E-Z Air and Trans-Atlantic Cruises

[Lady Arwen]

We've booked Enchanted Princess T/A for April 2021.  Our first T/A and wondering if E-Z air has less expensive flights than the airlines.  We would be flying Toronto-Ft. Lauderdale and Barcelona-Toronto.  Long time cruisers with Princess and used E-Z air for roundtrip flights in the US and Europe and found them to be a lot less expensive., but, I know these types of flights can be pricey.

 

Any info would be much appreciated.  Thank you!

[AF-1]

I say try them out;  try booking as multiple city and see what happens.  I booked my multi city flight and it was decent price. I am doing Cincinnati to Zurich; then Amsterdam to Cincinnati. 

[jasbo49]

EZair is great for that. And it doesn't seem like you pay a nickel more for the open-jaw flights.

 

A couple times it was so cheap we treated ourselves to business class.

 

Jim

[Steelers36]

35 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

I know these types of flights can be pricey.

Yes, 1-way flights with the airlines are terribly expensive - sometimes about as much as a round-trip cost.  This is not an open-jaw booking.  An example of an open-jaw booking would be Toronto-London and Rome-Toronto for a hypothetical cruise from London to Rome.  What you are doing is booking two 1-way flights (IOW that "jaw" between FLL and BCN is way too wide).  

 

But fear not - EZ-Air will have very reasonable pricing.  Book when you can with Flexible fare and then monitor pricing on Princess website.  Also, note that a domestic North American one-way between Toronto and Florida is not going to be overly expensive as it is the overseas flights where the airlines get you.  That said, you should still save a small amount with EZ-Air and the big advantage is you will have a Flexible booking whereas if you book with the airline for the similar pricing, you will have a Restricted ticket with expensive change & cancel fees.

Edited September 16, 2019 by steelers36

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Lady Arwen said:

We've booked Enchanted Princess T/A for April 2021.  Our first T/A and wondering if E-Z air has less expensive flights than the airlines.  We would be flying Toronto-Ft. Lauderdale and Barcelona-Toronto.  Long time cruisers with Princess and used E-Z air for roundtrip flights in the US and Europe and found them to be a lot less expensive., but, I know these types of flights can be pricey.

 

Any info would be much appreciated.  Thank you!

Normally I book the Europe flight one way and find good prices on my own for the US and or Canada flight.

Try it both ways and see how the prices are. Then once booked keep checking for lower prices to refare if need be.

 

IE:flights to Den-Rome for the Sky TA are currently $331 one way. Cant beat that with a stick!

Return flight from FLL-Den are $800 one way!

[Micahs Grandad]

We have had great success with ez air

[jasbo49]

1 hour ago, steelers36 said:

This is not an open-jaw booking.  An example of an open-jaw booking would be Toronto-London and Rome-Toronto for a hypothetical cruise from London to Rome.  What you are doing is booking two 1-way flights (IOW that "jaw" between FLL and BCN is way too wide).  

 

 

I guess I'm not clear on the terminology. What I do know is that last year we booked EZair from Oregon to FLL, then home again from Barcelona after a TA and the rate was way better than anything I could get through the airlines. I've had similar experiences with other EZair bookings.

 

Jim

[Lady Arwen]

Thanks everyone for your advice.  We did a mock booking for a similar trans-Atlantic cruise in spring 2020 and the air fare with the airlines was almost $6000.00 (Ca. $)!!!  Hoping E-Z Air can give us those flights for alot less.  I won't pay as much for air as I pay for a 14 night cruise!  Yes, paying in Canadian dollars also makes it so much more expensive for us.
 

[Lady Arwen]

7 minutes ago, jasbo49 said:

 

I guess I'm not clear on the terminology. What I do know is that last year we booked EZair from Oregon to FLL, then home again from Barcelona after a TA and the rate was way better than anything I could get through the airlines. I've had similar experiences with other EZair bookings.

 

Jim

Thanks, Jim!  Just what I wanted to hear....fingers crossed for us!  Since our cruise isn't until April 2021, we have to wait quite a long time before perusing air.

[Astro Flyer]

54 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Normally I book the Europe flight one way and find good prices on my own for the US and or Canada flight.

Try it both ways and see how the prices are. Then once booked keep checking for lower prices to refare if need be.

 

IE:flights to Den-Rome for the Sky TA are currently $331 one way. Cant beat that with a stick!

Return flight from FLL-Den are $800 one way!

 

Keith...I have a stick. ☺️

 

It’s not a non-stop but one stop (LAX/PHL/FCO) late next month...Flexible EZair Economy $171. 

 

And like you we’ve found the domestic US flights such as FLL/LAX EZair flights to be more expensive than flying to Europe.  So we shop around or will us FF miles for domestic flights.

[lola2013]

At the risk of hijacking this thread, I have a couple of related EZAir questions.....

 

I am booked on the Enchanted Princess TA from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale in November, 2021.  If use EZAir, am I able to select seats to make sure I have an aisle?  Or do I get what they give me?  Do I have my choice of days to fly (we will definitely want to arrive in Rome at least a couple of days pre-cruise)?  Do they do non-stop flights?  We just did the Med earlier this summer; and the best fare from ORD to Rome was through Dublin.  

 

I am all for saving some $$$, but I am a very bad flyer (aka "white knuckle") and the aisle saves my sanity!  

 

Thanks,

Susan

[Colo Cruiser]

15 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

 

Keith...I have a stick. ☺️

 

It’s not a non-stop but one stop (LAX/PHL/FCO) late next month...Flexible EZair Economy $171. 

 

And like you we’ve found the domestic US flights such as FLL/LAX EZair flights to be more expensive than flying to Europe.  So we shop around or will us FF miles for domestic flights.

Well Frank I should have said my stick.

All of my choices unless to London/Munich/Frankfurt have at least 1 stop.

 

[lakes15]

3 hours ago, jasbo49 said:

EZair is great for that. And it doesn't seem like you pay a nickel more for the open-jaw flights.

 

A couple times it was so cheap we treated ourselves to business class.

 

Jim

Are you thinking of using EZair for the TA in Nov 5th?  We are going to out of Boston ,but we would like to go business.  Let me know if you find something.  stewagra5@aol.com 

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

Thanks everyone for your advice.  We did a mock booking for a similar trans-Atlantic cruise in spring 2020 and the air fare with the airlines was almost $6000.00 (Ca. $)!!!  Hoping E-Z Air can give us those flights for a lot less.  I won't pay as much for air as I pay for a 14 night cruise!  Yes, paying in Canadian dollars also makes it so much more expensive for us.
 

We are doing an extended trip in fall 2020 (Regal from Southampton to Singapore via Med & Dubai).  I did some price shopping for fall 2019 a while back using a similar cruise itinerary and was frankly AMAZED at the EZ-Air pricing.  I had read about it here on CC, but had never had this type of cruise before (overseas where we could use EZ-Air).  When you see the pricing, you will believe it.  I have a calendar note as to the day flight booking opens for our trip in EZ-Air and looking forward to see what I can get.

 

PS - Either you book the flight in USD and pay the exchange (or use existing US funds in your bank) or you book in CAD and it is already converted - same difference pretty much.  Our Princess bookings are all in USD as I use a discount TA company which is US-based.  Therefore, my EZ-Air flights were quoted in USD since it align with cruise portfolio. 

 

That said, you will know when we shop on Princess website from Canada, we are only shown CAD cruise fares (grrrr) and if you do some EZ-Air mock bookings they are in CAD also.  For EZ-Air, they are using a market exchange rate that varies by the day and not the fixed rate Princess uses for converting cruise fares (currently 1.30).  So that would be similar to shopping say on Delta website and pricing in CAD versus USD.  That airfare you quoted is equally bad in USD as it is in CAD!!!

 

ETA - When flying overseas, it may make financial sense to make a connection in the USA since airfares are generally much less there.  You may have those options in EZ-Air to check out.

 

Edited September 16, 2019 by steelers36

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, lola2013 said:

At the risk of hijacking this thread, I have a couple of related EZAir questions.....

 

I am booked on the Enchanted Princess TA from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale in November, 2021.  If use EZAir, am I able to select seats to make sure I have an aisle?  Or do I get what they give me?  Do I have my choice of days to fly (we will definitely want to arrive in Rome at least a couple of days pre-cruise)?  Do they do non-stop flights?  We just did the Med earlier this summer; and the best fare from ORD to Rome was through Dublin.  

 

I am all for saving some $$$, but I am a very bad flyer (aka "white knuckle") and the aisle saves my sanity!  

 

Thanks,

Susan

Generally, you can select seats for an EZ-Air booking.  You can do it right within EZ-Air for some airlines.  For others, you have to contact the airline (this is because those seats selections cost an extra fee).  Some airlines will not let you select seats until you are ticketed.  Princess doesn't usually ticket the reservation until around 45 days out (well after you have paid for the flights).  You can ask Princess/EZ-Air to ticket you whenever you have paid, but your reservation then becomes Restricted and changes/cancellations are subject to airline rules and regs and fees.

 

EZ-Air offers both non-stop and stopover flights - assuming of course that there are actual non-stop flights from A to B.  It's up to you to decide if you want to pay more to fly direct or save money with stopover.  It is possible that a direct flight won't be more expensive than all connection options.  Consumer choice.

 

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

Thanks, Jim!  Just what I wanted to hear....fingers crossed for us!  Since our cruise isn't until April 2021, we have to wait quite a long time before perusing air.

Try shopping on Princess and find the same cruise itinerary around April 2020.  Then use the FLIGHT QUOTES link to shop with EZ-Air and you might be able to get an idea of fares for that time frame compared to what airlines offer and give you an idea of what to expect for the following year.  Of course expect prices to increase, but I found this helped give me an idea when figuring out what our future trip may cost in total.

[Thrak]

We are flying from Sacramento to London next month. As we have to fly "cattle class" I wanted a nicer plane so looked at booking Virgin Atlantic. No matter where I looked - and I checked every cheap airline booking place one can find - the cheapest flight was over $3,500 per person for a one way flight on that airline. Then I checked EZ Air and booked the exact same flight numbers for $306 per person. Less than 10% of the cost anywhere else. I am totally sold on EZ air - at least for international flights.

[Lady Arwen]

18 minutes ago, Thrak said:

We are flying from Sacramento to London next month. As we have to fly "cattle class" I wanted a nicer plane so looked at booking Virgin Atlantic. No matter where I looked - and I checked every cheap airline booking place one can find - the cheapest flight was over $3,500 per person for a one way flight on that airline. Then I checked EZ Air and booked the exact same flight numbers for $306 per person. Less than 10% of the cost anywhere else. I am totally sold on EZ air - at least for international flights.

Wow!  What a savings!  I'm hoping that we can do as well as you.  We have used EZ Air for a few Caribbean, Mexico and Pacific coast cruises in the past and the fares were quite favourable.  I didn't expect EZ Air to offer such good prices on a TA cruise.  Thank you for sharing!

[AF-1]

Thrak,  you got a great deal.  Have fun on your crossing

[KruzPrincess]

Yes, but don’t wait too long. I have had low prices that surprised me. I just booked a cruise where I have to fly to London in May. The ship is well sold and the non-stop flight I want is nearly full. I ended up paying only $100 less than what I could have booked direct. I’m still going with EZ Air for the other benefits. I have a friend who got open jaw tickets for Panama Canal cruise for $29 each. That’s not a typo. $29. Non-stop both ways. After you book you can watch for price drops which I can’t do with my regular airline. 

Edited September 16, 2019 by KruzPrincess

[Lady Arwen]

23 minutes ago, KruzPrincess said:

Yes, but don’t wait too long. I have had low prices that surprised me. I just booked a cruise where I have to fly to London in May. The ship is well sold and the non-stop flight I want is nearly full. I ended up paying only $100 less than what I could have booked direct. I’m still going with EZ Air for the other benefits. I have a friend who got open jaw tickets for Panama Canal cruise for $29 each. That’s not a typo. $29. Non-stop both ways. After you book you can watch for price drops which I can’t do with my regular airline. 

Well, my jaw just dropped!  Darn close to being free flights!!  I don't think we can expect anything that good!  We'll just have to wait til fares are released......about 330-345 days in advance.  For us that means not until May/June 2020.  We're prepared to  book our air immediately on release and then watch for price drops.  Thank you for sharing this story!

[jasbo49]

23 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Well, my jaw just dropped!  Darn close to being free flights!!  I don't think we can expect anything that good!

 

No, you probably can't expect anything as joyous as the most extreme examples we're seeing here, but you can expect to do a lot better than through the airlines.

 

Just for hoots, I went to the Delta site and priced our April-May 2020 trip, which includes land time and a 7-day cruise (Italy and Greece), and found Delta wanted more than twice what we booked for in business class.

 

Cruise after cruise, I don't see anyone coming close to EZair prices, and best of all you're flexible until 45 days before your flight departure.

 

Jim

[lola2013]

16 hours ago, steelers36 said:

Generally, you can select seats for an EZ-Air booking.  You can do it right within EZ-Air for some airlines.  For others, you have to contact the airline (this is because those seats selections cost an extra fee).  Some airlines will not let you select seats until you are ticketed.  Princess doesn't usually ticket the reservation until around 45 days out (well after you have paid for the flights).  You can ask Princess/EZ-Air to ticket you whenever you have paid, but your reservation then becomes Restricted and changes/cancellations are subject to airline rules and regs and fees.

 

EZ-Air offers both non-stop and stopover flights - assuming of course that there are actual non-stop flights from A to B.  It's up to you to decide if you want to pay more to fly direct or save money with stopover.  It is possible that a direct flight won't be more expensive than all connection options.  Consumer choice.

 

Thanks for the info.

[Lady Arwen]

So, I just did mock bookings for April/May 2020 Trans-Atlantics to see what airfares are being offered.  I cannot believe how inexpensive these fares are with Princess.  Toronto-Ft. Lauderdale-Copenhagen-Toronto is $895.00 (Canadian) total for 2 people!!!!  What!!!!  Others were in the area of $1000.00 for two!  I'm now so excited to see what our fares will be for our TA in 2021!

[jenf22]

We just booked EZAir flights for $485 per person roundtrip from Denver to London in June 2020.  I could not believe the price.  And it doesn't look like I pay anything now.  I don't have to pay until I pay off the cruise, is that right?  I've never used EZAir before, but I am amazed by the prices!