terrible to pay $2400 more but that is that.  The computer won't do it.  I asked her to override the computer..not authorized.  I asked for someone who was and told impossible to do it. I was told to disconnect my two cruises but that had to be done by reservations..who had no idea what I was talking about.

 

The next day, the flights and prices were gone from the Princess EZair page.

 

Planning to spend Monday on the phone with Princess (again) searching for an answer.

 

Anyone else ever had this problem?

 

Good Luck Wiggums......hope you get your problem solved and enjoy your cruise!!

[AF-1]

This is a story that no one wants to experience.  Things like this should not happen; it is frustrating to go thru such a hassle, and telephone wait time.  I do hope this gets fixed quickly

[13cheermom]

First time sailing Princess, first time attempting to use EZ-Air, and now reading this 😰.  Tell me trying to book flights from east coast to Seattle RT won't be this difficult.  I like the idea of the flexible airfare, however I don't want all these problems to just have that feature.  My date is coming up in next 2 weeks to check, now I'm on the fence about it.  

[AF-1]

13cheermom,  you should be fine.  I used it earlier this year RT to Fort Lauderdale.  The price was great and no issues;  Seems like int'l trips can get confusing;  you should have no worries with booking EZ Air

[Colo Cruiser]

32 minutes ago, 13cheermom said:

First time sailing Princess, first time attempting to use EZ-Air, and now reading this 😰.  Tell me trying to book flights from east coast to Seattle RT won't be this difficult.  I like the idea of the flexible airfare, however I don't want all these problems to just have that feature.  My date is coming up in next 2 weeks to check, now I'm on the fence about it.  

Been using EZ AIR from the start. (Many years) international and domestic.

Never had any issues. 

 

[Coral]

First - I am going to say "never have your TA contact Princess on a weekend". The agents are less experienced on weekends.

 

My TA has changed my cabins a ton (on her own) with out affecting my EZ Air. Your agent probably wasn't as familiar with this and got an inexperienced agent at Princess. Your agent should have been able to do this on their own but to their credit, contacted Princess to make sure it was done right. Princess definitely failed.

 

I hope everything is resolved. So sorry you are dealing with this. Please keep us updated.

 

I had my agent ticket my business class seats at final payment. A call took 2 minutes and it was done.

Edited June 15, 2019 by Coral

[Coral]

6 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

13cheermom,  you should be fine.  I used it earlier this year RT to Fort Lauderdale.  The price was great and no issues;  Seems like int'l trips can get confusing;  you should have no worries with booking EZ Air

I don't think international flights are more confusing. They are flights. 

 

[13cheermom]

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

13cheermom,  you should be fine.  I used it earlier this year RT to Fort Lauderdale.  The price was great and no issues;  Seems like int'l trips can get confusing;  you should have no worries with booking EZ Air

Thanks, I was getting a little uneasy about it after reading several bad experiences lately on the boards.  The last time I used cruise air was through Carnival for a Med. cruise, and it all worked out fine.  Of course they didn't have any flexibility like Princess does so I thought it might be a good option.  Hoping a simple RT flight stateside would be relatively easy.  Will just wait and see.

[Wiggums]

14 hours ago, Sea Day Cruiser said:

Wow! What was the outcome of this? 

 

The issue is still ongoing as today 6/15/2019. Here's the latest:

 

Princess EZ-Air representative called my wife at 8:00 a.m. yesterday to request more information from us and stated that they are actively working with the airline to fix the issues. Per the rep, the issue should be resolved by early next week as the specific portion of the airline that they need to work with (according to them) is not open on the weekend.

 

On a side note, I do have my original confirmation number (not the e-ticket) for when we booked the original routes/seats/dates.  I am hoping that Princess is somehow to just reactivate it in their system since it still seems (fingers crossed) active on the airline website (even though it's disappeared on the princess site).

 

[voljeep]

9 minutes ago, Wiggums said:

 

The issue is still ongoing as today 6/15/2019. Here's the latest:

 

Princess EZ-Air representative called my wife at 8:00 a.m. yesterday to request more information from us and stated that they are actively working with the airline to fix the issues. Per the rep, the issue should be resolved by early next week as the specific portion of the airline that they need to work with (according to them) is not open on the weekend.

 

On a side note, I do have my original confirmation number (not the e-ticket) for when we booked the original routes/seats/dates.  I am hoping that Princess is somehow to just reactivate it in their system since it still seems (fingers crossed) active on the airline website (even though it's disappeared on the princess site).

 

when things went south in 2018 - why didn't you simply fire your TA ... cancel all the EZ-air and just book directly with the airlines ??

[BRANDEE]

Hi Wiggums..Hope you are getting some results in solving your EZair problems with your upcoming cruise.

 

Please let us know how things pan out.

 

I got an answer and results from Princess today regarding my problem (small compared to yours).

 

When booking a b2b, if you plan to use EZair for a roundtrip, you can not have your cruises linked.  If they are linked the computer will consider your disembarking port on the first cruise and the embarkation port on the second cruise as your home port and not allow you to book a roundtrip ticket.  I my case a roundtrip ticket was $1800 for premium economy with EZair , but two one ways would cost $4000.

 

This unlinking must be done by the reservation department and not the EZair department.  Once I reserve my flight and seat, I can have my two cruises linked again, but I "might" not be able to change the flight for better fare.  So I will not unlink them till 45 days before the cruise.

 

The reservation representative had never head of this before but luckily she tried and had no problem.

 

It only took three calls with up to 1 1/2 hours (per) wait to speak to someone at EZair..Glad the third representative knew what the problem was. The first call was made by my travel agent and after 1 hour on wait... she was given miss information.  Just wish everyone at Princess was on the same page and not that we are expected to call and call to get someone who knows what is going on.

[PescadoAmarillo]

In my experience, once I have EZ Air booked for a cruise, I have never been able to get B2B cruises linked. Never, and I’ve tried. The only real benefit to me with linking B2B cruises is filling out the online check in information just once.  These days, it seems that Customer Relations on the ship is already aware we are staying on, and we don’t get the disembarkation form until our final cruise. 

[BRANDEE]

2 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

In my experience, once I have EZ Air booked for a cruise, I have never been able to get B2B cruises linked. Never, and I’ve tried. The only real benefit to me with linking B2B cruises is filling out the online check in information just once.  These days, it seems that Customer Relations on the ship is already aware we are staying on, and we don’t get the disembarkation form until our final cruise. 

 

Thanks for the info.  I wasn't sure linking the cruises mattered, since all our OBC and other perks were based on each individual cruise.  The Princess representative I spoke to today told me to call back after I book my EZair to re link.  But she also wasn't sure if it would prevent me from changing the airfare further down the road.  From your experience , re linking won't happen anyway.

 

I've used EZair before..but never on a b2b and was surprised how the computer locked me out of a roundtrip.  More surprised it took four calls to get it fixed.

[DrivesLikeMario]

EZ Air is great for simple, straight-forward flights.  It's the complicated ones (like the NZ-Australia one above) that it's not the best for and in those cases, I'd book on my own.  It's usually excellent for open-jaw flights.

[Wiggums]

Latest update as of 6/17/2019.

 

So things are still broken albeit they are now a different type of broken.  Princess has fixed the original problem with our three tickets that completely disappeared (they are now back) and one of the other tickets has completely disappeared.  The new issue is similar to the original one where we had tickets and now we don't (but only 1 person, not 3).  So now three of us are back on the flight but one of our minor daughters ticket was removed.  Supposedly (according to Princess) they are fixing that today and it should be reflected (soon).  I am checking twice a day (morning/night).

 

When I go on the airline site where we used to have seats, now it says "Unassigned".  I am going to wait until everyone is fixed with E-Tickets and Flight Confirmation numbers before I try and get the seat issue fixed...

 

(I am so glad this cruise has the Sip-n-sail... I will need it!)

[Globehoppers]

On 6/15/2019 at 9:00 AM, Colo Cruiser said:

Been using EZ AIR from the start. (Many years) international and domestic.

Never had any issues. 

 

 

Fully agree.  Only time I've had to "battle" with EZAir was when they changed connecting flights resulting in a 45min connection at ATL in the afternoon during thunderstorm season.  Doesn't work.  They worked with me to change connections and departing airport which also resulted in a $400 savings.  

 

Original OP's diatribe sounds like it was self-inflicted in the most part - and not the fault of EZAir.

 

Additionally, even if you pay Princess early, as the OP claimed, Princess does not pay the airline until required leaving the booking "unconfirmed" from the airline perspective.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Globehoppers

[Xyla]

OP,  I'm on your same cruise (can't wait!) but also had some EZAir issues. They were not directly caused by EZAir, since it was United who canceled my parent's first flight and (and then rebooked them on a flight that would require them to travel back in time to catch their connecting flight!). However, we were ~40 days out and the ticket was not paid for yet. So United said they couldn't do anything, it had to be done by Princess. Long story short, my parents did eventually get rebooked on an acceptable business class flight without paying additional or having long layovers. But it took about 4 hours, mostly on hold, until we could connect to the EZAir department, and that was on my 3rd attempt. 

I would book with them again, because the business class seats were literally half the cost of going directly through the airlines, but I would keep an even closer eye. EZAir did not notify me of the flight snafu, I happened to find it when checking on my parent's seat assignment.

 

[Wiggums]

Latest update as of 6/29/2019:

 

It appears this ordeal is over as of Thursday 6/27 and we have been told that all flights/seats are confirmed and fixed.  It's not reassuring though as the princess website still shows an error message when you attempt to click into the Airline reservation section for some of our family members.  Princess has assured us that even though their computer system gives an error message and we cannot actually see the tickets for one of the teenagers in our party, they are actually there.

 

We have the official Airline confirmation numbers that show the correct flights/seats for everyone and when I called the airline they stated that everything is ticketed and the seats have been assigned.

 

Here's the timeline for anyone that experiences something similar.

 

September 2018

I locked in our EZ-Air flights via the Princess website.

 

October 2018

Called Princess to ask about the availability of other cabins or the family suite.

1. Original problem was a Princess agent mistakenly cancelled our air tickets when we asked about additional cabin availability and which party members are in which cabins.

2. Princess could not recover the original two booked airline confirmation numbers for our two cabins.  Instead, they (Princess) had to re-book our airfare on 4 confirmation numbers for our party of 7.  They split up the party into (3, 2, 1, 1) so we now have four airline confirmation numbers.

3. Princess could not recover the original travel dates and we had to extend the trip by a day.

4. We wrote to Princess about our displeasure and after negotiations related to the extended stay (i.e. hotel for the night) we received an acceptable on-board credit as a "sorry" for each cabin.

 

January 2019

5. We made full payment for the cruise + airfare.

 

June 2019

6. I noticed that we were 30 days out and our flights had still not been booked with the airline.  I called Princess and they said they should have been booked by now as we were paid in full, etc.  The agent noticed an error in the system and attempted to  ticket our flights correctly.

7. The agent attempted to fix the error but instead cancelled the flights for one of the four confirmation numbers (by mistake) leaving 3 travelers without a flight.

8. The previous issue (#7) was fixed but now the 3 travelers on that confirmation number had no seats.

9. Princess fixed the seats for the three travelers but somehow deleted one of the confirmation numbers assigned to a single traveler who now has no ticket.

10. A supervisor took over the issue (Laura) who was very helpful.  She promised us that even though our tickets had disappeared from the Princess site, they are indeed there and will be fixed.

11. As of Monday 6/24 all of our flights reappeared but we were still missing our seats.

12. As of Thursday 6/27 we had all of our flights back and the seating issues are resolved to our satisfaction (not original seats, but close enough that we have no issues).

 

@Globehoppers

I take offense (not much) to you thinking this is self inflicted as we just called Princess to ask a question and in doing so had our airline tickets cancelled.  Was my original post a diatribe... Yes... I was frustrated and I wanted to vent and I disagree to your assertion that this was self inflicted but hey, it's the Internet and you get your opinion and I get to disagree with you.

 

All the best and I hope this ordeal is useful for anyone that has to suffer through anything similar.

 

 

 

 

[Coral]

Glad it is all resolved.

 

BTW - I had problems with a flight booked directly with the airline. I called the day before to inquire about something and the person accidentally cancelled the flight. I didn't know until I showed up to the airport. Things happen. It is frustrating. Glad you worked through the system and got someone who could help you!

 

Thanks for the update!

Edited June 29, 2019 by Coral

[azbirdmom]

Thanks for circling back to let us know your issues were resolved.  Hope you have a wonderful trip!

[Lynniepoo]

5 hours ago, Wiggums said:

Latest update as of 6/29/2019:

 

It appears this ordeal is over as of Thursday 6/27 and we have been told that all flights/seats are confirmed and fixed.  It's not reassuring though as the princess website still shows an error message when you attempt to click into the Airline reservation section for some of our family members.  Princess has assured us that even though their computer system gives an error message and we cannot actually see the tickets for one of the teenagers in our party, they are actually there.

 

We have the official Airline confirmation numbers that show the correct flights/seats for everyone and when I called the airline they stated that everything is ticketed and the seats have been assigned.

 

Here's the timeline for anyone that experiences something similar.

 

September 2018

I locked in our EZ-Air flights via the Princess website.

 

October 2018

Called Princess to ask about the availability of other cabins or the family suite.

1. Original problem was a Princess agent mistakenly cancelled our air tickets when we asked about additional cabin availability and which party members are in which cabins.

2. Princess could not recover the original two booked airline confirmation numbers for our two cabins.  Instead, they (Princess) had to re-book our airfare on 4 confirmation numbers for our party of 7.  They split up the party into (3, 2, 1, 1) so we now have four airline confirmation numbers.

3. Princess could not recover the original travel dates and we had to extend the trip by a day.

4. We wrote to Princess about our displeasure and after negotiations related to the extended stay (i.e. hotel for the night) we received an acceptable on-board credit as a "sorry" for each cabin.

 

January 2019

5. We made full payment for the cruise + airfare.

 

June 2019

6. I noticed that we were 30 days out and our flights had still not been booked with the airline.  I called Princess and they said they should have been booked by now as we were paid in full, etc.  The agent noticed an error in the system and attempted to  ticket our flights correctly.

7. The agent attempted to fix the error but instead cancelled the flights for one of the four confirmation numbers (by mistake) leaving 3 travelers without a flight.

8. The previous issue (#7) was fixed but now the 3 travelers on that confirmation number had no seats.

9. Princess fixed the seats for the three travelers but somehow deleted one of the confirmation numbers assigned to a single traveler who now has no ticket.

10. A supervisor took over the issue (Laura) who was very helpful.  She promised us that even though our tickets had disappeared from the Princess site, they are indeed there and will be fixed.

11. As of Monday 6/24 all of our flights reappeared but we were still missing our seats.

12. As of Thursday 6/27 we had all of our flights back and the seating issues are resolved to our satisfaction (not original seats, but close enough that we have no issues).

 

@Globehoppers

I take offense (not much) to you thinking this is self inflicted as we just called Princess to ask a question and in doing so had our airline tickets cancelled.  Was my original post a diatribe... Yes... I was frustrated and I wanted to vent and I disagree to your assertion that this was self inflicted but hey, it's the Internet and you get your opinion and I get to disagree with you.

 

All the best and I hope this ordeal is useful for anyone that has to suffer through anything similar.

 

 

 

 

So glad everything worked out!  😀  Please forget all about this, get a glass of red and watch a beautiful sunset on your cruise. 

[Marilyn Johannes]

We were notified by Delta that the first leg of our flight from Los Angeles to Dublin via Atlanta has been canceled. Delta rebooked us on a flight that only has a 45 minute window of time to get to the Atlanta to Dublin leg. Delta has notified us that this isn’t enough time so we called Princess (EZ AIR). Spoke to someone at Princess who then contacted EZ AIR (Princess?) and was put on hold for 30 minutes and decided to hang up. Will try again later but was wondering if 1) could we call Delta direct and 2) will we have to pay the difference in airfare?  Our flight is 6 weeks out. We have booked cruise portion through TA and air through Princess. TIA