Flights by Princess - good or bad.

[warthog2608]

We got hit by a major glitch in the Princess EZAir system. We went on a Panama Canal Cruise, FLL to SFO in 2022. Princess EZAir made us reservations on Delta a couple months in advance. We paid to upgrade the tickets to Comfort Class. The Princess website showed our flights and we also got several notifications about scheduling changes. The trouble is, I couldn't seem to bring up the flights on the Delta website. A couple days before the flights I called Delta and they told me that I don't have any tickets!  Delta told me that my travel agent (Princess EZAir) cancelled my tickets! Talking to Princess they told me that a "glitch" in their system cancelled my flights. The flights were still showing on the Princess website. Well Princess did some scrambling around and got us tickets on Southwest, routing through 5 airports. We were originally going to arrive the day before the cruise and stay in a hotel in FLL. The new routing got us to FLL the morning of the cruise. We didn't get any sleep the 2 days and we also lost our fees paid to upgrade on Delta and our hotel room. I'll never trust Princess EZAir!  That was the first and the last time we'll use that "service". They should have at least refunded us our Delta upgrade fee as well as the hotel room we lost since it was 100% their fault.

[cr8tiv1]

Some clarifications on my take with EZ Air.  Where do I begin.  There may be no linear thinking to my comments.  Sorry for my brand of thinking.

 

EZ Air has no control over an airline cancelling a flight.  They will get you to your destination. You REALLY need to be proactive and check both Princess AND airline websites.

 

Some airlines will allow you to select seats ahead of time. Other airlines will not allow you until actually payment is made AND Princess tickets flight.  Sometimes you actually have to request flights to be ticketed at 90 day final payment.  This is a airline/company policy.  Bottom line:  As far as the airlines are concerned, unless you are paid and ticketed, you are "not" really booked.  Some airlines allow "courtesy" holds for EZ Air reservations.

 

Dealing with code shared airlines is another nightmare.  As one agent told me...be sure to "check with the airline that owns the aluminum tube".

 

EZ Air contracts x number of seats on each flight.  When they are sold out, the flight is either removed from offer or price increases.  If you are booked on K flight and that becomes sold out, and you need to make modifications, you may have to pay for M flight increase.  

 

The true benefit of EZ Air is that you don't have to purchase a ticket a year in advance.  You can pay for it 90 days out and still make changes up to 45 days out.  

 

Example:  I purchased a ticket on Delta with EZ Air.  LAX to ATL to YUL.  Paid in full 90 days out.  Found a direct booking with Delta for a few dollars less.  Cancelled EZ Air, refunded to cc, and dealt directly with Delta.

 

Another example:  I found a Black Friday ticket to FLL from LAX for a trip 8 months out.  Cheaper than on anything EZ Air had to offer.  But...had to pay in full.  Refundable would only be in travel voucher.  It was worth the difference.  During those 8 months, JetBlue modified my flight several times.  It WAS the perfect flight that turned into arriving 3 hours later than i had wanted.  

 

Still another:  Air Canada (Rogue) cancelled all of my return flights after a cruise.  EZ Air scrambled and worked with me to get me home.  Ended up with a really, really, really short connection.  I did make it only because I had a strategy.  

 

I have booked and am watching another reservation.  Already, the fare has gone up $2000 (for business class).  You bet I'm watching fares AND checking the airline.  

 

I would use EZ Air for international flights.  I'm pretty good getting fares for domestic departures that I know I am locked in to the dates.  It comes down to your tolerance and risk level.  

 

 

[mjmalino]

We have used EZ Air a few times for international flights and have never had a problem. Yes, our flights have changed between booking and date of travel, but we tend to book as soon as the flights become available, so the airlines tend to refine their schedules over the months, not EZ Air's fault.

[PescadoAmarillo]

3 hours ago, warthog2608 said:

We got hit by a major glitch in the Princess EZAir system. We went on a Panama Canal Cruise, FLL to SFO in 2022. Princess EZAir made us reservations on Delta a couple months in advance. We paid to upgrade the tickets to Comfort Class. The Princess website showed our flights and we also got several notifications about scheduling changes. The trouble is, I couldn't seem to bring up the flights on the Delta website. A couple days before the flights I called Delta and they told me that I don't have any tickets!  Delta told me that my travel agent (Princess EZAir) cancelled my tickets! Talking to Princess they told me that a "glitch" in their system cancelled my flights. The flights were still showing on the Princess website. Well Princess did some scrambling around and got us tickets on Southwest, routing through 5 airports. We were originally going to arrive the day before the cruise and stay in a hotel in FLL. The new routing got us to FLL the morning of the cruise. We didn't get any sleep the 2 days and we also lost our fees paid to upgrade on Delta and our hotel room. I'll never trust Princess EZAir!  That was the first and the last time we'll use that "service". They should have at least refunded us our Delta upgrade fee as well as the hotel room we lost since it was 100% their fault.

I agree that you have to be on top of the ticketing aspect of EZ Air. With our flights to Vancouver last summer, I expected to wake up 44 days before the flight and see that our tickets had been purchased (in the past, Princess had emailed us ticket numbers on that day). I immediately called Princess and at first got the run around. Finally they said our outbound flight would be ticketed by the end of that day (44 days pre-flight) but the inbound would not be ticketed until 45 days before that flight (14 days away). I said I would hold on the call until the outbound flight was ticketed, and I did. And then I saw they had ticketed the inbound flight at the same time. Squeaky wheel and all that. 

[jagoffee]

On 2/1/2024 at 3:42 PM, ISABELLA said:

So many configurations to consider. I have by checking EZair for about a month and not many itineraries are satisfactory with 1stop. 

Our cruise starts in Rome on May 18, finishing in Barcelona June 1. We would like to arrive May 17. We are planning to spend few days in Barcelona, flying home on June 3

We are flying from Orlando FL.

Any input greatly appreciated.

Sorry I took so long to get back.  I recognize your name from the Celebrity forum.  One really good thing about Princess’s Air over Celebrity is that with Princess you can cancel flights and make changes without the need to call in.  
 

I have attached three photos.  (1) If you are willing to fly out of FLL, Princess has a pretty good rate with one stop each way on United Premium Economy for $2673.  (2) if you are willing to fly out of Miami, Princess has a pretty good rate on Iberia Air Business with one stop for $3997.  (3)Out of MCO, Direct with United has a one stop each way Business for $4314.  All round trip fares.

 

I have no idea if you consider this good pricing.  Good luck

[IndyKid]

We used EZ Air for our first Princess cruise this past December. The price was the same as through the airline's website. After we had booked the cruise the airline (American) changed the return flight time to one which was too close to our disembarkation time, so Princess changed it to a later flight through a different connecting city. Had we booked the flight ourselves we would have paid several hundred dollars to re-book it ourselves, but Princess ate all but $100 of it.

 

On a related note, if there's a problem during travel to/from the cruise port, who do we contact at Princess if we booked with EZ Air?

[cr8tiv1]

5 minutes ago, IndyKid said:

We used EZ Air for our first Princess cruise this past December. The price was the same as through the airline's website. After we had booked the cruise the airline (American) changed the return flight time to one which was too close to our disembarkation time, so Princess changed it to a later flight through a different connecting city. Had we booked the flight ourselves we would have paid several hundred dollars to re-book it ourselves, but Princess ate all but $100 of it.

 

On a related note, if there's a problem during travel to/from the cruise port, who do we contact at Princess if we booked with EZ Air?

 

Little known fact:  IF the airline changes a flight, you can contact them (if booked directly) and tell them that it is an unacceptable time.  They are suppose to offer you a chance to change for no charge.  They may play hardball and tell you that they will refund your fare.

[ISABELLA]

Jagoffee,

Thank you very much for looking into different options of flights. It seems that might be the best price is to fly in and out of NY. Still working on it.

I always like to have a control of my bookings. With Celebrity I only booked one way air for TAs, which were cheaper, than booking direct.

[racj846]

2 hours ago, IndyKid said:

We used EZ Air for our first Princess cruise this past December. The price was the same as through the airline's website. After we had booked the cruise the airline (American) changed the return flight time to one which was too close to our disembarkation time, so Princess changed it to a later flight through a different connecting city. Had we booked the flight ourselves we would have paid several hundred dollars to re-book it ourselves, but Princess ate all but $100 of it.

 

On a related note, if there's a problem during travel to/from the cruise port, who do we contact at Princess if we booked with EZ Air?

The contact numbers you might need will be found in your Travel Summary.

[Teechur]

On 2/3/2024 at 4:33 PM, IndyKid said:

We used EZ Air for our first Princess cruise this past December. 

 

On a related note, if there's a problem during travel to/from the cruise port, who do we contact at Princess if we booked with EZ Air?

The number I have from a recent cruise:

Princess En-route Delayed Travel: (800) 545-0008. I've never needed to use it but I believe it is an accurate number. Maybe call it and see who answers? 🤔

 

[ProfMHC]

Princess EZAir Emergency worked wonders when we were hung up in London for 10 days during Covid. Fixed our tickets without a penny more and actually got us a better connection than the original and a shorter itinerary. 

[ISABELLA]

Everyone have been so helpful on this topic. Booked my PE flights thru EZ air,  non stop from Mia to FCO on ITA  and back from BCN to MIA on AA. That was a great advice to look into different airport. 

One more question: choosing seats after payment is prompting automatic ticketing or not. We are 90 days out of cruising. I am thinking that ticketing will complicate any possible changes we might have to do before 45 days cut off time. Is any possible negative issue to delay picking seats and ticketing at a later day?

Thank you very much.