EZ Air flights significantly more expensive than booking direct with airline

[RickT]

Booked on the Enchanted Process out of Barcelona in October and can book flights direct with Air Canada for $1,120 return.  Same flights on EZ Air are being quoted as $1,654 (that rate is the non refundable rate).  Called EZ Air to see if something was wrong with their site and was told that was the same price they were seeing.  All pricing is in Canadian $.  
 

Not a huge deal as I will just book direct with Air Canada but wanted to post as this is the first time I have seen cruise air significantly more expensive than booking direct.  

Edited May 2, 2023 by RickT

[gottagocit]

Often we’ve found the lowest rates quoted by the airlines directly are “basic economy” and not “economy” while easy air doesn’t quote BE. Be sure there not the case as there’s a large difference in the two. 

[Abercrombie2019]

49 minutes ago, RickT said:

Booked on the Enchanted Process out of Barcelona in October and can book flights direct with Air Canada for $1,120 return.  Same flights on EZ Air are being quoted as $1,654 (that rate is the non refundable rate).

We had the same experience with Air Canada and EZ Air.  Flights to London (this summer) were almost 50% more expensive than booking direct with AC and that was for the restricted fare.  The flexible fare was even higher.

[suekel]

I usually book thru the airline because it's cheaper unless it's a multi city.  Plus I get more miles. 

[Lady Arwen]

  Booked Air Canada YYZ to LHR for $800.00 less than EZAir for same seats for September.  Prices are now closer to $1000.00 more with EZAir.

[DHP1]

True, EZ Air can be more expensive however, you can cancel, change your flight anytime up to 45 days without cost. You need to to check almost everyday because air flights fares changed constantly.  

[beg3yrs]

The only airline mentioned in all these posts is Air Canada. Is this a problem mostly with Air Canada?

 

My personal experience with EZair has been excellent for international flights (from the USA and not on Air Canada) and fair for domestic.

 

While domestic economy for me has been priced about the same between the airline and EZair, the previously stated advantages in other posts often swing me into an EZair booking. I also notice that domestically it's a bit more competitive in first class bookings, sometimes to the point that the fare difference between first and economy is often more than covered by the increased baggage allowance over economy.

Edited May 2, 2023 by beg3yrs

[msmoger]

11 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

The only airline mentioned in all these posts is Air Canada. Is this a problem mostly with Air Canada?

 

My personal experience with EZair has been excellent for international flights (from the USA and not on Air Canada) and fair for domestic.

 

While domestic economy for me has been priced about the same between the airline and EZair, the previously stated advantages in other posts often swing me into an EZair booking. I also notice that domestically it's a bit more competitive in first class bookings, sometimes to the point that the fare difference is often more than covered by the increased baggage allowance over economy.

 

Our experience also.

[msualum]

I booked our flights on EZ Air to London in September for $400 less for each of us than I could get through the airlines.  I’ve found EZ Air is consistently less expensive for us, since  we live in a very rural state with not many flights available.  
 

[d9704011]

47 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

The only airline mentioned in all these posts is Air Canada. Is this a problem mostly with Air Canada?

I think you'll find that the posters who mentioned Air Canada are in Canada.

[Yowman]

I have a multi city itinerary booked with EZAir.  Air France to Ottawa to Barcelona, Air Canada home to Ottawa from Athens.  Business class both ways.  Fare was significantly cheaper with EZAir than booking online (about 60% of published fare).

 

Two weeks ago air fare dropped by $400 so I rebooked the flights at the lower price.

 

There are other advantages to EZAir too.

 

- in case you have to cancel your cruise and have Princess cancellation insurance the flights are covered

- if Princess has to change your disembarkation port (rare, I know), EZAir will find flights from the new port for you

 

If you have to cancel flights that you've self ticketed any future flight credit (assuming non refundable fare) will usually expire 1 year from the date you purchased the flights and not 1 year from travel date.  For some this can mean a very short period in which they can use the credit.

[Paula_MacFan]

2 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

The only airline mentioned in all these posts is Air Canada. Is this a problem mostly with Air Canada?

 

My personal experience with EZair has been excellent for international flights (from the USA and not on Air Canada) and fair for domestic.

 

While domestic economy for me has been priced about the same between the airline and EZair, the previously stated advantages in other posts often swing me into an EZair booking. I also notice that domestically it's a bit more competitive in first class bookings, sometimes to the point that the fare difference between first and economy is often more than covered by the increased baggage allowance over economy.

Same for us. It pays to compare, especially for first class.

 

I check our EZ Air flights to LHR daily. Right now we're $800 less then original EZ Air fares and around $1,200 less than if we booked direct through United. All first class.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Paula_MacFan

[Married15]

Our EZ air flights to London (premium) are much less than direct regular economy. Also, our flights to FLL next year (premium) are less than booking directly with the airline regular economy. I tend to book EZ, then keep checking and if I find a lower fare directly with though the airline it is easy to cancel EZ. So far, have not had to do that.

[Ombud]

My SFO -> Rome / Miami -> SFO is $684 on EZAIR. The exact same flight is $4696 on United. Same seats just other side of aisle. I'm confused!! But sticking with EZAIR 

[Steelers36]

5 hours ago, RickT said:

Booked on the Enchanted Process out of Barcelona in October and can book flights direct with Air Canada for $1,120 return.  Same flights on EZ Air are being quoted as $1,654 (that rate is the non refundable rate).  Called EZ Air to see if something was wrong with their site and was told that was the same price they were seeing.  All pricing is in Canadian $.  
 

Not a huge deal as I will just book direct with Air Canada but wanted to post as this is the first time I have seen cruise air significantly more expensive than booking direct.  

I believe this is Air Canada situation.  Also, in my shopping experience, I notice mostly that when EZ-Air offers Restricted fares, they are higher than Flexible, or close in value.  I honestly don't understand why anyone would book a Restricted EZ-Air flight as it removes all the flexibility and whole point of booking EZ-Air (I am talking about advance bookings for certain). 

 

As several posts above indicate, there are normally significant savings when using EZ-Air for international travel, but not so much for domestic.  Did you consider other airlines?

 

I can give you some examples for several voyages we did last Fall beginning and ending in Civitavecchia.  I had two one-ways booked using EZ-Air as did our friends.  I started out with Business heading to Rome and returning Premium Economy using Lufthansa to FRA and then connecting to AC for the leg to YYZ.  The outbound has slipped my mind.  Our friends were always Economy and initially both legs with AC. 

 

I monitored EZ-Air regularly.  Eventually, I switched to Air France for the outbound (via CDG) and got Business for about $750 US - much less than my original booking that might have been AC.  Later on, I switched my LH/AC Premium booking to BA Business (via LHR) for less money than the Premium fare with AC.  Again, the Business tickets were about $750 US each.  Meanwhile, I got our friends switched to the same BA flights returning home we were on and they were saving a lot over AC and eventually upgraded to Business for not a lot more than they were originally paying for AC Economy.  I don't think AC does anyone any favors fare-wise and I have no reason to be loyal to them anymore since I am retired (I used to be Super Elite, so you can imagine I flew them a lot in my past life). 

 

EZ-Air is a consolidator and the big advantage to me is that you can book one-way fares international without the surcharges the airlines slap on (such as charging as much for a one-way as a round trip).  The other big advantage is you can continue to shop EZ-Air via the Cruise Personalizer and change flight and airlines on a whim when something pops up attractive - right up until ticketing date.  I made about 8 flight changes or re-fares for those flights last Fall and achieved the rock-bottom pricing in both directions. 

 

I hope you have better success in future, but look beyond Air Canada as see if you don't find some better deals.  We don't mind having one connection if not overly long and gets us what we want in terms of seating and cost.

 

 

[cruisequeen4ever]

That’s really surprising as at least pre-pandemic, EZ-Air seemed to always beat going directly through the airlines, especially for international.

[Junebug1]

Not just Air Canada. I have been  monitoring flights from Pittsburgh to London Heathrow in August on Britsh Airways and Delta and both are higher on EZair than with airline directly.  I am checking the same class so that isn't the reason. 

[Yowman]

4 hours ago, Junebug1 said:

Not just Air Canada. I have been  monitoring flights from Pittsburgh to London Heathrow in August on Britsh Airways and Delta and both are higher on EZair than with airline directly.  I am checking the same class so that isn't the reason. 

 

 

The class (J or W or Y) may be the same, but is the fare bucket the same?  Are the privileges the same (seat selection, cancelation, checked bags)?

[Junebug1]

22 hours ago, Yowman said:

 

 

The class (J or W or Y) may be the same, but is the fare bucket the same?  Are the privileges the same (seat selection, cancelation, checked bags)?

Can select seats and free checked bag but not cancelation.  Could pay $200 on Delta for refundable fare and would still be slightly less.  I  really want to book the British Aiways because it is a nonstop flight.  Premium Economy sounds good to us. 

[Hlitner]

We have followed a simple procedure for decades.  Check several online and airline sites for fares and than comlare

 to the cruise lines air offerings.  Sometimes you do a lot better with the cruise lines (especially for international business class) and other times it makes sense to book direct with an airline.

 

There is no magic formula, you simply need to spend a few minutes doing your homework.

 

Hank