Why bother with EZAir for flights?

[billco]

I have used eZAir for several cruises and have been satisfied. I have always booked "flexible." I like not having to pay until final payment and being able to change options without penalty up to 45 days.

 

Last year, I booked an eZAir one way (Flexible) from Barcelona to Sacramento as soon as it became available for our upcoming TA this April. ($1050/PP)

 

Later, we tacked on a 7 day Alaskan out of Seattle right after the TA, so I changed our gateway to Seattle and rebooked ($920/PP). I check the flights every few days and saw in November there was an option that would get us into Seattle two hours earlier and cheaper ($790/PP). I kept checking and last week a new option showed up that gets us into Seattle 2 1/2 hours earlier even cheaper ($598/PP).

 

eZAir might not be for everyone or every situation, but it has worked for me when I needed it.

[satxdiver]

For our recent open jaw flight to South America I found an excellent opportunity on EZair that saved us $900/pax. Airlines generally will charge more for open jaw flights so this time EZair was the one we chose. Normally we just book through the airline after looking at all opportunities. One advantage to EZair is the ship will wait if your plane is late arriving or if they can't wait, they will fly you to the next port and take care of most of your expenses while you wait for the ship. For those traveling on the day the ship embarks, this is a big plus. We always arrive the day before although on our South American voyage, we arrived 5 days before and stayed 5 days after the cruise.

[mysaddlebred000]

satxdiver,

How do you do an open jaw reservation? I did not see any option for it or do you have your TA do it for you?

thanks

[diane.in.ny]

Like most posters have said, it is hit or miss. We used EZAir for the first time for our upcoming trip. Not only did it have the best price, but it also had the best itineraries with only one change in each direction.

 

Of course I should mention that I am picky and try to avoid flying through certain airports and on some airlines ... which makes it harder finding that good price and good flights

[Kenswing]

We booked Business Class SEA-LHR nonstop. EZAir was ~$1,800 per ticket cheaper for the same price as was listed on Delta's website.. They must have limited seats though because if I do a mock booking the prices are now in line with what Delta has listed.

[Happpy]

usually ezair fares have been considerably higher than other consolidators, however, on my next trip ezair did a great job finding an Open Jaw First/Business class ticket SEA/BCN - FCO-SEA, saving over 60% compared to others with same airline/flight schedule (American/British Airways), and even more compared to other airlines

[JudithLynne]

I would be interested in hearing from someone who has actually used EZ Air services when missing a connection.

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

We will be using EZ-Air for the second time this fall. We are flying Seattle to Barcelona in business class with Delta for $2200 pp. Since it's a flexible fare, we can change or cancel up to 45 days in advance. We couldn't find fares anywhere else for anywhere close to this price. I've never looked at EZ-Air for domestic flights, but it sure works for international flights.

[cruiseboar_1872]

I booked our last flight through ez-air and got a non-stop out of Toronto for $100 cheaper than anything else. Our next Cruise I again used ez-air and it was still $60 cheaper than anywhere else.

[PatriciaF]

I always check EZ Air, sometimes use it and sometimes don't. It depends on the available flights and on my other pre-cruise arrangements. The benefit of using it is supposed to be that Princess is insuring your arrival. If your plane is delayed and you miss your sailing time, then supposedly if you booked with EZ Air, Princess will arrange and pay for you to get on the ship at it's next stop. If you're flying in a day early, that's not important. But if you are flying in and getting directly on the ship, then it is a nice guarantee. I haven't had to call them yet to see what they will do.

 

To me this is the biggest plus for EZ Air or other cruise lines airfare options. We were recently on a Viking Sea cruise and we couldn't dock as planned for the last day. Viking rebooked all those who had booked airfare through them and even paid for a hotel night if necessary. If you had done it on your own, you needed to do it yourself. At least it has fast and free internet. We were spending two nights after the cruise, so it didn't bother us and it was so cold, we were all little glad that we didn't have two full days to walk around in the cold. FYI--this was in Venice--were the port is often fogged in in the winter according to locals.

[cflutist]

We will be using EZ-Air for the second time this fall. We are flying Seattle to Barcelona in business class with Delta for $2200 pp. Since it's a flexible fare, we can change or cancel up to 45 days in advance. We couldn't find fares anywhere else for anywhere close to this price. I've never looked at EZ-Air for domestic flights, but it sure works for international flights.

We are using EZAir from San Francisco to London for the same reason as they were less than booking directly with Virgin Atlantic for Premium Economy seats. VA has changed the returning flight 4 times, from 3 pm, to 2:40, to 1:45 to 11 am. This last change was out of guidelines so Princess was able to book us a returning flight on British Airways Business Class with no increase in fare. Very cool!

[DrivesLikeMario]

Why use EZ Air? Because my recent bus. class purchase saved me $1,200 for just ONE ticket. I got the flights I wanted with the type of flat beds I wanted too, so for me, it was well worth it and I really shop around!

[susancruzs]

I use EZ Air, like it especially for one way overseas flights. For recent transatlantic cruises and for one this Fall, I can't come close to the price I get with EZ Air. Being in Wisconsin, where nothing is direct, getting to Barcelona and home after the cruise for $625. seemed like a fair price. If it goes down before my final payment, I get the better price. I leave in October and was able to choose seats direct with Delta already.

[jimmieg]

Had never used EZair, but checked last week and booked 2 business class seats to Europe in June, flexible, cancel free until 2 months out for half-price over anywhere else. I'm sold, YMMV. I was only looking for premium economy and ended up with lie-flat seats. Mrs. Jimmieg is very impressed. ;)

[flamomo]

I don't use EZAir for domestic flights because I have always done better by flying with SWA whenever I can, and I love their great service and dependability.

 

However, I do use EZAir for international flights when cruising. Right now I have flights to London from FL, and then back to FL from Venice for later this year for under $600 apiece. Originally I booked us at $781 apiece, which I thought was a decent deal, kept checking fares and a couple of weeks ago found more flights with better connection times for $185 less apiece. So I immediately cancelled the originals and rebooked. Love that flexible air!!! I will continue to check the fares often right up to the 45 day pre-flight mark.

 

I also always check the flights every few days on the airline's website to make sure they haven't changed anything. Delta is pretty good about emailing any changes, but Princess sometimes doesn't reflect those changes in the Personalizer.

[suzyed]

I have checked EZAir several times, both for flights to Fort Lauderdale and London. In the case of FLL, they did not even show a non stop flight from San Juan, and their 1 stop flight on JetBlue was double the price of the NON STOP flights I found on JetBlue's website. The same for flights to London, they show very few airline options and prices at least as high and higher than on the airline websites. Royal Caribbean's Choice Air did a much better job, finding low fares and offering fully refundable fares for the price of non ref. Why bother with EZAir???:mad:

If we can get a comparable price and routing, we will NOW book EZair for several reasons.

1. We can reserve it when we see the price that we like, but don't have to pay for it until we make final payment on our cruise and then pay for them both at the same time.

2. When paying through Princess, we will get double points on our Princess credit card.

3. Our flights are covered under Princess' cruise insurance, so we don't have to purchase additional insurance

AND THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON?

4. LAST MINUTE CHANGES!

Several years ago, on the Crown Princess, we were delayed, by a day, getting back to port in LA, which meant a few days before we arrived in port, we had to change our Air arrangements. We had purchased our flight home with Delta miles well in advance of our cruise. When the flights had to be changed 4 days before we were flying home, the number of miles required for the new flight was significantly higher!! We didn't even have enough miles to do so, so we had to "buy" more miles to the tune of $1400!!!!!

Those who had booked through Princess? Didn't cost them a dime and Princess made all the arrangements and changes. We were up at 3am trying to contact Delta on the ship's phone to make our changes.

To us, this is the biggest reason to book through Princess! And maybe this situation will never happen again, but as we do with each cruise, we buy insurance in the event that changes must be made or unforeseen circumstances crop up.

[TriumphGuy]

I booked EZ Air for our upcoming Hawaii cruise in April. I had checked ORD>SFO>ORD fares several times, and while I found some cheaper flights, I really liked the flexible fares Princess offered. That plus their guarantee to get you to the ship made it a no-brainer for us. Their flexible fare was less money than their fixed rate fares. Go figure.

Initially I was able to pick our seats through EZ Air, but when I checked our booking later with United and American, I noticed our seat assignments were gone. I was able to pick seats again; we'll see if the airlines honor our choices. We are NOT frequent fliers, so in the airlines' eyes we're cattle. Moo.

I also bought the Princess vacation protection. This trip is for our 40th wedding anniversary and we don't want any problems.

[suzyed]

EZAir with Princess is very expensive. We are book on the Grand Princess for a 15 day cruise to Hawiaii on 25 Nov 2015. we are staying at the Mark Hopkins Hotel for two days prior to the cruise. The EZAir price per person from Boston to San Francisco is $603.00 and it's a Delta Flight.

This same flight booked directly with Delta Airlines is $354.00 PP - That's 249.00 per person less than Princess. kNOW THAT'S A NO BRAINER. Book with Delta

Depart 11/23/2015 Bos At 9:00am arrive SFO at 2:50

Depart 12/10/2015 SFO at 1:10pm arrive BOS at 11:45pm

 

On our upcoming cruise, we booked EZair because our Delta flight was essentially the same price as on the Delta website. We were still able to upgrade (for a fee) to "Comfort" seats at the same price that Delta charges and we didn't even have to pay for the flights until we made final payment on the cruise.

[suzyed]

It is hit or miss. We will be using easy air again this Spring from Europe and it is $1500. per person less than we could directly, I have checked airfare over the last 8 months and it is still the cheapest. Previously I was not getting favorable layovers and timing doing online, so once I got the flight numbers I called easy air and them changed by an agent and was able to keep the same fare as the less desired ones.So I am always checking all the sources and always go with the best option. That the insurance covers flight delays is always a plus, and the princess credit card also gives double points for ez air another plus.

 

 

Correct! Those are among the reasons we have booked EZair.;)

[suzyed]

We booked EZAir to London for our May trip. It is direct Bos.- Lon. round trip. It is higher but direct and insured through Princess. That said we have found a couple other option 3-4 hundred dollars cheaper, but will need to change planes with a 3 hour wait in either Dublin or Iceland. The plus with this is I get to pick my seats where on EZAir you get the seats they can't ever sell. Face it Princess doesn't offer this as a customer service the cheaper they pay the more profit for them. Coin toss at this time but will need to make up our minds real soon. Like the idea of going directly to Southampton from Dublin. Oh and another minus for Princess is they charge for the transfer from the airport to Southampton on top of the airfare.

We got to choose and upgrade our seats even when we booked our flight from LAX to JAX.

[Woobstr112G]

eZAir is just another option I consider when looking for flights...mostly for transatlantic air travel. I check the airlines, consolidators and eZAir and have always ended up booking with consolidators...until recently.For our one-way flight to Europe in September and return home from FLL, eZAir came in well under the other options. Just as I have never booked with the same consolidator twice, I wouldn't expect eZAir to always have the best price for the flights I want.

 

Lew

 

 

Lew;

 

I experienced the same thing in booking my one way T/A flights. I always have used consolidators but for my last two flights (Virgin & B/A) from LAX to LHR eZAir was $$$$ cheaper than several different consolidators. Especially last year's flight that was about 2.5k less:eek:. I would have loved to take advantage of it had I not already purchased the consolidator tickets.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Astro Flyer]

I've read many times that EZair has great prices for international flights & my recent experience is just another example.

 

We're flying LAX/BCN in the Fall and booked a flight shortly after becoming available. We only booked one-way to Barcelona because the return flight from FLL/LAX was more expensive than using our SWA points. Within 6 weeks of booking our flight dropped nearly 50% from $576 to $294. Our one-stop routing is good but checking for the EZair domestic flight from FLL it's $355! :eek: Instead we'll use the SWA points that we received by paying $69 for their chargecard & making some purchases using it.

 

Both EZair & SWA have more flexibility in their bookings and we're very happy with both of them. :)

[AJs Grandpa]

I don't use EZAir for domestic flights because I have always done better by flying with SWA whenever I can, and I love their great service

 

 

I don't doubt your experience. However it is still worth checking. I found EZ Air flights from Sacramento to FLL less expensive than SWA for February cruises this year and last even when factoring in baggage fees. Always worth a look.

[lolane1]

Just FYI, The prices for EZair change frequently. I originally booked my flight from NY to Athens at $1350 though EZAir. I check quite frequently, and one morning the same flight was a little over $1000. Of course, I rebooked immediately. Lately, it's been $1085 and has never gone down to that 1000 dollar price. Same flight on delta site today is , $1300. So, moral of the story, if you book EZair, check often and you might see favorable pricing on the same flight. Just call Princess and rebook at the lower price.

[flamomo]

check often and you might see favorable pricing on the same flight. Just call Princess and rebook at the lower price.

 

 

Or go online on the Princess site and do it yourself! It's easy enough that even a non-techie fogey like me can do it!! LOL