EzAir - Our Experience

[vantec]

In early January we decided to try EzAir - paying in full for our cruise and airline tickets - we had seat assignments for all flights, to London and returning to the US. Today we find out that we no longer have seat assignments going to London - we contact British Airways, they say they can't help us, contact American Airlines; American Airlines say they can't help us, contact British Airways because they are British Airways tickets, with American Airlines actually providing the flights. Finally, with no one able to help us, American Airlines says contact Princess - and guess what? Nobody at Princess can help us. We have even tried to pay for upgraded seats - and nobody will allow us to do that either. We know, or think we know, that we do have tickets on the flight from London to Chicago, the seats we had in early January were together and by the window, now we don't even know if we'll be sitting together. I realize this is not the end of the world, but at this point I will never use EzAir again - there is nobody to help you when there are problems such as we have run into, you are on your own. To make it even worse, we did not save any money in the long run, the cost of the cruise decreased so much that if we had bought our airline tickets on our own, we could have reduced the price of the cruise and saved the same amount of money. I am very disappointed we made the decision to try EzAir, not a good decision!

[thinfool]

I am very disappointed we made the decision to try EzAir, not a good decision!

 

Did you use a travel agent or book directly with Princess?

[vantec]

Did you use a travel agent or book directly with Princess?

 

We booked through Princess, assuming EzAir was acting as our travel agent with the airline. We have learned a lot, we are on our own in this matter.

[thinfool]

We booked through Princess, assuming EzAir was acting as our travel agent with the airline. We have learned a lot, we are on our own in this matter.

 

If you have no seats and have a booking number, someone either owes you a refund or tickets.

 

Is it too late to cancel the air? I know that sometimes air cancellations are less rigid than cancelling your cruise.

[vantec]

If you have no seats and have a booking number, someone either owes you a refund or tickets.

 

Is it too late to cancel the air? I know that sometimes air cancellations are less rigid than cancelling your cruise.

 

We were told we'd get our seat assignment when we checked in - so we do have tickets, but the seat assignments we originally had were taken away. We are considering our options over night, my guess would be that the airlines would say we don't have a justified reason for asking for a refund, since we will have seats. My extreme frustration comes from everybody from BA to AA to Princess, saying they can't help us, nothing they can do - I find that very difficult to believe.

[AKman2495]

For what it's worth, we did the same thing. We are flying from Anchorage to Houston on Alaska Air. I just checked our reservations and everything is OK. We have our seat assignments too.

 

The only thing I can't do is put in my frequent flyer number. But we can take care of that at the airport.

[MustangGT]

We have never used EZAir but our experiences with American Airlines have frequently been frustrating to say the least. Twice we have printed our boarding passes the night before and gotten to the airport the next morning only to find out that our seat assignments have changed. Arghhhhh!!! Complaining did no good, we were told one time that our seat assignments are NOT seat reservations - just preferences. My husband will do anything to not fly American Airlines. Hope you get it all straightened out!

[bhopal21]

I just cannot let someone else take care of my air.:eek:

 

Call it AR or whatever, that is one thing that can't be left to chance and I had rather do it myself, cost be damned.

 

Mike:)

[Not-My-Real-Name]

Don't know if this is still true, but several years ago we were researching flights to London, and British Airways (who we had flown on in the past) no longer allowed selection of seats prior to check-in, except for a few select group of people. I didn't like that, so we flew Virgin Atlantic. I will not fly any airline that does not let me select my seat prior to check-in.

 

And, I always book our air myself. We have a Princess cruise booked for next April. Currently EZAir wants $40.00 more per person for the same exact flights that I got by booking directly with United. Maybe EZAir charges more because of the Next Port Protection, but since we are flying in 3 days early, we don't need that feature.

[JimmyVWine]

I just cannot let someone else take care of my air.:eek:

 

Call it AR or whatever, that is one thing that can't be left to chance and I had rather do it myself, cost be damned.

 

Mike:)

 

This. I book on AA.com and call the Platinum Desk if any issues come up. I have never found that I pay more. In fact, EZ Air advertises that they get the same rate as the airline offers so what's the point? Even if I saved a few shekels, it still wouldn't be worth it. Life is not just a game of pricing where the goal is to pay the least amount of money. Peace of mind has real value.

[Northender]

We booked our flights to Venice through a consolidator. Once our confirmation was received, I was able to go to the BA website and pick our seats. I check frequently to make sure nothing has changed.:) So far, so good. Only 79 days to go.;) I am a little nervous as when checking the flights and seating, I noticed that the plane is more than half empty.:eek:

 

Our flights last year to Vancouver, BC thru United was a nightmare too. They changed the size of the plane (apparently this happens quite often) and when they finally sent a follow-up email, they had us in separate rows.:( We were able to fix this at the airport for the first leg, the second did not change. But our seats were right at the back if we wanted to sit together. We did!!!!

 

I always thought International flights (in your case) were tightly restricted and find it strange that you cannot get seat assignments. It is not your Grandmothers type of travel anymore.:eek:

[vantec]

My husband and I always do everything for ourselves, we know better than to count on somebody else - but we made a mistake and thought the EzAir would be a good deal. As I said, we know better and it won't happen again. That's probably part of our anger right now - we know better!

[bhopal21]

As I said, we know better and it won't happen again. That's probably part of our anger right now - we know better!

 

It only takes once and then you know, never again!

 

Mike;)

[RDC1]

In early January we decided to try EzAir - paying in full for our cruise and airline tickets - we had seat assignments for all flights, to London and returning to the US. Today we find out that we no longer have seat assignments going to London - we contact British Airways, they say they can't help us, contact American Airlines; American Airlines say they can't help us, contact British Airways because they are British Airways tickets, with American Airlines actually providing the flights. Finally, with no one able to help us, American Airlines says contact Princess - and guess what? Nobody at Princess can help us. We have even tried to pay for upgraded seats - and nobody will allow us to do that either. We know, or think we know, that we do have tickets on the flight from London to Chicago, the seats we had in early January were together and by the window, now we don't even know if we'll be sitting together. I realize this is not the end of the world, but at this point I will never use EzAir again - there is nobody to help you when there are problems such as we have run into, you are on your own. To make it even worse, we did not save any money in the long run, the cost of the cruise decreased so much that if we had bought our airline tickets on our own, we could have reduced the price of the cruise and saved the same amount of money. I am very disappointed we made the decision to try EzAir, not a good decision!

 

I think that the problem is not so much EZAir as it is the Airline you ticketed with. The last time I flew British Airways they did not allow seat selection before check in, unless you have status in their frequent flier program or paid a higher fare. So if your tickets are British Airway tickets you are running into a function of the airline, not EZair. One reason that I will not use BA.

 

Even though American Airlines is running the flight the tickets were purchased through BA on a BA fare and as such follows BA rules.

 

I would expect that you have a booking number that you can go online with the BA website and it shows that you are ticketed, but that it will not let you select seats prior to check in.

 

Bottom line is no matter how one gets their tickets they need to understand all of the rules for the airline and the fare.

[sweetsleep]

I think the problem is British Airways, not EZAir, and when you are "code-sharing" a flight with American its worse.

In order to have a seat assignment, BA insists that you pay in advance for knowing your seat assignment, even in premium cabins!

So when you are coordinating your flights through American/British Airways its really tough to cut through the red tape. I have had this happen twice-once for a cruise and once for a land trip where my flights were booked on American for 1 of the flights and BA for the others. I did not use EZAir for any of these trips and still encountered problems with my booking and seat assignments.

Part of the problem was that my record locator number with American was not recognized on the British Airways website and American could not/would not give me the corresponding record locator number for my BA flights!

To make matters worse, I am permanent Gold/Ruby on American and NEVER have to pay for luggage but the ill informed agent in Edinburgh charged me for both bags while I saw college kids coming to the gate with huge bags from study abroad and they were allowed to gate check for free!

I know it must be very difficult to believe, but you should still be okay despite the really weird way that BA tickets people and assigns seats.

[caribill]

I have never found that I pay more. In fact, EZ Air advertises that they get the same rate as the airline offers so what's the point?

 

I never find one way across the Atlantic flights cost the same or less with an airline. They are always significantly more than with EZAir.

[Starlaker]

We had a somewhat similar experience with British Air last fall with our flight to London. I booked directly with British Air and chose our seats at that time. I printed out our itinerary with seat assignments listed and thought that we were all set. Months later I checked back and our seats were "unassigned". Calls to British Air were fruitless and we were assigned seats on arrival at the airport. Fortunately they were together and weren't bad seats, but not as good as the ones I had previously chosen.

[Cauzneffct]

We were told we'd get our seat assignment when we checked in - so we do have tickets, but the seat assignments we originally had were taken away. We are considering our options over night, my guess would be that the airlines would say we don't have a justified reason for asking for a refund, since we will have seats. My extreme frustration comes from everybody from BA to AA to Princess, saying they can't help us, nothing they can do - I find that very difficult to believe.

 

Can you put in your seat requests on the cruise personalizer? We booked EZ Air for a cruise next Feb, and when chosing the seats, I screwed up and selected seats that weren't next to each other for one of the legs. I called the airline, and they said to talk to Princess. On the cruise personalizer, if you click on "flights and transfers," "booking flights with EZAir," "add or modify flights," and "edit passenger options," it lets you request seats. When i then went to the airline website and put in the record locator, it listed the seats I'd chosen. Not sure if you'll be able to do it, but it worked for me.

[vantec]

Can you put in your seat requests on the cruise personalizer? We booked EZ Air for a cruise next Feb, and when chosing the seats, I screwed up and selected seats that weren't next to each other for one of the legs. I called the airline, and they said to talk to Princess. On the cruise personalizer, if you click on "flights and transfers," "booking flights with EZAir," "add or modify flights," and "edit passenger options," it lets you request seats. When i then went to the airline website and put in the record locator, it listed the seats I'd chosen. Not sure if you'll be able to do it, but it worked for me.

 

That was a good suggestion, I tried, but it didn't work. I got the message to contact the airline.

[vantec]

I think the problem is British Airways, not EZAir, and when you are "code-sharing" a flight with American its worse.

In order to have a seat assignment, BA insists that you pay in advance for knowing your seat assignment, even in premium cabins!

So when you are coordinating your flights through American/British Airways its really tough to cut through the red tape. I have had this happen twice-once for a cruise and once for a land trip where my flights were booked on American for 1 of the flights and BA for the others. I did not use EZAir for any of these trips and still encountered problems with my booking and seat assignments.

Part of the problem was that my record locator number with American was not recognized on the British Airways website and American could not/would not give me the corresponding record locator number for my BA flights!

To make matters worse, I am permanent Gold/Ruby on American and NEVER have to pay for luggage but the ill informed agent in Edinburgh charged me for both bags while I saw college kids coming to the gate with huge bags from study abroad and they were allowed to gate check for free!

I know it must be very difficult to believe, but you should still be okay despite the really weird way that BA tickets people and assigns seats.

 

What makes it so frustrating is that we like the two seats by ourselves on the side, that is why we paid in full for the cruise and flights - we were told we'd be issued tickets immediately and could pick our seats - which we did! I have printed copies to prove it. I do think things are complicated because American got it involved, which we didn't realize that at the time, we thought we were flying with British Airlines.

[Liz54]

Princess presents the air service as a program of THEIRS. I assume your payment on the CC shows as Princess I think you should not take no for an answer from them. An email to them followed by a post on their Facebook page might get some action. Companies are very concerned about consumer complains hitting social media, so I would post there and I bet they will resolve this issue. If you try it, let us know!

[zukecruiser]

Have only used EZAir to fly back from Europe and both times they were cheaper than other airlines except for Icelandic, buit the EZAir flights had only one connection and had better times. First time had the same concern with British Air from Copenhagen for seat assignments, but were able to get good seats when printing boarding passes from the hotel with no problem. Others who waited to get seats at the airport had problems getting seats together depending how early they checked in.

 

Advice is to get seats online as soon as possible.

[vantec]

Princess presents the air service as a program of THEIRS. I assume your payment on the CC shows as Princess I think you should not take no for an answer from them. An email to them followed by a post on their Facebook page might get some action. Companies are very concerned about consumer complains hitting social media, so I would post there and I bet they will resolve this issue. If you try it, let us know!

 

I am going to give this idea some thought. I'm not good with posting on Facebook, but I do it once in awhile. I will let you know.

[vantec]

Have only used EZAir to fly back from Europe and both times they were cheaper than other airlines except for Icelandic, buit the EZAir flights had only one connection and had better times. First time had the same concern with British Air from Copenhagen for seat assignments, but were able to get good seats when printing boarding passes from the hotel with no problem. Others who waited to get seats at the airport had problems getting seats together depending how early they checked in.

 

Advice is to get seats online as soon as possible.

 

We are flying into London on a different airline, we were wondering if we went to the AA desk if we'd be able to get seat assignments then, instead of waiting until we leave London two weeks later - something we are considering.

[Cruiserkenn]

For what it's worth, we did the same thing. We are flying from Anchorage to Houston on Alaska Air. I just checked our reservations and everything is OK. We have our seat assignments too.

 

The only thing I can't do is put in my frequent flyer number. But we can take care of that at the airport.

 

Yes, Alaska Airlines is great! That is the difference.

 

I had similar difficulties, as the OP, when using another of the "major" airlines. (I am always booking my own flights, now. I would reconsider if Alaska was flying to London:)