Sapphire Princess 2022 deployment?!

[shirazcruiser]

3 hours ago, LoriPhil said:

FYI:   we cancelled the Royal cruise on the 18th but still haven’t seen the refund on our credit card.  Per Princess rep today, refunds take longer in this case because the original booking doesn’t exist anymore so they are refunding a different cruise, which requires a different manual process.  Ok… but we’ll keep watch and will call again if we don’t see anything by next week.

I used to get refunds within a week, however, I was surprised how long they are taking now. 8-5-21 Princess cancelled another one of my 2022 cruises and I finally got my credit card refund today (47 days).

Edited September 21, 2021 by shirazcruiser

[Thrak]

Today mine says "You do not have any Princess EZair bookings."

 

I did have EZair bookings. I have a copy of the bookings.

[hapster85]

31 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Today mine says "You do not have any Princess EZair bookings."

 

I did have EZair bookings. I have a copy of the bookings.

I know they made at least some progress with it today. I was just able to rebook our flights at a slightly better price.

[compozer]

I also was able to check flights.  They are better connections but a lot more money.

[John99]

@compozer and @hapster85  I was able to book our flights (Delta) to Alaska using EZ Air this evening. The layover at MSP was 1hr 30 minutes which is good.  I agree that air fare is really high compared to other Alaska cruises we've taken.  I made a copy of the bookings for our records.  John

[Thrak]

Hmmm.... I found the same flights we had booked but there is no Flexible Fare available now and even the other fare says it's non-refundable.  It looks odd to me. I wonder if it's still in flux and maybe my booked flights will show up again.

[Skeet100]

On 9/20/2021 at 6:17 PM, hapster85 said:

Yes, and yes.

 

Can't modify them at the moment, though. Nor can new flights be booked. Our return flight originally departed at 1:00pm, but the ship isn't scheduled to reach Vancouver until 9:15am now, so that's out. Hopefully we can find something better than the flight they moved us to. The 5:00pm departure isn't so bad, but the 10:30am next morning arrival, not so much.

I didn’t even think to check to see if arrival time has changed!  Good to know.  How much time should we allow between arrival and flight out?  I’ve only been on one trip that required air travel in the past 30 years! And that was just a couple years ago for a cruise.  Any advice would be appreciated.

[hapster85]

11 hours ago, Skeet100 said:

I didn’t even think to check to see if arrival time has changed!  Good to know.  How much time should we allow between arrival and flight out?  I’ve only been on one trip that required air travel in the past 30 years! And that was just a couple years ago for a cruise.  Any advice would be appreciated.

The cruise line requires a 5 hour window if booking EZ Air. On your own, I'm really not sure. We've only flown home from Vancouver once, in 2015. Hopefully someone with more experience can help. If not in this thread, try the Cruise Air or West Coast Departures forums.

[dgc2861]

18 hours ago, hapster85 said:

I know they made at least some progress with it today. I was just able to rebook our flights at a slightly better price.

Mine seem to about about $100 higher each...ANOTHER call to Princess.

[hapster85]

5 minutes ago, dgc2861 said:

Mine seem to about about $100 higher each...ANOTHER call to Princess.

I rebooked again this morning around 5:30am EDT. By 10:00am the same flight had gone up significantly. Definitely a lot of fluctuation right now.

[ram290]

On 9/20/2021 at 6:10 PM, clan said:

Did any of you book EZ Air?  If so, are your flights showing up on your Travel Summary?  Mine are not there yet.   Makes me nervous!

Princess told me that all EZAIR will be transferred to cruise confirmation by this Friday, the 24th!  Which actually means in TA speak, Monday by Midnight due to the weekend!

[Thrak]

8 minutes ago, ram290 said:

Princess told me that all EZAIR will be transferred to cruise confirmation by this Friday, the 24th!  Which actually means in TA speak, Monday by Midnight due to the weekend!

 

Clarification please.  Did Princess tell you that your originally booked flights would be transferred over to the new booking?

[hapster85]

4 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Clarification please.  Did Princess tell you that your originally booked flights would be transferred over to the new booking?

Can't imagine that that was referring to anything else. They were definitely overly optimistic with the initial 9/17 date, better later and right than sooner and wrong, though.

Edited September 22, 2021 by hapster85

[Thrak]

32 minutes ago, hapster85 said:

Can't imagine that that was referring to anything else. They were definitely overly optimistic with the initial 9/17 date, better later and right than sooner and wrong, though.

 

Thanks.  I called and was told that my flights will move over and to definitely not book new flights. He said to just be patient and it would happen.

[beavismom]

On 9/15/2021 at 8:31 PM, seattlecruiser said:

Hi Beavismom,   I am wondering whether or not you received any news from Princess on switching to the Grand with price protection.  We are in exactly the same situation and are getting close to cancelling if Princess is unwilling to work with us.   Thanks.

 

Sorry for the delay, but I was on vacation.  I still haven't heard a final answer yet.  I checked on it when we got home and supposedly we will know next week.

[ram290]

On 9/22/2021 at 3:16 PM, Thrak said:

 

Clarification please.  Did Princess tell you that your originally booked flights would be transferred over to the new booking?

Yes.  As of today they still have not been transferred, (27th).  My Cruise Vacation Planner follows up with me every few days.  It is just taking longer than expected.

[clan]

3 hours ago, ram290 said:

Yes.  As of today they still have not been transferred, (27th).  My Cruise Vacation Planner follows up with me every few days.  It is just taking longer than expected.

Would you mind letting us know when your flights finally are transferred?  Our flights aren’t transferred yet either and I feel better knowing there are others in the same position!

[georgiacat]

Our flights transferred about a week ago.  I have already changed to a lower rate.

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, georgiacat said:

Our flights transferred about a week ago.  I have already changed to a lower rate.

 

Just checked and our flights still not showing.

[jack dcruiser]

We decided to cancel this cruise.  Elected a Caribbean cruise later in 2022.  Hopefully it will not be cancelled or changed.  Good Luck to all for this cruise.

[clan]

I’m really getting aggravated with Princess. My flights still haven’t been switched to my new reservation, so I decided to call to check. After being on hold for a half hour, I got a rep who told me that we needed to rebook the flights. I finally convinced her that was not correct and asked to speak to a supervisor.  She said she could switch me to Customer Relations, but there would be an hour wait!  Really???

 

I’m hoping this will eventually get straight. Are any of you still waiting for the switch?

[Jawrs]

For those waiting for their refund.  I cancelled the cruise on Sept. 17th and the deposit was put on my credit card Oct 1.  Slow but not too bad.

 

We didn't want to be on the Royal for Alaska but I hope those of you who are going have a wonderful trip.

[compozer]

4 hours ago, clan said:

 She said she could switch me to Customer Relations, but there would be an hour wait!  Really???

 

That is the same thing I was told 1/2 hour before closing.  And then nothing for 3 1/2 hours.

[hapster85]

The only problem I'm still having, is getting our arrival changed to a day earlier. Cruisetour begins on June 26th, we have flights booked for the the 25th. We got my parents' booking updated while still on Sapphire, and it carried over. No clue why updating ours seems to be so difficult.

[hapster85]

Finally made contact this afternoon with a rep who was able to add the extra night in Fairbanks, while I was on the phone with her. Each of the previous calls, the rep filled out a form, saying it should be added within 72 hours. Of course it never was.

 

So happy this is finally taken care of. I know when I started this thread, I was more than a little frustrated by the whole situation, but now that I've had time to adjust, I'm actually excited. It will be our third time cruising Alaska, and probably not our last, so we can deal with sailing west of Vancouver Island this time. The Royal does look like a lovely ship.

 

Hopefully, Princess will finish processing everyone still waiting for changes to be completed, sooner rather than later.