EZair Refund Question

[envy4u]

Will try to make it brief. Cruise is 75 days away. First time I booked with EZair and paid in full. The Air Canada flight from Toronto to Rome has gone down in price according to the AC website. I called Princess to get a price reduction and their price went up. I asked to switch day as the airline website was having a seat sale and again the price was higher. The only

option EZair said I had was to cancel, book directly with the airline and wait till after the cruise, end of November, to get a full refund. Is this correct? Any advice appreciated. 

Edited August 27 by envy4u
Error and added

[Steelers36]

5 minutes ago, envy4u said:

Will try to make it brief. First time I booked with EZair and paid in full. The Air Canada flight has gone down in

price according to the AC website. I called Princess to get a price reduction and their price went up. I asked to switch day as the airline website was having a seat sale and again the price was higher. The only

option EZair said I had was to cancel, book directly with the airline and wait till after the cruise, end of November, to get a full refund. Is this correct? Any advice appreciated. 

 

Did you use the Cruise Personalizer to shop for flights on your own?  There is no need to call Princess.  You can cancel your own flight booking.  Also, EZAir is not going to match an airline price - they have their own prices.  They may have sold out the seats they have at their original price.  You didn't say if flying to FLL/MIA or overseas.  Only three months out roughly.

 

I cannot say for certain, but seems to me it won't take until after the voyage to get the airfare refund.  Even so, is the savings worth the wait?

Edited August 27 by Steelers36

[Ombud]

That's not been my experience when there's a drop in EZAIR price. But I book through a CVP. There's a "button (her word)" that she has to "select" and then the refund shows as pending in my USAA app the next morning.

 

I once decided to wait to see how long it would take without her assistance but gave up after waiting a month. Yup. Called her and had her do her thing. 

[Senga]

49 minutes ago, Ombud said:

That's not been my experience when there's a drop in EZAIR price. 

It's the airline that reduced the price due to a sale, not EZAir.

[cr8tiv1]

I did exactly the same thing.  Price direct with Delta was cheaper than my EZ Air fare.  I was still a little more than 45 days out.  I cancelled EZ Air and rebooked with Delta (direct).  Refund was processed almost immediately back to original form of payment.

[Ombud]

@Senga Let me try this 1 more time.

 

When someone modifies and / or cancels an EZAIR flight those dollars are moved into a "bucket" as a credit. Same process as the action of modifying a flight has it canceled first. If a new flight is immediately booked then either the balance is due at final payment date or immediately if after final payment. If the action results in a credit however, by either a lower fare or no flight at all, then it makes no sense IMHO to wait for PCL to automatically process the refund as this can take until after the cruise. Why not request that your CVP (can TAs do this?) process it immediately like I do? (See Post #3)

[envy4u]

1 hour ago, Senga said:

It's the airline that reduced the price due to a sale, not EZAir.

Exactly. It’s the airline price that went down and Princess won’t match it. They said their pricing is different than the airlines. Lesson learned. Bye EZair in the future 

[Ombud]

Yeah. Problem of using a consolidator who books seats far into the future and then later makes those blocks of seats at that price available to their customers. Price isn't always lower

 

 

Edited August 27 by Ombud

[satxdiver]

I canceled an EZair flight once between the full payment date and the 45 days before first flight and rebooked another flight with EZair.  They demanded the money for the new flight and put the fare already paid in my OBC as refundable.  This was a couple of years ago.  I had thought they would just refund the original payment to my CC but no.  

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, Ombud said:

Yeah. Problem of using a consolidator who books seats far into the future and then later makes those blocks of seats at that price available to their customers. Price isn't always lower

 

 

In my experience, prices often change up and down when shopping in EZAir - particularly for overseas.  From some limited checking and mostly from posted anecdotes, I wouldn't expect to be saving much on air for domestic travel to FLL or other US ports.  In this case, I think the only advantage of EZAir is that changes and cancellations are free until 45 days out.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, satxdiver said:

I canceled an EZair flight once between the full payment date and the 45 days before first flight and rebooked another flight with EZair.  They demanded the money for the new flight and put the fare already paid in my OBC as refundable.  This was a couple of years ago.  I had thought they would just refund the original payment to my CC but no.  

That is not right at all.  Who was demanding money?  EZAir is a self-serve webpage within the Cruise Personalizer and when making flight changes, it either refunds or collects the difference.  I have NEVER seen that process attempt to collect 100% of a new fare quote.

[Ombud]

Another EZAIR benefit is that most of my cruises start at one city and end at another, usually an entirely different country or at least coast. EZAIR is normally less expensive than 2 one-way fares

 

But if I'm in & out of SeaTac or LAX than I'm better off booking directly with the airline 

[SCX22]

8 hours ago, envy4u said:

Exactly. It’s the airline price that went down and Princess won’t match it. They said their pricing is different than the airlines. Lesson learned. Bye EZair in the future 

 

I don't think you have a full understanding of EZAir.  EZAir doesn't guarantee the lowest price.  Sometimes they do have the lowest, other times not.  No where in EZAir's terms does it say that they will match or undercut direct to airline fares.

 

There are piece of mind protections that come along with booking EZAir.  Aside from the travel assistance in the event of flight or cruise snafus, EZAir allows for full cancellation 45 days prior to the date of the first flight segment with no penalty if booking Flexible Fares.  In your case, had you booked with the Air Canada directly from the get go instead of EZAir, you would NOT have been able to avail of the penalty free cancelation and you would have been stuck paying the higher fare because canceling would have incurred more penalties than it was worth.  No airline will give the difference in fare in the event of a fare decrease when booking direct; maybe if you booked a refundable fare, but as you have said you are after the lowest fare, you wouldn't have opted for a refundable fare to begin with because those fares are always higher.  You still got a benefit by booking with EZAir because you were able to avail of the penalty free cancelation period of 45 days, even though in the end they couldn't provide you with the lowest price, provided that you cancel and book with directly with Air Canada.

 

In your case, the best thing to do is to request for cancellation of EZAir.  You can do it yourself through the Cruise Personalizer under the Flights tab.  The system will generate the penalties that you owe (which in your case should be none) and deduct that refund amount before you proceed with the cancelation. Your booking balance will reflect a negative balance, meaning Princess owes you a refund.  Then you will have to call your TA or Princess, depending on the method you booked the cruise, and have them initiate a refund to the method you paid for your cruise.  Once you see the negative amount on your Princess booking balance in the amount of the EZAir that you paid, you are in the clear.  It's just a matter of someone triggering the refund back to your card from Princess' accounting department, which could take a few days, and it has to be you to tell them to initiate the refund via a rep; there is no one on Princess' end actively checking bookings for owed refunds.  You can then book your air directly with Air Canada.

Edited August 28 by SCX22

[CCJack]

On 8/27/2024 at 11:05 PM, Steelers36 said:

In this case, I think the only advantage of EZAir is that changes and cancellations are free until 45 days out.

I am a Princess newbie... can you tell me to get this advantage of free cancellations you have to choose the Flexible Fare on the EZair site?   If you choose Restricted Fare it says that cancellations are ... "Allowed. An airline credit memo will be recorded minus applicable fees."   Does this mean if you chose restricted fare you still can get a credit from the airline?    it seems like this would work if you book with restricted fare and the fare for that flight goes down, then you cancel through ezair and use your airline credit to book the new reduced fare for the same flight....    Is this correct thinking?

 

thank you.

 

[Steelers36]

15 minutes ago, CCJack said:

I am a Princess newbie... can you tell me to get this advantage of free cancellations you have to choose the Flexible Fare on the EZair site?   If you choose Restricted Fare it says that cancellations are ... "Allowed. An airline credit memo will be recorded minus applicable fees."   Does this mean if you chose restricted fare you still can get a credit from the airline?    it seems like this would work if you book with restricted fare and the fare for that flight goes down, then you cancel through ezair and use your airline credit to book the new reduced fare for the same flight....    Is this correct thinking?

 

thank you.

 

Yes Jack, you must select and purchase a flexible fare in order to have the free changes and cancellations.  IMO there is no reason to use EZ-Air for Restricted - especially domestically.  If you shop international fares, even then you will be typically finding that Restricted fares cost more or certainly don't save you enough to forego the benefits.  The last time we went to Europe I booked Business Class and repriced each direction 6 - 8 times and even involved an airline switch!!  I ended up with the very lowest fares possible for each direction.

[Abercrombie2019]

40 minutes ago, CCJack said:

I am a Princess newbie... can you tell me to get this advantage of free cancellations you have to choose the Flexible Fare on the EZair site?   If you choose Restricted Fare it says that cancellations are ... "Allowed. An airline credit memo will be recorded minus applicable fees."   Does this mean if you chose restricted fare you still can get a credit from the airline?    it seems like this would work if you book with restricted fare and the fare for that flight goes down, then you cancel through ezair and use your airline credit to book the new reduced fare for the same flight....    Is this correct thinking?

 

thank you.

 

Restricted fare is just that - restricted.  if you cancel, the tickets are non-refundable.  If you are going to book restricted fare, you are probably better off to book directly with the airline.

[CCJack]

33 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Yes Jack, you must select and purchase a flexible fare in order to have the free changes and cancellations.  IMO there is no reason to use EZ-Air for Restricted - especially domestically.  If you shop international fares, even then you will be typically finding that Restricted fares cost more or certainly don't save you enough to forego the benefits.  The last time we went to Europe I booked Business Class and repriced each direction 6 - 8 times and even involved an airline switch!!  I ended up with the very lowest fares possible for each direction.

thank you... Yes, I will only look at flexible fares... Another question, you said you were able to switch airlines..  Would I also be able to switch departure city after an initial EZair flexible booking?.  I am looking to book 2 premium economy tix Detroit to Tokyo for Sept 2025.  Frequently we have found flights to Europe or Asia are quite a bit cheaper if you leave from Canada as opposed to leaving from Detroit.  Would I be able to switch my Detroit departure booking to a Toronto (or  Windsor) departure all within the EZair website if those fares become more attractive?

[Steelers36]

2 minutes ago, CCJack said:

thank you... Yes, I will only look at flexible fares... Another question, you said you were able to switch airlines..  Would I also be able to switch departure city after an initial EZair flexible booking?.  I am looking to book 2 premium economy tix Detroit to Tokyo for Sept 2025.  Frequently we have found flights to Europe or Asia are quite a bit cheaper if you leave from Canada as opposed to leaving from Detroit.  Would I be able to switch my Detroit departure booking to a Toronto (or  Windsor) departure all within the EZair website if those fares become more attractive?

Free changes means you can change the entire booking elements:  cities, airlines, class of fare, dates & times.  Note that the city(ies) you want must be airports offered by EZair for the voyage you booked.  It can be a pretty wide-ranging list if flying to Europe from North America, for example.

 

IDK if Toronto (YYZ) to Japan will be cheaper for you.  I imagine DTW to Japan will involve a connection on the west coast or at ORD.  From Windsor, you would have to take a short flight to YYZ to connect, so may as well fly from DTW to YYZ.