EZAir not so easy!

[JoRoy218]

We’re just off a CA Coastal and though the cruise itself was absolutely flawless, EZAir was a bust. ONE DAY before boarding, I got an email from Princess stating there was a flight change to our return flights home. Like most everyone else, these flights were booked approx. 7-8 months ago. The new flights were on another airline (which we never use due to poor service) and added 4hrs to our initial 8 hr travel day, having us land around midnight.  Once on board I called EZAir and was simply told “your flights are no longer available.” Now before calling, I checked the Delta site and saw there were seats left (not many) and stated this to the rep. Her response was “the airline changed it’s schedule.” I repeated what I saw and said nothing changed with the schedule. She said there were no other flights available with one stop. I asked for another rep and was simply told “your seats are no longer available.” I again said I was ON the Delta site and saw our original flights were unchanged and yes, our original seats WERE available.  She then offered other excuses, none of which made sense. I also spoke with Marybeth in Guest Services (Emerald) and she was trying her best to help. She even phoned me back later that day and the following day to see how things were. She deserves a gold star! 

I had no success in returning to our original flights and after discussing with DH, decided to book ourselves on our original flights, of course paying for it ourselves and would tackle this headache when we got home. Got home late last night (on our originally booked flights, no changes in schedule) and ready to do battle. Makes one not want to use EZAir in the future.  It sounds like the issues with EZAir have been increasing for many. 

[Mary loves to travel]

Wow!    Please keep us updated on this one.

[PhotogrFrGal]

I had a similar experience recently. Our return flights for August were changed and the connection time would be 45 minutes (with message that this was not recommended transfer time!) I checked the airline website, too for available itineraries.  EZAir did not give that option on website.  The only options there were on different airline and $700 per person more!  I contacted Princess to see if we could change to the different schedule from airline site (which had plenty of seats available).  The first call I was given the same option from the EZAir site, even after repeating to the rep that the airline site indicated plenty of other options and availability. (Evidently one can only contact EZAir for enroute assistance) Asked to speak with supervisor, but ended up transferred to another customer service representative.   I ended that call after she told same thing.   I tried again calling Princess later.  The customer rep stated that there were only certain flights there was access to.  This rep was able to switch us to later flight from connecting airport.  Not the most ideal schedule, but it alleviated the anxiety.   It was a 3 hour ordeal mainly because the Princess rep had to contact EZAir several times during each call. 

[Fortunate 2 travel]

1 hour ago, JoRoy218 said:

We’re just off a CA Coastal and though the cruise itself was absolutely flawless, EZAir was a bust. ONE DAY before boarding, I got an email from Princess stating there was a flight change to our return flights home. Like most everyone else, these flights were booked approx. 7-8 months ago. The new flights were on another airline (which we never use due to poor service) and added 4hrs to our initial 8 hr travel day, having us land around midnight.  Once on board I called EZAir and was simply told “your flights are no longer available.” Now before calling, I checked the Delta site and saw there were seats left (not many) and stated this to the rep. Her response was “the airline changed it’s schedule.” I repeated what I saw and said nothing changed with the schedule. She said there were no other flights available with one stop. I asked for another rep and was simply told “your seats are no longer available.” I again said I was ON the Delta site and saw our original flights were unchanged and yes, our original seats WERE available.  She then offered other excuses, none of which made sense. I also spoke with Marybeth in Guest Services (Emerald) and she was trying her best to help. She even phoned me back later that day and the following day to see how things were. She deserves a gold star! 

I had no success in returning to our original flights and after discussing with DH, decided to book ourselves on our original flights, of course paying for it ourselves and would tackle this headache when we got home. Got home late last night (on our originally booked flights, no changes in schedule) and ready to do battle. Makes one not want to use EZAir in the future.  It sounds like the issues with EZAir have been increasing for many. 

Do you know if your return flights had been ticketed by EzAir?

[JoRoy218]

2 hours ago, Fortunate 2 travel said:

Do you know if your return flights had been ticketed by EzAir?

Good question, didn’t check, was thoroughly frustrated at having to use my “cruise time” to settle something EZAir caused. This is main reason why we elected to buy our own return tickets instead of accepting the EZAir flights. I spent more than 2 hours on this issue instead of enjoying the beautiful ship. 🤬 The only person who seemed concerned was the Guest Services lady on the ship who was powerless to do anything. 

[wallyj]

EZAir does not have ‘every’ flight available from the available airlines they use. Even if at one time the flight was ‘offered’, it may not be available later. Many of the fares are ‘group/consolidator’ fares and are limited in the number of seats available.

 

It does seem strange that you would get a message the day before boarding, your return flights were changed as normally your EZAir reservations are ‘ticketed’ 30-45 days before your sailing.

 

I have read for some reason EZAir has not ticketed some reservations and it has caused much frustration. If DL did not change it’s schedule, I think it is possible, your return flights were not ticketed, and EZAir did not have any more contract fares available for that flight, so they wanted to rebook you on alternative airline and flights.

 

It is unfortunate passengers now need to verify ticketing, as they assume it is done automatically at around the 45 days before first flight as advertised.

 

In these days of airlines changing schedules and equipment, it would be understandable if EZAir needed to make changes, but if your original selected/booked flight was still operating, something went wrong. Please report back if EZAir agrees to refund your out of pocket to take your original return flights.

[DUCHESSRN]

We are still waiting for our EZ Air refund from Feb 24th ...our EZ air flight was cancelled at 4am about 2 hours before the flight . Whole flight was cancelled not just us ,managed to snag last 2 seats on SW so at least we got to ship.

 

[1965]

This is scary. I've always felt completely confident & comfortable booking flights thru EZAir. But no more. I've never requested early ticketing. Wondering if I should do that. Would it prevent the nightmares I've read about recently. Our flights are Nov/Dec. 😒

Edited June 25, 2023 by 1965

[Buckeye10640]

Good luck, I am sure this was frusstrating. It will be interesting to see how this turns out for you. I would fear that since EZAir did provide tickets that you chose not to use, they will not refund for the unused tickets. Its challenging even dealing directly with airlines, I have had flights changed multiple times in the course of 6 or 9 months since booking. 

[Fortunate 2 travel]

2 hours ago, 1965 said:

This is scary. I've always felt completely confident & comfortable booking flights thru EZAir. But no more. I've never requested early ticketing. Wondering if I should do that. Would it prevent the nightmares I've read about recently. Our flights are Nov/Dec. 😒

Yes!  And be sure to get the outbound and return ticket numbers. You can verify if the flights are actually ticketed by going to the airline website and pull up your reservation by ticket number. 

[JoRoy218]

5 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Good luck, I am sure this was frusstrating. It will be interesting to see how this turns out for you. I would fear that since EZAir did provide tickets that you chose not to use, they will not refund for the unused tickets. Its challenging even dealing directly with airlines, I have had flights changed multiple times in the course of 6 or 9 months since booking. 

Yup, same here. Flights frequently changed well before embarkation day. Never had it happen this close to start of cruise. Appreciate everyone’s tips and advice! 

[cr8tiv1]

I feel your pain.  I'm waiting for the other foot to drop.  I (and my travel agent) have spent hours trying to get me home.  Not optimum, but at least I have a seat on a plane.  

 

Yes, EZ Air contracts out certain airlines for a certain number of seats.  

Yes, airlines have been notorious for changing schedules and even dropping flights.

 

Yes, Air Travel is not as much fun anymore with baggage fees, seat fees, etc.  

 

Unfortunately, EZ Air is caught in the middle.  Not all their fault.  It's the cost you pay for the flexibility.  

[Wblotner]

Booked my first and only time on EZ air. Would rather not take a cruise than deal with their BS

[cr8tiv1]

When it works, it’s great!  Did two with no issues.  But they were direct flights.  It seems to be more of an issue with connecting flights.  

[PescadoAmarillo]

17 hours ago, wallyj said:

I have read for some reason EZAir has not ticketed some reservations and it has caused much frustration. If DL did not change it’s schedule, I think it is possible, your return flights were not ticketed, and EZAir did not have any more contract fares available for that flight, so they wanted to rebook you on alternative airline and flights.

 

It is unfortunate passengers now need to verify ticketing, as they assume it is done automatically at around the 45 days before first flight as advertised.

This is 100% correct. I remain a huge proponent of EZ Air, but have learned, through reading here on Cruise Critic and my own recent experience that you have to ride herd on your EZ Air reservations. I tackled this just last week when our upcoming cruise flights, booked through EZ Air, were not ticketed in the timeframe they should have been. I could tell this by looking at the airline’s app (United) and going into flight details. There was a reservation number, as there had been for months, since we first reserved our flights, but no ticket number and I couldn’t pre pay checked bag fees. 
 

I had to play the Princess customer service phone game, and was on hold for over an hour altogether (and this after a call back due to a projected wait time of 90 minutes), but I wasn’t going to let the day pass without purchased tickets. Once that was complete, I could add packages and baggage fees to my flight. 
 

Don’t just assume that, because you have a reservation number and can see the reservation online or in an airline app, that your EZ Air flights are a done deal. Whether it’s because EZ Air is short staffed or has been instructed to slow roll payments, it’s not as straightforward as it was pre-COVID. Back then, I would wake up to an email from Princess with ticket numbers 44 days before my flight. 

[roxievegas]

I have a suggestion for future.  Use your iphone to take pictures of the screen to save the info to show Princess that the flight was still available.  I take pictures on my computer screen all the time and save them until issue is resolved.

 

This issue is why we hate to fly to another location to catch or leave on a cruise.  

[cr8tiv1]

Yes, it really takes due diligence when booking via EZ Air.  For the longest time, I would just check my travel summary.  Yup....all was correct and in order.  Never did I think to go beyond that page to "manage" booking.  It was only after I looked at the airline site and saw that one leg was cancelled.

 

Then the huge panic set in.  I had earlier called EZ Air (and to be clear, it is different than Princess), to request ticketing at 45 days AND get a eticket number.

 

Then the "fun" began.  A game of cat and mouse.  

 

I can offer you this.

Unsatisfactory

Back Room will fix this

Wait two weeks later and no change.

Intervention after intervention.  Finally have a flight home.  Not optimum (not going into details), but I wont' be stuck in a foreign country.  

[dickinson]

I had booked two cruises about 2 weeks apart.  Did EZ Air for both.  About 6 weeks or so ago I cancelled one.  Today I received an email from Delta telling me my flight has changed on the cruise I cancelled!  It is about 75 days til that flight.  Never made final payment.  When I go to Delta it says I am confirmed.  Not sure if Princess bought the ticket long in advance.  There were several reasons we cancelled this cruise.  A minor reason was that on Delta it showed we were flying r/t to Rome when we were going on from Rome to Athens!  Didn't want to deal with EZ Air on that but again it was not the main reason we decided to cruise 2 weeks earlier.

[JoRoy218]

Thanks for all the above, never realized I needed to stay on top of ticketing issue. I check on all the other moving parts.  Spent two hours today being shuffled back and forth with 3 reps at EZAir and then finally they turfed me over to Princess Guest Relations. I was given two Princess email addresses and suggested I write a very detailed note re: problem. It sure would be nice if they are not ticketing appropriately, that Princess would hold their staff accountable and not leave the passenger holding the bag. We’ll see what the next step brings. 😖

 

[LibertyBella]

EZAir is just a service--not a substitute for a travel agent.

 

You are responsible for selecting your flights, and you need to continue to monitor them on your own, as you would if you made independent air reservations.

 

Most airlines make you pay immediately for tickets--the fact that Princess allows people to reserve space far in advance without ticketing is a unique element. 

 

However, as soon as I made final payment for my cruise, I also made sure my airline space was ticketed and my seats were assigned.  I then went to my flight accounts (I am a frequent flyer on the airlines I chose), and verified that all was confirmed.

 

Yes, airline travel has been exceptionally difficult and overly busy this year, with pilot shortages, weather challenges, route changes, technology system crashes, oversold flights, etc.  It could also be the airline just decided to "kick you off" for a group of other travelers paying full fare.

 

I agree that I spend a little more or drive to an airport that offers non-stop, direct flights.  

 

I also agree that if problems do arise, one must be very persistent with Princess. However, I would probably give them a few times to resolve the situation in some other way before spending money on new tickets at the last minute (unless it was a dire emergency). 

[warthog2608]

We got hit by a major glitch in the Princess EZAir system. We went on a Panama Canal Cruise, FLL to SFO. Princess EZAir made us reservations on Delta a couple months in advance. We paid to upgrade the tickets to Comfort Class. The Princess website showed our flights and we also got several notifications about scheduling changes. The trouble is, I couldn't seem to bring up the flights on the Delta website. A couple days before the flights I called Delta and they told me that I don't have any tickets!  What?  Delta told me that on Jan 6, my travel agent (Princess EZAir) cancelled my tickets! Talking to Princess they told me that a "glitch" in their system cancelled my flights. The flights were still showing on the Princess website. Well Princess did some scrambling around and got us tickets on Southwest, routing through 5 airports. We were originally going to arrive the day before the cruise and stay in a hotel in FLL. The new routing got us to FLL the morning of the cruise. We didn't get any sleep the 2 days and we also lost our fees paid to upgrade on Delta. I'll never trust Princess EZAir!  That was the first and the last time we'll use that "service".
 

[Scirocco Breeze]

I met passengers from our recent med cruise whose flights were cancelled due to the Italian air strike. Not Princesses fault, but you would expect them to help sort out new flights and/or hotels if you had booked with them in the first place. They did not do that, they basically shrugged their shoulders and said not our problem. It certainly cleared up any thoughts I may have had about going through Princess for any future flights.  

[pompeii]

Let me start off by saying I have used EZ-Air many times and I am familiar with searching, buying and changing flights.
 

I recently searched, selected, and paid for economy tickets on EZ-Air.   When I went to the airline website afterwards I found that our tickets were actually basic economy and not standard economy. Absolutely nothing on EZ-Air indicated this. I only realized it when I saw that the seat assignments Princess prompted me to make during the booking process didn’t hold. The airline will not allow us to choose seats with this fare type so we either have to wait until check in or purchase expensive upgraded seats. 
 

Princess insists that they don’t sell basic economy, even after I sent them screenshots of our basic economy fare reservation. They either cannot or will not answer the question “if you don’t sell basic economy tickets then how did I wind up with one?”  They keep falling back on the disclaimer that seats assignments aren’t guaranteed, even though my argument with them is about a bait-and-switch fare type, not seat assignments.  It’s within the cancellation period so that’s not an option. 
 

Buyer beware. 

[cr8tiv1]

Sigh...

 

Someone on my Roll Call suggested checking airfare directly with airlines.  So I did.  Found a fare $20 less than what I had paid for on EZ Air (Now between final payment and 45 days).  

 

Called EZ Air.  Surprise, they are closed and it went to an after hours call center in Australia.  She could not do anything with my account/booking number and was very cautious to say anything since policies may differ.  I asked her if I could do it online (had it pulled up) and hit the cancel button.  She said it "should" be okay.  So I did.

 

Keeping what @pompeii had gone through in the back of my mind, I checked, double checked, and checked once more just in case.  Same flight numbers (actually somewhere down the line this was changed).  Same times.  Same dates.  Same eCredit, AND I could pick my seats.  

 

Even with the troubles I had coming home from Quebec, I still have (present tense) faith with EZ Air.  But given the chance to save some money and work directly with the airlines...that was a no brainer.  The flexibility of EZ Air is great.  From the day I requested EZ Air until tonight, I saved over $60.  

 

BTW, my flexible fare on EZ Air is not available now.  Restricted fare is .. and less.  But I would never do a restricted airfare.  

[Worldtraveler 4727]

Does anyone have experience with early ticketing on EZAir? How far in advance will they do it?