EZ Air Opinions

[Kmkub]

Hello. I'm interested in EZ Air opinions. There's not much in the Princess forum and I'm not sure it's the same with all cruise lines.

 

First class to Italy is approximately $1,000 less PP than anywhere else. Is the reason because the service is awful?

[Yowman]

Are you asking if you'll get inferior service on board the flight just because the flight was booked via EZ Air?  If so, the answer is no.

 

[katisdale]

I find the service quite good. You will have the same problems you have if you get the flight from the airline's website. There may be schedule changes, equipment changes, weather changes etc. regardless of the type of reservation. These changes originate with the airline not ez-air. The only hitch is that the airline notifies ez-air who then notifies you so your notice may be delayed a bit. We use EZ-air a lot.

[Kmkub]

34 minutes ago, Yowman said:

Are you asking if you'll get inferior service on board the flight just because the flight was booked via EZ Air?  If so, the answer is no.

 

No. Booking, customer service, etc.

[Kmkub]

32 minutes ago, katisdale said:

I find the service quite good. You will have the same problems you have if you get the flight from the airline's website. There may be schedule changes, equipment changes, weather changes etc. regardless of the type of reservation. These changes originate with the airline not ez-air. The only hitch is that the airline notifies ez-air who then notifies you so your notice may be delayed a bit. We use EZ-air a lot.

Thank you so much!!

[Yowman]

49 minutes ago, katisdale said:

I find the service quite good. You will have the same problems you have if you get the flight from the airline's website. There may be schedule changes, equipment changes, weather changes etc. regardless of the type of reservation. These changes originate with the airline not ez-air. The only hitch is that the airline notifies ez-air who then notifies you so your notice may be delayed a bit. We use EZ-air a lot.

 

 

I subscribe to ExpertFlyer and I set up notifications for changes in schedule, equipment, number of seats in a fare bucket, etc.  I often know about changes before Princess notifies me and this allows me to be proactive about contacting EZ Air about flight changes that may be needed.

[DallasGuy75219]

1 hour ago, Kmkub said:

First class to Italy is approximately $1,000 less PP than anywhere else. Is the reason because the service is awful?

With that fare difference you are probably getting a consolidator (discount) fare not available to the general public via normal booking channels.

 

If the airline has to involuntarily deny boarding you may be at the top of the list because you paid one of the cheapest fares.  Happened to me flying back from Athens on an EZAir ticket last year.  The aircraft came in with a broken business class seat (not mine) and if they couldn't fix it they were going to bump me and give my seat to the guy who was assigned the broken seat.

 

They wound up fixing the seat,  but otherwise they couldn't have gotten me home in business class until the next day.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Kmkub said:

Hello. I'm interested in EZ Air opinions. There's not much in the Princess forum and I'm not sure it's the same with all cruise lines.

 

First class to Italy is approximately $1,000 less PP than anywhere else. Is the reason because the service is awful?

Definitely use it for international flying - it is like getting consolidator pricing since that is essentially what they are doing.  For domestic - shop around.

[nini]

We have found EZAir much less expensive than booking wit the airlines (international). Book as soon as the fares are issued because you can keep an eye on it and if the fares decrease than you can change with no charge.

As @Steelers36 has stated, we have not found any decrease in the domestic fares.

[caribill]

10 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Definitely use it for international flying - it is like getting consolidator pricing since that is essentially what they are doing.  For domestic - shop around.

 

The benefit of using EZAir for domestic is that up until 45 days before the flight or cruise (whichever comes first) you can change or cancel with no penalty. Booking with an airline only allows that at the highest fares.

 

Also, if the cruise is cancelled by Princess for any reason, with EZAir you get a full refund if you had paid for the air already. If you had booked with the airline (except with their highest fares), the best that could happen is that part of what you paid is credit to be used within a year of when you had made the booking. Depending how far in advance you had made the booking, you may have very little time left to use that credit.

 

Also, if you have booked an EZAir flight for returning home after the cruise, Princess will take care of rescheduling with no penalty if the ship arrives too late for your flight or must end the cruise in a different port.

[Yowman]

11 hours ago, nini said:

We have found EZAir much less expensive than booking wit the airlines (international). Book as soon as the fares are issued because you can keep an eye on it and if the fares decrease than you can change with no charge.

As @Steelers36 has stated, we have not found any decrease in the domestic fares.

 

 

So true.  I have booked bus class for our European cruise via EZ Air.  The same flights, if booked through the airline, are 400% more as of today (they were 200% more through the airline directly when I booked).  Now I understand that some fare buckets have sold out since I booked but the savings even at time of booking were amazing.

[Ombud]

On 3/20/2023 at 12:29 PM, Kmkub said:

Is the reason because the service is awful?

Umm I do not think the service is 'awful,' personally never had an issue my CVP or inroute line couldn't resolve ASAP

[Kmkub]

I went ahead and booked through EZ Air; about $5,000 cheaper for business class than if I went through another site.

 

Thank you all for the feedback!

[Rick&Jeannie]

Count it as a win!

[spookyfudge]

We booked EZAir and saved over $3000 for our business class air fare over if we booked ourselfs!

[kiwimum]

We are booked with EZAir for our Norway cruise.   Fare thru EZAir, SAN-LHR, return on direct flights is $3850pp Business class on BA.   Looking at BA website for exact same flights $14670.   Fare has not dropped on EZAir since availability opened.   
We had issues with Covid last year in London and EZAir staff were very helpful and accommodating.   Arrived home one day after quarantine as there were no Business Class seats available the first day we could travel.

Highly recommend utilizing EZAir if you are flying International.

[Times Prince]

On 3/20/2023 at 2:29 PM, Kmkub said:

Hello. I'm interested in EZ Air opinions. There's not much in the Princess forum and I'm not sure it's the same with all cruise lines.

 

First class to Italy is approximately $1,000 less PP than anywhere else. Is the reason because the service is awful?

Often, EZAir is less expensive for "Open jaw" travel than if booked elsewhere, as some airlines treat your flights to and from different airports as one way flights.  I don't know if that is what you are experiencing, but it could be a factor.

[AZjohn]

On 3/20/2023 at 12:29 PM, Kmkub said:

….Is the reason because the service is awful?

There are Pros and Cons with everything in life it seems.

 

If you on your that plane you saved $5K on and arrive safely and on time that is a big Pro.

 

If anything goes wrong (weather, delays causing missed connection, aircraft change, etc.) then you might run into service that might seem awful.

 

@DallasGuy75219 mentioned that with consolidator tickets (what you purchase from EZair) they will either be on the top of the list to bumped or the bottom of the list to get re-routed for examples I mentioned above or what DallasGuy ran into.

 

Several years ago we purchased business class tickets from cruise line and we had our first leg from LAX - IAH - AMS delayed 5 hours because the flight crew landed in LAX 7 hours late the previous evening and was mandatory they take X amount of hours off to sleep before staffing our flight (United didn’t have a spare crew to take over that 747).
 

That of course resulted missing our connection from IAD to AMS and this is when our world was turned upside down trying to rebook to get to the cruise ship on time the next morning (and our bags at this point was lost and never could find them and get them to us for 1 week)

 

This is where we went to the school of hard knocks to experience that we became the lowest priority for United to get us to Amsterdam before the cruise ship left without us. Never have I been that pissed off in my life dealing with Airline agents having no care to blow us off making our cruise. They did honestly explain it was the type of ticket we had which I didn’t understand at the time.

 

This is why I continually try to help everyone to suggest they search the internet for the pros and cons of consolidator tickets.

 

Wishing you the best on your flights and cruise!

[DallasGuy75219]

1 minute ago, AZjohn said:

If anything goes wrong (weather, delays causing missed connection, aircraft change, etc.) then you might run into service that might seem awful.

 

@DallasGuy75219 mentioned that with consolidator tickets (what you purchase from EZair) they will either be on the top of the list to bumped or the bottom of the list to get re-routed for examples I mentioned above or what DallasGuy ran into.

 

To clarify, not all EZAir tickets are consolidator tickets.  But if EZAir is pricing out much less than what the airline and mass market travel agency websites are quoting for comparable flights, EZAir is probably selling consolidator inventory. 

 

You can tell for sure by looking at the fare class EZAir is booking you into, but each airline uses different fare class codes so this is a bit technical for the average traveler.

[caribill]

2 hours ago, AZjohn said:

That of course resulted missing our connection from IAD to AMS and this is when our world was turned upside down trying to rebook to get to the cruise ship on time the next morning (and our bags at this point was lost and never could find them and get them to us for 1 week)

 

This is where we went to the school of hard knocks to experience that we became the lowest priority for United to get us to Amsterdam before the cruise ship left without us. Never have I been that pissed off in my life dealing with Airline agents having no care to blow us off making our cruise. They did honestly explain it was the type of ticket we had which I didn’t understand at the time.

 

Did you only work with this with United, or did you also call Princess for help getting rebooked?

[AZjohn]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Did you only work with this with United, or did you also call Princess for help getting rebooked?

United, cruise line, TA, and insurance company.

 

United at this point was my only hope but failed miserably.

 

I don't know how, probably with tears in her eyes, my wife saw a Lufthansa service rep just starting her shift and asked her if she could help. That sweet angel got us IAD - FRA - AMS flights on Lufthansa (business class) and made it to the ship with 10 minutes to spare before she started to pull away from dock.

 

United would not put us on another *A flights, or any other airline flights, period

 

Just our experience.

 

Don't get me wrong, we have since still used consolidators tickets, we just come more prepared with plans B, C, D and E. Also, never-ever let anyone talk us in to flying in the day of the cruise 🙂 

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by AZjohn

[Yowman]

8 minutes ago, AZjohn said:

United, cruise line, TA, and insurance company.

 

United at this point was my only hope but failed miserably.

 

I don't know how, probably with tears in her eyes, my wife saw a Lufthansa service rep just starting her shift and asked her if she could help. That sweet angel got us IAD - FRA - AMS flights on Lufthansa (business class) and made it to the ship with 10 minutes to spare before she started to pull away from dock.

 

United would not put us on another *A flights, or any other airline flights, period

 

Just our experience.

 

Don't get me wrong, we have since still used consolidators tickets, we just come more prepared with plans B, C, D and E. Also, never-ever let anyone talk us in to flying in the day of the cruise 🙂 

 

 

Did you have to pay extra for the LH flights?

 

I'm booked with EZ Air, flying out of Ottawa on a Tuesday evening for a cruise departing on a Saturday so I shouldn't have any issues

[AZjohn]

17 minutes ago, Yowman said:

 

Did you have to pay extra for the LH flights?

 

I'm booked with EZ Air, flying out of Ottawa on a Tuesday evening for a cruise departing on a Saturday so I shouldn't have any issues

No, we did not have to pay extra $.

 

Good for you flying in early 🙂 

I suggest you play an active role and figure out different flights on different airlines and different routes just in case something happens.

[caribill]

3 hours ago, AZjohn said:

 Also, never-ever let anyone talk us in to flying in the day of the cruise 🙂 

 

 

Great advice for both domestic and foreign travel.

 

Airline flight schedules are just not as reliable as they used to be.

[Yowman]

3 hours ago, AZjohn said:

No, we did not have to pay extra $.

 

Good for you flying in early 🙂 

I suggest you play an active role and figure out different flights on different airlines and different routes just in case something happens.

 

 

Sage advice.  Between ITA Matrix and ExpertFlyer I'm covered.