HAL's Flightease Program--Great Program

I am a 5 star mariner who never knew about HAL's flight program. Good thing that I hang out in the Ocean Bar because a fellow (actually a nice lady) told me about the program. I finally tried it out. Since I am getting too old too squeeze me into a transatlantic torture chamber ie the coach section, I called HAL and booked a spring transatlantic to Barcelona. Easy to get to Fort Lauderdale, but getting home to Palm Springs (CA) is a bear. HAL found me a great great, did I say great, deal on Air France in business for less than one-sixth quoted on the Air France site. All that plus the guaranty that HAL will get me home (if not on time at least home somehow) . The guaranty is free not bundled into HAL's protection program cost.

I easily found all the info through HAL's web site and confirmed it by looking at the airline web-site which showed identical info. This is fabulous for international travel.

I am a 5 star mariner who never knew about HAL's flight program. Good thing that I hang out in the Ocean Bar because a fellow (actually a nice lady) told me about the program. I finally tried it out. Since I am getting too old too squeeze me into a transatlantic torture chamber ie the coach section, I called HAL and booked a spring transatlantic to Barcelona. Easy to get to Fort Lauderdale, but getting home to Palm Springs (CA) is a bear. HAL found me a great great, did I say great, deal on Air France in business for less than one-sixth quoted on the Air France site. All that plus the guaranty that HAL will get me home (if not on time at least home somehow) . The guaranty is free not bundled into HAL's protection program cost.

 

 

 

I easily found all the info through HAL's web site and confirmed it by looking at the airline web-site which showed identical info. This is fabulous for international travel.

I looked at BCN to PSP on Air France....they quote $5526 did you get this for less than $1,000? That is an amazing deal

Price from Barcelona to Paris and then non-stop was $1163!

Price from Barcelona to Paris and then non-stop was $1163!

Fantastic fare for business.

http://www.theinsidecabin.com

We used flight-ease on our cruise to Australia and flight home. The experience was great. We had always used a TA, till our last two cruises. The directions our PCC gave us verbally and the documents that simply said we had transfers and reservations at the hotels we stayed in and that representatives would meet us. The flights were not direct, but the waits and the flights were all very good. It couldn't have worked any better than it did. We are very appreciative of the job our PCC did for us and the Hal program. We are planning to use it for our next cruise in Oct. 2018.

I have an issue with the HAL program which has been previously posted. Unlike some other cruise lines (such as Princess) HAL's Flight Ease program means spending time on the phone with the HAL folks or having an agent do it as an intermediary. If I want to use the Princess air program I simply log-on to their site and then I can explore all the options (to and from many different airports). I see, in real time, all the available flights, airlines, times, cost, etc. And in a matter of minutes I can explore which east coast airport (we can easily get to IAD, PHL, BWI, EWR, JFK, etc) to see the best option. With HAL, rather than a few clicks of the mouse (between plays of a football game) I must sit on the phone with an agent for what can be a very long time...while I keep tossing out scenarios and having them check.

So, we would love to see HAL expand their Flight Ease Program to online access. No need to take away the current system (for those that prefer phone time)...but why not more into the 21st Century and have this stuff accessible online.

Hank

If you have a cruise booked it is available on-line (at least I can view all mine). The flights have to be within the 330 days to view.

I do however like the Princess system where you can actually look at cruises and the fight options without having a cruise booked.

If you have a cruise booked it is available on-line (at least I can view all mine). The flights have to be within the 330 days to view.

This isn't yet available to everyone unfortunately. :(

Sorry, I had thought it was finally roll-out to everyone. I wasn’t able to see the “flights” on my booked reservations until about 20 days ago.

I'm only a 2 star and 317 days out and don't see where it lets you look at flights. I've got a login and went to Already Booked. Maybe you have to be more stars.

Danny

I'm only a 2 star and 317 days out and don't see where it lets you look at flights. I've got a login and went to Already Booked. Maybe you have to be more stars.

Danny

I don’t believe it has any relationship to star level. I was told 3 months ago by a HAL that they were slowly rolling out:rolleyes:.

I view flights by logging in, going to my account, then my reservations, then clicking on the purchase link ( where you do excursions, dining venues, etc.) under each reservation.

Flight info is the 1st option.

30 days ago I also did not “see” the flight info option.

Guess “slow rollout” is in fact very slow!

I could not access it through the HAL website either, it baffled the agent who argued that I could. I wonder if it's because I do it through a Canadian IP address?

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I use HAL's Flightease program through my Seattle based travel agent and have no problem doing so. On open-jaw flights and most international flights, HAL can provide me with exact itineraries, airlines, flights, and prices that are much better than what I can find on my own.

I just looked at Flightease for our up coming cruise in Jan out of FLL. It was listed under the "purchases" tab of our reservation and was easy to use. However, it only showed flights for American, United and Delta and they are all connecting flights out of Indianapolis and the cheapest was $185. We fly Southwest out of Indy when ever possible (we are using them for this cruise) and they have a non-stop for $107 and bags fly free. Again the system seemed very easy to use so when it is time to book our flights to Amsterdam in 2019 I will use this system for sure to look for flights.

The airline flight info was listed on a separate e-mail add-on which contained my two flight references which I was able to verify by logging into the airlines' web sites. This made me comfortable. Don't think anything has to do with mariner status. I just mentioned by status to show what a fool I have been for not trying this great resource earlier.

While I usually use an on-line TA (for the savings not the service) I used HAL for this booking since it was new to me. I could transfer the booking flights and all to a TA, but at least for now I want the luxury of solving any problems directly with HAL.

I will Try the Princess program which sounds even better with my next Princess cruise.

Everybody -- this is a great way to get a lot for comparatively little!

Sadly, I didn't have the same success when booking flights for my last cruise. HAL was only able to offer connecting flights with very long travel times and high pricing. I was able to find non-stops for far less cost. I'll still ask them for quotes in hopes that I get a good deal someday though.

HAL is purchasing airline tickets much like a consolidator. Typically you find excellent pricing on International tickets.

On more than 100 cruises (we have truly lost count) we have never booked domestic flights through any cruise line for several reasons (not the least of which is they do not list some of the best airlines such as Southwest). But where the cruise lines become very useful is for some International Flights...especially for those of us looking for a good deal on business class.

As always, we suggest doing a little shopping around. Use a decent search engine like Kayak (one of our favorites), Orbitz, Expedia, etc. and price-out your options. Then take a look at what the cruise line offers...and the rest should become obvious. Keep in mind that for domestic US flights, most search engines and cruise lines will not show Southwest and many do not show JetBlue. So if these airlines fly your routes you should check them on their own sites. And keep in mind that Southwest does not release their flights more than a few months in advance...while most other airlines release their fares about 330 days out.

Hank

My recent experience backs up the last post. HAL's price for a domestic business flight,LAX to Ft. Lauderdale was prohibitive. I booked my own way domestically and used HAL from Barcelona to LAX. I couldn't come anyway near HAL's business class price.

I used Flight Ease for my trip to Amsterdam last summer. The price I got was lower than anything I had found looking on my own. So, I decided to look into it for my trip to Boston next summer. The kicker was we wanted to leave from a small regional airport near home so my sister didn't have to take an extra day off work. I checked out the flights on the big websites and then contacted my PCC and told her what I was looking for. She came back, sending me a couple itineraries to consider, then I called and in five minutes I was booked for less than I could get on my own.

I don’t believe it has any relationship to star level. I was told 3 months ago by a HAL that they were slowly rolling out:rolleyes:.

I view flights by logging in, going to my account, then my reservations, then clicking on the purchase link ( where you do excursions, dining venues, etc.) under each reservation.

Flight info is the 1st option.

30 days ago I also did not “see” the flight info option.

Guess “slow rollout” is in fact very slow!

YES... That worked. I had gone before a different route on the website.

THANK YOU

Danny