EZ Air Question(s)

[Robkat]

This is the first time we've used Princess's EZ Air, so we don't have any experiences with it to draw from.

 

We needed one-way flights from Miami to Rome, and we wanted direct flights.  Princess offered the flight we were most interested in, and it is on Alitalia.

We booked it, and received a confirmation from Princess, which had a Princess confirmation number, and also an Alitalia

locator/confirmation #.  The confirmation stated that we should go through the airline to make seat selections.  We also saw that the flight costs would be added to our reservation and wouldn't be due until final payment for the cruise was due (not until

around August).

 

So, here's our issue.  When we go into Alitalia to select our seats, we enter our reservation/locator number, a window comes up that says Reservation Not Paid, and won't allow any action.

 

We would love to not have to contact Princess about this, as it seems tortuous to get any kind of answer from them.  We've also been noticing how many of you use EZ Air, so we're hoping that there might be someone who has used Alitalia before, or who might have seen this particular issue before, even on another carrier, who can help us out.

 

If anyone has any knowledge of why this has happened to our booking, or knows what to do next, please advise.

Thanks.

[flying boat]

If you booked flexible airfare Princess does not actually pay for the ticket until about 45 days before the cruise.  Some airlines will not let you select seats until then, I'm guessing that is the way Alitalia does it.  You can ask Princess to ticket early but then you lose the flexibility to cancel or refare up until the 45 days prior,

[muffydawg]

Your experience was one of many reasons I opted to book our October 2024 flights directly through the airline.

[shellbeachjim]

Lufthansa is another airline which has this policy. This caused our seat assignments for our November cruise to be in different rows for our SFO to FRA flight. Fortunately there were others in the same situation, so we pulled a 5 person swap as we were boarding and everyone was happy with the outcome. Of course, YMMV...

[Paula_MacFan]

We've always been able to select seats at the time of booking, but some airlines won't let you until final payment.  Also I think it can depend on if it's a code share flight, where it's operated by one airline but booked by another.  

 

Sorry that doesn't really help you now, but might explain the confusion.  I try to only book flights that allow us to select seats at the time of booking because I don't like leaving those things to chance.  You may have to decide if it's worth looking for another flight option or asking Princess to ticket you early in order to select seats.  I am hesitant to do that because as someone else already mentioned you then give up the option to refare if prices decrease before final payment is due.  

 

Good luck 🙂 

[JAT0303]

I've had some success asking Princess staff to get me seats when some of the airlines wouldn't let me do it directly.

[cjpj]

4 hours ago, Robkat said:

This is the first time we've used Princess's EZ Air, so we don't have any experiences with it to draw from.

 

We needed one-way flights from Miami to Rome, and we wanted direct flights.  Princess offered the flight we were most interested in, and it is on Alitalia.

We booked it, and received a confirmation from Princess, which had a Princess confirmation number, and also an Alitalia

locator/confirmation #.  The confirmation stated that we should go through the airline to make seat selections.  We also saw that the flight costs would be added to our reservation and wouldn't be due until final payment for the cruise was due (not until

around August).

 

So, here's our issue.  When we go into Alitalia to select our seats, we enter our reservation/locator number, a window comes up that says Reservation Not Paid, and won't allow any action.

 

We would love to not have to contact Princess about this, as it seems tortuous to get any kind of answer from them.  We've also been noticing how many of you use EZ Air, so we're hoping that there might be someone who has used Alitalia before, or who might have seen this particular issue before, even on another carrier, who can help us out.

 

If anyone has any knowledge of why this has happened to our booking, or knows what to do next, please advise.

Thanks.

If you want to book your seats right away there are 3 options. 1) Book directly with the airline, pay for your flight and select your seat. 2) Book a restricted fare with Princess, pay for it and select your seats. 3) Book a regular fare with Princess, contact the EZaire department or your PVP, asked for early ticketing, pay your fare and select your seats. I suppose there is a 4th option and that would be to choose another airline that allows you to select seat prior to payment. With Busniss class or Primium economy you also almost always have the ability to book your seats prior to payment.

[Hobby3333]

I guess I was lucky.   Our departure is on United in Business Class.   We got to choose our seats on our outbound and we are flying AA Premium Economy from Rome and again got to choose our seats.   Not only seat selection but we saved over $3000.00.

[Robkat]

Thanks so much everyone for these replies.  It's really given us some things to think about.

 

It seems like if you get flights on a US carrier, even if you connect with a European carrier, you can make your seat selections.  Because we're taking our flights directly from Miami to Rome, all on Alitalia, they might have some issue allowing seat selection?

 

We're going to try the suggestion to call into Princess (oh Lord, give us strength!), and then maybe a direct call into Alitalia to see if someone there can help?  Either way, at least you've all given us some good suggestions.

 

In the meantime, if anyone reads this who has dealt with Alitalia via EZ Air and has any first hand experience with them, we'd love to hear about how it went.

 

Thanks so much again for all your replies and suggestions.

[Dunchues]

My flights were with Virgin, they allowed me to choose seats but they had to be paid for right then, although like you the cruise payment date is early Aug. I did originally choose a B.A. flight operated by American and that got so confusing using two different booking numbers where neither would allow me to choose luggage or seats I cancelled and went for the direct option ( direct to London,  then on to Italy a week later)

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, Robkat said:

Thanks so much everyone for these replies.  It's really given us some things to think about.

 

It seems like if you get flights on a US carrier, even if you connect with a European carrier, you can make your seat selections.  Because we're taking our flights directly from Miami to Rome, all on Alitalia, they might have some issue allowing seat selection?

 

We're going to try the suggestion to call into Princess (oh Lord, give us strength!), and then maybe a direct call into Alitalia to see if someone there can help?  Either way, at least you've all given us some good suggestions.

 

In the meantime, if anyone reads this who has dealt with Alitalia via EZ Air and has any first hand experience with them, we'd love to hear about how it went.

 

Thanks so much again for all your replies and suggestions.

Not really necessarily get seat selection with all US carriers - some carriers simply have a policy with Economy seats that you must be ticketed (i.e. paid) in order to do seat selection - which you will typically have a fee for, depending on seat type and location.  Obviously, Alitalia (BTW, their new and correct name is ITA Airways) has this policy.  You could try booking the same flight on ITA website and take it to the payment page and see if you were able to select seats and the cost.  Compare the pricing to EzAir, but of course you need to pay ITA right away and lose chance to change if fares drop.

 

I am sure ITA is going to tell you the same thing as other airlines with this policy - ticket first and then select seats. 

 

I have paid for my ticket early in the past (AC was the airline at the time) in order to do seat selection, but it was domestic from YYZ-FLL, so I was pretty sure the fare wasn't going to vary much in my favor.  With international, those fares can have some nice price drops if you check EzAir like a hawk.

 

Do some monitoring and see what you think.  Meanwhile, keep an eye on available seats to select you would like.  If you think price is stable and trip is getting close, why not request early ticketing?  It's an option on EzAir main page with your flight info. 

 

Once you get closer to flight date, don't expect more price drops.

 

Perhaps another airline allows seat selection for your route and won't cost much more than ITA when you add the eventual seat selection fee. 

 

 

If you fly Premium Economy or Business, you should be able to select seats right away.

[sultan_sfo]

8 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

 

...

Obviously, Alitalia (BTW, their new and correct name is ITA Airways) has this policy.

...

 

 

(In the meantime, if anyone reads this who has dealt with Alitalia via EZ Air and has any first hand experience with them, we'd love to hear about how it went.)

 

We had an ITA E-Z AIR direct SFO-LHR flight about 6 months ago. I was able to book seats on the ITA website as soon as I booked E-Z Air (not ticketed). At that time I paid USD $39 pp for mid-cabin Economy Seats. There were also better location Economy seats more toward the front for USD $54 pp.

 

When we boarded, I was glad I paid and booked seats because boarding groups for Economy was first group those who paid $54, then next group those who paid $39, and the last Economy large group that may have been those who waited for seats to be assigned free one day before flight date.

[cjpj]

9 hours ago, Robkat said:

Thanks so much everyone for these replies.  It's really given us some things to think about.

 

It seems like if you get flights on a US carrier, even if you connect with a European carrier, you can make your seat selections.  Because we're taking our flights directly from Miami to Rome, all on Alitalia, they might have some issue allowing seat selection?

 

We're going to try the suggestion to call into Princess (oh Lord, give us strength!), and then maybe a direct call into Alitalia to see if someone there can help?  Either way, at least you've all given us some good suggestions.

 

In the meantime, if anyone reads this who has dealt with Alitalia via EZ Air and has any first hand experience with them, we'd love to hear about how it went.

 

Thanks so much again for all your replies and suggestions.

I would suggest first using the chat feature rather than calling. If they can't help you on chat, see if you can get a number for EZaire from them. Anything to avoid the call center. This is why you need to fine a good Princess Vacation Planner.

[phabric]

I have found if you call when Princess phone lines open up in the morning the wait times are not long.

 

If you make any changes (time, price) to your Flexible booking, you will get a new Princess air number and new airline number each time.  You will LOOSE your seats, you will have to re add your seats and air line loyalty number.

[Robkat]

10 hours ago, sultan_sfo said:

 

(In the meantime, if anyone reads this who has dealt with Alitalia via EZ Air and has any first hand experience with them, we'd love to hear about how it went.)

 

We had an ITA E-Z AIR direct SFO-LHR flight about 6 months ago. I was able to book seats on the ITA website as soon as I booked E-Z Air (not ticketed). At that time I paid USD $39 pp for mid-cabin Economy Seats. There were also better location Economy seats more toward the front for USD $54 pp.

 

When we boarded, I was glad I paid and booked seats because boarding groups for Economy was first group those who paid $54, then next group those who paid $39, and the last Economy large group that may have been those who waited for seats to be assigned free one day before flight date.

This is really useful info @sultan_sfo, and we really appreciate you taking the time to reply.

A couple of questions:

When you went into ITA's website to book your seats, did you use the Princess confirmation # or ITA's locator #?

How far out were you from final payment to Princess? And  from the flight itself?

We're assuming from your description of the process that you paid the seat selection fee directly to ITA?  And there was no change to the amount due to Princess at final?

We can't figure out, especially now that we've read your experience, why ITA is preventing us from doing anything on their website, with the window stating that this reservation is not paid for.  

Did you have any phone conversations with them ... we're wondering if a call directly to them might get better results than dealing with Princess EZ Air.

 

And a very big and heartfelt thanks to all who replied.  As I said, this is the first time we've used the EZ Air option, and through all your answers, we're learning so much!  

What an amazing resource CC is in a situation like this!

[Robkat]

Does anyone have the DIRECT phone number to EZ Air?

Thanks.

[Steelers36]

49 minutes ago, Robkat said:

did you use the Princess confirmation # or ITA's locator #?

You always use the airline confirmation number when accessing a flight.  Note that for codeshares, the selling/ticketing airline and the operating airline will often have separate locator numbers.

[cruzsnooze]

I just flew on ITA to Rome last month for my Mediterrean cruise. It was business class so I got to chose my seats. It was a horrible airline I'd never fly again. They don't have cans of drinks, 2 liter bottles of flat diet coke. They don't come around with any snacks and it's a 12 hour flight. They don't do anything unless you go to the galley and ask. NO service. Look for a better airline to fly to FCO.

[Robkat]

27 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

I just flew on ITA to Rome last month for my Mediterrean cruise. It was business class so I got to chose my seats. It was a horrible airline I'd never fly again. They don't have cans of drinks, 2 liter bottles of flat diet coke. They don't come around with any snacks and it's a 12 hour flight. They don't do anything unless you go to the galley and ask. NO service. Look for a better airline to fly to FCO.

Was there no meal service????  There should be two, right?  Dinner & breakfast?  If you asked for them, were you given snacks?

 

Was this booked through EZ Air

 

We're in Florida and this is the only direct flight, which is really important to us.  However, your experience doesn't bode well for us.

[beg3yrs]

58 minutes ago, Robkat said:

Does anyone have the DIRECT phone number to EZ Air?

Thanks.

AFAIK, the direct phone number has not been published. Nobody IIRC has posted such a number. The only access seems to be through a front line representative. Often they will not even let you speak to an EZ Air person but will act as a go-between. It's a very rare situation where you end up speaking directly to EZ Air staff.

Edited January 6 by beg3yrs

[Robkat]

2 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

AFAIK, the direct phone number has not been published. Nobody IIRC has posted such a number. The only access seems to be through a front line representative. Often they will not even let you speak to an EZ Air person but will act as a go-between. It's a very rare situation where you end up speaking directly to EZ Air staff.

Thanks for your reply.

 

Well!!!  This makes no sense, does it?  How frustrating. 

I guess if you don't need them, it's not a big deal; but if you DO need assistance, it just doesn't make sense to make it an "ordeal" to contact them! Sigh.

[nasa1974]

Flying domestic with EZAir it's been a mixed bag of whether I could or couldn't select seats before final payment. For my April cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale I was able to make a seat selection with United before final payment.

[phabric]

1 hour ago, Robkat said:

Does anyone have the DIRECT phone number to EZ Air?

Thanks.

1-800-545-0008

[Robkat]

33 minutes ago, phabric said:

1-800-545-0008

Thanks so much for this!  

Will use it and hope for some good results.  

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, phabric said:

1-800-545-0008

That is not really a direct number for EzAir.  It is for emergency en-route purposes.  IDK if a responding agent is going to agree to deal with an every-day booking.

 

In the past, I have been able to speak with an EzAir agent when necessary.

 

Tag @Robkat

Edited January 6 by Steelers36