Princess EZ Air Itinerary Change Questions

[BlueCO102]

I have a query for those experienced in booking with EZ Air.

 

As some background, I normally book our flights myself when travelling in North America. We are booked on an Eastern Mediterranean itinerary next fall and am thinking booking flights through Princess may be a better way to go. We are flexible in our departure and return points to the States when booking the transatlantic flights.

 

How easy is it to change a flight itinerary once booked, but before final payment date? Most price watching tools say booking in mid-summer would yield the lowest prices - but I am not sure this is true when using a bulk reseller like EZ Air.  I have found a round trip set of flights which would mostly suit our needs, but being this far out I am concerned about finding flights at better times and better prices later in the game. 

 

I appreciate you sharing the benefit of your experience. Thanks!

 

[Abercrombie2019]

2 minutes ago, BlueCO102 said:

I have a query for those experienced in booking with EZ Air.

 

As some background, I normally book our flights myself when travelling in North America. We are booked on an Eastern Mediterranean itinerary next fall and am thinking booking flights through Princess may be a better way to go. We are flexible in our departure and return points to the States when booking the transatlantic flights.

 

How easy is it to change a flight itinerary once booked, but before final payment date? Most price watching tools say booking in mid-summer would yield the lowest prices - but I am not sure this is true when using a bulk reseller like EZ Air.  I have found a round trip set of flights which would mostly suit our needs, but being this far out I am concerned about finding flights at better times and better prices later in the game. 

 

I appreciate you sharing the benefit of your experience. Thanks!

 

I have had no trouble changing my flights after final payment (90 days), but before the 45 day cut-off for "Flexible" air fare.  Make sure you are booking the "Flexible" fare and not "Restricted".  The price difference was refunded to my credit card within a few days.

[HaveDogWillTravel]

I’ve used EZ air successfully for shorter flights in North America but my most recent experience using them for a South America/ Antarctica sailing was horrible. Never. Again.  
 

My DH had a separate booking as I sailed LA to Buenos Aires (booked as 2 separate cruises) and he sailed only the second leg in his own cabin (thanks to great solo fares) Santiago to BA.  

Most of the issues below (except for the pricing problem) happened after the 45 day mark when we were ticketed. 
 

My first leg flight to SFO to LA no problem. My return flight on a different booking # was changed multiple times “by the airline” and always to a less desirable routing. I struggled getting any help from EZ air and wasted sooooooo many hours that I will never get back trying to keep the 2 stop flight BA to Santiago then Santiago to LAX, LAX to SFO that I originally booked. We ended up on a Santiago to Atlanta flight with only 1 hour 30 min to get our luggage, go thru border control and customs, recheck our bags and get from the international terminal to the furthest domestic terminal ATL is huge) on a train. 
 

And trying to keep Adam and I on the same flights with seats next to each other on all 3 flights was really challenging even though our reservations were linked. Presumably you won’t have that issue though as I assume you and your travel companions are on the same booking #. 

 

This is the issue I think you may face. This happened to us before the 45 day mark where you are ticketed. Since both of Adam's flights were on the same booking I couldn’t change his TO flight without also changing his FROM flight. That was super annoying. I could see the From flight on my booking separately and knew there was a better price but when I tried to take advantage of that for him it just increased to price of the TO.  And it would not let me keep his seat on the TO flight. 
 

After the 45 day mark, when our flights were changed “by the airline” we were also repeatedly put on planes that did not have the lie flat seats like we originally booked. In EZ air if you say you want business class be really careful to look at the flight details and make sure the plane has lie down seats for that long leg. 
 

Then there is the whole code share issue. LATAM and  DELTA do NOT play well together and it was a nightmare trying to see the entire flight. The various legs run by each kept saying go to the other ap/website but when we did the leg didn’t show or if it did it wouldn’t let us pick seats. We ended up on the last leg from ATL TO SFO not sitting together (but honestly after 20 hours of traveling it might have been for the best lol).  Yes you pick your seats in EZ air but the seat charts on EZ air didn’t match the plane we saw we were on when we checked the airlines’ website. And even if you do pick your seats on EZ air you need to check the airline website to make sure you’ve been assigned those seats. 
 

When I tried to call the airlines or chat with them they said I had to talk to Princess. And you guessed it Princess said I had to talk to the airlines. 
 

We flew business class. 
 

We also traveled to Greece and Turkey in the last 6 months with Turkish air business class booking on our own. Much better experience & oh my goodness the food!  I actually got off the plane in SFO really hungry as the food on Delta and LATAM was horrible. And with 2 very short connections there was no time to eat in the airports. 
 

We are traveling to Portugal, Spain and Italy this coming October and I just booked my own flights again. I found that booking 2 one way tickets in business class for each of us to be far less expensive ($3000 less) than booking 1 RT for each of us. Who knew?  
 

 

Edited January 18 by HaveDogWillTravel

[Paula_MacFan]

1 hour ago, BlueCO102 said:

How easy is it to change a flight itinerary once booked, but before final payment date? 

 

It's very easy to do yourself online. I check airfare everyday and have re-fared several times when prices changed or a better itinerary opened up. We have used EZ Air many times, most recently to Europe in September. We flew United Polaris class round trip for far less than we could have booked independently.  I used the United app to book meals and get notifications.

 

I also always book when flights open up at 330 days and then watch prices & schedules daily.  

[rmsmith]

i made a change to a flight for a cruise that is later this year just after my initial booking. it was incredibly simple at the time.  of course this is well before any additional payments are required and being so far out plenty of flight availability.  first time using EZ Air, hope it goes smoothly as while I've seen plenty of good reports I've also seen some nightmares.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I’ve used EZ air successfully for shorter flights in North America but my most recent experience using them for a South America/ Antarctica sailing was horrible. Never. Again.  
 

My DH had a separate booking as I sailed LA to Buenos Aires (booked as 2 separate cruises) and he sailed only the second leg in his own cabin (thanks to great solo fares) Santiago to BA.  

Most of the issues below (except for the pricing problem) happened after the 45 day mark when we were ticketed. 
 

My first leg flight to SFO to LA no problem. My return flight on a different booking # was changed multiple times “by the airline” and always to a less desirable routing. I struggled getting any help from EZ air and wasted sooooooo many hours that I will never get back trying to keep the 2 stop flight BA to Santiago then Santiago to LAX, LAX to SFO that I originally booked. We ended up on a Santiago to Atlanta flight with only 1 hour 30 min to get our luggage, go thru border control and customs, recheck our bags and get from the international terminal to the furthest domestic terminal ATL is huge) on a train. 
 

And trying to keep Adam and I on the same flights with seats next to each other on all 3 flights was really challenging even though our reservations were linked. Presumably you won’t have that issue though as I assume you and your travel companions are on the same booking #. 

 

This is the issue I think you may face. This happened to us before the 45 day mark where you are ticketed. Since both of Adam's flights were on the same booking I couldn’t change his TO flight without also changing his FROM flight. That was super annoying. I could see the From flight on my booking separately and knew there was a better price but when I tried to take advantage of that for him it just increased to price of the TO.  And it would not let me keep his seat on the TO flight. 
 

After the 45 day mark, when our flights were changed “by the airline” we were also repeatedly put on planes that did not have the lie flat seats like we originally booked. In EZ air if you say you want business class be really careful to look at the flight details and make sure the plane has lie down seats for that long leg. 
 

Then there is the whole code share issue. LATAM and  DELTA do NOT play well together and it was a nightmare trying to see the entire flight. The various legs run by each kept saying go to the other ap/website but when we did the leg didn’t show or if it did it wouldn’t let us pick seats. We ended up on the last leg from ATL TO SFO not sitting together (but honestly after 20 hours of traveling it might have been for the best lol).  Yes you pick your seats in EZ air but the seat charts on EZ air didn’t match the plane we saw we were on when we checked the airlines’ website. And even if you do pick your seats on EZ air you need to check the airline website to make sure you’ve been assigned those seats. 
 

When I tried to call the airlines or chat with them they said I had to talk to Princess. And you guessed it Princess said I had to talk to the airlines. 
 

We flew business class. 
 

We also traveled to Greece and Turkey in the last 6 months with Turkish air business class booking on our own. Much better experience & oh my goodness the food!  I actually got off the plane in SFO really hungry as the food on Delta and LATAM was horrible. And with 2 very short connections there was no time to eat in the airports. 
 

We are traveling to Portugal, Spain and Italy this coming October and I just booked my own flights again. I found that booking 2 one way tickets in business class for each of us to be far less expensive ($3000 less) than booking 1 RT for each of us. Who knew?  
 

 

In fairness, you did have a complex itinerary involving separate reservations and different airlines. 

 

I always prefer to be able to book separately for flying to/from Europe, but not always possible.  If a guest has booked a single cruise voyage, EzAir forces both the outgoing and return flights in a single reservation.  In this case, a reduction in fare for one direction may be useless if the fare in the other direction has increased.  In Fall 2022, when we flew to and from Europe for cruises, we had a B2B2B + 1 more on different ship.  I changed airlines and pricing through almost daily monitoring.

 

That said, we got screwed on both transatlantics by the airlines swapping equipment and we ended up with old business cabin layout and seating versus the newer.  Two different airlines.  What are the odds?  The day before - no swap.  Sheesh.  Nothing to do with EzAir because it would have happened had I booked directly with each carrier.  IMO, the airlines will cause a passenger way more upset and issues and EzAir.  I was watching the airline websites as well.

[BlueCO102]

Big Thank You to everyone for the thoughts. I've got some answers and some things to keep on my mind as I move forward.

 

Smooth seas and following winds all.