New restrictions on easyair?

[gottagocit]

3 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Princess probably is just closing this loophole then. 

But why would they not want passengers to travel early and enjoy the cruise experience as much as their time allows. No skin if they’re back that I can see. Just more unexplained nonsense that causes unnecessary frustration. 

Edited June 22 by gottagocit

[candy4040]

Wonder if ticketed and paid if airline would permit you to change to an earlier/later flight?  Delta allows me to change flights I've booked directly with them for no charge.

[startedwithamouse]

Maybe they'll offer something with their Princess Packages "promotion" they're selling?

 

More than five days before or after may seem like you're getting two vacations - could they tack on an extra fee for this?

 

Does Platinum Vacation Protection come into play?  Should Princess insurance be responsible for flight issues a week or more before or after your cruise?  Easier to manage when there's set parameters, five days, and you drop off the books? 

 

The flights are usually cheap, you lock into a price, can re-fare until ticketed, and don't have to pay until you pay for your cruise. Lots of pros still there. 

[Astro Flyer]

5 hours ago, gottagocit said:

Sorry if it’s been discussed already but we just noticed easyair flights can’t be booked more than 5 days before or 5 days after our cruise dates for any of the cruises we have booked.

It’s the same 5 day limit for our LAX/AKL/BNE flight in March 2025 which arrives 4 days before our cruise.

 

Edited June 22 by Astro Flyer

[ebeluga]

This is going to have negative impact on those Transpacific or Transatlantic repositioning cruises.

[gottagocit]

5 hours ago, ebeluga said:

This is going to have negative impact on those Transpacific or Transatlantic repositioning cruises.

More than just that I believe. Any down under, European, Alaska or voyage to other places where someone would logically want to spend time exploring or sight-seeing before/after a long flight.  
Either they won’t take these voyages or will book flights elsewhere, either of which would seemingly affect the bottom line at Princess in a negative way. Just seems crazy…

[pompeii]

So if you're on a b2b now you will have to book two one-way fares?  I'm on a side to side next month (a b2b on two different ships) and have round-trip air booked on the first journey.  Looks like this will no longer be possible?

[PacnGoNow]

10 hours ago, gottagocit said:

We just decided a week ago to take some family members who have never cruised before to Alaska since that was their dream. The one we settled on was early September. We booked flights with Princess easy air last Saturday with arrival 7 days before embarkation to let us rent a car and explore for a week some of the areas we’ve enjoyed during our trips there in the past. 
Today we were looking at a different South American voyage we have booked in January and found the issue. Returned to the Alaska voyage and can’t see more than 5 days in advance there now either. So far our week early flights booked last week aren’t cancelled…

So, the change became effective somewhere between June 16-20, 2024, it is definitely in effect now from what I’ve tried.

 

They do have contracts with many air carriers.  It could have been a change with one or more of the carriers or PCL themselves that changed it.  
 

It’s not shown on the website, but that’s not unusual for PCL.

 

If you want to pursue this, I’d call EZAir and see if this is a permanent change.  Looks like it is.  

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 11:40 AM by PacnGoNow

[gottagocit]

47 minutes ago, pompeii said:

So if you're on a b2b now you will have to book two one-way fares?  I'm on a side to side next month (a b2b on two different ships) and have round-trip air booked on the first journey.  Looks like this will no longer be possible?

I’d say you’re correct. It wouldn’t be possible now. 

[JimmyVWine]

10 hours ago, gottagocit said:

But why would they not want passengers to travel early and enjoy the cruise experience as much as their time allows.

One reason is because many itineraries work on a 7 day cadence and there are a finite number of airline seats available. If Cruise #1 departs on July 1, and Cruise #2 departs on July 8, there are 4,000+ people trying to fly into the departure port for Cruise #1 on June 29, 30 or July 1. If the 4000+ people from Cruise #2 want to fly in on those days, they are taking seats away from people who need them for Cruise #1. By making the cutoff 5 days before the cruise, the people on Cruise #2 are not taking away seats needed by the passengers on Cruise #1. And the same thing applies after the cruise. If the passengers on Cruise #1 want to fly home a week later, they will run headlong into the people on Cruise #2 who want to fly home on the day they get off the ship. Maybe this wasn’t an issue when most ships sailed with 2,400 people. But with ships now carrying 4,000-6,000 people, we’ve reached a breaking point. 

Edited Saturday at 12:26 PM by JimmyVWine

[vjmatty]

10 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Princess probably is just closing this loophole then. 

 

Loophole would suggest there’s a benefit to the passenger which is somehow detrimental to Princess. I can’t figure out how this would be. 

[vjmatty]

13 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

One reason is because many itineraries work on a 7 day cadence and there are a finite number of airline seats available. If Cruise #1 departs on July 1, and Cruise #2 departs on July 8, there are 4,000+ people trying to fly into the departure port for Cruise #1 on June 29, 30 or July 1. If the 4000+ people from Cruise #2 want to fly in on those days, they are taking seats away from people who need them for Cruise #1. By making the cutoff 5 days before the cruise, the people on Cruise #2 are not taking away seats needed by the passengers on Cruise #1. And the same thing applies after the cruise. If the passengers on Cruise #1 want to fly home a week later, they will run headlong into the people on Cruise #2 who want to fly home on the day they get off the ship. Maybe this wasn’t an issue when most ships sailed with 2,400 people. But with ships now carrying 4,000-6,000 people, we’ve reached a breaking point. 

This would make sense if it were a 6 day limit. There’s no reason for it to be 5 days, as the cruise would have already departed by 6 days earlier. 

[tothemall&beyond]

13 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

I think it's a glitch. What if all flights are full 5 days before your cruise? It doesn't make sense. 

It does not seem to be a glitch. Another bad decision from Padgett.

[tothemall&beyond]

11 hours ago, kiwimum said:

Booked AKL to LA last week, flying in 12 days prior with no issues.   Just now looking to book the same flights, no go.

 

This is a major geme changer for us if the 5 day window continues.  

Same for us! We always like to spend meaningful time pre-cruise and/or post-cruise in embark/disembark locations. We have booked 3 cabins for us and our adult sons for a transatlantic on Sun Princess in 2025. We love Barcelona, have been there many times, and wanted to give our sons the chance to truly experience it as we have -- by spending at least 5 days there pre-cruise. This EZAir change would limit us to only 3 full days. Total game changer - in a bad way! Will likely not book EZAir now or may even cancel the entire cruise. That's a lot of $$$ that Princess won't get from us -- all because it has decided to limit what passengers can do before and after cruises. Bad move, Padgett.

[tothemall&beyond]

11 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

I think you misunderstood.  Look at the cruise PRIOR to yours, see if you can book a flight for the SAME DAY the cruise leaves. Just to see if there are flights available. 

I think you are the one misunderstanding. An EZ Air booking has to be tied to your particular sailing and Princess is now limiting the range of days you can select to fly to only 5 days prior to your embarkation and 5 days following your disembarkation. 

[tothemall&beyond]

11 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Princess probably is just closing this loophole then. 

What loophole? Should not make any difference to Princess for passengers to travel on the dates we want to travel. 

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, vjmatty said:

This would make sense if it were a 6 day limit. There’s no reason for it to be 5 days, as the cruise would have already departed by 6 days earlier. 

But you have to draw the line somewhere. 5 days is a “rounder” number than 6 or 4. 

Edited Saturday at 02:14 PM by JimmyVWine

[JimmyVWine]

54 minutes ago, tothemall&beyond said:

It does not seem to be a glitch. Another bad decision from Padgett.

I think it was a good decision. EZ Air is not the only way to book a pre-cruise flight. It exists to help you with flights for your CRUISE. Not your VACATION. I don’t want to pay higher fares or get shut out of flights the day before my cruise because other people took all the flights 8 days before theirs. Princess does not owe you anything that far out. Just book flights like a regular vacationer because at that point that’s what you are—a vacationer not a cruiser. 

[ldubs]

38 minutes ago, tothemall&beyond said:

What loophole? Should not make any difference to Princess for passengers to travel on the dates we want to travel. 

 

I sure can't think why Princess would care.  I wonder if this is because of some condition in the contract they have with whatever booking partner they use.  

[PescadoAmarillo]

The ability to add on several additional days on land before and after a cruise was always a huge benefit of cruising on Princess. In fact, we had already decided if we were to return to Australia for a land trip, we’d book a 3-day cruise out of Sydney just to get the EZ Air pricing. I’m not thrilled to see this change. 

[SCX22]

2 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

I don’t want to pay higher fares or get shut out of flights the day before my cruise because other people took all the flights 8 days before theirs.

 

My experience has proven otherwise.  The fares flying in the day before and the day of my cruises are higher than flying two days or more before my cruises.  Everyone wants to fly in the day before or day of.  Fewer people want to fly in two days or more before their cruise.  That is if the fares are an indication of flight loads.

[PescadoAmarillo]

1 minute ago, SCX22 said:

 

My experience has proven otherwise.  The fares flying in the day before and the day of my cruises are higher than flying two days or more before my cruises.  Everyone wants to fly in the day before or day of.  Fewer people want to fly in two days or more before their cruise.  That is if the fares are an indication of flight loads.

Exactly this. I got business air seats for less than half the usual EZ Air price (which was less than the airline price) by leaving three days early instead of one or two. It allowed us to spend an additional day in London and upgrade our hotel for less money.

[LACruiser88]

When flying to Europe for our Med/TA's we frequently will fly in 7 to 14 days prior to the cruise.  EZair has allowed us to save anywhere from 40% to 60% off of our Business Class seats.  We are very disappointed hearing this news.

 

 

[Coral]

I hope this is a simple IT mistake and they correct it. This is disappointing.

[phabric]

2 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

So, the change became effective somewhere between June 16-20, 2024, it is definitely in effect now from what I’ve tried.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I check my flights daily in the morning.  They must have changed sometime on Friday June 21.

 

I have B2B cruises with 2 booking # - Vancouver-San Francisco and San Francisco-San Francisco.  On the app, shows as 1 cruise so must be linked.  Paid final payment for both cruises/flights.
 

I booked EzAir flights on day they are available, with 1 day pre cruise and 1 day post cruise. Flights Toronto-Vancouver and San Francisco-Toronto under 1 booking #.

 

Now, can only book 5 pre and 5 post cruise for the first cruise. Cannot book 2 cruise under the first cruise as before.

 

Now, 2 cruise only shows booking for the 2 cruise and cannot change airports.

 

Now, instead of booking myself, would have to get agent or call in to book.