Princess EZ Air experience

[phabric]

Where do you find the air prices that Princess is offering. I can't seem to find them on their website. Thanks!

 

Do Find a cruise, pick your date for your cruise, under Continue you will find, itinerary, ship, ports, excursions, Flights.

 

Or, you can do a pretend booking and go all the way through a booking until you get to the air portion and then cancel the booking.

[happy cruzer]

Thanks to Greatam AGAIN for reminding us all to look at the fine print. I have passed on some great deals because of the deposit being non refundable. It's ok to risk the deposit amount if you want to but you need to know that you are doing that on those "deals".

 

I wonder where the OP went?

[Cruisin Oma]

I'm still hear waiting for someone to answer the actual question I asked instead of answering questions I didn't ask.

 

I have found out that apparently this flexible air is a new program for Princess, so there may be very few passengers who have the actual experience with flex air that I am asking about. A

[FlyerTalker]

I'm still hear waiting for someone to answer the actual question I asked instead of answering questions I didn't ask.

That's because the unasked questions are the ones you really should be concerned with.

 

You want to know if anyone else has had an experience of having a price increase. Here it is in simple terms. Whatever experience someone else has had in either receiving or avoiding a price increase has NO bearing on what will happen in your own particular circumstance. And trying to use someone else's experience to predict your circumstance is a fool's errand. You are rolling dice and wanting confirming reassurance.

 

So, since no one knows that I'm a dog.....you are in GREAT SHAPE. Those prices never go up; in fact, I had it go down once!! Chill out and relax!!

 

And for those that want to know about the dog....LINK.

[greatam]

I'm still hear waiting for someone to answer the actual question I asked instead of answering questions I didn't ask.

 

You will find very few of the frequent posters in this forum who have actually used any of the cruise air programs because the chances of having a glitch in your travel plans and being unable to embark on your cruise with your cruise air tickets is just a chance most experienced travelers are NOT willing to take.

 

Over 500 people MISSED their South America Star Princess cruise BECAUSE of the restrictions on their cruise line purchased tickets (the earthquake cruise). Those with airline issued tickets were allowed to re-route and even change airlines. Those with cruise line issued tickets were told to pony up a LARGE chunk of change to even use their tickets because the Santiago airport was closed. One gentleman who was on both legs of the cruise (Valparaiso to Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires to the USA) ended up paying $200 MORE than the original cruise line issued ticket (almost $1100 total MORE + $934 for the ORIGINAL ticket) JUST to be re-routed to Ushuaia to join the cruise. What a rip!!!!

 

I have found out that apparently this flexible air is a new program for Princess, so there may be very few passengers who have the actual experience with flex air that I am asking about. A

 

Been around for at least 2 if not 3 years. I know for a fact that there were quite a few that booked Princess EZ Air (both flexible and restricted) for the Vancouver to Alaska to Beijing cruise in Sept, 2010 (I was booked on the cruise). Some who kept their flexible tickets ended up paying almost 2/3 MORE than what they had initially thought they were going to pay. A lot of them DID NOT realize that once the cheapo tickets were GONE (paid in full by other passengers prior to final payment), the cruise line would provide them tickets at whatever price they could get them for.

 

The Princess EZ Air program and the RCCL Choice Air program is NO DIFFERENT than cruise air from years ago if you get the cheapest of the tickets. Those tickets are purchased by the cruise line IN BULK about 18 months in advance of the flights. They are HEAVILY restricted-hence the cheaper price. The airline is under NO obligation with the heavily restricted tickets to do anything for you OTHER than what your ticket states-get you from point A to point B on the ORIGINATING airline. The non reroutable, non endorsable provisions apply to almost all of the cheap tickets. The cruise lines just dumped those SAME tickets they have been purchasing for YEARS into a handy dandy computer program and called it NEW. You are NOT interfacing with the airline and purchasing tickets in real time. You are only interfacing with what the CRUISE LINE has available.

 

The only difference between cruise air years ago and the "new" computer based programs-YOU get to do the work. YOU get to pick your tickets. AND the cruise line saved a whole chunk of money in their land/sea dept NOT having to match up all the passengers with THE SAME airline tickets they have been purchasing on contract for YEARS. And for the privilege of YOU picking your flights, YOU get to pay a service fee.

[greatam]

I'm still hear waiting for someone to answer the actual question I asked instead of answering questions I didn't ask.

 

I have found out that apparently this flexible air is a new program for Princess, so there may be very few passengers who have the actual experience with flex air that I am asking about. A

 

 

From one Arizona to another (I am 35 miles WEST of Palo Verde Nuclear Plant). I run a large international logistics company dealing with the airlines (and trucks and ships) every day of the week.

 

You seem to keep asking the same question and as Flyertalker posted, there are NO answers.

 

You could do this: Book the cruise. REALIZE that you could loose your deposit.

 

PAY for the air tickets NOW IF and only IF you can read the fine print. IF the fine print states you can use the air for something OTHER than the cruise with the change fee (probably $250) REALIZE that you will loose your deposit AND the change fee if you cancel. So at a minimum, you loose $250pp (have no idea what the deposit is).

 

Now you are RIGHT BACK to where you would be IF you don't get the $500 Princess discount-$1000-1200 for air tickets.

 

So you REALLY have to make a decision. DO NOT count on the $500 tickets being available.

[waterbug123]

I'm still hear waiting for someone to answer the actual question I asked instead of answering questions I didn't ask.

 

 

A lot of them DID NOT realize that once the cheapo tickets were GONE (paid in full by other passengers prior to final payment), the cruise line would provide them tickets at whatever price they could get them for.

 

 

You asked if the price of your flex tickets could go up between now and when you pay for them. The answer is yes, and Greatam's answer above tells you why. There- now you have the answer for the question you asked. :)

 

But of course, I suspect you already knew the answer; I believe you even said in your original post that you knew the price could go up. What you really want to know is not CAN the price go up, but WILL the price go up? To get that answer, you will have to rely on a crystal ball. :eek:

[ChefM]

EZ Air was a nightmare for us. We just canceled a 35 day cruise from Tahiti to Singapore because after 4 days of trying to get Princess to book us on flights (not flexible but rather restricted so the price is set) we finally just had to give up. Our Visa card bill is now littered with various bookings of flights and we have to watch to see that they drop off the bill or file an objection. They say that they are unable to book Papeete for an unknown reason and if we knew that in the beginning, we would have booked our own air and stuck with the cruise. Now we are so worn out from the struggle that we feel it is just not "our time" to do that long cruise. Beware of EZ Air; it is not EZ at all. Don't go with variable pricing or you are leaving yourself open to a disaster

[Zach1213]

EZ Air was a nightmare for us. We just canceled a 35 day cruise from Tahiti to Singapore because after 4 days of trying to get Princess to book us on flights (not flexible but rather restricted so the price is set) we finally just had to give up. Our Visa card bill is now littered with various bookings of flights and we have to watch to see that they drop off the bill or file an objection. They say that they are unable to book Papeete for an unknown reason and if we knew that in the beginning, we would have booked our own air and stuck with the cruise. Now we are so worn out from the struggle that we feel it is just not "our time" to do that long cruise. Beware of EZ Air; it is not EZ at all. Don't go with variable pricing or you are leaving yourself open to a disaster

 

They offer a cruise out of Tahiti and then say they can't get you to Tahiti? Wow...definitely not EZ at all! On the contrary, that's some BS. But...for some reason, it doesn't surprise me.

 

Sounds like that would have been such an awesome cruise.

[greatam]

They offer a cruise out of Tahiti and then say they can't get you to Tahiti? Wow...definitely not EZ at all! On the contrary, that's some BS. But...for some reason, it doesn't surprise me.

 

Sounds like that would have been such an awesome cruise.

 

Just as I posted quite a while ago in the sticky at the top of this forum, the cruise line will start calling and asking IF they can buy any more cheap tickets AFTER their bulk purchased, heavily restricted tickets are gone.

 

"If there are no tickets available to the cruise line in those classes, then AA will make available tickets in higher fare classes. Please note that Q and O class tickets are HIGHER priced than the "regular" consolidator class air deviation tickets, so the 17 pax will definitely pay a higher price than "regular" cruise air pax or deviation pax with consolidator class tickets."

 

 

I am making an assumption that ChefM was told over and over that the purchase of the cheapest restricted tickets were available. Hence, the credit card charges. And EVERY time EZ Air called an airline to get "just one more" cheap, restricted ticket, they were told NO.

 

With limited flights to Tahiti, why would any airline sell tickets at bargain basement prices once the bulk purchased tickets were gone and a cruise was leaving? No reason whatsoever. They can sell them for whatever the market will bear and that will be generally quite a bit more than the tickets the cruise line purchases on contract about 18 months in advance of the flights.