Princess eZAir

[JP-Cruise]

Hello, I am taking my first Cruise with Princess next summer. Everyone who has booked their flights through eZair, do you really save money by doing this rather then booking your flight independently? I am just wondering if it is worth it for me. I am flying to Fairbanks and doing the land portion first, then the cruise part so I won't be worrying about catching my cruise on time. Feel free to share any experiences or advice. Thanks

[Lady Arwen]

First thing is do your homework before booking any flights. Look at what Princess will offer and then check with the airlines and other flight travel websites. Princess has very good fares to Europe, but travelling within the U.S. the prices are competitive, but not overly discounted. So, sometimes their price is great, some times not so much. You need to do the research first!

[AF-1]

The good thing about using EZ air; you can book your flight and if you find a better deal or if there are drastic time changes with your flight you can change your flight or cancel.

[JP-Cruise]

The good thing about using EZ air; you can book your flight and if you find a better deal or if there are drastic time changes with your flight you can change your flight or cancel.

 

Awesome, ok. I'm getting very excited now. Only 364 more days until my next Alaska crusie haha!

[Astro Flyer]

I don't know how airfare prices are from Canada to Alaska but flying internationally from the US the eZAir prices I've had could not be beat. Flying US domestic flights have been similarly priced as when purchasing from the airline or other booking sources.

 

Their Flexible airfare provides several major benefits & in my experiences have been cheaper than Restricted airfares. For our Fall 2017 cruise we immediately (330 days in advance) booked Flexible airfare as soon as it was available from LAX to Europe. In less than 3 months our $576/pp Flexible airfare dropped to $241/pp and we got better flights. It required me to check prices which I could change online using the Princess Cruise Personalizer. That's impossible to do without booking with Flexible airfare.

 

Payment is not due until the cruise's final payment (75 days) so there's no penalty to cancel before then. I've never done it but changes can be made up to 45 days in advance.

 

So even if the airfare is similar to booking directly, the other benefits will many times make Flexible eZAir our best flight option.

 

In a couple of days we can book our Flexible eZAir flights to London for our Norway cruise next June.

[Colo Cruiser]

EZ Air prices seem to be very competitive.

Especially overseas flights.

[Sacto Rick]

If you use it, be sure to get "Flexible " fare like what was said above. I like it because I can book my cruise, hotel and airfare with my FCD.

[Astro Flyer]

One consideration with eZAir can be seat assignments primarily on non-US airlines.

 

US airlines do not charge for advance seat assignments but all international airlines I've flown do have a fee to reserve a coach seat prior to check-in.

 

Some airlines require the eZAir flights to be paid in full before accepting a seat reservation. I've read that Princess pays airlines after final cruise payment. Thus some passengers submit a form to pay their airfare before final cruise payment to be able to reserve seats.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=402964&d=1485971097

 

Our KLM flights allowed us to pay a fee to make a seat reservation long before Princess paid them. We got a ticket number when making our Flexible airfare reservation & were able to pay for an advance seat reservation. Although since the fee is non-refundable we didn't pay for seat assignments until we felt confident that we had our best price & flights.

 

Other airlines do it differently which for us would be a consideration but not a major factor when deciding how to book our flights.

[Kamloops50]

Hello, I am taking my first Cruise with Princess next summer. Everyone who has booked their flights through eZair, do you really save money by doing this rather then booking your flight independently? I am just wondering if it is worth it for me. I am flying to Fairbanks and doing the land portion first, then the cruise part so I won't be worrying about catching my cruise on time. Feel free to share any experiences or advice. Thanks

 

I find flying to the US from Canada using EZair is usually significantly cheaper . The only time it isn't is if you live near a major international airport like Toronto or Vancouver. I like the fact , that airfare is due until final payment.

You can also change or cancel up to 45 days before departure. From Canada only Air Canada flies to Anchorage direct.

[JP-Cruise]

I find flying to the US from Canada using EZair is usually significantly cheaper . The only time it isn't is if you live near a major international airport like Toronto or Vancouver. I like the fact , that airfare is due until final payment.

You can also change or cancel up to 45 days before departure. From Canada only Air Canada flies to Anchorage direct.

 

Oh ok, so as a matter of fact I will be flying from Toronto - Fairbanks. So I guess it will be expensive. Oh well, gotta get there regardless right? I'll of course choose the cheapest flight deal

[Kamloops50]

Oh ok, so as a matter of fact I will be flying from Toronto - Fairbanks. So I guess it will be expensive. Oh well, gotta get there regardless right? I'll of course choose the cheapest flight deal

 

 

 

You might find that Princess will have cheaper routing via the US. That is what I've seen for routing from Vancouver.

 

 

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[loge23]

You have to do your homework on this. There is no one answer. Sometimes the Princess air is better. The good part of Princess air is the flexible fares. You can hold your air until the full price of the cruise is due. If you find a better fare it can be changed or cancelled without penalty before the full fare of cruise and air is paid. Another consideration is if your flight us delayed and you booked the Princess air they will assist you on getting to the ship. We always use the Princess transfers. There may be less expensive ways to get to the airpiirt but at the end of the cruise why hassle! Off the ship, on the bus with your luggage and to the airport. Enjoy your trip!

 

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[JP-Cruise]

You have to do your homework on this. There is no one answer. Sometimes the Princess air is better. The good part of Princess air is the flexible fares. You can hold your air until the full price of the cruise is due. If you find a better fare it can be changed or cancelled without penalty before the full fare of cruise and air is paid. Another consideration is if your flight us delayed and you booked the Princess air they will assist you on getting to the ship. We always use the Princess transfers. There may be less expensive ways to get to the airpiirt but at the end of the cruise why hassle! Off the ship, on the bus with your luggage and to the airport. Enjoy your trip!

 

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You make excellent points. I always use crusie line transfers as well. Absolutely, why hassle? Ya I'll definitely do my homework. Sounds like I'll be leaning toward using eZair. I like how if flights are delayed, princess will assist you on getting to my ship. But like I said though I'm doing the land part first :). So the flights become available via eZair in September. I got lots of time :)

[Gretchendz]

I always do my homework--and usually EZAir can beat the airline quoted price. Besides, I love the peace of mind regarding possibly missing the sailing :)

[easyboy]

With EZ Air, Flexi-rate is cheaper most of the time than fixed rate. Unlike booking direct with airline fare locking fee for a short period, EZ Air Flex provides that convenience before final payment without a fee.

[octoberdana]

For my recent purchase the Princess flights were $60 per person cheaper, I didn't have as many choices but i was able to find some that worked and could select our seats and save $120. Also, if I find a lower price I can still cancel until we get 45 days out. Great deal!

[Nebr.cruiser]

We've never used EZair before but have a flexible fare booked for our South America cruise in Jan. The fare isn't much or at all cheaper, but the routes (I realize they can change) are much better, especially coming home. I mean, 20+ hours with three changes vs 11 or so hours with one change; pretty easy decision.

 

I'll still keep looking for better fares and/or better routes, until the 45 day deadline. I've already changed one flight due to an error on my part.

[geoherb]

We booked air through Princess for the first time ever for our upcoming British isles cruise. It was half the price of what I saw buying it on my own was going to be. Buying it on my own was going to cost more than the 12-day cruise.

[JP-Cruise]

We booked air through Princess for the first time ever for our upcoming British isles cruise. It was half the price of what I saw buying it on my own was going to be. Buying it on my own was going to cost more than the 12-day cruise.

 

Oh my gosh, really? That is crazy!!! And amazing at the same time!

[caribill]

Another EZAir benefit is for the return flight.

 

If the ship is delayed in reaching port, EZAir can get you rebooked at no additional cost to you.

 

Although rare, there have been instances of the ship being delayed by a day or more returning to the disembarkation port. For those who had booked EZAir, Princess automatically made all the necessary rebookings. Those who had not used EZAir were on their own although Princess did give free phone calls and Internet access from the ship to help. But with hundreds of passengers needing to rebook flights, the wait to use the phone was very long and using the Internet was very slow and stress level was very high.

[sandij]

We're still a while off from our British Isles cruise next year but I've already booked flights with Princess EZAir. The total amount for both of us was less than what Delta wanted for one person and it's the same Delta flight. Yes one leg of the flight is with Virgin Atlantic and they charge for seats but it wasn't much and I got an extra leg room one.

[JP-Cruise]

We're still a while off from our British Isles cruise next year but I've already booked flights with Princess EZAir. The total amount for both of us was less than what Delta wanted for one person and it's the same Delta flight. Yes one leg of the flight is with Virgin Atlantic and they charge for seats but it wasn't much and I got an extra leg room one.

 

Oh nice. How much was it for one person? Just to get an idea. I'm travelling by myself

[Sandi07054]

Another thIng is if you book your flight thru Princess and you paid for insurance it also covers your flight. You won't need additional insurance from the airline. I never travel without insurance after I broke my leg at 60 and had to cancel a trip

[Micahs Grandad]

If you book with ezair and flights are delayed and you miss your ship who is responsible for cost of getting you to next port?

[Cruis-Ann]

We're still a while off from our British Isles cruise next year but I've already booked flights with Princess EZAir. The total amount for both of us was less than what Delta wanted for one person and it's the same Delta flight. Yes one leg of the flight is with Virgin Atlantic and they charge for seats but it wasn't much and I got an extra leg room one.

 

We had the same situation for our recent British Isles cruise. Booked on Delta for first leg of flight and Virgin Air from Atlanta to Heathrow. Also had Virgin on return (to a different airport than our departure airport). Virgin cancelled our return flight well in advance of our trip and rescheduled on a much later flight that was not acceptable to us. I called Princess EZair and was able to change to a different airline for the return. Unfortunately if you change any leg of your flight the entire air trip must be cancelled and rebooked. We also prepaid for extra leg room seats. When I went to print our boarding passes, I had two flights listed for the Atlanta to London leg. One with prepaid seats assigned and one w/o seats assignments. Called airline and was told if we had booked with them directly, he could quite easily fix the problem. Since I booked with Princess EZair, I would need to call them to correct this, but there was not way we could be sure we be able to get the same flights again. Having already experienced how difficult it was to rebook one leg of the flight and keep the other flights unchanged, I decided to take the airline's advice to correct the double booking at the airport.

At the airport, the agent didn't really listen to me and just cancelled my extra booking. Being so stressed by this time, I failed to realize immediately that she had cancelled the wrong booking and I was NOT given my extra room seats. I went to the gate agent who told me my original seats had already been given to others, leaving with the middle seats assigned by the original agent. He worked on my problem and did eventually find extra leg room seats for us. So all worked out well in the end, but was extremely stressful.

Moral of the story: Changes to your original flights may cause unexpected problems and stress.