Why use flight ease?

[calteacher]

I, perhaps mistakenly, thought that it was a good idea to use flight ease in order to protect a flight--price, etc.  However, I just tried to use flight ease for our cruise in August 2020 and discovered that the fare is not protected until final payment.  Seems that if the fare goes up, the price also goes up until everything is paid for.  The only benefit I can see (please correct me if I am wrong) is the ability to cancel the flight in the 35 days between final payment and the 45 days before the flight.

 

Please let me know how to best use flight ease.  I would like to get the best air fares.

[wyobean]

I was given a price that is guaranteed. I haven’t paid yet.

[SilvertoGold]

Often international flights are a bargain with FlightEase.  Example: our Vancouver to Australia non-stop was $650 pp for the identical flight the airline was charging $1500 pp for.  Now I always check the FlightEase price.

[TriumphGuy]

We also got a pretty good deal, Chicago to Fort Lauderdale, Paris to Chicago, Premium Economy $2296, total for both of us. Delta/Air France

It's booked, we even have seat assignments. I don't know if that price is guaranteed however, final payment isn't until Jan 20.

[Sue from Canada]

I only use for flights from Eastern Canada to Europe (better prices) and flying to Anchorage (same reason).  Never had a problem.

[kazu]

1 hour ago, calteacher said:

I, perhaps mistakenly, thought that it was a good idea to use flight ease in order to protect a flight--price, etc.  However, I just tried to use flight ease for our cruise in August 2020 and discovered that the fare is not protected until final payment.  Seems that if the fare goes up, the price also goes up until everything is paid for.  The only benefit I can see (please correct me if I am wrong) is the ability to cancel the flight in the 35 days between final payment and the 45 days before the flight.

 

Please let me know how to best use flight ease.  I would like to get the best air fares.

 

Bolding is mine.  While this is the language they use and may happen in some very strange circumstance, I’ve never heard anyone here on the boards report that their price went up.

 

I’ve used flight ease and never had an issue with a price change.

 

Advantage for me is better pricing (especially in biz class on transatlantic, transpacific flight) and the ability to have a flight confirmed and still keep watching for either a FF mile flight or options and be protected.  That being said - the flight ease flights I’ve booked for the TA or TP crossings have all been used 😉 

[TAD2005]

2 hours ago, calteacher said:

I, perhaps mistakenly, thought that it was a good idea to use flight ease in order to protect a flight--price, etc.  However, I just tried to use flight ease for our cruise in August 2020 and discovered that the fare is not protected until final payment.  Seems that if the fare goes up, the price also goes up until everything is paid for.  The only benefit I can see (please correct me if I am wrong) is the ability to cancel the flight in the 35 days between final payment and the 45 days before the flight.

 

Please let me know how to best use flight ease.  I would like to get the best air fares.

We use Flight Ease for international one-way and open-jaw flights.  The fares with Flight Ease is far less expensive that you can get by booking on your own.   Domestic (US) round trips are not much different in price than booking with the airlines directly.   The big advantage to Flight Ease for all flights is that the fare is not payable until your cruise final payment date, which is usually 75 days out from sailing, or 90 to 120 days on some cruises.   If you book your own air, and have to change or cancel you are stuck with a change fee or an air ticket that is useless.   With Flight Ease, you can change your flights or cancel at any time up to final payment date with no penalties or fees.   We have never had our fare increase after booking with flight ease.   

[drowelf]

I've used Flight Ease for 4 trips so far and never had the price go up from the initial quote. And in our case we can get Business Class fares for about 50% of the price that the airlines are quoting. 

 

Yes, the T&C's do state that the price can go up before final payment, but over the years I don't think I've ever seen a post where someone reported a price increase. 

[calteacher]

Thanks for the replies.  Before the timing allowed me to use Flight Ease on HAL, I was checking for comparable flights using Princess Flight Ease. The language for the Princess connection is that the price is constant; that if taxes, port charges, etc. change you will be charged the current price.

Think I will go with Flight Ease for now and just see what happens--it is a long time until we cruise.

[oceanmom]

It has been my experience that your flights with FlightEase are covered if you buy HAL insurance, but the cost of the insurance is based on the cruise fare only. And FlightEase can be added to your HAL booking at any time, even after final payment.

[I like vacation]

Can you still use Flight Ease if you have transferred your booking to a TA?

[kazu]

5 hours ago, I like vacation said:

Can you still use Flight Ease if you have transferred your booking to a TA?

 

Absolutely 🙂. I do.

[Petronillus]

My thanks go to the OP for drawing my attention to Flight Ease. We are booked on a Panama Canal cruise on the Oosterdam in February 2020, from Ft. Lauderdale to San Diego. Based on this thread, I decided to check into Flilght Ease. I had been looking at an open-jaw ticket through Chase Travel on my Sapphire Reserve card. Flight Ease offered a better selection at a lower price! I am grateful. 124 days to go!

[terrydtx]

We used Flight Ease for our Alaska cruise last July, we booked the flights in October 2018. Flew from DFW to Vancouver (American Air) and Fairbanks back to DFW (Alaska Air). We saved over $1400 for the 3 of us over what I could do on our own and we got  to pick our seats and flights  at time of booking.The fare never changed from the day we booked for us, and  it went up considerably as we got closer to departure but we paid nothing more. I am sold on Flight Ease for all future HAL cruises.

[suec12]

I'm so glad I read this thread! so when we have booked a cruise we can then book the HAL air flights (flexible)? We will pay nothing until final payment, have reserved seats and can cancel at any point, no charge? Is there any "catch" I am missing? Thanks!

[freestyling]

18 minutes ago, suec12 said:

I'm so glad I read this thread! so when we have booked a cruise we can then book the HAL air flights (flexible)? We will pay nothing until final payment, have reserved seats and can cancel at any point, no charge? Is there any "catch" I am missing? Thanks!

You can view flights via HAL website 330 days after your debarkation date not the embarkation. If you want to get an idea of pricing just go to the Princess cruises website and do a Cruise search Around same dates and embarkation and debarkation ports. You don’t have to have the exact dates as you can change the airline travel days by as much as 10 days. 

[AncientWanderer]

44 minutes ago, suec12 said:

I'm so glad I read this thread! so when we have booked a cruise we can then book the HAL air flights (flexible)? We will pay nothing until final payment, have reserved seats and can cancel at any point, no charge? Is there any "catch" I am missing? Thanks!

 

It is my understanding that the seat selection is not locked in until final payment is made and flights are fully ticketed.  For this reason, we have made our full payment earlier than usual on some trips where seat location was really important to us.

 

I've never heard of anyone complain that their seats were unhappily changed, but I do believe there is that possibility.  Perhaps others can chime in if they have more to add here.

 

That's the only "catch" I know about.  We have been happy with our Flightease experiences, especially on open-jaw flights where we have saved quite a bit.

[StLouisCruisers]

As with any other method of booking flights, just keep an eye on your booking to be sure the airline hasn't changed equipment, thus moving your seats in some cases.  I have been moved to less than desireable spots on the plane before but if I'm keeping an eye on things, can easily move myself back to where I am comfortable.  This happens whether you are booked directly with the airline or with the cruise line flights.  Changing from one type of plane to another type happens more often than you might think.

[RocketMan275]

On 10/1/2019 at 5:30 PM, kazu said:

 

Bolding is mine.  While this is the language they use and may happen in some very strange circumstance, I’ve never heard anyone here on the boards report that their price went up.

I used Flight Ease on our trip to Alaska out of Vancouver.  Could not touch the price booking direct through the airlines.

 

I use an independent travel agent who is one of the top producers for her franchise.  She has many fans on this board among those who prefer discounted fares and great service.  She told me that in all her years as a travel agent, she has never seen a price increase on a trip someone has booked.

 

This is the key point:  you can book a flight at a specific flight.  You can check on that flight maybe a couple of weeks later and the price to book may have changed (up or down) but your already booked price won't change.  BTW, if the price has gone down, you can rebook to capture the price drop.

[teacherman]

We booked round trip business class from Detroit to S America for our cruise in January.  We booked them last spring the first day they went on sale.  We got the flights and airline we wanted.  The price was significantly less than booking on the airline site.

Bur we kept checking every few days for a better price.  We ended up changing airlines and flight times twice and reduced the price almost $1,500 from our original booking.  Finally paid for the cruise and flights this week.

[oceanmom]

3 hours ago, suec12 said:

I'm so glad I read this thread! so when we have booked a cruise we can then book the HAL air flights (flexible)? We will pay nothing until final payment, have reserved seats and can cancel at any point, no charge? Is there any "catch" I am missing? Thanks!

 

Seat reservations are dependent on the airlines. Many airlines do allow you to reserve seats once the FlightEase booking is made, others do not. I know Delta does, but not sure of other airlines.

[drowelf]

18 minutes ago, oceanmom said:

 

Seat reservations are dependent on the airlines. Many airlines do allow you to reserve seats once the FlightEase booking is made, others do not. I know Delta does, but not sure of other airlines.

Correct, seat selection ability is dependent on the airlines polices. Some do not allow seat selection until final payment. Also once you have the airlines PNR (not the HAL Reservation Number, but the true Airlines one), go to their site and do check that all the proper information is correct (FF #, seats, baggage, etc.). Sometimes you can do seat selection on their website, when HALs won't let you. 

 

 

[AncientWanderer]

2 minutes ago, drowelf said:

Correct, seat selection ability is dependent on the airlines polices. Some do not allow seat selection until final payment. Also once you have the airlines PNR (not the HAL Reservation Number, but the true Airlines one), go to their site and do check that all the proper information is correct (FF #, seats, baggage, etc.). Sometimes you can do seat selection on their website, when HALs won't let you. 

 

 

 

I was told that even if you are allowed to select seats, as is the case with Delta, those selections are more of a guideline than a rule until final payment is made.

 

Obviously one can lose chosen seats anytime at the will of the airline, but just to work the odds in our favor, we do try to pay and be ticketed, when seats are very important to us.

[drowelf]

2 minutes ago, AncientWanderer said:

 

I was told that even if you are allowed to select seats, as is the case with Delta, those selections are more of a guideline than a rule until final payment is made.

 

Obviously one can lose chosen seats anytime at the will of the airline, but just to work the odds in our favor, we do try to pay and be ticketed, when seats are very important to us.

And not even then. Equipment swaps and the randomness of the airlines system can cause seat assignments to change. Over on the FlyerTalk forums there are whole threads dedicated to random seat changes. Even on confirmed and ticketed flights I generally check my seat assignments every couple of weeks, just to make sure nothing untoward has happened. 

[oceanmom]

28 minutes ago, drowelf said:

And not even then. Equipment swaps and the randomness of the airlines system can cause seat assignments to change. Over on the FlyerTalk forums there are whole threads dedicated to random seat changes. Even on confirmed and ticketed flights I generally check my seat assignments every couple of weeks, just to make sure nothing untoward has happened. 

 

Even when you book with the airline, your seats may change. Example--bought tickets directly from United. Checked the seat assignments one week before the flight--everything was fine. While we were on the Caribbean cruise for 7 days our First Class seats were changed without notice from two together to one seat in row 1 and another seat in row 4. There was a couple seated in our original seats who must have had higher status than us and demanded two seats together so we got kicked out.

Edited October 3, 2019 by oceanmom