Regarding EZAir and American Airlines seats

[hapster85]

Our upcoming Alaskan cruisetour is my first experience with EZAir, but from what I've read, people are usually able to select seats on American. Has anyone who has booked American recently been able to do so? Booked this morning, and used the confirmation code on both the AA app and website, but am unable to select seats in either place. An alert on the AA site says to "Contact reservations or call your travel agent to ticket and pay for your trip."

 

I know the flights aren't actually ticketed until 45 days out, unless requested and paid for earlier. American is just the return leg. Outbound is on Delta. Selected seats there with no issues. It's not the end of the world if I haven't to wait, of course. 

[Ombud]

Yes BUT it is only available on the Princess desktop site. So if you, like me, do everything on a smartphone do 1 of 2 things:

1. Find a friend who still has a computer and ask for help 

2. (And this can be harder to see)

> Select desktop on phone. It will look a lot different than what we're used to

> Bring up 'Manage Booking' 

 

>Select Travel

 

> Select Add or Modify Flights

 

> Select Request Seats

 

> You can then check it on your American Airlines app .... no I'm not including that screenshot.

 

Hopefully Princess will enter the 21st century and make everything available on the phone soon

 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Ombud

[franktown]

Had no problem selecting seats when I used The Princess website on my desktop 3 weeks ago.  Selected the seats the same time I made the reservations.  They showed on the AA site that evening.

Edited September 22, 2021 by franktown
correct

[Ombud]

3 minutes ago, franktown said:

Had no problem selecting seats when I used The Princess website on my desktop 3 weeks ago.  Selected the seats the same time I made the reservations.  They showed on the AA site that evening.

Yes. It is available on desktops but not the mobile site. A lot of people I know have ditched desktops for smartphones

Edited September 22, 2021 by Ombud

[nini]

I was able to select seats on American flights but this was 3 months ago. I did a mock booking today and the seats for American were totally available for selection.

[Bgwest]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

Yes BUT it is only available on the Princess desktop site. So if you, like me, do everything on a smartphone do 1 of 2 things:

1. Find a friend who still has a computer and ask for help 

2. (And this can be harder to see)

> Select desktop on phone. It will look a lot different than what we're used to

> Bring up 'Manage Booking' 

 

>Select Travel

 

> Select Add or Modify Flights

 

> Select Request Seats

 

> You can then check it on your American Airlines app .... no I'm not including that screenshot.

 

Hopefully Princess will enter the 21st century and make everything available on the phone soon

 

 

@OmbudYou are incredibly, incredibly helpful. This clearly took you some time to post. You are without doubt one of the "good folks"!!

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

Hopefully Princess will enter the 21st century and make everything available on the phone soon

 

 

While I agree with you that the mobile site should include full functionality I really don't think it's a good idea to cut off computer access. I've said in the past that the most valuable thing I learned in High School was touch typing. It made my job immensely easier to be able to just type without looking at the dang keyboard. I am not a good data input operator on the phone. I boggle when I see people like our daughter-in-law who is a super whiz inputting info on the little phone screen. I guess it's down to what you learned and how dexterous you are. I have "old hands" with clumsy fingers and thumbs and arthritis. I much prefer a "real keyboard.

 

Again though, the mobile app shouldn't be lacking features found on the web site. I have found myself at time doing as you suggest for the Princess site - asking for the Desktop version even though I'm on a phone or tablet. I haven't done it for Princess but for some other sites I access on the phone.

[hapster85]

34 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Yes. It is available on desktops but not the mobile site. A lot of people I know have ditched desktops for smartphones

That explains it then. I booked from my desktop, then left for work, figuring I'd select seats when I got there. Just did it successfully from my desktop.

 

Thanks!

[Ombud]

@thraakI agree 100% that whatever is available on the desktop site should be available on the mobile site and visa versa. I'm dumbfounded as to why it isn't 

[hapster85]

18 minutes ago, Ombud said:

@thraakI agree 100% that whatever is available on the desktop site should be available on the mobile site and visa versa. I'm dumbfounded as to why it isn't 

Certainly would have saved me some frustration today.

 

Thanks again for the help!

[franktown]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

Yes. It is available on desktops but not the mobile site. A lot of people I know have ditched desktops for smartphones

I use my smartphone for probably over 90% of the functions I used Desktop for.  I still find the desktop useful for certain functions but have been using my tablet more and more for those functions.

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, Ombud said:

Hopefully Princess will enter the 21st century and make everything available on the phone soon

Okay, but based on recent performance, it will take them until the 22nd century to get it up live and working.

[1965]

I have always had to use my computer to select seats. I thought I just was inept not being able to do it on my android. Glad to know I'm not a nincompoop. Lol.

[ChangeOrder]

It sometimes takes a day before I can take the Princess EZAir booking code, and manage that flight on the airline's website directly. I always recommend that you manage your seats and meal requests and upgrade bids directly on the airline's website, and get it tied to your frequent flyer account with them.

 

Often the seats you request on EZAir are not necessarily live booked with the airline availability. On the airline site you can also see what seats are already blocked or booked, so you have a better chance of booking the aisle in a row where the center is still empty, etc.

 

[Ombud]

I've never had an issue with American or United securing the seat but I check the app anyway. I did with Canadian so I just called them. (I'm phobic that if I wait a day I might be stuck in a window or aisle seat)

[bagney]

I just booked EZ Air for next summer's Canada/New England cruise. I booked American Airlines one way and Delta Airlines on the return. During the EZ Air booking process I put in our airline frequent flyer numbers and chose our seats and completed the process. I then went to the airline websites for both of these airlines and my air bookings for both were already listed with my previously chosen seats. I just made note of the two different booking numbers for my reference later. This has been my experience on every use of EZ Air for flights originating in the US and with US based airlines.

[cruiser1956]

I booked my flights on American Airlines through EZ Air.  I am able to select seats on my flight using my phone.  I do go through the American Airlines App.  Not the Princess App.  

[hapster85]

2 hours ago, cruiser1956 said:

I booked my flights on American Airlines through EZ Air.  I am able to select seats on my flight using my phone.  I do go through the American Airlines App.  Not the Princess App.  

Were you able to do that immediately, or was it delayed? I did get my seats selected as indicated in a previous post, but still can't change them from the AA website or app. 

[Jessejo]

One month ago I booked EZAir for flights for June 22 - rt Albuquerque/London on American.  I was able to choose seats for all flights.  Yesterday I checked Googleflights to see if there were better fares - NO - they had gone up $1,000 per passenger!  No change on the Process website.

[soccergang]

We have booked our flights through EZAir.  We fly from Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale on Delta, and able to choose seats.  The return flight is from London back to Atlanta on American.  I have a lap top and smart phone, and not able to get seats at all on either.  This is the message:  "Seat map is not available, please contact the airline directly to assign seats."  I tried putting in our Advantage numbers, and the locator number on American's site and that didn't work either. I figured it was because final payment has not been made yet.  So, for you folks that have been able to do it, I wish I knew the secret.

[Princess Cruises Fann]

13 minutes ago, soccergang said:

We have booked our flights through EZAir.  We fly from Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale on Delta, and able to choose seats.  The return flight is from London back to Atlanta on American.  I have a lap top and smart phone, and not able to get seats at all on either.  This is the message:  "Seat map is not available, please contact the airline directly to assign seats."  I tried putting in our Advantage numbers, and the locator number on American's site and that didn't work either. I figured it was because final payment has not been made yet.  So, for you folks that have been able to do it, I wish I knew the secret.

Check your booking and see if it is a codeshare. I have American Airlines flights booked through EZ Air, but the flight is operated by British Airlines. I have the confirmation on my American Airlines app, but can't select seats because it is a British Airlines flight, but purchased through American. Having used EZ Air to book international flights several times, I am able to select seats if I book it as a US airline and they are the ones that operate the flight. If it is a codeshare and is a foreign airline then seat selections are not usually available until about 24 hours before. 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

2 hours ago, soccergang said:

We have booked our flights through EZAir.  We fly from Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale on Delta, and able to choose seats.  The return flight is from London back to Atlanta on American.  I have a lap top and smart phone, and not able to get seats at all on either.  This is the message:  "Seat map is not available, please contact the airline directly to assign seats."  I tried putting in our Advantage numbers, and the locator number on American's site and that didn't work either. I figured it was because final payment has not been made yet.  So, for you folks that have been able to do it, I wish I knew the secret.

The LHR-ATL flight is operated by British Airways and sold as an American Airlines code share. Any flight operated by BA follows their seating polices. BA do not offer complimentary seat assignments prior to check in for any class of service.  If you you wish to pre-assign seats you will have to pay a fee.  Additionally BA may not permit the purchase of advance seat assignments until the flights are ticketed by Princess.

[soccergang]

Thank you for the responses, that is exactly the case.

[PRNole47]

I always go thru the air carrier's website for seats. Just find their corresponding booking number listed on the PCL travel summary, pull up my reservation, then "seats" or "change seats" or whatever leads to the seat assignments screen, and either select the seats (if not selected by PCL) or change them to ones more suitable (if already selected by PCL). Just have to have the proper booking number, especially with code share and when connecting with international carriers. Never had a problem, even back in the day when this had to be done by phone.

[ProfMHC]

Codeshares are tricky! I’ve leaned the hard way to be extra careful when booking anything that indicates British Air/American and make sure that it’s truly an American flight that allows for instant seating.