Delayed flight with Ez air?

[mina]

Just wanted to see if anyone has experienced substantial delay on a princess Ez air flight and how it was handled? Due to work commitments we are flying from Phl to London arriving at 9 am on the day of the cruise to Norway. We are booked through Ez air with princess transfers to Southampton. I have been checking the statistics on the American Airlines flight we are on and it is consistently late. Yesterday, it was four hours late. Fortunately, it has never been cancelled. So, if the worst case happens, what steps do I take? The phone number on my paperwork is only for the princess ca office and during normal work hours. My flight leaves late at night on the Friday of memorial weekend. Shouldn't there by an enroute emergency number to call to notify of a delay? If the worst case of four hours late occurs, that would give us exactly two hours before the ship is set to sail allowing an hour to get through immigration. Am I right to assume the heathrow princess folks would be waiting and ready to whisk us to the ship? yes, I know we should have planned to arrive a day early, but that was not possible. We do have princess insurance, so if we miss the ship, I would want to just cancel the cruise and I have a back up plan to tour England by train. I doubt very much that they would fly us to the first port in Norway. Our return flight is not thru princess, so this alternate plan should work. Anyone experience delays though Ez air similar to this and how was it handled? Thank you.

[AJs Grandpa]

See here for insurance: http://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/faq_answer_legal/Princess_Vacation_Protection.pdf

 

And here for EZ Air:http://www.princess.com/plan/ezair/

[juniper berries]

Hi the information you need is in the Frequently Asked Question page on the cruise personalier you need to sign in.Look for En route delays it tells you what you need to do.

I have take a princess transfer to Southampton the transfer does not leave until

10am from Heathrow airport. Also you meet the Princess Rep outside of immigration you will have your luggage with you. The girls have clip board with the sea witch logo on it and usually have scarf on witch the sea witch on it as well. If you arrive on schedule they will tell you to wait with other then you are escorted as a group to the bus with your luggage.For the trip to Southampton. Some times the luggage goes to the pier on a separate truck. Hopefully now you have the information that you need you will not need it and have a great stress free cruise.:)

[Caribensun]

Mina, recently had a conversation with someone who had to use it, they also had Princess Protection Insurance as well. Cruise to Hawaii, weather landed them late, missed ship, Princess flew them to first port, ship had to skip port, flew passengers to last port ship had to miss that port. Passengers put up in 5 star accommodations, all meals, cars/taxis paid and discount on a future cruise. Passengers said Princess handled so well they never travel without PP or EZ air. This couple could cruise a lux line or any line but prefer Princess after their experience.

Hope this helps.

Sandipalms

[skynight]

The latest scheduled arrival time on May 28th at Heathrow is 10:05am. I would expect that if your plane is late that Princess will know and transportation to Southampton will be waiting for you. There should be a Princess Rep. waiting for you as you exit the Customs area. The drive to Southampton is about 90 mins., maybe less mid day. If you are on a Princess transfer in-route the ship will probably wait for you.

If you should arrive too late to make the sailing, Princess will arrange to fly you to your first port, Stavanger, and put you up in a hotel for two nights. This is at no extra charge for you. It is part of the EZ-Air contract. You should get the contact number for Princess' agent in the UK should there be an issue.

[Working 2 Cruise]

I wish you the best of luck! I hope you realize how far Southampton is from Heathrow? Traffic can also be horrendous. If absolutely nothing goes wrong, you'll make the ship... however, any delay....

 

It's a good thing you have EZ Air and Princess insurance.

[easyboy]

Shouldn't there by an enroute emergency number to call to notify of a delay? If the worst case of four hours late occurs, that would give us exactly two hours before the ship is set to sail allowing an hour to get through immigration. Am I right to assume the heathrow princess folks would be waiting and ready to whisk us to the ship?

The contact no. for your 24/7 Vacation Protection is printed on your Boarding Pass

[mina]

Thank you all for the great input. Good to hear the example you gave, sandipalm. Sounds like all will be handled well, should the flight be delayed. A couple nights in stavanger actual sounds good, so either way we will be in good shape. Working2cruise, I am aware of how far the port is. However, we also have princess transfers, so we will be under their care, so no need to wish us luck. It's a risk to fly in day of, but looks like we hedged that risk well by going princess for air, transport and insurance. Great suggestion to carry the uk princess agent number, I will do that.

[moki'smommy]

While it has nothing to do with a delayed flight, when the Caribbean Princess was delayed by 24 hours due to fog, those of us who purchased "The Whole Package (Princess' words) were treated very well. We were taken to the Four Seasons where Princess paid for the hotel as well as the transportation to and from that location. Those who did not use EZair were on their own to find a place to spend the night and a way to get back to the terminal the next day. And EZ air had a better price than I could get on my own!

[mek]

Do the busses have toilets or do they make a stop along the way?

[DrivesLikeMario]

YES - the buses have toilets albeit think of an airplane toilet and halve that but it works in a pinch. Sometimes just knowing you have a restroom onboard makes it better. ;) My flight wasn't due to arrive until 12:15 in LHR. Got to the Princess rep around 1:15pm who was stressed out waiting for us (about 5 of us - not in the same party). We made it to the ship with plenty of time to spare. So, even if your flight is three hours late, you should be fine. :)

[mek]

Thanks you're so right about just knowing it's there if needed.

[cynbar]

I have a related question. Let's say you miss the ship and Princess arranges to fly you to the first port, but you would prefer to cancel the cruise, perhaps because you would miss several days of the cruise. Do you have that option? Or, are you locked in to waiting for the ship at the first port?

[antsp]

The 28th is a holiday weekend so I'd imagine traffic from lhr to Southampton maybe quieter

[NavyVeteran]

I have a related question. Let's say you miss the ship and Princess arranges to fly you to the first port, but you would prefer to cancel the cruise, perhaps because you would miss several days of the cruise. Do you have that option? Or, are you locked in to waiting for the ship at the first port?

 

I would not expect Princess to give you a refund if you decided to cancel the cruise. Their only obligation with EZAir is to get you to the next port (if feasible). Even though you booked through EZAir, it is still not their fault that the plane was late.

 

If you have travel insurance, then it may - or may not - consider missing embarkation to be a covered reason for cancelling the cruise. That would depend on the specific travel insurance.

 

It may also depend on how much you miss. If you miss one or two days, that may be one thing. If you miss the ship in Fort Lauderdale for an east-bound trans-Atlantic, that's something completely different.

[ccastner]

Snow storm in the south this past December prevented my plane arriving at my home airport to take me to LAX to go to Auckland. I called the trip interruption # and it took 1.5 hours but they figured out how to get me to Auckland before the ship arrived. I did have to ask for longer time between two of my flights as I knew I needed more time for DFW. This convinced me going forward to always try EZ AIR first

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[azalice]

A couple of years ago we took the bus from our London hotel, having purchased the pre-cruise hotel stay, and the bus had a toilet but it was locked and the driver said it cannot be used; he did not say it was broken, only that the company was not allowing its use. And it was a long trip to a few of us.

Edited April 5, 2017 by azalice
Wrong thread

[azalice]

Apparently I posted on wrong thread.

[mek]

A couple of years ago we took the bus from our London hotel, having purchased the pre-cruise hotel stay, and the bus had a toilet but it was locked and the driver said it cannot be used; he did not say it was broken, only that the company was not allowing its use. And it was a long trip to a few of us.

 

Thats terrible and totally unacceptable.

[bennybear]

IMHO I would always fly in a day or two early just to dump some jet lag. I don't think ez air even charges a deviation for that, so why risk it? I have seen too many stressed people in Heathrow as the customs lines can be horrendous. Spend a few days in London or area. Enjoy your holiday without worry. On one Baltic cruise we came the day before and we kept losing an hour a day, so much so we nearly missed Sweden as we finally slept in.

[madmacs]

Very topical, my wife and I are currently stuck at Atlanta airport. We have been here for ten hours so far, bad weather and crew timed out. Fortunately not on our cruise until Saturday, but very tired and not a fun start.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Very topical, my wife and I are currently stuck at Atlanta airport. We have been here for ten hours so far, bad weather and crew timed out. Fortunately not on our cruise until Saturday, but very tired and not a fun start.

DH was traveling from Richmond to home through Atlanta yesterday. His flight was delayed and delayed and delayed...until all the other flight options had been booked and then his was cancelled. He cannot get home until Saturday evening. He spent last night in the Richmond airport but just checked into a nearby hotel. It's crazy, and we specifically discussed what would happen if we were heading to a cruise. Good luck!

[NavyVeteran]

DH was traveling from Richmond to home through Atlanta yesterday. His flight was delayed and delayed and delayed...until all the other flight options had been booked and then his was cancelled. He cannot get home until Saturday evening. He spent last night in the Richmond airport but just checked into a nearby hotel. It's crazy, and we specifically discussed what would happen if we were heading to a cruise. Good luck!

 

This is one reason to purchase travel insurance. In December 2013, my brother and I were not able to get home from a cruise in Houston as scheduled because of a Texas ice storm. We did not have any airline problems - we were able to fly from Houston to Dallas Love Field with no delays. However, when we got to Dallas, we were not able to drive home - the interstate highways were closed by the ice storm. We stayed overnight at a hotel by the airport and drove home the next day.

 

Princess Vacation Protection paid the full cost of our hotel and meals for the whether delay with no problems, even though there was no ship or airline delay.

 

The EZAir guarantee would provide the air travel to the next port, but I would not rely on it to provide hotel and meals. Any reasonable travel insurance should pay for those.