Clarification on EZ Air price reduction

[cr8tiv1]

First time using EZ Air.  I like the idea that I can watch and change fares.  I live chatted with a Princess agent on Sunday (of course...always on a Sunday...).  He was able to reduce my fare after I made final payment.  Now the fun begins.

 

24 hours later, and new fare is not showing up in personalizer.   Agent said it is handled by a different department and will get to it when they get to it.  Live chatted again today.  Same agent.  He verified that I have "new reduced fare".  Here is where it gets fuzzy.

 

1.  Decrease in airfare is automatically reduced.  Huh?  Then why did I have to contact Princess to reduce it manually?

2.  Contact my Travel Agent?  I made the EZ Air arrangements, TA made the payment for me.  Is this really out of my control?  But was allowed to ask for reduction.

3.  When will I see new fare in my Personalizer?  Paranoid that I erased original booking or changed something I shouldn't have.

 

Mahalo to all those who are experts on EZ Air.  

 

Sunday's conversation:

 

Agent

Thank you for waiting. Please note that new air fare will be applied to your booking automatically. For now, I recommend to wait for the adjustment since this is being worked on by a different team. For refund, please contact your travel agent to process this once airfare is adjusted.

 

Me  

Confirming....you cancelled previous. Rebooked new under $269.56 divided by 2?

Refund to credit card? I have to repay Travel agent?

:

Agent

Cancelling a flight is not required. We also cannot cancel the flight since this is a travel agency booking. Our access to this type of booking is very limited. Refund will be processed to the card that was used to process the payment. However, it needs to be triggered manually that's why you need to contact your travel agent once airfare is adjusted.

The only fare that will adjust is the air fare. As of now, we don't have a timeframe for this apologies, this can be processed anytime depending on the relevant team's workload.

I understand. Don't worry as rebooking is flight is not required to get the adjusted fare. 

TODAY  same live chat agent

Thank you for waiting. The booking within final payment no need to adjust the air fare if there's a decrease. It will be automatically applied to your booking. Therefore, you only need to wait for the adjustment to happen. Since this is a travel agency booking, our air team won't be able to access the financial part of your booking. You can contact your travel agent and your travel agent will contact a specialist in princess that can handle travel agency bookings.

 

Me

This is the first time I am using EZ Air. Let me get this correct. I paid for EZAir when I did final booking. IF fare should drop, I would "automatically" receive new reduced air fare. Then my TA needs to contact a specialist (WHO) at Princess.

 

That's correct. After the adjustment, there will be an overpayment and your travel agent needs to request for refund.

 

Me

If there is another price drop, will I need to contact Princess again or as you say, it should be automatic?

 

It will be applied automatically.

[beg3yrs]

1) I have never seen an automatic price drop nor have I seen a feature like that mentioned in the EZair documentation. I've always had to monitor it myself and do the rebook via the EZair interface.

2) My TA is almost never involved in this process other than to forward emails from Princess (if he gets them). I suppose if you're after final payment but before 45 days from departure, your TA might have to get involved if funds are to be returned.

3) The only time I ever had to make a change via phone (it wasn't a price drop but a rebooking of flights due to an airline cancellation) I saw the change on the website immediately.

[NavyVeteran]

I have also never seen any evidence of an automatic reduction in fare.

 

If before the 45 day deadline, you should be able to get a new fare by rebooking using the Cruise Personalizer. You have to rebook both halves of a round trip (if you originally booked a round trip), so it works only if the total cost went down. This is one advantage of booking a B2B, since each direction is booked on a separate cruise on a B2B. Your Travel Agent is not involved - you do the entire process in the Cruise Personalizer.

 

The confirmation you receive when rebooking air before confirming the change will show the fare difference. Make sure to make a copy of that screen.

 

You will need to contact your Travel Agent (if you used one) to get an updated invoice after rebooking your air. If you book through a Travel Agent, you cannot see your invoice online. When booking direct, I have found that I needed to call Princess to request the refund after completing the air change, so I would expect you would need to contact your Travel Agent.

[cr8tiv1]

Thank you both.  

 

Problem #1.  I can't see change on my folio.  TA isn't able to see new invoice (sent me older one). I don't dare cancel and refare since fare is paid in full (outside of 45 days).  No option to refare without cancelling.  

 

And of course, Princess website is down again.

[LACruiser88]

We frequently use EZ Air for our international flights.  We have never made any changes to the flights after final payment.  I'm curious to hear your outcome.

[Ombud]

I have manually made flight changes after final payment up to 45 days before the flight but I HAVE MADE MANUAL CHANGES. It shows up as a credit on my booking and then it's refunded within a few days. FCC will be the accounting deposit 1st choice.

 

EZAIR Dept has never passed the savings on to me.

[cr8tiv1]

Problem resolved.  Reached a live agent at 800 Princess.  Amazing....listened to menu, waited for EZ Air.  30 minutes later, Paul from Seattle comes on the phone.  "Just" an agent/not EZ Air.

 

I told him my story.  He fixed my re-fare.  It showed up immediately with new booking number.  So EVERYTHING that live chat agent told me was WRONG.

 

Paul cancelled original booking.  Re-fared, credit card will be refunded the difference.  No need for TA intervention.  New booking number.  No, new (lower) fares ARE NOT automatically applied.  

 

WOW, just WOW.  

 

Thank you @beg3yrs and @NavyVeteran for prompting me to make the dreaded phone call to Princess.  

[cr8tiv1]

I'm back.  More confused.  Credit card was charge for air fare.  No record on airline website.  What's this "ticketed" number?  How come they get to hold on to my monies without getting my goods?  Forgot to ask about this.  

[Coral]

OMG - I had an air reduction right before COVID hit. This was a nightmare as I don't think it was processed properly. I kept telling Princess they owed me extra money as there was an airfare adjustment and they didn't get it. They refunded the money but said it was a cruise refund. This is bringing back nightmares.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Coral

[cr8tiv1]

@CoralI am so sorry that my problems are bringing back nightmares that have been buried and forgotten.  

 

I am confident that Paul did all the right steps and I am good to go.  Now, to wait for my ticket.

[VaCruzers]

We booked through EZ Air for an afternoon JetBlue flight for embarkation port. We are now 27 days from sailing and wanted to change to a morning flight. Yesterday (28 days out), I was able to change the flght on JetBlue's website and got confirmation of the new flight, seat selection and a small credit to the JetBlue travel bank. We only changed the first flight, not the return. These are non-stop flights between origination and destination. This change is not showing in our personalizer, but honestly, so long as the airline has the correct info, I think we are good. Am I mistaken in this line of thinking?

[Steelers36]

17 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

First time using EZ Air.  I like the idea that I can watch and change fares.  I live chatted with a Princess agent on Sunday (of course...always on a Sunday...).  He was able to reduce my fare after I made final payment.  Now the fun begins.

 

24 hours later, and new fare is not showing up in personalizer.   Agent said it is handled by a different department and will get to it when they get to it.  Live chatted again today.  Same agent.  He verified that I have "new reduced fare".  Here is where it gets fuzzy.

 

1.  Decrease in airfare is automatically reduced.  Huh?  Then why did I have to contact Princess to reduce it manually?

2.  Contact my Travel Agent?  I made the EZ Air arrangements, TA made the payment for me.  Is this really out of my control?  But was allowed to ask for reduction.

3.  When will I see new fare in my Personalizer?  Paranoid that I erased original booking or changed something I shouldn't have.

 

Mahalo to all those who are experts on EZ Air.  

 

Sunday's conversation:

 

Agent

Thank you for waiting. Please note that new air fare will be applied to your booking automatically. For now, I recommend to wait for the adjustment since this is being worked on by a different team. For refund, please contact your travel agent to process this once airfare is adjusted.

 

Me  

Confirming....you cancelled previous. Rebooked new under $269.56 divided by 2?

Refund to credit card? I have to repay Travel agent?

:

Agent

Cancelling a flight is not required. We also cannot cancel the flight since this is a travel agency booking. Our access to this type of booking is very limited. Refund will be processed to the card that was used to process the payment. However, it needs to be triggered manually that's why you need to contact your travel agent once airfare is adjusted.

The only fare that will adjust is the air fare. As of now, we don't have a timeframe for this apologies, this can be processed anytime depending on the relevant team's workload.

I understand. Don't worry as rebooking is flight is not required to get the adjusted fare. 

TODAY  same live chat agent

Thank you for waiting. The booking within final payment no need to adjust the air fare if there's a decrease. It will be automatically applied to your booking. Therefore, you only need to wait for the adjustment to happen. Since this is a travel agency booking, our air team won't be able to access the financial part of your booking. You can contact your travel agent and your travel agent will contact a specialist in princess that can handle travel agency bookings.

 

Me

This is the first time I am using EZ Air. Let me get this correct. I paid for EZAir when I did final booking. IF fare should drop, I would "automatically" receive new reduced air fare. Then my TA needs to contact a specialist (WHO) at Princess.

 

That's correct. After the adjustment, there will be an overpayment and your travel agent needs to request for refund.

 

Me

If there is another price drop, will I need to contact Princess again or as you say, it should be automatic?

 

It will be applied automatically.

What the rep is try to tell you is that the new airfare will automatically update your booking and create a credit balance.  Once that step is done, then you - or agent - has to request a refund.  Now, if you are handling all your own EZ-Air - which is perfectly fine with a TA cruise booking - then you ought to be able to get the refund processed.  But, I have not had this situation happen after FP Date, so if TA has to call, nothing to be done.  I would be trying it myself first. 

 

No one is going to re-book your actual airline reservation to a lower or higher fare - unless one or more flights are cancelled by airline.  It is up to us to seek out fare reductions using EZ-Air and re-book.  I have been doing this lately as the fare dropped a bit at a time for our return flights home and when I checked again yesterday, they are up $300 now.  I caught the very bottom and I am not expecting a fare drop after FP Date (a week or so from now).

 

 

[Steelers36]

15 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Thank you both.  

 

Problem #1.  I can't see change on my folio.  TA isn't able to see new invoice (sent me older one). I don't dare cancel and refare since fare is paid in full (outside of 45 days).  No option to refare without cancelling.  

 

And of course, Princess website is down again.

Re-faring your cruise is distinct from re-faring the airfare.  The latter can be done anytime up to ticketing the flights.  The former can be done without affecting airfare IF (BIG IF) the original booking is retained while you get the new cruise fare.  If the cruise booking has to be canceled and re-booked in order to get a new cruise promotion, your EZ-Air booking is also canceled, so you should know if same flights and price are still there before changing the cruise booking because an increase in airfare could wipe out the savings on the cruise fare.  All you can do is ask if air booking can be preserved, but do not expect a YES if the old booking is being canceled.

 

[cr8tiv1]

@Steelers36

 

I think I finally have it straight in my head although I may not have verbally/written coherently on CC.

 

The information that the Live Chat agent gave me was all wrong.  That is why it never showed up on my personalizer.  He "said" he changed my fare, but evidence never proved that.  

 

When I did contact Princess 800 agent, he was very clear on what I could/could not do.  Because I was working with a Travel Agent, he could not help me with anything to do with the cruise fare.  I was fine with that.  I had booked EZ Air on my own (although TA processed payment).  That seemed to be the key of why I could manage the fares.  

 

Being my first time with EZ Air, I did not want to do anything on my own (computer).  Hence reaching out first to Live Chat since it was a Sunday.  That was a useless exercise...twice (Sunday/Monday).  Princess phone agent re-fared my airline, processed the refund credit (drop in airfare) to original card, AND gave me a new booking number.  

 

He was not going to let me off the phone until I saw the new fare in my personalizer and received an updated invoice for EZ Air.  And until I was satisfied and had no more questions.  Well, I didn't then but do now.

 

Question:  When will I see the actual (e) ticket?  Princess has my funds.  I can "see" the reservations on Princess and "sort of" on the airline website with a few disclosures.  Flight is not full so really don't have any immediate concerns.  I see on Princess something about 45 days out.  I am guessing that is when I will "see" an actual ticket.  

[beg3yrs]

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

@Steelers36

 

I think I finally have it straight in my head although I may not have verbally/written coherently on CC.

 

The information that the Live Chat agent gave me was all wrong.  That is why it never showed up on my personalizer.  He "said" he changed my fare, but evidence never proved that.  

 

When I did contact Princess 800 agent, he was very clear on what I could/could not do.  Because I was working with a Travel Agent, he could not help me with anything to do with the cruise fare.  I was fine with that.  I had booked EZ Air on my own (although TA processed payment).  That seemed to be the key of why I could manage the fares.  

 

Being my first time with EZ Air, I did not want to do anything on my own (computer).  Hence reaching out first to Live Chat since it was a Sunday.  That was a useless exercise...twice (Sunday/Monday).  Princess phone agent re-fared my airline, processed the refund credit (drop in airfare) to original card, AND gave me a new booking number.  

 

He was not going to let me off the phone until I saw the new fare in my personalizer and received an updated invoice for EZ Air.  And until I was satisfied and had no more questions.  Well, I didn't then but do now.

 

Question:  When will I see the actual (e) ticket?  Princess has my funds.  I can "see" the reservations on Princess and "sort of" on the airline website with a few disclosures.  Flight is not full so really don't have any immediate concerns.  I see on Princess something about 45 days out.  I am guessing that is when I will "see" an actual ticket.  

Most reports are that you'll get a ticket number about 30 days before departure. Your mileage may vary a bit. Princess uses the 45 day number to not allow you to make any more changes although I've seen at least one report that indicates changes have been made by some up until actual ticketing.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

@Steelers36

 

I think I finally have it straight in my head although I may not have verbally/written coherently on CC.

 

The information that the Live Chat agent gave me was all wrong.  That is why it never showed up on my personalizer.  He "said" he changed my fare, but evidence never proved that.  

 

When I did contact Princess 800 agent, he was very clear on what I could/could not do.  Because I was working with a Travel Agent, he could not help me with anything to do with the cruise fare.  I was fine with that.  I had booked EZ Air on my own (although TA processed payment).  That seemed to be the key of why I could manage the fares.  

 

Being my first time with EZ Air, I did not want to do anything on my own (computer).  Hence reaching out first to Live Chat since it was a Sunday.  That was a useless exercise...twice (Sunday/Monday).  Princess phone agent re-fared my airline, processed the refund credit (drop in airfare) to original card, AND gave me a new booking number.  

 

He was not going to let me off the phone until I saw the new fare in my personalizer and received an updated invoice for EZ Air.  And until I was satisfied and had no more questions.  Well, I didn't then but do now.

 

Question:  When will I see the actual (e) ticket?  Princess has my funds.  I can "see" the reservations on Princess and "sort of" on the airline website with a few disclosures.  Flight is not full so really don't have any immediate concerns.  I see on Princess something about 45 days out.  I am guessing that is when I will "see" an actual ticket.  

It was their habit/custom to ticket around the 45 day mark.  Reports suggest they have been deferring this to the consternation of many guests (of course, Princess never communicated this change).  So, some people are getting ticketed late.  This may affect ability to make seat selections, depending on airline booked with, fare class booked, airline frequent flyer status. 

 

I am not taking any chances and will be asking for early ticketing.  I believe once the 45 days has passed, you cannot self-serve the request in EZ-Air and would have to call in and get an EZ_Air rep to do it.  I also have no idea how quickly an online Early Ticket request is acted on.  

 

But I am about to try it for our outbound (return is a bit later).

 

[cr8tiv1]

Thank you,

 

I will monitor the airline site for a few more weeks.  Then request early ticketing.  From what I understand from @Steelers36and @beg3yrs that adjusting EZ Air after the 45 days is difficult if not impossible.  I'll give up the few extra dollars to know that I have the ticket in my hand.

 

Seating isn't an issue.  Right now, the airline is charging for pre-assigning seats.  Seats are "free" at check in.  Lots of seats, short flight.

Edited July 19, 2022 by cr8tiv1

[SomewhereGirl]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I also have no idea how quickly an online Early Ticket request is acted on.  

 

 

A couple weeks ago I requested early ticketing and the ticket had been issued when I checked back online within 3 hours.  When I requested early ticketing the website advised it would be done within 72 hours.  And when I requested early ticketing for some reason my total price went down $5.20 even though I hadn't made any changes. So then I had this credit on my reservation and because of this thread I went online to chat yesterday to request that be refunded.  Prior to that when I found an airfare price drop, that credit on my reservation was applied to an airport transfer I had added.  It's too bad all monies don't go to the same place so it can be used for onboard gifts and stuff.

Edited July 19, 2022 by SomewhereGirl