EZAir experiences

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

On the flight issues, are you getting the changes/fixes through EZAir our working directly with the airlines?  

 

BTW, thanks for sharing this experience.

 

I ended up dealing with the airline on one issue and on another one I cancelled my EZAir flight and booked another EZAir flight.

[ldubs]

Related question:  If there is a snafu, is EZAir easy to contact or long hold times?   

 

Great info in this thread.  Thanks!  

[Steelers36]

56 minutes ago, kiwimum said:

We are disembarking a TA In Southampton on April 30 and independently traveling the British Isles as we will never do another 7 day BI cruise.   We are booked to return to San Diego June 4.  Bookings are thru EZ-Air.

Wow.  Over a month seems unusually long, but worked well for you.

 

[kiwimum]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

Wow.  Over a month seems unusually long, but worked well for you.

 

Not the first time.

[hapster85]

We've only had one experience with EZAir, but it was very positive. My impatience created some anxiety a couple of times, but it was nothing they had done, or not done. Getting flights rebooked after covid aborted our Alaskan cruisetour was also no problem. Intending to use them again for our replacement cruise, booked for next summer.

[wec931]

I had the worse experience with EZ-Air. I had booked a cruise with EZ-Air way in advance and thus had a very good fair. About 45 days before the cruise I was notified that my reservations were changed due to cancelled flights. So I check the new flight that I was booked on . Princess had me returning to a different airport that I was leaving out of ( about 150 miles apart). I could not get anyone from Princess "customer support" to help me. Finally a representative told me that I could always cancel my flight and rebook. The cheapest fair by that time was over $500 more per person. I ended up cancelling the cruise and getting my money back in FCC. I had never been so angry in my life.

[wowzz]

The issue with the 22 passengers that were stranded in Athens,  is that EZAir used a budget airline - easyJet. 

Nithing wrong with easyJet - they are an excellent low cost operator.  But, if I book an EZAir flight, I would expect to fly on a full service airline, with appropriate back up. 

[JimmyVWine]

I know that there are many satisfied EZ Air users here and I don't question their stories.  But I have never been able to get it to work for me.  Most recently, we booked a Southampton to Southampton cruise for next Spring and the best fare EZ Air could give me was $880 per person roundtrip from either Boston or JKF to LHR. This was for flights on AA and/or BA depending on which flights I selected.  On the AA website, I found the same flights for $560 per person.  Booked direct with AA.  Not the first time I have seen the same price discrepancy.

[LC1950]

Can anyone advise approximately when Princess actually pays the airline.  I booked EZAir 'flexible' and of course have made full payment.  My cruise is  33 days away and the airline won't let me choose seats until payment is made.

[dreaminofcruisin]

7 hours ago, LC1950 said:

Can anyone advise approximately when Princess actually pays the airline.  I booked EZAir 'flexible' and of course have made full payment.  My cruise is  33 days away and the airline won't let me choose seats until payment is made.

 

It 'used to" be about 45 days, but in recent months, most people (me included) are reporting that they seem to be paying at about 30 days. 

 

[dreaminofcruisin]

8 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

I know that there are many satisfied EZ Air users here and I don't question their stories.  But I have never been able to get it to work for me.  Most recently, we booked a Southampton to Southampton cruise for next Spring and the best fare EZ Air could give me was $880 per person roundtrip from either Boston or JKF to LHR. This was for flights on AA and/or BA depending on which flights I selected.  On the AA website, I found the same flights for $560 per person.  Booked direct with AA.  Not the first time I have seen the same price discrepancy.

 

Maybe on the east coast you have better competition ie. better pricing to begin with? In the Midwest, Delta pretty much "owns" the airline industry, so generally it's more expensive with less options, which makes EZ Air offers (especially international) a really good deal.

 

[LC1950]

11 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

14 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

It 'used to" be about 45 days, but in recent months, most people (me included) are reporting that they seem to be paying at about 30 days. 

 

 

Thank you dreaminofcruisin.  I phones Princess here in Australia this afternoon and after much tooing and froing, the operator suggested I wait until the end of the week and check again.  LMFO, obviously no-one knows what it going on post pandemic.  Anyhow I'll wait and keep checking.

 

Thank you again.

Edited September 5, 2022 by LC1950

[hapster85]

1 hour ago, LC1950 said:

Thank you dreaminofcruisin.  I phones Princess here in Australia this afternoon and after much tooing and froing, the operator suggested I wait until the end of the week and check again.  LMFO, obviously no-one knows what it going on post pandemic.  Anyhow I'll wait and keep checking.

 

Thank you again.

I can only assume things in Australia are pretty much the same as they are here in the US. The reps you reach on the phone, even when you select EZAir on the phone tree, are just regular cruise reps. They have pretty much the same access to flight information that we do through the Personalizer. The actual EZAir department is swamped because of how chaotic the airline industry has been.

 

Just have to have patience. The flights will get ticketed. Easier said than done, I know. Return flights for our cruise back in just did not get ticketed until around 18 days before we left for Alaska, if I recall correctly. I called several times, which didn't get the them done any quicker, but did increase my anxiety. Lol

[Steelers36]

On 9/4/2022 at 3:32 PM, wec931 said:

I had the worse experience with EZ-Air. I had booked a cruise with EZ-Air way in advance and thus had a very good fair. About 45 days before the cruise I was notified that my reservations were changed due to cancelled flights. So I check the new flight that I was booked on . Princess had me returning to a different airport that I was leaving out of ( about 150 miles apart). I could not get anyone from Princess "customer support" to help me. Finally a representative told me that I could always cancel my flight and rebook. The cheapest fair by that time was over $500 more per person. I ended up cancelling the cruise and getting my money back in FCC. I had never been so angry in my life.

It's unfortunate that your likely inexperience with Princess aligned with a poor service rep.  It isn't EZ-Air's fault an airline cancelled your flight, but you needed to ask for an EZ-Air rep in order to get you re-booked at no upcharge.  Also, you have to keep checking flight status - especially these days - so if something does go wrong, you can jump on it as soon as possible.

[Steelers36]

21 hours ago, wowzz said:

The issue with the 22 passengers that were stranded in Athens,  is that EZAir used a budget airline - easyJet. 

Nothing wrong with easyJet - they are an excellent low cost operator.  But, if I book an EZAir flight, I would expect to fly on a full service airline, with appropriate back up. 

Your post is a bit misleading.  EZ-Air offers the guest various flights with a variety of airlines.  EZ-Air does not select, nor force the guest into a particular airline.  IMO, I'd only use EasyJet if I had no other choice (once was enough for an intra-Europe flight).

[Steelers36]

8 hours ago, LC1950 said:

Thank you dreaminofcruisin.  I phones Princess here in Australia this afternoon and after much tooing and froing, the operator suggested I wait until the end of the week and check again.  LMFO, obviously no-one knows what it going on post pandemic.  Anyhow I'll wait and keep checking.

 

Thank you again.

You should have used the Cruise Personalizer EZ-Air section to request early ticketing (if they offer that option down under).  Or, you should have told them to ticket you now when you phoned instead of letting them have you wait.  Some guests have had their flights cancelled by the carrier due to non-payment by Princess.  No excuses for that BS.  Princess ought to be ponying up and paying for these airfares.  

 

I used Cruise Personalizer to request early ticketing around 60 day mark and was done within 24 hours.

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, hapster85 said:

I can only assume things in Australia are pretty much the same as they are here in the US. The reps you reach on the phone, even when you select EZAir on the phone tree, are just regular cruise reps. They have pretty much the same access to flight information that we do through the Personalizer. The actual EZAir department is swamped because of how chaotic the airline industry has been.

 

Just have to have patience. The flights will get ticketed. Easier said than done, I know. Return flights for our cruise back in just did not get ticketed until around 18 days before we left for Alaska, if I recall correctly. I called several times, which didn't get the them done any quicker, but did increase my anxiety. Lol

You are lucky as several guests have reported having flights cancelled since they had not been paid for.  Who knows if Princess has negotiated later payment terms with all airlines?

 

There really is no reason to wait this late since fares are not going to drop near flight date and you would have fees as well.  I don't think it is worth the risk.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

Your post is a bit misleading.  EZ-Air offers the guest various flights with a variety of airlines.  EZ-Air does not select, nor force the guest into a particular airline.  IMO, I'd only use EasyJet if I had no other choice (once was enough for an intra-Europe flight).

Thanks for the clarification.

Easyjet is one of the better European loco airlines, and we have used them on numerous occasions.

What I do not understand is why anyone would book to fly with them through EZ-Air. Would the fares gave been that much cheaper, given that easyJet is a budget airline anyway ?   

[wec931]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

It's unfortunate that your likely inexperience with Princess aligned with a poor service rep.  It isn't EZ-Air's fault an airline cancelled your flight, but you needed to ask for an EZ-Air rep in order to get you re-booked at no upcharge.  Also, you have to keep checking flight status - especially these days - so if something does go wrong, you can jump on it as soon as possible.

I did ask for EZ-air rep. It was the EZ-air rep that said I could always rebook at the current rate. Although I do not have a lot of cruises , it was my 17th cruise with Princess

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, wec931 said:

I did ask for EZ-air rep. It was the EZ-air rep that said I could always rebook at the current rate. Although I do not have a lot of cruises , it was my 17th cruise with Princess

OMG - and just how is a guest supposed to book at the same rate when EZ-Air shows new higher prices???  It takes an employee override.  Were you really at the actual EZ-Air dept?  It's just so frustrating to have all these under-trained employees not getting it done right.  At least if you KNOW something, you can insist on a supervisor/manager.  Well, then, you are an experienced Princess cruiser - Elite level even.  Unreal to be forced to cancel out of frustration or believing forced into higher expense.  I think you should let Customer Relations know and not just us (or perhaps you did).  This is not a way to retain customers.

[DougandEric]

As others may have indicated, do NOT rely on Princess/EZAir to notify you of any flight changes.  I've used it three times and each time the only way I knew of changes to the flights was because I checked directly with the airline.  EZAir is not updated in real time or even daily so don't rely on it to know what your flights are.  Once you make your flight and seat selection and get your record locator, go directly to the airline and check the flight there.  Then check the airline, not EZAir, for a current status (and frequently these days).  The first time this happened, it was over two weeks from the date of the change before EZAir showed the changed information.  Also, I found that some apps (American for example), don't refresh the flight information unless you log out and log back in.  This is how I found out about one change by accident since the app kept showing the previous information - this may have been changed since the last time I used the American app.

[kiwimum]

Checked our next booking with flights this morning and found we are ticketed.  American Airlines, ticketed 44 days out.   No surprises.

[hapster85]

On 9/5/2022 at 3:51 PM, Steelers36 said:

You are lucky as several guests have reported having flights cancelled since they had not been paid for.  Who knows if Princess has negotiated later payment terms with all airlines?

 

There really is no reason to wait this late since fares are not going to drop near flight date and you would have fees as well.  I don't think it is worth the risk.

I guess? Like I said, I tried calling. It was really beyond my control at that point, but was ultimately taken care of. We are planning to use EZAir again for our return to Alaska next summer.

[leaneff]

On 9/3/2022 at 8:37 PM, ldubs said:

Related question:  If there is a snafu, is EZAir easy to contact or long hold times?   

 

Great info in this thread.  Thanks!  

Delta changed our Ez air flight for a Jan 2023 cruise leaving us 45 minutes to transfer to an international flight in Minnesota in the winter.  No way were we going to make such a tight connection and get to Chile for the ship.  Called EZ air, learned several things.  First, no matter what cancellations the airline makes, you can not change airlines, nor can you change airports.  Their best offer was a 2 stop flight with a 1 hour connection in Dallas.    It was also suggested to me to cancel my current EZ air flight and rebook, but prices were more than double what I paid, and I did not want to pay the difference.   I pushed nicely, agreed to hold as long as it took, and spent over 3 hours to finally speak to  a supervisor on the phone and within minutes changed to a larger airport and better flight.  No, it is not fast, getting a supervisor is very difficult, but the agent literally could not fix my problem.  Told her I was ready to cancel my 30 days on the ship unless I could get a workable flight. I had a suggestion, the flight was more expensive, and left from another airport I was willing to drive to, but I was able to get the exact flight I asked for and paid no additional costs.  Lesson, be nice and VERY patient.

 

[ldubs]

6 minutes ago, leaneff said:

Delta changed our Ez air flight for a Jan 2023 cruise leaving us 45 minutes to transfer to an international flight in Minnesota in the winter.  No way were we going to make such a tight connection and get to Chile for the ship.  Called EZ air, learned several things.  First, no matter what cancellations the airline makes, you can not change airlines, nor can you change airports.  Their best offer was a 2 stop flight with a 1 hour connection in Dallas.    It was also suggested to me to cancel my current EZ air flight and rebook, but prices were more than double what I paid, and I did not want to pay the difference.   I pushed nicely, agreed to hold as long as it took, and spent over 3 hours to finally speak to  a supervisor on the phone and within minutes changed to a larger airport and better flight.  No, it is not fast, getting a supervisor is very difficult, but the agent literally could not fix my problem.  Told her I was ready to cancel my 30 days on the ship unless I could get a workable flight. I had a suggestion, the flight was more expensive, and left from another airport I was willing to drive to, but I was able to get the exact flight I asked for and paid no additional costs.  Lesson, be nice and VERY patient.

 

 

Thanks for sharing.  That 45 minute layover is clearly out of guideline and should have allowed a complete rebooking without any question.