After EZ Air has been ticketed.

[hpeabody]

Today I am very likely going to pull the trigger on my EZ air reservation for next Feb and have it ticketed. It is with United airlines and I am able to access/view the reservation via the United Website.

 

Stories I read of how EZ reservations are tampered with after they have been made concerns me. My question is this ... Can Princess tamper with my reservation after it has been ticketed, or is it truly locked in once it is ticketed? I understand the normal risks when you have a ticketed reservation as far as the airlines is concerned.

[satxdiver]

I have seen stories on here of how Princess "tampered" with their reservations. I do believe it was not Princess that did it but rather the airline. The airlines adjust their schedules quarterly and sometimes more often depending on the airline. So I strongly suspect it is the airline that did it and they have the ability to do it even after the ticket is bought. If your ticket gets changed and you don't like it, simply call the airline and they are willing to change it to your satisfaction given the new airline schedules. This does not cost anything to you since they are the ones that altered your flight arrangements. Princess does not have any interest in changing flight reservations as they are in the business of scheduling ships. Airlines are in the business of scheduling flights.

[whatcruiseisnext]

Princess will not tamper with your reservation once it is paid and ticketed. But as you memtioned, princess has no control over what the airlines does/changes.

[hpeabody]

Today I am very likely going to pull the trigger on my EZ air reservation for next Feb and have it ticketed. It is with United airlines and I am able to access/view the reservation via the United Website.

 

Stories I read of how EZ reservations are tampered with after they have been made concerns me. My question is this ... Can Princess tamper with my reservation after it has been ticketed, or is it truly locked in once it is ticketed? I understand the normal risks when you have a ticketed reservation as far as the airlines is concerned.

 

It was a no go :( What I was unaware of is that in order for the EZ air reservation to be ticketed you must PAY THE CRUISE IN FULL. It is far to early to do that with final payment not due until December. Oh, well.

[brt49]

Warning with American Airlines. We picked our seats, but when I went to check the reservation, American wanted $71 per seat as they now deemed the seats "premium". For the price we booked we would get the middle section. The layout is 2 - 4 - 2. Since we are on two long flights, Philadelphia to Barcelona and Rome to Philadelphia, we paid the extra to get the 2 seats. I would have never known they moved us if I didn't check.

[Times Prince]

It was a no go :( What I was unaware of is that in order for the EZ air reservation to be ticketed you must PAY THE CRUISE IN FULL. It is far to early to do that with final payment not due until December. Oh, well.

The flights can be reserved in advance of the final payment, but no money is transferred until then. We have frequently booked United and American airline flights, and reserved seats on the airline site all prior to final payment. We've never had to pay more than the original reservation price.

 

However if one waits until final payment, price AND AVAILABILITY will be an issue. Reserve it now.

[Times Prince]

The flights can be reserved in advance of the final payment, but no money is transferred until then. We have frequently booked United and American airline flights, and reserved seats on the airline site all prior to final payment. We've never had to pay more than the original reservation price.

 

However if one waits until final payment, price AND AVAILABILITY will be an issue. Reserve it now.

We have a December cruise, booked EZair flights with JetBlue. Final payment due in September.

 

I just checked on the JetBlue web site, and my previously selected seats remain selected, and our flight status is CONFIRMED.

 

The system works.

[trbarton]

I have seen stories on here of how Princess "tampered" with their reservations. I do believe it was not Princess that did it but rather the airline. The airlines adjust their schedules quarterly and sometimes more often depending on the airline. So I strongly suspect it is the airline that did it and they have the ability to do it even after the ticket is bought. If your ticket gets changed and you don't like it, simply call the airline and they are willing to change it to your satisfaction given the new airline schedules. This does not cost anything to you since they are the ones that altered your flight arrangements. Princess does not have any interest in changing flight reservations as they are in the business of scheduling ships. Airlines are in the business of scheduling flights.

 

I read on another post you can pay for your ticket in advance of final payment by requesting the "Early Ticket Request" form from Princess and fax or sent the form back to them for payment.

 

Tom:)

[moki'smommy]

I read on another post you can pay for your ticket in advance of final payment by requesting the "Early Ticket Request" form from Princess and fax or sent the form back to them for payment.

 

Tom:)

 

I'm the one who posted that. Yes, you can do it and depending on the airline situation, you may have to pay for the tickets before you can reserve the seats that you need. But the cruise must be paid in full before Princess will ticket the flight and at that time your air price is no longer flexible and cannot be canceled.

 

In our situation, due to a mobility issue we needed a seat as far forward in the plane as possible. We learned that the first several rows are blocked by the airline for people who need them (they show up on line as "unavailable,") but the airline would not place us in one of these rows until the flight was ticketed. Since we have travel insurance, we made the decision that there was little risk to early ticketing. The EZAir price was about $200 per person less than any other price I could find.

[sditty17]

When we went on our cruise this past February we had booked through EZ Air. Our cruises weren't paid in full yet, but we did pay for the full airline ticket right away. From the time we booked the ticket until we flew out we did get several emails that flight times or numbers had changed even though we specifically searched for and booked certain flights due to their early departure times on getting to Florida.

 

I can say this though- from flying once on our own and flying once with EZ Air- It is much easier with EZ Air. You don't have to worry about a thing once you get to the airport in Florida- just look for the person with the Princess sign and they whisk you away!!

[moki'smommy]

I got an e-mail yesterday from Delta notifying me that our flight thru EZ Air had been changed. It isn't a big deal--different plane configuration, different flight number, about 30 minutes earlier. That actually gives us extra time to make out connection--probably not bad.

 

I was able to go on line and change the seats they had assigned on the new flight.

[diane.in.ny]

I got an e-mail yesterday from Delta notifying me that our flight thru EZ Air had been changed. It isn't a big deal--different plane configuration' date=' different flight number, about 30 minutes earlier. That actually gives us extra time to make out connection--probably not bad.

 

I was able to go on line and change the seats they had assigned on the new flight.[/quote']

 

At least you got notification. AA did that to us but didn't tell us. We were flying business class and I had a new seat of something like 5B and my husband something like 10H. Ridiculous. :eek:

 

We didn't notice the change until we got to the gate. Fortunately the gate agent was able to get us together. My husband, otherwise, would have been a VERY unhappy camper.

[AF-1]

As of Jun 1st; Delta has changed their economy tickets. If you want to actually pick your seat; you have to pay more. If you don't care where you and your spouse sit; then you can pay basic economy fare. American is implementing this same ticket pricing. There will now be three choices to book in economy section. Also with Delta; it does not matter if you are a Platnum or Diamond member; you can't pick economy comfort anymore. You are waitlisted for these seats. Delta wants to see how many of them they can sell prior to the flight. This new system came about after the new CEO took over. He found out that 32% of first class seats were upgrades. He wants to get more money per flight; thus he implemented the new pricing system.

[moki'smommy]

As of Jun 1st; Delta has changed their economy tickets. If you want to actually pick your seat; you have to pay more. If you don't care where you and your spouse sit; then you can pay basic economy fare. American is implementing this same ticket pricing. There will now be three choices to book in economy section. Also with Delta; it does not matter if you are a Platnum or Diamond member; you can't pick economy comfort anymore. You are waitlisted for these seats. Delta wants to see how many of them they can sell prior to the flight. This new system came about after the new CEO took over. He found out that 32% of first class seats were upgrades. He wants to get more money per flight; thus he implemented the new pricing system.

 

Very interesting. We learned last year that we could get a marked reduction in the price of economy comfort by waiting until we arrived at the airport. We were doing quite a number of US to Heathrow flights. Typically, econ comfort in advance was $149 but if we waited till we got to the airport, it would typically be $39...or free! So if you really gotta have it, book ahead. If you are willing to chance it, wait till check in.

[oskidunker]

Going from SFO to Venice next year

[bigenna]

Our flight last fall on Air France was changed the morning of.

Checked religiously every day on Princess and Air France website and all okay until that last morning where they bumped us off the connecting flight, assigning the seats we had had for four months and put us on a flight that was about four hours later. Since we already had a three hour layover in France, this changed to seven hours.

Had to wait until we arrived in France for help where we were whisked onto a flight leaving only one hour later. Plus they gave us $75 Euro credit each.

So in our case, the problem was definitely the airline. Even though we were diligent in daily checking and obviously our flights had been paid for a couple of months prior..

Even though the made good in the end, it was a stressful part to our holiday and I have learned a lesson firsthand - expect the unexpected.

[Archipelago]

When booking EZ Air can one call the airline and attach their frequent flier account number to get credit for the mileage ?

[moki'smommy]

I've always been able to go to the airline's web site with the confirmation number and add the FF number. Don't see why you couldn't do it on the phone though. You can also add any meal requests, lap infant, HA assist, or anything else you might need.

[Times Prince]

As of Jun 1st; Delta has changed their economy tickets. If you want to actually pick your seat; you have to pay more. If you don't care where you and your spouse sit; then you can pay basic economy fare. American is implementing this same ticket pricing. There will now be three choices to book in economy section. Also with Delta; it does not matter if you are a Platnum or Diamond member; you can't pick economy comfort anymore. You are waitlisted for these seats. Delta wants to see how many of them they can sell prior to the flight. This new system came about after the new CEO took over. He found out that 32% of first class seats were upgrades. He wants to get more money per flight; thus he implemented the new pricing system.

Just one more reason to not choose Delta. :mad:

[diane.in.ny]

When booking EZ Air can one call the airline and attach their frequent flier account number to get credit for the mileage ?

 

If memory served me correctly, I was able to add our FF numbers when we made our reservation through EZ Air. I seem to remember that afterwards I was able to log into our airline account and the EZ Air reservation was there on our personal airline account.

[lstone19]

I work for an airline and have a hand in the schedule development process. Flights are available for sale well in advance of the schedule being finalized. Typically for my carrier, the schedule is not final (for some definition of final - things can still change) until two to three months before. Prior to that, it's a future schedule that will change somewhat. For the most part, departure and arrival times will be about the same although exact times will change and equipment is likely to change. If you're booking a flight right now the full 11 months you can go, it will almost certainly change somewhat between now and then. For the piece of the schedule we do, we've only finalized our part through mid-December and that's just an input to the people who put the final schedule together.

 

A big input to a schedule is the previous year's history (usually in two to three month seasons). Until that history occurs and can be processed, there's nothing that can be done except for a "best guess" future schedule.

[Grego]

We are using EZ Air for our flights to Copenhagen and the return from NY to WPB. The pricing was much lower than I could find online. The only gotcha was that when going online to the Air Canada site, you can only do so much with your reservation, even though the final payment was made. Reason being is that the reservation was done by a "third party" such as a TA or Princess in this case.

I guess I'm not worried, but there is always some concern that we don't have any control over the ticketing now that we have paid for it. I'm sure that if I keep checking our booking and see no changes we should be good to go feeling we are confirmed and can print out our boarding passes.

Let me know if I'm OK with this.

[moki'smommy]

I work for an airline and have a hand in the schedule development process. Flights are available for sale well in advance of the schedule being finalized. Typically for my carrier, the schedule is not final (for some definition of final - things can still change) until two to three months before. Prior to that, it's a future schedule that will change somewhat. For the most part, departure and arrival times will be about the same although exact times will change and equipment is likely to change. If you're booking a flight right now the full 11 months you can go, it will almost certainly change somewhat between now and then. For the piece of the schedule we do, we've only finalized our part through mid-December and that's just an input to the people who put the final schedule together.

 

A big input to a schedule is the previous year's history (usually in two to three month seasons). Until that history occurs and can be processed, there's nothing that can be done except for a "best guess" future schedule.

 

This certainly makes sense. It is a lot more frustrating when you book 3-4 weeks in advance and the airline makes changes a week before your departure....or even the day of the departure.

 

Sorry, one airline has 5 flights per day from our local airport to Chicago. It is not at all unusual to arrive at the airport only to find that at least one of those has been canceled. My suspicion (no way I can prove it) is that the flights didn't fill and they were able to put all the people on the other flights. My "trick" is to try to arrive at the airport before the flight before mine. If my flight is canceled, I ask whether there is a possibility of moving to the EARLIER flight rather than being booked or standby on the next flight. But then, I'm a person who would rather have a long layover rather than be racing thru O'Hare. And of course, either way luggage issues are common!

[bigenna]

We are using EZ Air for our flights to Copenhagen and the return from NY to WPB. The pricing was much lower than I could find online. The only gotcha was that when going online to the Air Canada site, you can only do so much with your reservation, even though the final payment was made. Reason being is that the reservation was done by a "third party" such as a TA or Princess in this case.

I guess I'm not worried, but there is always some concern that we don't have any control over the ticketing now that we have paid for it. I'm sure that if I keep checking our booking and see no changes we should be good to go feeling we are confirmed and can print out our boarding passes.

Let me know if I'm OK with this.

 

I guess you didn't read this whole thread then. See my post #16 on the previous page.

[lstone19]

This certainly makes sense. It is a lot more frustrating when you book 3-4 weeks in advance and the airline makes changes a week before your departure....or even the day of the departure.

 

Sorry' date=' one airline has 5 flights per day from our local airport to Chicago. It is not at all unusual to arrive at the airport only to find that at least one of those has been canceled. My suspicion (no way I can prove it) is that the flights didn't fill and they were able to put all the people on the other flights. My "trick" is to try to arrive at the airport before the flight before mine. If my flight is canceled, I ask whether there is a possibility of moving to the EARLIER flight rather than being booked or standby on the next flight. But then, I'm a person who would rather have a long layover rather than be racing thru O'Hare. And of course, either way luggage issues are common![/quote']

 

There is a big difference between "schedule changes" and a "day of operation irregularity". Airlines do not make "schedule changes" on the day of operation (although I've noticed European airlines will frequently refer to delays as "schedule changes". Keep in mind the old saying about the U.S. and the U.K. being two countries separated by a common language). At least for U.S. carriers, a "schedule change" made less than a week before the day of operation is a cancellation or a delay, not a change in the schedule. Things happen on the day of operation and sometimes that results in delays or cancellations. We don't like it to happen; in fact, at many carriers, employees receive bonuses for hitting performance targets so a day of operation cancellation or delay puts bonuses at risk.

 

Are flights cancelled due to low loads? At my carrier, never. But, once other circumstances force a cancellation (e.g. plane out of service), load becomes a valid criteria for deciding what flight to cancel. This is not like a cruise where you book a particular ship. With air travel, you have not booked a particular plane and if needed, we will reassign "your" plane to another flight that needs it more. Given a choice of cancelling a flight with 100 people on it and no protection available or one with 25 people and protection available two hours later, you better believe we will cancel the one with 25 and move its plane to the one with 100. It's about having the least overall impact on the passengers.