Flight "Ease" Frustrations

[Josie201]

I know many have posted with various frustrations, etc. over the years.  Here's our tale...

 

We booked using Flight Ease in the Summer of 2022 for our January 23 cruise from San Diego.  Of course, at the time, we had many flight options, prices, routes, etc.  We chose what worked best for.  Then, changes started happening.  I recognize that air carriers are continually changing their flight schedules. 

 

We are in Canada, so that tends to make our routing options less than ideal for most locations.

 

Our latest change was sent to us a few weeks ago.  We are now flying down through Washington DC with a 45 minute layover.  We will need to de-ice before leaving our place of origin, so will for certain be late arriving and even if we were on time, 45 minutes is never enough time for a connecting flight.  In fact, if I try to actually book this flight the website will not allow me to as it is not enough of a layover time.  Anyway, there are other flights that day from Washington to San Diego so although its a pain I assume we'll get there eventually, with or without luggage.  We have three days pre-cruise in San Diego so I also assume our luggage will find its way to us .... 

 

On our return flight, they have now moved us to a 10:30 p.m. flight which flies overnight to Newark and then we connect back to our home at a flight at 9:00 a.m. the next day.  Less than ideal to say the least.  There is another flight, on another carrier, that departs San Diego at 11:40 a.m. and gets us home through Toronto at about 10:00 at night (when we would still actually be in San Diego). 

 

Flight "Ease" wants to charge us over $1000 to change to this flight, as it is prevailing rates.  Also, they claim that since I want to change carriers, there are extra fees.  I thought using Flight Ease gave me access to choosing from various carriers.  I have spent a number of hours on the phone with Flight "ease" reps, been dropped, been disconnected, been transfered to "Princess Cruises" to book a new cruise, and other such fates.  Haven't actually been able to speak to a supervisor or someone who understands that its not "Newark" I object to, its not the carrier I object to, its the overnight flight I object to which I never would have selected. 

 

Does this explanation of increased fare and lack of ability to change the flight sound right?  Does anyone have any other suggestions of who and how to call to get someone who actually has the ability to assist me? 

[SilvertoGold]

I am assuming you must be well past final payment and that makes a big difference.  I don't think you can change with Flexible or Restricted without major penalties at this time. What does your TA say?  I hope more savvy cruisers help you out with good info!

Edited November 28, 2022 by SilvertoGold

[kazu]

Flight Ease is a complete mess right now.  My TA is advising not to use any CCL flight company until they get their act together.

 

We had roll call members who had flights cancelled over and over again.  One thought she was going to end up swimming across the pond to get to Barcelona for the cruise.

 

My TA was on the phone for hours to get my sister’s flights fixed (which were fine originally) and yes, they were trying to charge her too (she was past final payment).  And then, for another roll call member’s flight.

 

Josie, if you don’t have a TA, then you need to start climbing the ladder - ask for a supervisor and then theirs and keep going until you get someone who can help.

 

There are people that can do it.  That’s what one of our roll call members did.  

 

Good luck - I’m not using Flight Ease and won’t until I hear some good reports.  I’ve seen too many horror stories for our sailing just past.

 

 

[rodndonna]

Indeed - your flights stink - are they this bad though ...

 

London Ontario to Fort Lauderdale next week - our flight was changed due to earlier departure of cruise ship by one hour. Was originally an early London departure to Toronto and then in Fort Lauderdale arriving around noon - it is now ...

 

• London around to Toronto 7:30 PM Friday - 4 HOUR layover in Toronto
• Toronto - to Ottawa - another 4 HOUR layover in Ottawa
• Ottawa to Montreal - 1 hour layover
• Montreal to Fort Lauderdale   - arrive Saturday 11:45

 

Uggh - we made some attempt to have it changed (it is on AC and we can see decent flights available, but have to go through FE and they just said - "too late it was ticketed" after spending an hour being bounced around the phone with them to different people looking into it. We just gave up.

 

Funniest part is when I go into Flight Ease it comes up with a big warning that we 'a' 4 hour layover - I'd be happy if I just had 'a' 4 hour layover at this point.

 

Anyway - trying to make the best of it and bringing a pillow and blanket to snooze at the airports. 😑

[SilvertoGold]

8 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

Indeed - your flights stink - are they this bad though ...

 

London Ontario to Fort Lauderdale next week - our flight was changed due to earlier departure of cruise ship by one hour. Was originally an early London departure to Toronto and then in Fort Lauderdale arriving around noon - it is now ...

 

• London around to Toronto 7:30 PM Friday - 4 HOUR layover in Toronto
• Toronto - to Ottawa - another 4 HOUR layover in Ottawa
• Ottawa to Montreal - 1 hour layover
• Montreal to Fort Lauderdale   - arrive Saturday 11:45

 

Uggh - we made some attempt to have it changed (it is on AC and we can see decent flights available, but have to go through FE and they just said - "too late it was ticketed" after spending an hour being bounced around the phone with them to different people looking into it. We just gave up.

 

Funniest part is when I go into Flight Ease it comes up with a big warning that we 'a' 4 hour layover - I'd be happy if I just had 'a' 4 hour layover at this point.

 

Anyway - trying to make the best of it and bringing a pillow and blanket to snooze at the airports. 😑

This is appalling!  Your attitude is that of a saint. Lucky for FE, not so great for you!

[rodndonna]

2 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

This is appalling!  Your attitude is that of a saint. Lucky for FE, not so great for you!

 

Thanks - I think it should be up for the worst ever planned flight award.  🥳

 

 

[Josie201]

Wow that’s terrible.  
 

what’s so frustrating is they have changed carriers and flights and routing a half dozen times.  Better options exist but I can’t change it?   I may try to call again but have been disconnected so many times on hold for a supervisor …. 

[rodndonna]

7 minutes ago, Josie201 said:

Wow that’s terrible.  
 

what’s so frustrating is they have changed carriers and flights and routing a half dozen times.  Better options exist but I can’t change it?   I may try to call again but have been disconnected so many times on hold for a supervisor …. 

 

In our case, I eventually just decided it wasn't worth the effort or frustration anymore trying to get it resolved with Fligtease.

 

At the time ( a few weeks ago) I still had a glimmer of hope it would just get changed again before departure or that potential weather issues would come up in the days preceding our flight which would allow us to reschedule our flights to avoid the weather system (we have done this a number of times with Air Canada in the past). Alas, no luck with either, so a pillow and blank-y it will be.

 

Maybe try calling at a different time of day than you did before. Not sure when they are the least busy, but I think someone on here said the best time to call is towards the end of the day.

[Roz]

There's no ease in Flight Ease.

[highscar]

Sorry you have these problems with FE. I called my TA three weeks ago to book my flight in January direct to San Diego from Toronto.  Boom boom done on AC.  Not through Flight Ease.  

[Torquer]

We had a similar problem with FlightEase for a cruise this past summer with flights being changed twice.  All it took initially was a call to FlightEase and telling them the connection time was unacceptably short, we told them what alternate we wanted, and they changed the flights to what worked.  Then someone, not sure if it was the airline or FlightEase, changed it again.  We called again and they changed it back.  At that time we told them to immediately have the tickets issued and nothing changed after that.

[cbr663]

4 hours ago, rodndonna said:

Indeed - your flights stink - are they this bad though ...

 

London Ontario to Fort Lauderdale next week - our flight was changed due to earlier departure of cruise ship by one hour. Was originally an early London departure to Toronto and then in Fort Lauderdale arriving around noon - it is now ...

 

• London around to Toronto 7:30 PM Friday - 4 HOUR layover in Toronto
• Toronto - to Ottawa - another 4 HOUR layover in Ottawa
• Ottawa to Montreal - 1 hour layover
• Montreal to Fort Lauderdale   - arrive Saturday 11:45

 

Uggh - we made some attempt to have it changed (it is on AC and we can see decent flights available, but have to go through FE and they just said - "too late it was ticketed" after spending an hour being bounced around the phone with them to different people looking into it. We just gave up.

 

Funniest part is when I go into Flight Ease it comes up with a big warning that we 'a' 4 hour layover - I'd be happy if I just had 'a' 4 hour layover at this point.

 

Anyway - trying to make the best of it and bringing a pillow and blanket to snooze at the airports. 😑

 

OMG.  You can drive from London to Montreal in less than 7 hours.  Pure madness.

[islandwoman]

Josie201,  Were the flights you booked "flexible"  or "restricted" ? 

[Mary229]

If the airline has changed the flight you can go to the airline and reschedule there.  That is the law.  I did so this week.   This is for people past final payment. Regarding final payment, never pay ahead of time. Too many things can go wrong.  Always pick flexible airfare.

[Josie201]

49 minutes ago, islandwoman said:

Josie201,  Were the flights you booked "flexible"  or "restricted" ? 

They were flexible but we are past final payment.  
 

I had some success yesterday.  I got a different flight ease agent who understood the 40 minute connection was impossible and she quickly changed our outbound flight to something more reasonable and no charge.  If I’m feeling up to it … I may call back about the overnight flight issue on the weekend.  

[gigianne]

Write to the Office of the President at HAL, Gus needs to hear what is going on.    I did and someone told me it was a waste of time, I heard back within 2 weeks of sending the e.
 

[robotpony]

On 11/28/2022 at 11:03 AM, rodndonna said:

London Ontario to Fort Lauderdale next week

 

Our Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale Flight Ease flights in November looked a lot like that, except they were both red-eye flights with a 3 hour time change. Total airport time was around 20 hours for what should be a 6½ hour flight (or 9 hours airport time). We're going to book our own flights in the future.

[rodndonna]

On 12/8/2022 at 2:18 PM, robotpony said:

 

Our Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale Flight Ease flights in November looked a lot like that, except they were both red-eye flights with a 3 hour time change. Total airport time was around 20 hours for what should be a 6½ hour flight (or 9 hours airport time). We're going to book our own flights in the future.

We survived the crappy flights and in the airport now to return Some time ago we had rebooked the flights for a cheaper rate (they were originally flexible) and was supposed to have the difference credited as obc but was not there. Now we have that to chase down as well. Will be avoiding flight ease in the future…

 

 

[Mary229]

Is Canada different?  When we have a flight change after final payment I simply go to the airline website and change the flight. Here they are required to let you pick the change you want, within reason, for no fees.  I did so the other day on American Airlines.  I was notified my return was moved to late in the evening from mid afternoon.  They allowed me to even choose between returning from Miami or FLL.  I was able to find something suitable. 

[Florida_gal_50]

14 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Is Canada different?  When we have a flight change after final payment I simply go to the airline website and change the flight. Here they are required to let you pick the change you want, within reason, for no fees.  I did so the other day on American Airlines.  I was notified my return was moved to late in the evening from mid afternoon.  They allowed me to even choose between returning from Miami or FLL.  I was able to find something suitable. 

I’m not sure you can go to the airline website.  I have contacted flight ease and had my flights changed to something more reasonable.  That was a while ago though. Are you able to do this with flights booked through flight ease or flights booked on your own?   If you booked it not through flight ease that is much different of course.

[Mary229]

3 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I’m not sure you can go to the airline website.  I have contacted flight ease and had my flights changed to something more reasonable.  That was a while ago though. Are you able to do this with flights booked through flight ease or flights booked on your own?   If you booked it not through flight ease that is much different of course.

Yes, yes, the ones I mentioned were booked through flight ease.  I manage them at flight ease until final payment then on the airline website after.  My sis’ flight changed on the way to the airport and we went directly to the counter and rearranged the flight.   There is a US law regards to this.  I will see if I can find an article link

[Mary229]

Here is a link to one such news report.   If there is a substantial change to your flight you can change, I am pretty sure a connection issue is considered a major change.  in my cases the airlines even allowed change for a non-major delay, just a major PIA 
 

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/travel/story/rights-flight-canceled-changed-78411409

[Florida_gal_50]

3 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Yes, yes, the ones I mentioned were booked through flight ease.  I manage them at flight ease until final payment then on the airline website after.  My sis’ flight changed on the way to the airport and we went directly to the counter and rearranged the flight.   There is a US law regards to this.  I will see if I can find an article link

Thanks.  What usually ends up happening with me is that I change airlines when my flight changes.  I had westjet coming home from my last cruise.  Changed to air Canada.

[Hlitner]

I do not understand some of these posts.  When using Flightease, we simply log into our account, go to the Flightease booking engine, check-out all the choices, and book our flights.  It is not much different than booking through Expedia except there are fewer choices and much much lower prices (especially for Business/First Class on international flights).  For our upcoming cruise out of Japan we were able to snag Business Class lay flat seats on British Air/JAL for $2200.  Booked on our own those flights would cost about $6000!  I just looked online and noticed that lowest cost flights (on Kayak) from IAD to Tokyo (on the same dates) are over $3000 and that is with Air Canada (not our airline of choice although their Business Class is OK).

 

Hank

[Mary229]

10 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I do not understand some of these posts.  When using Flightease, we simply log into our account, go to the Flightease booking engine, check-out all the choices, and book our flights.  It is not much different than booking through Expedia except there are fewer choices and much much lower prices (especially for Business/First Class on international flights).  For our upcoming cruise out of Japan we were able to snag Business Class lay flat seats on British Air/JAL for $2200.  Booked on our own those flights would cost about $6000!  I just looked online and noticed that lowest cost flights (on Kayak) from IAD to Tokyo (on the same dates) are over $3000 and that is with Air Canada (not our airline of choice although their Business Class is OK).

 

Hank

Hank they are mainly talking about changes after final payment.  Some of the flight ease attendants are lost on the concept.  After final payment one can manage their flight on the airline website, at least if it is a US airline