EZ Air and Prices

[nbc]

Hi

We are booked on an Eastern Caribbean cruise leaving from FLL next January 2015. The weather here (near Toronto, Canada) has been absolutely brutal this year and I am thinking of booking our flights through EZAir for the next port gtee in case of a storm on our end. I am not an expert but the prices seem a bit high to me. I am wondering if any of you have had the experience of waiting a bit and having the prices go down. I am pretty sure that there will be seat sales on Air Canada if I am patient but the next port gtee is feeling pretty important to me given the winter we have had!

Thanks!

[Nan_Sea]

Another way to handle it would be to book the airline of your choice and arrive a couple of days early. That allows for flight problems.

[Hoosier-Cruiser]

I did not book with the EZAir service due to the prices, since any price difference would be multiplied by four for my family. I found it cheaper for us to fly in a day or two early, to ensure that we were in town in plenty of time.

 

Not quite the answer you were looking for, but it is another option.

[chrysalis]

Yes, fly a day or two early....

[Colo Cruiser]

The prices are always high when I looked at it.

I check often.

The closest it came to self booked flights was last month for our Sapphire cruise we just completed. The EZ air price came within $5 of what we had booked (round trip United Den-LAX). It did not stay that way for long as the flight sold out quickly. We ended up booking on our own.

[Ethel5]

EZ Air was $40 more than the consolidators for a one way to VCE. I kept checking the prices daily and one day they went down by $80 and I booked it. The very next day they went up again. go figure.

[RNGALNG]

There was just an article written about when to buy your tickets for flying. They seem to think that 54 days before you are leaving is the time to get the best fares. Personally, I would prefer to know I had my ticket in my hand before that time!

 

We have used both - our own plans and Princess. It depends on when and where we are headed. We just got back from Ft. Lauderdale after a week on the Crown. We did this one on our own. I found a hotel that had a package deal for breakfast the next morning and free shuttle to the ships. We took a taxi to the hotel - didn't rent a car. (There are many hotels along the water's edge that do this.) Once we got there, we jumped into shorts and t-shirts and just defrosted by walking along the beach with our feet in the water! What better way to get ready to cruise and out of this horrible winter we have had! Seeing that there were 9 ships in port the day we returned, we did take advantage of the Princess transfer back to the airport.

 

Whatever you decide, do plan on getting out of the winter weather at least 24 hours before your cruise sails!

 

Have a great time!

[grandgeezer]

We were looking for a transatlantic cruise this spring. It was either going to be HAL or Celebrity. We went with Celebrity based on the cruiseline air. Choice Air (Celebrity) was almost $300 p.p. cheaper with a better choice of flights and times. After getting our air conformation number, I went to the airline's web site and changed our seat numbers. We could have also upgraded to a exit row seat, for the flight from Europe, but didn't figure it was worth the $75 p.p. I don't know how that compares to HAL, but we really liked the options.

[TorontoTL]

Hi

We are booked on an Eastern Caribbean cruise leaving from FLL next January 2015. The weather here (near Toronto, Canada) has been absolutely brutal this year and I am thinking of booking our flights through EZAir for the next port gtee in case of a storm on our end. I am not an expert but the prices seem a bit high to me. I am wondering if any of you have had the experience of waiting a bit and having the prices go down. I am pretty sure that there will be seat sales on Air Canada if I am patient but the next port gtee is feeling pretty important to me given the winter we have had!

Thanks!

 

I recently booked a flight from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale for my parents for their Princess cruise through EZ Air. I actually found the prices better from Princess for the identical flight compared with booking directly with WestJet. This was the case in fall 2012 for our Mediterranean cruise where we booked our flights by EZ Air.

[Bubble-Ont.]

Hi... I live close to Toronto too. I have used ezair but only because it was such a good deal. I prefer to book my own. I usually go to Toronto a day early and also fly to cruise port city a day or 2 early. It's the safest way and relieves some of the stress...... Terri

[nbc]

Thanks to all for their suggestions/comments. I will keep looking for a while but then will probably leave a day or two early as most of you suggest.

Just wanted to check and see what others had done.

Thanks again

nbc

[rbslos18]

eZAir prices fluctuate. I have yet to find an airfare remotely close to the price we received for our Ruby TA cruise. I did learn one thing from the experience. I called Princess with an eZAir question and the staff person was able to find an unlisted price which was $75.00 less. We are paying $858.00. I have noticed that the fares and options fluctuate.

 

Initially we were going to do the TA on the Royal but every international flight had two stops. Eventually, months later, a one stop flight appeared.

[Times Prince]

While we normally try to be at the port a day earlier, the hotel prices usually are quite high. Princess EZ Air gives the next port guarantee that, with a little extra money, gives a lot of peace of mind when the weather is iffy.

 

Domestic air prices usually are quite competitive with booking directly from the airline sites, with the difference between being the insurance cost.

Open jaw international flights are almost always cheaper with EZ Air.

[Pia1913]

We're using EZ Air for the first time in May. PBI to Cape Town and home from LHR; almost two months apart. Princess had the best prices and the best schedules. On my own I would be paying hundreds of dollars more per ticket.

 

So I guess the moral of the story is: sometimes good; sometimes not.

[caribill]

So I guess the moral of the story is: sometimes good; sometimes not.

 

That's our experience also.

 

Always check your EZAir options (both the restricted and the flexible fares) as well as what you can book on your own.

 

Not all airlines are available in EZAir, so it is possible your best pricing and/or flight times are only available by not using EZAir.

[rbslos18]

Hi

We are booked on an Eastern Caribbean cruise leaving from FLL next January 2015. The weather here (near Toronto, Canada) has been absolutely brutal this year and I am thinking of booking our flights through EZAir for the next port gtee in case of a storm on our end. I am not an expert but the prices seem a bit high to me. I am wondering if any of you have had the experience of waiting a bit and having the prices go down. I am pretty sure that there will be seat sales on Air Canada if I am patient but the next port gtee is feeling pretty important to me given the winter we have had!

Thanks!

 

We once left the day of our cruise and will never do it again. Talk about stress. Our original flight was cancelled and the replacement plane was late and then delayed. We were on pins and needles the whole time.

 

As a rule of thumb we always arrive a day or two earlier. Even with the next port guarantee, there is no guarantee that a missed ship will be easy to connect to. You could miss a day or two of your vacation. By comparison, the cost of a hotel/food is small.

[rbslos18]

Hi

We are booked on an Eastern Caribbean cruise leaving from FLL next January 2015. The weather here (near Toronto, Canada) has been absolutely brutal this year and I am thinking of booking our flights through EZAir for the next port gtee in case of a storm on our end. I am not an expert but the prices seem a bit high to me. I am wondering if any of you have had the experience of waiting a bit and having the prices go down. I am pretty sure that there will be seat sales on Air Canada if I am patient but the next port gtee is feeling pretty important to me given the winter we have had!

Thanks!

 

We once left the day of our cruise and will never do it again. Talk about stress. Our original flight was cancelled and the replacement plane was late and then delayed. We were on pins and needles the whole time.

 

As a rule of thumb we always arrive a day or two earlier. Even with the next port guarantee, there is no guarantee that a missed ship will be easy to connect to. You could miss a day or two of your vacation. By comparison, the cost of a hotel/food is small.

[Colo Cruiser]

We're using EZ Air for the first time in May. PBI to Cape Town and home from LHR; almost two months apart. Princess had the best prices and the best schedules. On my own I would be paying hundreds of dollars more per ticket.

 

So I guess the moral of the story is: sometimes good; sometimes not.

 

 

Palm Beach International! :D

[Pia1913]

Palm Beach International! :D

 

Yep. Via Atlanta and Amsterdam. Delta said I could upgrade to Business class for $12,000 per person. We'll be in Coach with the rest of masses. :)

[Times Prince]

Always check your EZAir options (both the restricted and the flexible fares) as well as what you can book on your own.

 

Not all airlines are available in EZAir, so it is possible your best pricing and/or flight times are only available by not using EZAir.

While we usually opt for restricted as cheapest fare, our last cruise (repositioning from NY to Houston, requiring an "open jaw" flight, had less expensive flights using the flexible fares option. That was a pleasant surprise. So do check both types.

 

We once left the day of our cruise and will never do it again. Talk about stress. Our original flight was cancelled and the replacement plane was late and then delayed. We were on pins and needles the whole time.

 

As a rule of thumb we always arrive a day or two earlier. Even with the next port guarantee, there is no guarantee that a missed ship will be easy to connect to. You could miss a day or two of your vacation. By comparison, the cost of a hotel/food is small.

This is where one needs to balance the itinerary against the guarantee. For instance we had one 10 day Southern Caribbean cruise with flights from Texas to FLL booked through Princess where flight issues caused us to arrive at FLL airport after the original sailing time. We had kept in touch with the "in transit delay" hotline and they described what our option was should we miss the ship. We, too were stressed until we heard how great we would be treated. We would clearly miss Princess Cays but the 2nd port was St. Thomas. What they would do would be to fly us to St. Thomas, and book us in a hotel with a generous daily allowance which would more than cover hotel and food. In our minds this took the pressure off, as we could think of far worse vacation experiences than a day or two extra in St. Thomas. (Incredibly, the ship waited for us, but that is another story already told here on CC).

 

For itineraries like a transatlantic, the next port guarantee might not be as great an experience, so being at the port a day early is definitely called for.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Another way to handle it would be to book the airline of your choice and arrive a couple of days early. That allows for flight problems.

 

We once left the day of our cruise and will never do it again. Talk about stress. Our original flight was cancelled and the replacement plane was late and then delayed. We were on pins and needles the whole time.

 

As a rule of thumb we always arrive a day or two earlier. Even with the next port guarantee, there is no guarantee that a missed ship will be easy to connect to. You could miss a day or two of your vacation. By comparison, the cost of a hotel/food is small.

 

And even if you are flying from an area/to an area that doesn't usually have bad weather, there's always the possibility that weather elsewhere can affect the flight patterns in general. For our local airport, it would be fog or a major earthquake that could shut us down. And I've been on a cruise on which about 8 per cent of the passengers didn't make it to the ship on time because of a rare snowstorm from where they were coming from (and I believe the flights were booked through Princess) and heavy rain in LA. Since it was the Hawaiian cruise, the PVSA complicated matters. I don't think any of them ever got on the ship (maybe didn't even try to fly to Hawaii).

 

I just wouldn't want to risk even losing a day of a cruise, so I rather err on the side of caution. And after we used cruise air (through Carnival) once, and were given a red-eye flight arriving the morning of the cruise (I changed that flight right away), I know plan any transportation (plane or train) for our family to any cruises not out of LA.

[Colo Cruiser]

Yep. Via Atlanta and Amsterdam. Delta said I could upgrade to Business class for $12,000 per person. We'll be in Coach with the rest of masses. :)

 

Only half way to first for 12K, :eek:

[TM]

Is there any way to get an EZ Air quote without actually having to complete a booking? That way I can gauge the total cost of the cruise in advance.

[Colo Cruiser]

Is there any way to get an EZ Air quote without actually having to complete a booking? That way I can gauge the total cost of the cruise in advance.

 

 

You can get a quote online during the cruise search but can't book until you have a cruise res.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Colo Cruiser

[flamomo]

I've been looking in vain for what I would consider a decent fare from Tampa to Rome for the end of November, and then home from FLL, and everything is SO high ... including EZAir. In fact there no NO flexible fares available at all in the EZAir!!!, and I don't want a restricted fare flight to Rome, that I would have to pay for immediately, especially since it's 9 months till I would be flying. I want flex because it is refundable up to 45 days out, on the off chance that it would become necessary to cancel. With 9 months between now and cruise time, things can change, and I'm not willing to spend almost $3000 for air that I could not get back if I did have to cancel.

 

I'll just keep keep watching and hoping!!