Flight Ease: Flexible Fare Payment Early?

[snoopygrl]

Hi! In researching flight options via Flight Ease it states that Flexible Fares are paid at the final cruise payment which for us is a few months away. 

 

If we wanted to get a Flexible Fare rate now, can we go ahead and pay the remaining amount to lock in the rate?  I would think that HAL wouldn't mind getting our money early. 😉

 

Thank you!

Edited January 11, 2020 by snoopygrl

[RuthC]

7 hours ago, snoopygrl said:

If we wanted to get a Flexible Fare rate now, can we go ahead and pay the remaining amount to lock in the rate? 

You sure can (I've done it). HAL is mst happy to take money in advance. 
I have read reports that no one has ever had their rate increased just because they waited to pay for the flight, but can't attest personally to the truth of it. 
But if you don't want to take the chance, or just want to budget and spread payments out, you can pay for the flight early. 

[wyobean]

I was not worried about the price going up but we wanted to pick different seats. Had to be paid to do that so I went ahead and paid a couple months ahead of time. 

[TAD2005]

No one on CC has ever reported a price increase on a Flight Ease booking after it was booked.   

Yes, you can pay for your flights at anytime up to final payment date.

On most US domestic flight bookings, you can immediately select your seats, or you can use the airline record locator provided by Flight Ease to go onto the airline's website and select your seats there.   The only time I could not select my seats when I booked was when a connecting airline in Europe (Swiss) made me wait until 24 hours before boarding.  

[Hlitner]

I believe that the Flightease prices are essentially locked-in with the exception of taxes which could theoretically change.  One huge problem with prepaying is that it is possible the prices could go down (you could rebook if you hadn't paid) or that there might even be better flights that become available (this happened to us for an upcoming Westy cruise out of Japan).  If you do not force the payment you have until 45 days prior to embarkation to make changes.

 

Hank

[wyobean]

TAD2005....our flight is from Amsterdam-home. We already had seats.  We wanted to upgrade. Couldn’t do it until the flight was paid for.

[willow949]

On 1/11/2020 at 3:42 PM, wyobean said:

I was not worried about the price going up but we wanted to pick different seats. Had to be paid to do that so I went ahead and paid a couple months ahead of time. 

We do the same thing and pay early so we can pick our seats or upgrade. You can’t get seats until air is paid and I want to know well in advance!

[TriumphGuy]

1 hour ago, willow949 said:

We do the same thing and pay early so we can pick our seats or upgrade. You can’t get seats until air is paid and I want to know well in advance!

I was able to pick seats months before our final payment. Delta and Delta/AirFrance. But we booked Premium Economy. Maybe that makes a difference?

Just made our final payment today for our cruise in April. 

Edited January 13, 2020 by TriumphGuy

[dfish]

I paid ours early this year for June.  My PCC said she has never known of prices going up past what they were when we booked the flights, but the amount of increase they were seeing was making her nervous.  She said there is a disclaimer that the final price can be adjusted on the flexible fare.  Fares have almost doubled since we first booked ours.

[willow949]

I was told if you want seats, you had to prepay your air. That would not be the cruise final payment. Now I’m confused? Can I get seats and upgrade just by booking? Not making payment until cruise final payment time?

[kazu]

39 minutes ago, willow949 said:

I was told if you want seats, you had to prepay your air. That would not be the cruise final payment. Now I’m confused? Can I get seats and upgrade just by booking? Not making payment until cruise final payment time?

 

Many airlines want your ticket paid to upgrade you and a number just to choose seats.

 

Booking is not the same as paying.  It’s not like when you book on an airline website.  When you book there you pay.  With HAL you have your flight but they don’t ticket you until you have paid.

 

You can either pay at final payment time and wait to choose seats and try to upgrade or you can just pay the air portion and wait to pay the cruise portion at final payment.

 

Hope this makes sense?

[Taters]

A related question: How are we able to check for new pricing once we have a Flexible fare on the books?  I have a pair of United flights chosen (SCL-IAH-LAX) for next November.  When I go to Manage Flights, I have options to cancel, ticket, etc., but nothing else.  How can I search fares for the same dates without cancelling the reservations I already have?

 

TIA

[TAD2005]

We needed a one-way from TPA to Amsterdam Schiphol on Sep 29, 2020.   We had to wait until Dec 7, 2019 for the fares to open up for booking, 330 days out.   We booked a Delta flight, non-stop, and we were immediately given the opportunity to select our seats and we got the Delta record locator.   About 10 days after booking in regular economy, we decided we wanted business class.   We went back into Flight Ease, cancelled the economy booking and booked the same flight in business.   Immediately, we were directed to select our seats, which we did.   Since that booking, the cost of the flight on Flight Ease has gone up by $160 per person.  Our price remained the same.

We also used Flight Ease for a one-way from TPA to Venice.   We booked 8 months out on British Airways TPA to LGW, then LGW to VCE.   All on BA.  We were able to immediately book our seats and received a BA record locator.

 

[RocketMan275]

2 hours ago, kazu said:

 

Many airlines want your ticket paid to upgrade you and a number just to choose seats.

 

Booking is not the same as paying.  It’s not like when you book on an airline website.  When you book there you pay.  With HAL you have your flight but they don’t ticket you until you have paid.

 

You can either pay at final payment time and wait to choose seats and try to upgrade or you can just pay the air portion and wait to pay the cruise portion at final payment.

 

Hope this makes sense?

I was able to make seat selection well before final payment.

[kazu]

30 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

I was able to make seat selection well before final payment.

 

I have been able to on certain flights too.  But on others, unless it was ticketed, I couldn’t select or upgrade.

 

What we have been able to do doesn’t mean it is do-able in all cases.

 

Just trying to help with the question.

[wyobean]

It depends on the airline. Some allow it, some don’t.

[Rickytop]

On 1/15/2020 at 3:24 PM, Taters said:

A related question: How are we able to check for new pricing once we have a Flexible fare on the books?  I have a pair of United flights chosen (SCL-IAH-LAX) for next November.  When I go to Manage Flights, I have options to cancel, ticket, etc., but nothing else.  How can I search fares for the same dates without cancelling the reservations I already have?

 

TIA

We have booked flights for upcoming cruise in Sept. through Flight Ease and have changed our flight once already to a lower fare. Go to Manage Flights, and then choose change flight. It then gave us the alternate flight info we were searching for. Don’t know if it matters but I’m using an IPad. Seems to work well for us. Have checked prices many times since we booked in early January.

[DaveOKC]

Somewhat related question - do we get FF mileage credit and if so, how do we put our numbers in?

 

[kazu]

2 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

Somewhat related question - do we get FF mileage credit and if so, how do we put our numbers in?

 

 

I did.  I was able to enter the numbers when I did my booking.  The time my PCC did it for me, she was able to input the FF numbers in.

If not, go to to your airline’s Manage My Booking later and add your FF numbers.  (Of course it has to be an airline for which you have membership).

[DaveOKC]

8 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I did.  I was able to enter the numbers when I did my booking.  The time my PCC did it for me, she was able to input the FF numbers in.

If not, go to to your airline’s Manage My Booking later and add your FF numbers.  (Of course it has to be an airline for which you have membership).

Thanks - again for all your advice!  

Dave

 

[wyobean]

One problem you will have if HAL pays for your flight.....no perks from your cc. Like priority boarding, free checked bag, etc. We found that out the hard way the first time we used flightease. It has been said on here that you can request HAL to use your card to book. Just an FYI....

[Loreto]

I used Flight Ease for the first time for our Antarctica/solar eclipse cruise on the Westerdam in November.  The HAL agent did it for me after I selected what I wanted from the web page.  It was an open jaw  flexible fare that was all that was offered, but I paid immediately for business/first class when the agent said the seats were not guaranteed  if I waited til final payment.  My route/layover requests were very specific and I was very pleased to get what I wanted for thousands less than booking direct.  I am Medallion Elite with Delta, but the American Airlines choice was too good to pass up.  It remains to be seen how much the flight times may change.  The Hal agent said there would be no FF miles (we immediately joined the AA advantage Program.)

 

I hope that we will get lounge access on the International flights, which would sweeten the transaction!

Karen