Flight Ease Basics

[BaltimoreCruise]

If I'm on the wrong part of the Boards please direct me to the correct Board.  We are scheduled for a September 2020 Great Alaskan Explorer cruise on the Maasdam.  I'm just now looking into flights from Baltimore to Vancouver. I've checked the airline sites and Flight Ease.  Flight Ease has great prices and a decent flight selection, but I'm not certain how to proceed.  When I select Flex fares, then go to select a seat, there are no seats available.  Is this because they get assigned later by the airline? Maybe when we pay the full cruise fare?  Can I upgrade the seats using Flight Ease so that a selection can be made now?  Do I have to call to do that?  Are the Flight Ease people knowledgeable?

 

I'm currently looking at Air Canada flights.

 

This is my first experience with booking air with Flight Ease.  I've read many good things about the service in the past, but my skill for searching the HAL board is limited.

 

Your experience, tips, etc. is very much appreciated.

 

Thank  you.

BaltimoreCruise    

[janmcn]

My experience was that I couldn't book seats until I paid for the flight, so, since I wanted specific seats (and it's a longhaul flight to Venice) I booked them and paid for them (via my TA), so I was able to make my seat selection. (As well as guaranteeing no price increase.). The fine print says that the fare is not guaranteed until payment has been made, but from my research here, nobody has had that happen. However, I did want to choose specific seats.

 

[renee00]

It depends on the airline. Some will let you select seats right when you book; others make you wait until you've paid in full. I've used Delta/KLM and they let me select seats with my flight info after booking with Flight Ease. I don't know about Air Canada though.

[mrmoviezombie]

I've also seen that FlightEase wasn't able to select the seat, but the airline website allowed selecting the seat.

 

You have to get the real airline locator code. Not the HAL one, the one for the airline which is sometimes different, look at the specific flight line items on the confirmation. With that you can sometimes pull up the booking and select seats (or pay to select seats) before paying in full. As well as doing your meal and any special service selections.

[TAD2005]

Seat selection does depend on the airline.   We booked a one-way TPA to AMS in December 2019 for a departure on Sept 29, 2020,  300 days away from the flight, using Delta, and we were able to select our seats, without paying for the flight until July 2020, when the cruise fare is due.   We have booked a R/T TPA to SAN on American 6 months out from the flight and still was able to select seats.   On one flight to Venice, we booked United to IAD, then connecting to Geneva on United.  The final leg was on Swiss and we could not select seats until 24 hours before the flight.   So, it is all airline dependent for record locators and seat selection.   With all of our Flight Ease booked flights, we have never received a fare increase,  even though the fares went up by many hundred of dollars between booking and final payment date.