How does Princess decide if I NEED air transportation?

[BrandiGreg]

I have booked a cruise that ends in LA and I wanted to look into EZAir to see what flights are available for us to fly home to Fresno (about a 3 hr drive north). So, I went into cruise personalizer under Flights and Transfers, and clicked EZAir and got this message "Air Transportation is not needed for your cruise as determined by your home city." What the heck??? Yes, I do know I don't NEED to fly, but what makes them think I want to drive that far? What if I was unable to drive? Do they expect me to grab a bus? How far does a person have to live from the port to be able to use EZAir? They don't even offer a transfer to the LA airport. Anyone else unable to use EZAir if the port is within drivable distance or know how far you have to live before they think you need to fly?:eek:I will probably have to call them and pose the same questions....

[likeadisguise]

It's likely they have LAX listed as your gateway city. I'm not sure if you can change that yourself, but call Princess and have them change it to the airport code for Fresno, and I think eZAir will work for you.

[BrandiGreg]

ok, yes will do that in the morning. My address is correct in my princess profile, so not sure how they determined my gateway city. I don't recall ever having been asked that before. Despite 24 cruises with Princess, we have not used EZAir before, but I hear sometimes they have great fares.

[waltd]

Princess has always offered transfers to the airport on every cruise we have been on. You can sign up for the transfers on board.

[notentirelynormal]

I once had them only offer me flights from San Francisco - and I live in LA. I swear it was impossible - p*ssed me off to no end. I finally gave up and booked the air myself because I was tired of only getting quotes from a city I didn't live near. It must have been a glitch (although I don't book cruise air) because now I get LA as my starting point.

[waltd]

If you just want to see what flights are available then don't sign in to your personalizer. You can still check and it will ask you for airport. Type in Fresno and it will give you the flights. I just tried it and it worked. You can haggle with Princess tomorrow or Monday about why it doesn't work when you sign in.

[RickEk]

Yes, what most likely happened is that when the booking was created, your gateway was set to LAX or somewhere close by. Did you book directly or with a TA?

 

If you booked with a TA, they'll have to call to change the gateway otherwise you can call yourself.

 

btw, if you booked online, it's quite possible that the website determined that you were in LA because of your ISP. I worked for a company that has its HQ in another city and if I used the Internet from work, I'd get advertisements for that city.

[skynight]

Have your T.A. request that your home airport be Fresno. Then look into EZ Air. It is possible that the Princess EZ Air staff has not selected flights from LAX, Long Beach or John Wayne to Fresno, so nothing may come up. You probably will have to book on your own. Princess does offer transfers to LAX and you can purchase them on board at the tour desk. However, I would suggest using either Super Shuttle, Prime Time, or a private taxi. You can make reservations for the shared shuttles in advance on line or just show up after leaving the ship.

[mreasier]

I suggest you call Princess. They are able to do things you can't do online. You can do this even if you booked thru a TA. I recently needed to book one way flights on each end of a back to back cruise. I could not book these online but was able to by calling Princess.

 

I too have a problem with their determination of a home airport. We live in Reno which is over 400 miles form Las Vegas but they continue to list LAS as our home airport. Fortunately there is a pull down list the shows all 4 of the airports in Nevada.

[FritzG]

Our travel agency is in Texas so the first time I tried to check airfare the site kept giving me flights from/to Texas instead of NE Ohio. A quick call to Princess fixed it.