My first EZAir experience

[barante]

Just booked nonstop EZAIr business class tickets from IAD to LHR, the two of us totaling $2,035, an unbeatable fare. We got ticketed by codeshared American Airlines, which was a few dollars cheaper than British Airways, which operates the flight. Go figure! 

 

Another strange thing: I would have preferred to fly from my hometown BWI, but those business class seats were more than double the price.

[atchisog]

I booked a British Air flight through American code share a few months ago. Be careful of British Air. In order to reserve a seat (even in business) you must pay hundreds of dollars, but before that, you have to pay the full EZ air price before they will assign seats! So if you cancel, you loose the seat cost. American was useless in the whole process. I will personally NEVER fly BA again. On the other hand, if you book United or United partners, you can get

assigned seats on your United account website at NO cost.

[barante]

Good to know. Can you elaborate about the "hundreds of dollars" for reserving assigned seatst. If so, this surely is a matter I want to take up with Princess.

 

As to United, it's not an option due to the unavailability of nonstop service.

[jwattle]

We have never had that issue with British Air; when we booked Business Class through EZ Air, I went back into my personalizer and chose my seats, easy breezy, no extra money, no worries; when the cruise cancelled, all monies refunded.

[atchisog]

This was a flight from CPH to LHR, then LHR to PHX non-stop. Both aircraft were BA. I booked the seats on Easy Air at time of reservation. I was an engineer and always double check everything. I went on the American site and sure enough the seats I selected were on the reservation, I thought this is great. I then went to the BA site and the seats were NOT assigned. I called American first and after and hour and half wait, they said there is nothing they could do (so much for code share). I then called BA. In a very british accent, they gentleman said I had the pay now for the seats before I could select a seat prior to the stated 24 hours before the flight (24 hours before the flight I would be running around Copenhagen!). So I paid the for the tickets. Now that I could reserve the seats on the BA site, I discovered they would cost a total of $352 for both flights for my wife and I. I was not smart enough to ask the BA person the first time whether there was a charge for business class seats. I should have cancelled if I had known all of this. I have reserved seats ahead of time on SAS, SWISS, Lufthansa, and others and had no problems. 

[kiwimum]

Never had problems reserving seats in Business on BA when booking a BA flight.   When I selected the AA flight operated by BA it would not allow seat selection.

Another possible  quirk is what system you are using.   I could not select seats on my IPhone but when I switched to the Mac, no problems.   
 

[atchisog]

To jwattle, there are new policies. When did you last book?

[brucedodge]

Seems strange to me.  We've booked BA business class via EZ Air a number of times, but never via code share.  And we've always chosen seats with no cost involved.

 

As a matter of fact we have a BA flight from LHR to Phoenix booked for September (after Norway cruise), and we chose some delightful business class seats right on the EZ Air portion of the Princess web site.

 

Perhaps using code share is the issue.  Don't know, but you might try redoing the booking specifying BA as the airline, assuming you want to fly BA.

[Steelers36]

I have two things to say:

 

1.  I have never heard of a major airline charging for seat selection when one has purchased a Business Class ticket.

 

2.  Unless the price difference is HUGE and I have no other options, I would ALWAYS book with the operating airline and never choose a partner codeshare.  There are a lot of situations that might occur where life will be a lot easier dealing with the actual carrier and not a codeshare partner. 

 

[Mike07]

To me, the true test of EZair, or any cruise line airfare booking, is when a flight is cancelled/delayed and how the cruise line comes through in the critical moment.  Though, much like insurance, we hope to never go down that route.

 

[jwattle]

3 hours ago, atchisog said:

To jwattle, there are new policies. When did you last book?

May, 2020 but it wasn't codeshare airline.

[zdcatc12]

6 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

I have two things to say:

 

1.  I have never heard of a major airline charging for seat selection when one has purchased a Business Class ticket.

 

It appears Speedbird does!!! From their website: 

Business class

• Seats on our European short haul flights in Club Europe start from £20/€24/$30.
• On longer international flights, seats in Club World start from £55/€66/$83.

[Steelers36]

47 minutes ago, zdcatc12 said:

It appears Speedbird does!!! From their website: 

Business class

• Seats on our European short haul flights in Club Europe start from £20/€24/$30.
• On longer international flights, seats in Club World start from £55/€66/$83.

LOL - as usual, there is an exception to every rule.  I will likely never fly them unless I have to.  Business Class costs enough already and only doing it sometimes and when cheaper with EZ-Air.  I hope other majors do not copy this practice.

 

ETA:  Seems to be allowed on at least some flights on EZ-Air.  Or, it becomes a reason to book the partner (AA) instead of the actual carrier in order to dodge BA's terrible policy.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Steelers36

[cruisequeen4ever]

That’s awesome! Hope you get free seat selection!

[nini]

Through EZAir, we have chosen our seats with both American and BA; Premium Economy.

[nho9504]

BA charges seat assignment fee on business class unless you are Oneworld Emerald elite.  This has been in place for many years and a constant sore point for AA flyers who are below Emerald (AA EXP or Exec Platinum).   We flew BA a lot with AA award tickets,  Because we are lowly AA Gold or OW Ruby only we can only choose seats once the 24 hrs before dept window is open.

 

That said, BA business class seats are mediocre comparing to other OW members, even AA’s 777-300,  unless you are flying into LHR and BA is the only one has direct flight, I would look for other airlines instead.