EZ Air early ticketing - Pros

[Coffeeluvr05]

I am aware of the cons of having my EZ air ticketed early such as making it non-refundable and charges for changes.  I have a really good first class set of flights that I do not want to lose as part of it is one of those once in a lifetime experiences.  Barring some major catastrophe, we are going on this trip.   We also have Princess Platinum insurance so we are well covered in the event something should happen.  So tell me the pros of early ticketing.  Does this better set in stone your booking?  I've been having an uneasy feeling that since we are not ticketed yet, our booking could just disappear because they can get way more $$ from others for the same flights.  I'm probably being overly anxious because I so need this vacation, so any insight or info that could put me at ease is welcome.  Thanks all!

[PoohUnderstands]

I find that if you book first/business with ez air you get to pick seat numbers early in the game. What I did was keep track on the airline’s site to see how seats were filling up before I could actually pick my seats. If it showed signs of filling up then I would have paid upfront. Otherwise if around 6 mos or longer I can pick my seats I wait.  Check airlines constantly to make sure nothing has changed. At around 40 days to 35 days I go into sites and make sure has changed to ticketed with number etc.  so my answer to you if seats are filling up a lot before you can secure yours( and usually can pick yours before final payment) then go ahead and pay at that time so you can pick your seats. Just remember if price reduction you don’t get it.  So start out with flexible flight, never pay higher cost of other option.  Hope I was clear!!

[fluffybunny22]

I booked business class to Europe last month for next June and was able to pick my seats. I'm comfortable waiting for them to be ticketed at 45 days. I keep checking the prices every day but the cost has just gone up since I booked. I even booked my in laws air in economy and was able to pick their seats and they went on the delta site to confirm those selections.

[Colo Cruiser]

34 minutes ago, fluffybunny22 said:

I booked business class to Europe last month for next June and was able to pick my seats. I'm comfortable waiting for them to be ticketed at 45 days. I keep checking the prices every day but the cost has just gone up since I booked. I even booked my in laws air in economy and was able to pick their seats and they went on the delta site to confirm those selections.

I agree. I have never pre paid for my flights or cruise and have not had any issues.

I always use United when possible.

Even with upcoming flights to Rome which are United flights but operated by Lufthansa I am able to pick my seats. If I book the same flight with Lufthansa I cannot pick seats until 24 hours prior to the flight.

[fluffybunny22]

2 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

I agree. I have never pre paid for my flights or cruise and have not had any issues.

I always use United when possible.

Even with upcoming flights to Rome which are United flights but operated by Lufthansa I am able to pick my seats. If I book the same flight with Lufthansa I cannot pick seats until 24 hours prior to the flight.

Lufthansa lets you pick your seats at the time of booking for business class. We are flying them to Copenhagen.

[Colo Cruiser]

1 minute ago, fluffybunny22 said:

Lufthansa lets you pick your seats at the time of booking for business class. We are flying them to Copenhagen.

They better let you pick seats for that kind of money.

However most don't fly business class so they have to wait until 24 hours prior which is total BS. Same on BA.

[trvlwrld]

American let me pick my EZ air economy to Europe when we chose our flights...3 months before the 45 day purchase from Princess...

[NavyVeteran]

You have a confirmed reservation, so it shouldn't be a problem. The only problems I've ever had have been when the airline cancels or changes the flight or changes the type of aircraft used, and you would have the same problem even if you had already paid.

 

Some airlines allow you to select your seats after booking, some make you wait until you are ticketed, and some make you wait until you check in unless you pay extra. For example, British Airways did not allow me to select seats in advance in business class with a ticket purchase with American Airlines miles. This would only be an issue if you really cared what seat you got and if the airline required payment before seat assignment. I have not personally run into this problem myself - every EZAir flight I booked either allowed advance seat assignments immediately after booking or did not allow them without extra payment until check-in.

 

The reason the airlines allow EZAir to confirm flights without paying until 45 pays prior to the flight is that Carnival Corporation books a lot of flights. This is one time that having Princess be part of a big cruise corporation is a good thing for the passengers. If an airline regularly cancelled confirmed EZAir flights with no reason other than to resell the ticket, Carnival Corporation could possibly cancel their contract with that airline - and Carnival Corporation represents a lot of airline business. The airlines find this business profitable even with the free cancellation, or they wouldn't have signed the contracts with Carnival Corporation.

[apeller]

We are flying nonstop to Rome in October and I booked a really cheap fare on Alitalia using eZAir.  I wanted to reserve the extra legroom seats, and when I called they only had 6 of them left on the plane,  I had Princess ticket my airfare so I could reserve the seats I wanted.  It made my ticket into a restricted fare, but the price won't go down, and I'm happy with the flight, so it was the right decision for me..  

[pmjnh]

I just reserved my unrestricted flights for our 2020 Baltic cruise...very early. It was a good rate in comparison to what the airlines are offering now on their websites.. We were able to select seats for our return trip to Boston on SAS  but not on our outbound trip on Virgin Atlantic . I booked economy on both, but when I went to VA website, I see that there are 3 levels of economy, the lowest does not include checked baggage. How can I find out which level this is?

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, pmjnh said:

I just reserved my unrestricted flights for our 2020 Baltic cruise...very early. It was a good rate in comparison to what the airlines are offering now on their websites.. We were able to select seats for our return trip to Boston on SAS  but not on our outbound trip on Virgin Atlantic . I booked economy on both, but when I went to VA website, I see that there are 3 levels of economy, the lowest does not include checked baggage. How can I find out which level this is?

Did you go to VA website and look up your booking using the confirmation code provided by EZ-Air?  From that you can likely tell what you get and don't get. 

 

With the US airlines, EZ-Air is booking "main cabin" economy which allows seat selection versus the new "basic economy" which has no seat selection and seats are assigned by airline or at check-in.  In both cases, for domestic flying, checked bags cost a fee.

 

My guess will be that your international ticket will include a checked bag.  But all you need do is call Princess and ask for EZ-Air agent.

[AF-1]

On 8/14/2019 at 7:47 PM, Colo Cruiser said:

I agree. I have never pre paid for my flights or cruise and have not had any issues.

I always use United when possible.

Even with upcoming flights to Rome which are United flights but operated by Lufthansa I am able to pick my seats. If I book the same flight with Lufthansa I cannot pick seats until 24 hours prior to the flight.

so you could pick the seats on ez air website or the united website?  Thanks for your reply

[Steelers36]

If the airline allows seat selection prior to ticketing, you can do it on Princess website when working with EZ-Air.  Or you can do it on the airline website.  There are airlines that do not allow either free or paid seat selection until/unless the trip is ticketed (paid for).  At that point EZ-Air benefits are lost and you are subject to airline restrictions and fees in regards to changes and cancellations.

[pmjnh]

5 minutes ago, steelers36 said:

If the airline allows seat selection prior to ticketing, you can do it on Princess website when working with EZ-Air.  Or you can do it on the airline website.  There are airlines that do not allow either free or paid seat selection until/unless the trip is ticketed (paid for).  At that point EZ-Air benefits are lost and you are subject to airline restrictions and fees in regards to changes and cancellations.

 

 

Yes, success! I was able to book our seats from the airline website. The Princess website sent links to the 2 different airlines. SAS worked directly from Princess and we chose seats. But I had to go to the VA website to select seats from there. So far this is pretty easy! First time EZ air users. Luv it!

[13cheermom]

16 minutes ago, pmjnh said:

 

 

Yes, success! I was able to book our seats from the airline website. The Princess website sent links to the 2 different airlines. SAS worked directly from Princess and we chose seats. But I had to go to the VA website to select seats from there. So far this is pretty easy! First time EZ air users. Luv it!

Yes our first time booking with EZAir also and seems to be a good product so far.  We have referred our tickets 4 times for about $89/ticket savings so far.  Also it allows to book different departure days (prior to cruise) and structure our flights to accommodate all 4 passengers.  Along with all this, if we decided to book directly with airline at a lower price closer to booking we have that option also.  Fortunately we also booked with airlines that allowed us to select our comfort plus seats on all flights.  We also luv it!

[Times Prince]

To the original question re: PROs for early booking...

 

We have found a better flight selection when booking early than if one waits.  That can make all the difference between convenient flights and those with strange routing or layovers.

[Colo Cruiser]

4 hours ago, AF-1 said:

so you could pick the seats on ez air website or the united website?  Thanks for your reply

I have been able to do both. Most of the time it’s on the United site.

[epixx]

10 hours ago, pmjnh said:

I just reserved my unrestricted flights for our 2020 Baltic cruise...very early. It was a good rate in comparison to what the airlines are offering now on their websites.. We were able to select seats for our return trip to Boston on SAS  but not on our outbound trip on Virgin Atlantic . I booked economy on both, but when I went to VA website, I see that there are 3 levels of economy, the lowest does not include checked baggage. How can I find out which level this is?

I sure hope you're not trying to select seats for a Virgin Atlantic flight on the VA (Virgin Australia) website!!

 

I suggest you go to the VS (Virgin Atlantic) website.  You might have better luck!

[Shaver John]

Hey Apeller,

 

Just a quick question, we also are flying from LA to Rome in Oct. for the Sky Princess and are on Air Alitalia. We have seats but would like to upgrade if the price is right. Would you give me a ball park figure of what you had to pay. We tried to check it out online, but as Princess has not yet paid we can not get the info that way. Any help will be appreciated. Thank you, Nancy...

[pmjnh]

4 hours ago, epixx said:

I sure hope you're not trying to select seats for a Virgin Atlantic flight on the VA (Virgin Australia) website!!

 

I suggest you go to the VS (Virgin Atlantic) website.  You might have better luck!

 

 

Thanks, we are all set. We have our seating for Virgin Atlantic!

 

 

[pmjnh]

11 hours ago, steelers36 said:

Did you go to VA website and look up your booking using the confirmation code provided by EZ-Air?  From that you can likely tell what you get and don't get. 

 

With the US airlines, EZ-Air is booking "main cabin" economy which allows seat selection versus the new "basic economy" which has no seat selection and seats are assigned by airline or at check-in.  In both cases, for domestic flying, checked bags cost a fee.

 

My guess will be that your international ticket will include a checked bag.  But all you need do is call Princess and ask for EZ-Air agent.

 

I was able to use my confirmation codes for each individual flight that came from the Princess website. This was not the Princess confirmation code. 2 different airlines ( each leg) listed the  classification and baggage allowance.

[Steelers36]

9 minutes ago, pmjnh said:

 

I was able to use my confirmation codes for each individual flight that came from the Princess website. This was not the Princess confirmation code. 2 different airlines ( each leg) listed the  classification and baggage allowance.

Yes, I know that.  I probably should have written "airline confirmation code".  As you saw, EZ-Air provides the code for each individual airline used in a booking.