problems with Princess air

[Thoth]

I used EZ Air once and it was a mess. Now I book with an air travel assistance concierge. The service they provide that I find invaluable is monitoring all aspects of your flight. If things change they can rebook, even if you are in the air or in transit. Google "air travel assistance concierge" and the company I use should come up. I don't like to post ads here on cc but the name of the company starts with "C".

thanks ;)

[LovetheSea]

You really have to take charge of your air. Even with Princess Air. We booked through Princess but then went on the airline website and are keeping track of our reservation there. Last cruise in March, when we got to the airport after the cruise and checked in we found out our flights home were all changed while we were on the cruise. Sooner flight out through a different city. Thank goodness we didn't have an after cruise excursion booked.

Edited August 13, 2014 by LovetheSea

[Thoth]

You really have to take charge of your air. Even with Princess Air. We booked through Princess but then went on the airline website and are keeping track of our reservation there. Last cruise in March, when we got to the airport after the cruise and checked in we found out our flights home were all changed while we were on the cruise. Sooner flight out through a different city. Thank goodness we didn't have an after cruise excursion booked.

With me, they changed mine up in February and somewhere forgot to tell anyone...so I would arrive at LAX and be told...."you were supposed to have left 3 hours ago" :eek:

[Thoth]

I've gone on my cruise and returned. Princess has been great so far and in straightening this muddle out. The fault seems to be with the airline which is merging with another and I was told has sold or outsourced their booking process. They failed to notify Princess of changes is my conjecture .

[DougandEric]

I experienced the exact same thing. For our flights in November from TPA to Papeete, Tahiti, we booked using EZAir because the price was too good to pass up. I selected seats on EZAir as well.

 

A couple days later, I tried to log into United and American to check the US flights but the locator number on Princess didn't work on the airlines sites. I called my TA and she called United, Air Tahiti Nui and American to get THEIR locators which are completely different than the one Princess shows. The Princess flights show we are flying Qantas and the locator is the Qantas number. She also got us seats as well although we selected them on Princess, the were not showing with the individual airlines.

 

A few weeks later, I was checking United and discovered our seats were changed on one flight and upon further inspection, I realized the who flight was changed - we originally went TPA-IAH-LAX-PPT but that changed to TPA-IAD-LAX-PPT AND the flight into LAX got in too late to catch the PPT flight. She took care of getting this straightened out but we now have to leave at 6:30AM instead of 10AM so we will have to get up around 3AM.

 

About 3 weeks after that, I checked again and found that the return flights on American were completely changed and we had 2 flights from LAX to DFW - no idea why. Again my TA took care of it but Princess still showed the original flights we booked.

 

In addition to all this, we had upgraded to economy plus on all flights (except Air Tahiti Nui) and of course those were lost and had to be re-purchased. United did wave the fee on one leg as a courtesy and the original costs are supposed to be automatically refunded (still haven't see those!).

 

So, all the time these changes were going on, Princess didn't show any changes at all. I set up alerts on all segments with all airlines and no notification from the airlines or Princess. I guess the airlines not notifying you is somewhat understandable since you set up the alerts on the flights and if the airline does away with that flight, there goes your alert - however, they moved you to another flight so they have told you that! So it makes you wonder what you're actually booking other than a spot on the plane when using EZAir because you don't get any seat assignments with the airlines regardless of what you put in on Princess.

 

To end this saga, I would say use EZAir if the price is too good to pass up BUT pay no attention to what the EZAir site shows and check each airline individually for flights, seats, etc. Manage the flights yourself with the airlines and check often - I'm checking at least once a week. In addition, the flight numbers showing on Princess are NOT the flight numbers with the individual airlines in all cases - VERY confusing. All this code share stuff makes travel difficult!

 

Doug

[Thoth]

 

To end this saga, I would say use EZAir if the price is too good to pass up BUT pay no attention to what the EZAir site shows and check each airline individually for flights, seats, etc. Manage the flights yourself with the airlines and check often - I'm checking at least once a week. In addition, the flight numbers showing on Princess are NOT the flight numbers with the individual airlines in all cases - VERY confusing. All this code share stuff makes travel difficult!

 

Doug

My thoughts exactly Doug ! What I learned was ignore what Princess list and go totally with the airline's schedule.

Perhaps I was wrong to let Princess off the hook, blaming it all on American airlines. Sounds like United flights get muddled up too. Princess has promised me a refund...we shall see :rolleyes:

[FawnRiver]

You really have to take charge of your air. Even with Princess Air. We booked through Princess but then went on the airline website and are keeping track of our reservation there. Last cruise in March, when we got to the airport after the cruise and checked in we found out our flights home were all changed while we were on the cruise. Sooner flight out through a different city. Thank goodness we didn't have an after cruise excursion booked.

Keeping an eye on your airline reservations is a necessity regardless of who you book through. For our next cruise, we booked the return flight using Air Miles and they started sending me notices that the flight departure time had changed, but didn't say what to, they only gave me the original time of departure.

I had already gone to the airline website and noticed that the flight time had moved up 20 minutes, which isn't an issue since its a mid afternoon flight.

The time has changed just once, but they have sent me three different notices about it. I suspect it has more to do with the fact that I declined their insurance and they want me to panic and buy it.

[socialworker]

I just used Princess EZ Air for the first time. I was surprised to learn there's a surcharge (in my case $40) on each ticket. I never saw mention of this on their website nor have I ever seen it mentioned on these boards which is really strange because we discuss everything.

 

Hey, at least I now know to keep vigilant regarding my air booking. I originally thought if Princess was handling it, I could just sit back and relax.

 

Thanks for listening.

[caribill]

I just used Princess EZ Air for the first time. I was surprised to learn there's a surcharge (in my case $40) on each ticket. I never saw mention of this on their website nor have I ever seen it mentioned on these boards which is really strange because we discuss everything.

 

How did you find out about the surcharge?

[HRPro]

I just used Princess EZ Air for the first time. I was surprised to learn there's a surcharge (in my case $40) on each ticket. I never saw mention of this on their website nor have I ever seen it mentioned on these boards which is really strange because we discuss everything.

 

Hey, at least I now know to keep vigilant regarding my air booking. I originally thought if Princess was handling it, I could just sit back and relax.

 

Thanks for listening.

 

Glad to know about this. I noticed that they had charged extra for each ticket and I couldn't figure out why since it was not mentioned anywhere. I was ready to call Princess to find out, but hadn't gotten around to it. I wondered if the additional cost was to cover the extra insurance, but couldn't find anything on the website that was on point. Thanks for the information.

[HRPro]

Just saw this answered on anothe thread. Apparently, EZ Air charges a surcharge to cover the cost of insurance.

[pppatpc2]

We are on the Diamond Princess in January out of Sydney and had been looking at airfares which were running no lower than $2500 pp. One day early summer, Princess had an airfare sale and we snagged two roundtrips from Orlando for a little under $1600 pp on EZair with only one stop there and two back (because we end in Auckland and have to go back to Sydney). Now to get anything under $3000 you really are looking at 48 hour travel times. This is our first time booking with them, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Thoth]

 

Hey, at least I now know to keep vigilant regarding my air booking. I originally thought if Princess was handling it, I could just sit back and relax.

 

Thanks for listening.

So true :)

[Thoth]

We are on the Diamond Princess in January out of Sydney and had been looking at airfares which were running no lower than $2500 pp. One day early summer, Princess had an airfare sale and we snagged two roundtrips from Orlando for a little under $1600 pp on EZair with only one stop there and two back (because we end in Auckland and have to go back to Sydney). Now to get anything under $3000 you really are looking at 48 hour travel times. This is our first time booking with them, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

good luck :) things should work out fine. Part of my problem was the airline .

[satxdiver]

I had spent enough time on airplanes while I was working to know keeping vigilant is the key. We received a really low quote from Princess for our trip to

South America so for the first time I booked through them. Up until this trip I have booked the airline myself and will continue to do so while watching what EZair is offering. I just went and checked with the airline and our reservations show agreeing with what Princess is saying. So for now all is well but I intend to continue watching the airline's version of our reservation. Thanks for the heads up.

[kavok]

Has anyone had the unfortunate experience of booking through Princess Air, and missing the ship because of flight delays? If so, what was your experience?

 

I ask because for an upcoming cruise, our work schedules left us no choice but to fly in the morning of (not something we normally do or prefer to do). Knowing the risks of flight delays, we opted for Princess Air to "cover us" just in case.

 

I was just curious what experience anyone may have had should they have missed embarkation while booked through Princess Air. Thanks!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Thoth]

Has anyone had the unfortunate experience of booking through Princess Air, and missing the ship because of flight delays? If so, what was your experience?

 

I ask because for an upcoming cruise, our work schedules left us no choice but to fly in the morning of (not something we normally do or prefer to do). Knowing the risks of flight delays, we opted for Princess Air to "cover us" just in case.

 

I was just curious what experience anyone may have had should they have missed embarkation while booked through Princess Air. Thanks!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

I can empathize with your feelings. If you are unable to leave a day early then you did the best that you could and trust them to take care of you. You should be fine :)

[cherylandtk]

Has anyone had the unfortunate experience of booking through Princess Air, and missing the ship because of flight delays? If so, what was your experience?

While it has not happened to us, the usual drill is that Princess will work to get you to the first suitable port. You need to have a passport, and it really helps if you have Princess Vacation Protection, although any travel insurance will cover some amount of travel delay. The difficulties tend to come in the form of not understanding the limitations of next port protection; they cannot board you in the next port of it is a US port, it must be foreign. They cannot fly you to a foreign port without a passport, some private islands or ports are near inaccessible by air, you may miss half your cruise, etc.