EZair...My flights were cancelled!

[suzyed]

4 minutes ago, NownZen said:

We have had good luck with EZair. This time we paid early so we could choose (and pay for) upgraded seats.

Checking regularly is a good idea. Our flights have been changed twice so far and they are only one way.

Funny thing is that I just mentioned to DH that our flights have had no changes.  Then they got them cancelled by not paying for them.

[hpeabody]

Susan, Pheeeeew I am so happy it worked out well.  Have a great cruise, I leave on Oct 8th on Enchanted and looking forward to getting out of our hot weather here.  Take care and I hope Ian is not too bad for you.

[AllAboardatSea]

EZAir is essentially a travel agency arm of Princess, and use the Sabre GDS when booking flights. What happens when you book flexible flight options is the segments are sold and confirmed, along with a ticket time limit where the airline expects payment and a ticket by X date otherwise the reservation is cancelled. Cruise bookings use negotiated rates, and relaxed ticket time limits.
 

The problem is when schedule changes occur. The airline communicates to Princess with a segment status (WK) saying there’s been a schedule change, and leaves the original segments in a changed status state (UN if the flight booked is cancelled, for example). The booking originator (Princess) has to clean up the PNR, acknowledging the WK status by turning it to confirmed (HK) and removing the UN segment. If that doesn’t happen, you’ll receive errors on Princess’ website when you go to view the itinerary or make changes.

 

Bottom line is Princess EZAir does not work their queues regularly in my experience, and despite what their phone recording says when you call outside of 72 hours, always call and speak to someone if the 45 day mark has passed and the booking isn’t in sync or not ticketed. 

[PacnGoNow]

2 hours ago, malba2366 said:

Yeah they should have....but all kinds of businesses wait until the last minute to pay suppliers to preserve cash on hand and make their books look better.

That’s all well and good but…they don’t miss their deadlines for payment, do they?

 

Problem is, they don’t have enough staff to work the records in that department, evidently.  So, deadlines and expirations are happening.

 

I think the idea that @Steelers36 mentioned would work best.  BEFORE your final deadline of 45 days on EZAIR…

go in your booking and request early ticketing.  There’s probably not going to be any fare reductions anyway, as they seem to go up every time I look at mine.

 

Then, it will be ticketed. You can then JUST deal with schedule changes and not have to worry about your booking being cancelled due to non payment.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

8 hours ago, roxievegas said:

We just returned from a B2B cruise out of NYC.  We are in southern California.  I booked the cruise 11 months out and then booked the flights through EZair as soon as we were allowed.  We had American change our flights - no notice from EZair - but I got that fixed.  I monitored the flights on American every week to make sure that nothing was changed.

We had perfect flights, no delays, no cancellations and everything worked out.

But ....

In the future all of our cruises will be on the West Coast.  It was very stressful checking the flights, worried about problems and it was a long day getting off the ship, getting to the airport, flying home.

 

When I had the problem with American changing the flights, EZair fixed it no problem.  But I told the EZair rep that if anything happened to my flights, seats, etc.  I would cancel everything - I had the insurance.  

 

Hold EZair responsible and get them to correct any problems, if you are not satisfied, contact Princess and tell them that you will cancel.

CA Coastal cruises are perfect.  Just drive to the port and it’s pretty much stress free… I only had one time where there was any type of problem.  I would love some new ports but don’t want the stress of flying at this time.  

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, AllAboardatSea said:

EZAir is essentially a travel agency arm of Princess, and use the Sabre GDS when booking flights. What happens when you book flexible flight options is the segments are sold and confirmed, along with a ticket time limit where the airline expects payment and a ticket by X date otherwise the reservation is cancelled. Cruise bookings use negotiated rates, and relaxed ticket time limits.
 

The problem is when schedule changes occur. The airline communicates to Princess with a segment status (WK) saying there’s been a schedule change, and leaves the original segments in a changed status state (UN if the flight booked is cancelled, for example). The booking originator (Princess) has to clean up the PNR, acknowledging the WK status by turning it to confirmed (HK) and removing the UN segment. If that doesn’t happen, you’ll receive errors on Princess’ website when you go to view the itinerary or make changes.

 

Bottom line is Princess EZAir does not work their queues regularly in my experience, and despite what their phone recording says when you call outside of 72 hours, always call and speak to someone if the 45 day mark has passed and the booking isn’t in sync or not ticketed. 

My exact point.  Not enough staff to work the queues. Even if there was not a schedule change, they are still missing their ticketing deadlines.

[azbirdmom]

They used to pay the airlines around the 45 day mark. Since the “pause “ it’s been closer to 30 days. You can ask for early ticketing provided that the flight info on the Princess website exactly matches the airline website. That rarely happens these days. I used to always use EZAir. But until things settle down I am booking direct. 

[suzyed]

4 hours ago, hpeabody said:

Susan, Pheeeeew I am so happy it worked out well.  Have a great cruise, I leave on Oct 8th on Enchanted and looking forward to getting out of our hot weather here.  Take care and I hope Ian is not too bad for you.

Thanks...time will tell what Ian is going to do!  
Have a great cruise, Holly! 

[suzyed]

2 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

They used to pay the airlines around the 45 day mark. Since the “pause “ it’s been closer to 30 days. You can ask for early ticketing provided that the flight info on the Princess website exactly matches the airline website. That rarely happens these days. I used to always use EZAir. But until things settle down I am booking direct. 

The fare we got was just too good to pass up! And I shopped around to make sure.
There were no schedule changes and the reservation remained the same since the time we booked probably back in March or April. I even remarked to Chuck how unusual that was.  I checked it all the time mostly because I was afraid they would change it and raise the great fare we got.  
I don't know what their time frame is for paying for air but the United rep I spoke with stated that the reservation looked like just a "hold" and when it wasn't paid in a timely manner they cancelled it.
Princess dropped the ball....they had my payment since the middle of July.
Thankfully I was able to get to the right person in the travel department.

[suzyed]

All good now...I posted as a cautionary tale.  

[Ombud]

6 hours ago, malba2366 said:

7 hours ago, suzyed said:

THEY should have paid for them after I paid them!  I tried getting e-tickets earlier and they were not available yet.  Our flights were there a week ago and then poof! they disappeared!

 

Yeah they should have....but all kinds of businesses wait until the last minute to pay suppliers to preserve cash on hand and make their books look better.

I thought only restricted air was paid when the customer paid. Flexible air could be changed by customer because it hadn't been ticketed or paid yet. Am I wrong? 

 

Glad its straightened out!! 

[azbirdmom]

14 minutes ago, suzyed said:

The fare we got was just too good to pass up! And I shopped around to make sure.
There were no schedule changes and the reservation remained the same since the time we booked probably back in March or April. I even remarked to Chuck how unusual that was.  I checked it all the time mostly because I was afraid they would change it and raise the great fare we got.  
I don't know what their time frame is for paying for air but the United rep I spoke with stated that the reservation looked like just a "hold" and when it wasn't paid in a timely manner they cancelled it.
Princess dropped the ball....they had my payment since the middle of July.
Thankfully I was able to get to the right person in the travel department.

Glad you were on top of it and that Princess made it right. And I hope Princess will fix the EZAir problems so this stops happening to folks like you. 

[suzyed]

2 minutes ago, Ombud said:

I thought only restricted air was paid when the customer paid. Flexible air could be changed by customer because it hadn't been ticketed or paid yet. Am I wrong? 

 

Glad its straightened out!! 

I have no idea but if you make and pay for a reservation at some point Princess should pay for it and not leave the customer high and dry.

[beg3yrs]

So I just checked our EZAir for a return from Buenos Aires on Feb 5. It's gone from the Princess website but still shows on AA.com. The Princess travel page also claims that it's too soon to book EZAir as the return has to be within 330 days (that's right) but Feb 5 is only about 130 or so days away!

 

The dunderheads in Princess IT have struck again!

 

Should I be worried?

[PacnGoNow]

8 hours ago, suzyed said:

The fare we got was just too good to pass up! And I shopped around to make sure.
There were no schedule changes and the reservation remained the same since the time we booked probably back in March or April. I even remarked to Chuck how unusual that was.  I checked it all the time mostly because I was afraid they would change it and raise the great fare we got.  
I don't know what their time frame is for paying for air but the United rep I spoke with stated that the reservation looked like just a "hold" and when it wasn't paid in a timely manner they cancelled it.
Princess dropped the ball....they had my payment since the middle of July.
Thankfully I was able to get to the right person in the travel department.

Susan, you’re lucky you got your flights back.  Did you ask UA what day it was cancelled?  That is in the history of the booking. Would love to know, as that would tell us what their ticketing time limit is with PCL. That is crucial. Because if we know that, we can make sure it’s ticketed BEFORE the deadline.  Each agreement may vary with the carriers, but a good idea.

 

If you call UA for any reason, please ask. Did they give you a new booking number for UA, or keep the old number?

 

TiA

Prayers for you guys. Stay safe in FL!

 

[Shelly97060]

On 9/27/2022 at 6:58 AM, John99 said:

Princess EZ Air department is causing trouble for cruisers.

Princess has no idea what their doing.

Late Princess payments to airlines (after 45 days) seems to be one of many problems.

After reading this thread, I checked our EZ Air on the Princess website.

Also, I checked Delta website a few minutes later.

Our seats on EZ Air do not agree with Delta website.

Has this happened to anyone else?

 

The flight confirmation numbers still remain the same.

Princess EZ Air:

Delta DTW TO FLL (departure) – seats 32c & 32d

Delta FLL to DTW (return) – seats 34e & 32f

This is wrong.  Why did Princess change our seats?

 

Delta Air website:

Delta DTW to FLL – seats 32c & 32d

Delta FLL to DTW – seats 34d & 34e

This is what we booked 4 months ago.

 

Who do we believe:   Delta Air or Princess?

Our TA is doing a follow-up to clarify.

Bottom line -- If you have EZ Air please check your flight arrangements.

John   

You should rely on the airline information.  Princess sends seat request to the airline but the airline is the final word on seats assigned. Go to the Delta website and if you don’t like the seating you can pick the seats you want.  

Edited September 28, 2022 by Shelly97060

[beg3yrs]

14 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

So I just checked our EZAir for a return from Buenos Aires on Feb 5. It's gone from the Princess website but still shows on AA.com. The Princess travel page also claims that it's too soon to book EZAir as the return has to be within 330 days (that's right) but Feb 5 is only about 130 or so days away!

 

The dunderheads in Princess IT have struck again!

 

Should I be worried?

I'll answer my own question: No. Turns out this cruise (and the preceding one) have a port change for Santiago in Chile. Due to port congestion in San Antonio they are redeploying to Valparaiso. It's not a big deal (Valparaiso is a nicer town though) as it doesn't affect much ... Other than EZAir for some reason having to update their databases making their records inaccessible for a while. Scratching my head because there are no flights from San Antonio or Valparaiso, they are all from Santiago!

[azbirdmom]

15 hours ago, Ombud said:

I thought only restricted air was paid when the customer paid. Flexible air could be changed by customer because it hadn't been ticketed or paid yet. Am I wrong? 

 

Glad its straightened out!! 

Flexible air can be changed by customers up to 45 days prior.  Which is when Princess traditionally paid for the tickets.  As I learned with two experiences post-pause, they haven't been paying the airlines until closer to 30 days out.  And of course for some they've simply fallen into the cracks and not been paid at all.

 

I had listened in on a call with TAs a while back (I'm not a TA by the way) and Princess acknowledged EZAir issues.  They said they were beefing up staff in that area.  And they also said that they had the same number of staff responsible for air as there were prior to the pandemic but it's not enough due to all of the airline changes.  Whether that is true or not is anyone's guess.  But it's unacceptable that these sorts of issues keep happening.

[triple7tahoe]

I will be the first (NOT) that EZ Air can cause problems. We booked our EZAir flights for an upcoming cruise about 9 months ago when we booked the cruise. Among the notifications we got, there was an "air confirmation" showing flights as booked, which came one month before scheduled flight-3 PM from Seattle to London, non stop. Just as I had booked. Two weeks before our scheduled departure I just happened to check our booking and found that the air portion had completely changed with a new airline and 10 AM departure time. NO NOTIFICATION from anybody. I thought the original flight had been cancelled but it had not--Still going at same time and route. I contacted EZAir and they have not been able to explain it to me. I booked the first flight on an airline that I have status with-New airline not really. And new flight contained a plane change in Salt Lake City which we almost didn't make and our luggage did not make. Caused an extra 4 hour delay waiting for our luggage in Heathrow and hence missed our connection to Southampton. We are now back from the trip but I am still unable to get an answer from EZAir. What if I had not checked the flights two weeks before first flight? We would have missed our flight to LHR.  I am very leery of using EZAir.

[suzyed]

18 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

So I just checked ouI r EZAir for a return from Buenos Aires on Feb 5. It's gone from the Princess website but still shows on AA.com. The Princess travel page also claims that it's too soon to book EZAir as the return has to be within 330 days (that's right) but Feb 5 is only about 130 or so days away!

 

The dunderheads in Princess IT have struck again!

 

Should I be worried?

I think the important thing is that AA still has your reservation...but I would keep close tabs on it!

[suzyed]

53 minutes ago, triple7tahoe said:

I will be the first (NOT) that EZ Air can cause problems. We booked our EZAir flights for an upcoming cruise about 9 months ago when we booked the cruise. Among the notifications we got, there was an "air confirmation" showing flights as booked, which came one month before scheduled flight-3 PM from Seattle to London, non stop. Just as I had booked. Two weeks before our scheduled departure I just happened to check our booking and found that the air portion had completely changed with a new airline and 10 AM departure time. NO NOTIFICATION from anybody. I thought the original flight had been cancelled but it had not--Still going at same time and route. I contacted EZAir and they have not been able to explain it to me. I booked the first flight on an airline that I have status with-New airline not really. And new flight contained a plane change in Salt Lake City which we almost didn't make and our luggage did not make. Caused an extra 4 hour delay waiting for our luggage in Heathrow and hence missed our connection to Southampton. We are now back from the trip but I am still unable to get an answer from EZAir. What if I had not checked the flights two weeks before first flight? We would have missed our flight to LHR.  I am very leery of using EZAir.

Terrible.   I'm rechecking mine every day!

 

[rogueriver]

I have booked an EZ Air flight for March of 2023; this is my first time using it.  I'm rather confused as to how the process works.

Since I have a United confirmation number and I'm able to go into United and view my reservation, does this mean it has been ticketed?  I have not yet made my final payment. After reading some of the horror stories, I'm getting a little concerned, especially since this is a flight from SFO to Sydney and it only happens once a day, I believe.

[suzyed]

1 minute ago, rogueriver said:

I have booked an EZ Air flight for March of 2023; this is my first time using it.  I'm rather confused as to how the process works.

Since I have a United confirmation number and I'm able to go into United and view my reservation, does this mean it has been ticketed?  I have not yet made my final payment. After reading some of the horror stories, I'm getting a little concerned, especially since this is a flight from SFO to Sydney and it only happens once a day, I believe.

Just keep an eye on it!   Just because it's on United does not mean it's ticketed.   When it is ticketed, there will be a ticket number, I think.

[suzyed]

21 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

They used to pay the airlines around the 45 day mark. Since the “pause “ it’s been closer to 30 days. You can ask for early ticketing provided that the flight info on the Princess website exactly matches the airline website. That rarely happens these days. I used to always use EZAir. But until things settle down I am booking direct. 

Yes, they are supposed to pay at the 45 day mark which is the time limit for changes.  When they don't pay the airline cancels it...maybe not immediately, but they do cancel as in our case.  The United rep said it was only considered to be a "hold" until paid.

[suzyed]

12 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

Susan, you’re lucky you got your flights back.  Did you ask UA what day it was cancelled?  That is in the history of the booking. Would love to know, as that would tell us what their ticketing time limit is with PCL. That is crucial. Because if we know that, we can make sure it’s ticketed BEFORE the deadline.  Each agreement may vary with the carriers, but a good idea.

 

If you call UA for any reason, please ask. Did they give you a new booking number for UA, or keep the old number?

 

TiA

Prayers for you guys. Stay safe in FL!

 

Same booking number so it may be difficult to discern when it was cancelled.  Actually it had to be fairly recently since I was checking it rather frequently.   We're now like 21 days out from flying and I believe it was in the last 3 weeks that it may have been cancelled. It wasn't until two days ago when I checked it again and got the "error" message say that there was a "flight change that is not in their system and to check back later", on the Princess site that I went once again to the United site to check on what the change was that I found it was cancelled.
Honestly, I am afraid to throw a monkey wrench into the works.   

It's all good now and I am very relieved!