EZair questions

[K.T.B.]

I'm looking for opinions on EZair, as well as information that Princess isn't providing.  I've read some comments that you're unable to pick your seat (which is a no go for me then), so I definitely want to know if that's the case.  However, that probably won't matter as I plan on booking first class as a surprise for my wife (it's our 25th, so I have a few surprises in store for her).  And how are the prices as compared to booking with the airline directly or via a travel site (i.e. Kayak)?

 

So anything anyone can share about their experiences would be greatly appreciated.  I may be 350 days out right now, but I'm getting my ducks in a row, so to speak.  

[riffatsea]

Not true about not picking seats. You book the flight on ez air and then you go to the airline web site to pick the seats. Especially with first class you should not have a problem with that. The only time there is an issue is if the particular airline has a run kml e thatvyou can only pick seats if you book on the airline site. That rule is specific to only some airlines

[franktown]

I just booked a flight on American using ezair and booked my seats on Princess website.   I have never had a problem with booking seats except on a flight BA.  The flight I booked was 91 dollars per person less the AA website and it's flexible meaning I can change or cancel the flight up to 45 days before sailing for a complete refund and if the price goes down I can refare.  You do have to check ezair yourself regularly to see if the price dropped.   

[Steelers36]

Some airlines will not allow seat selection on an EZ-Air booking until the file is ticketed (which is about 45 days prior to flying by default with Princess, but you can ask for early ticketing at which time the booking changes from Flexible to Airline Rules). 

 

Some airlines do allow for a fee, but you have to go to the airline website and access the booking there to select seats.

 

Generally, if booking Business/First class of airfare, seat selection is allowed no problem and for free.

[Hlitner]

Steelers brings up a related issue.  With EZair you can always request "ticketing" which means that the cruise line actually pays the airline and you have a ticketed flight.  There are those who do this so they can get seats (this is especially true with some airline's coach ticketing) just like some folks will happily pay their entire (final payment) for a cruise far in advance of when it is required.  We have long suggested that its not wise to pay for most things until it is necessary.  Well the current cancellation situation has just proved the point.   Folks that had their air ticketed early, and later had their cruises cancelled do not generally get a refund for the EZAIR flights.  Instead they are subject to the usual airline rules which often mean getting a voucher (with lots of restrictions) and they might have to pay a big change fee.  As to those who decided to pay for their cruise early and then had their cruise cancelled, many are still waiting for their refunds (which can take months).

 

Hank

[K.T.B.]

An issue I've seen when reading through posts is some difficulty booking when you're doing a re-positioning cruise and you need to book 2 one-way tickets.  In my case it'll be flying into LA and flying home from Fort Lauderdale.

 

And I definitely will take your advice Hlitner.  Thanks!

[caribill]

a) As pointed out above, you can select seats per the airlines' rules. However, some airlines do not allow seat selection until within 24 hours or the flight or sometimes not until check-in at the airport.

 

b) As to pricing, the EZAir pricing is generally significantly less than airline pricing for international travel and about the same for USA domestic travel. However, if there is any doubt at all in your mind that the cruise may be cancelled by Princess or that you might cancel it before flights are ticketed, EZAir is the way to go so you have not paid for a flight you cannot use. Of course first class flights booked with an airline can often be cancelled with no penalty, economy flights are usually no refund and with change fees that approach or exceed the value of the ticket.

 

c) Although flexible fares are not supposed to be ticketed until 45 days in advance, a flexible fare I had for a now cancelled August cruise is listed on the airline's web site as having been ticketed 118 days in advance.

[Tedferg]

11 hours ago, K.T.B. said:

An issue I've seen when reading through posts is some difficulty booking when you're doing a re-positioning cruise and you need to book 2 one-way tickets.  In my case it'll be flying into LA and flying home from Fort Lauderdale.

 

And I definitely will take your advice Hlitner.  Thanks!

EZ Air allows you to book roundtrip or departure or return. You can also adjust airport in either leg. e.g. we booked out of San Jose but return to SFO, the itinerary was better. You have a lot of flexibility in choosing dates and airports.

[azbirdmom]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

c) Although flexible fares are not supposed to be ticketed until 45 days in advance, a flexible fare I had for a now cancelled August cruise is listed on the airline's web site as having been ticketed 118 days in advance.

 

I ran into this situation on a past flexible EZAir flight too.  I called to find out about it and the rep spoke to their air department who confirmed the following.  Princess sometimes pays one or both ways of a flight to secure certain types of fares.  They are still flexible and you can change them with no penalty up to the 45 day point.  This has now happened to me twice and I did in fact change one with no problems.

[nini]

On EZ Air, I was able to "book" and select our seats on Virgin Atlantic for

our (now cancelled) cruise that was to be this September. Final payment 

was to be in about the beginning of August. The prices were very good.

[K.T.B.]

My cruise is 50 weeks away, so if it's cancelled, then the world is in huge trouble! 

 

But thanks for all the help!

[adstz]

16 hours ago, K.T.B. said:

An issue I've seen when reading through posts is some difficulty booking when you're doing a re-positioning cruise and you need to book 2 one-way tickets.  In my case it'll be flying into LA and flying home from Fort Lauderdale.

 

And I definitely will take your advice Hlitner.  Thanks!

 

I used EZ Air last summer and had no problems. We flew San Francisco to Shannon and home from Heathrow. No problems booking on the Princess website. We flew first class except for a small 2 hour flight going from Heathrow to Shannon.

Just input that where you want each flight to start and end. I booked early and refared at least 2 times to save a lot of money.

Overall, I paid over $2000 less then if I had booked the flights direct.

[deliver42]

Princess actually  pays for it.Picking the seat is by airline. Some let you pick the seat right on EZ AIR, but some won't let you until Princess actually pays for the flight.

[turquoisesea]

We have used EasyAir to Europe and Florida.  Both times we booked as soon as the airlines allowed which I believe is 331 days out from you return flight.  On both occasions the cost went up after we purchased our tickets and EZAir was cheaper.  The biggest difference we found was last September when we booked our flights to Europe which was supposed to be June 29. (Called Princess on the date they had previously given me for booking flights) American Airlines listed the Business Class Sears At $4800 each.  On EZ Air we booked for $3400.  Within a month American and EZAir were over $5000.  So book early, watch the airline website and Princess.  And...American allows you to select your seats as soon as you book with Princess. But DO NOT book an British Air flight flown by American because you can’t pick your seats. 

[K.T.B.]

My cruise is from LA to Fort Lauderdale, so definitely not British Air!  

 

And for my upcoming cruise with Celebrity, I booked through them for the first time ever.  With any cruise line!  The deal I got couldn't be beat.  I generally will book economy.  This time I checked out first class, mainly out of sheer curiosity, and ended up paying about $200 more (in total) than I would have paid for economy if I went through the airline directly.  I was hoping the same might be the case for EZAir and it sounds like that might be the case.  As long as I can have a bit of control with the booking, I'm good.

[Ombud]

On 5/24/2020 at 8:35 PM, K.T.B. said:

An issue I've seen when reading through posts is some difficulty booking when you're doing a re-positioning cruise and you need to book 2 one-way tickets.  In my case it'll be flying into LA and flying home from Fort Lauderdale.

 

And I definitely will take your advice Hlitner.  Thanks!

That's not 2 one-way tickets on EZAIR. It's just fly into 1 and back from another. I do it all the time

[Times Prince]

On 5/24/2020 at 10:35 PM, K.T.B. said:

An issue I've seen when reading through posts is some difficulty booking when you're doing a re-positioning cruise and you need to book 2 one-way tickets.  In my case it'll be flying into LA and flying home from Fort Lauderdale.

 

What you describe is often called an "open jaw" flight.   What I've found is that Princess EZAir beats the airline costs in almost every case because the airlines book it as two costly one-way fares and EZAir books it more like a round trip.   In every case I have booked Princess EZAir.

We have also found that once the booking is confirmed and you get an airline record locator code it is easy to go to the airline's websites and to reserve a seat.  I've done this with United, American, Jet Blue, and Delta.  The only time I've had an issue was when the airline changed aircraft type sometime after booking.  Keeping yourself informed by signing up on the airline sites for email/text notifications for changes is highly recommended.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Times Prince
clarification

[K.T.B.]

6 hours ago, Times Prince said:

What you describe is often called an "open jaw" flight.   What I've found is that Princess EZAir beats the airline costs in almost every case because the airlines book it as two costly one-way fares and EZAir books it more like a round trip.   In every case I have booked Princess EZAir.

We have also found that once the booking is confirmed and you get an airline record locator code it is easy to go to the airline's websites and to reserve a seat.  I've done this with United, American, Jet Blue, and Delta.  The only time I've had an issue was when the airline changed aircraft type sometime after booking.  Keeping yourself informed by signing up on the airline sites for email/text notifications for changes is highly recommended.

 

Which is something I always do, even if booking through a TA when I do an all-inclusive.  

[Hlitner]

At one time, dealing with so-called "Open Jaw" situations could become very expensive.  Most airlines only offered their best pricing for round trip flights.  But, in recent years, this has drastically changed with many airlines now offering similar pricing on one-way flights.  Domestically, in the USA, this was spurred on by Southwest Airlines, Jet Blue, and a few other airlines who started selling one-way fares prices similarly as round trip.  In fact, with Southwest there is seldom any benefit to booking round trip.  Eventually the other domestic airlines were forced to follow suit in order to compete.  International has also changed with many of the airlines offering good pricing on one-ways.   While there are still times when it makes sense to book round trip it now makes sense to carefully shop all the options.  There are quite a few excellent booking engines (such as Kayak, Orbitz, etc) that make finding the best deals somewhat easy.  Just keep in mind that a few airlines such as Southwest will not show-up in some of those booking engines.  That is primarily because airlines like Southwest will not pay commissions to the booking engines and only encourage direct bookings on their own web site.

 

Hank

[Times Prince]

On 5/26/2020 at 8:42 AM, Hlitner said:

At one time, dealing with so-called "Open Jaw" situations could become very expensive.  Most airlines only offered their best pricing for round trip flights.  But, in recent years, this has drastically changed with many airlines now offering similar pricing on one-way flights.  Domestically, in the USA, this was spurred on by Southwest Airlines, Jet Blue, and a few other airlines who started selling one-way fares prices similarly as round trip.  In fact, with Southwest there is seldom any benefit to booking round trip.  Eventually the other domestic airlines were forced to follow suit in order to compete.  International has also changed with many of the airlines offering good pricing on one-ways.   While there are still times when it makes sense to book round trip it now makes sense to carefully shop all the options.  There are quite a few excellent booking engines (such as Kayak, Orbitz, etc) that make finding the best deals somewhat easy.  Just keep in mind that a few airlines such as Southwest will not show-up in some of those booking engines.  That is primarily because airlines like Southwest will not pay commissions to the booking engines and only encourage direct bookings on their own web site.

 

Hank

In addition I have also found that booking direct with airlines can beat the "best" prices offered by booking engines.  When going to a new destination I will check those booking engines to find what airline offers the best fares, and then will go to the airline site to get the flight less expensive.

[MTNestr]

Next April 2021 we are using EZAir to book our return flight from Copenhagen.  This is a TA Repositioning cruise.

 

What are the advantages other than price for using EZAir?  If the arrival of the ship is delayed and we miss our flight does Princess rebook our flight?  If we miss a connection because of a delayed flight or because of customs does Princess rebook the flight?

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, MTNestr said:

Next April 2021 we are using EZAir to book our return flight from Copenhagen.  This is a TA Repositioning cruise.

 

What are the advantages other than price for using EZAir?  If the arrival of the ship is delayed and we miss our flight does Princess rebook our flight?  If we miss a connection because of a delayed flight or because of customs does Princess rebook the flight?

EZAIR often has terrific deals for those of us who prefer Business/First Class.  The cruise lines can often access "P" Fares and other deals not normally available if one books by other methods.  But another huge advantage is that we have already had two cruises cancelled (HAL Westerdam in April and Island Princess in August).  In addition we will likely have our Oct Regal Princess cancelled.   In each of these cases we had Business Class reservations via EZAIR and the flights for these three cruises cost in excess of $20,000!  Our total loss with the cancellations is zero!  No messing with near useless airline vouchers, not fighting for refunds, etc.   Perhaps the best advantage to EZAIR is that the flights are not actually ticketed until about 45 days prior to a cruise.  Until that point one can cancel or change their flights with zero penalties!  

 

As to missed connections, you can call Princess and get to their air folks who will help.  They have an obligation to get you to the cruise without charging you any additional air expense.  But to be honest, we (and many other cruisers) do our best to not get put into this terrible position.  We always fly-in at least a day early and when flying to more distant places (like Asia) we will generally fly-in many days or even weeks early.   If you miss your return flight because the ship is delayed, the cruise line will usually handle the rebooking (at no extra expense to you).   

 

Hank

[polmcs]

Is there a way to see EZAir fares without having a cruise booked? I’m looking at the Spring TA on the Enchanted next year and would need a flight from SAN to FLL and then a flight home again from Spain. The cruise ends in Barcelona, but if possible, we would prefer to fly home from Alicante just down the coast so that my wife can stop in to see her sister for a few days.

 

Looking at open jaw flights on ITA Matrix and Google, flights in business/first are stupidly expensive for what is effectively one domestic itinerary and one transatlantic itinerary. My wife and I can both fly to and from the UK in business over Christmas for what 1 passenger is pricing out for the TA Cruise. EZAir might be the solution, but given the refund situation, I’m loathe to make a booking “just to see” what the airfare might be.

[caribill]

1 hour ago, polmcs said:

Is there a way to see EZAir fares without having a cruise booked?

 

Yes. Bring up the cruise you are interested in on the Princess web site and click on "Flight Quotes". This is on the same line as "Itinerary", "Shore Excursions" .....

[caribill]

5 hours ago, MTNestr said:

What are the advantages other than price for using EZAir?  If the arrival of the ship is delayed and we miss our flight does Princess rebook our flight?  If we miss a connection because of a delayed flight or because of customs does Princess rebook the flight?

 

If the disembarkation will be delayed so that you would miss your flight, Princess will re-book for you. This is especially helpful if the ship arrives a different day or at a different port.

 

If you miss a connection, Princess will tell you first to try to work it out with the airline.