Be Aware: Continuing Airline Reservation Issues

[Kamfish642]

July 10, 2022, 14-Day Best of Norway cruise on MS Rotterdam VII

 

In late April 2022, my Travel Agent contacted me after noticing that my flights reservations had unknowingly been cancelled.  She contacted the HAL Flight Bookings and had same flights rebooked, but HAL representative was not able to provide an explanation on how this occurred.

 

Jumping ahead to late May 2022, I was unable to select seats on the Lufthansa flights identified on the HAL website for my cruise.  I contacted a HAL Representative via telephone and was told that I would need to contact Lufthansa directly and likely pay a fee for advance seat selection.  I then called Lufthansa and was told that they could not assign or have my seats paid for since "Ticket has not been issued," even though electronic ticket numbers were listed on their website.  Lufthansa representative indicated that I would need to contact HAL to resolve.

 

After both my Travel Agent and I contacted HAL multiple times, we were either transferred to or instructed to call the HAL Flight Bookings.  On numerous times, we were both simply placed on hold and after 4 hours disconnected.  This is no way to run a cruise line or customer service in general, and as such, I have filed a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

 

In further discussions with my Travel Agent, she believed that the e-Ticket numbers listed on the Lufthansa website indicated that HAL purchased flights through Delta Airlines.  So as my last resort I contact Delta Airlines.  The Delta representative informed me that information available to her showed that flights had been refunded to HAL but it was unclear to her the reason why tickets were refunded.  However, she informed me that our only recourse was to contact HAL to resolve.  How can this be resolved when every time we call HAL Flight Bookings, we are placed on hold for 4 hours and disconnected!!!

 

Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated!

[Mary229]

I understand flight ease has issues many which are due to the airlines themselves but this needs to be fixed.  I am sorry you are having this issue.  If you call Flight Ease the moment they open you will get through.  Look on the website for their hours which are posted in Pacific time

[groundloop]

 

I've just decided that I'm never going to even begin to think about booking a flight through a cruise line.  What a damned mess, they certainly need to treat customers better than this.

 

 

[Mary229]

2 minutes ago, groundloop said:

 

I've just decided that I'm never going to even begin to think about booking a flight through a cruise line.  What a damned mess, they certainly need to treat customers better than this.

 

 

The airlines are not much better right now with frequent changes and difficult to reach a customer service representative.  I think HAL should consider limiting this service as it is causing a lot of bad feelings 

[groundloop]

4 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

The airlines are not much better right now......

 

 

Well, so far (knock on wood) we're not experiencing any such issues (but that's only for domestic US flights).

[rkacruiser]

2 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

The airlines are not much better right now with frequent changes and difficult to reach a customer service representative.  I think HAL should consider limiting this service as it is causing a lot of bad feelings 

 

How would you "limit" this service?

 

There could be unintended consequences of doing this.  One of which could be the elimination of the opportunity of obtaining better one way international fares in Business Class that a guest would be unable to obtain on their own.  That would also cause "bad feelings" among some of us.  

[Kamfish642]

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

I understand flight ease has issues many which are due to the airlines themselves but this needs to be fixed.  I am sor Trary you are having this issue.  If you call Flight Ease the moment they open you will get through.  Look on the website for their hours which are posted in Pacific time

I wish that it was that easy.  Both TA and I have contact as soon as they open.  We were transferred to the Travel Service Department, placed on endless hold, and disconnected at 4 hours.

 

Looks on BBB site and multiple concerns reported.  We have filed a formal complaint with the BBB.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Kamfish642
Additional text added.

[Mary229]

1 minute ago, rkacruiser said:

 

How would you "limit" this service?

 

There could be unintended consequences of doing this.  One of which could be the elimination of the opportunity of obtaining better one way international fares in Business Class that a guest would be unable to obtain on their own.  That would also cause "bad feelings" among some of us.  

I don’t know but it has become the big issue.  Last months failure to pay tickets only made it worse. I would hate to lose flight ease.  As I said in another thread on this topic when Chase went from an independent contractor, like flight ease, over to Expedia all of the good deals vanished 

[rkacruiser]

9 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I would hate to lose flight ease.

 

I am pleased to read this.  We are on the same page.  As unsettled as the air situation is currently, it may be best to leave things as they are for now and let the airlines get their act together.  Reports from European fliers mirror some of the same issues that those who fly domestically.  

 

January 1, 2020:  how many of us thought on the day that began a new decade that a microscopic virus would cause such a disruption in our lives?  

[Kamfish642]

Update: Last night after 4 1/2 hours on hold with HAL Travel Services, the HAL representative confirmed that tickets had been cancelled and refunded to HAL due to a flight change, which appeared to be only the departure and arrival time on existing flight from JFK to MIA on Delta.  According to Delta representative, refund was requested by HAL, but HAL representative could not provide a reason other than verifying that tickets were cancelled and refunded due to flight change.  Question is would HAL have identified this and resolved prior to my departure?

 

On the positive side, the HAL representative re-issued ticket request to Delta.  Delta representative was contacted Delta by my TA this morning and verified that e-tickets had been issued.  Delta representative looked at Lufthansa website and verified that flights from MIA-FRA and FRA-AMS on Lufthansa had been confirmed and e-ticket numbers listed on their website.  However, I subsequently contacted Lufthansa to pay in advance for seat assignments and was told that tickets still had not been issued.  So I read off the e-ticket numbers on their site, and see put me on hold.  She came back on the phone and told me that she could not help me until Delta ticketed return flights on Delta/KLM.  I informed her that we had just spoken to Delta and have seat assignments.  She again placed me on hold and when she came back, she simply told me that someone would call me within 36 hours regarding payment.  When I asked whether or not this referred to ticket payment or seat assignment, their was mumbling for a moment without a clear answer.  So here I am waiting for a call from Lufthansa in the next 36 hours.  I tried to call Hall Travel Services again using the direct phone number provided by HAL Booking, and which I used last night, but all I got was a pre-recorded message stating "line is not in service."

 

I'm going to wait until 2 weeks before cruise and if issue is not resolved with Lufthansa, either by HAL or Delta, I'm just going to cancel cruise rather that simply travel to MIA and show up at airport hoping I have a flight.

[jeh10641]

I was thinking of using RCI's flight program next year for Sothampton to Bayonne cruise. Now, I am having second thoughts.

 

Jim

[kazu]

I didn’t use Flight Ease but booked my flights with my airline (using points).

 

And, I can tell you things are a mess.  I have had flight changes that were not even do-able and had to call several times to change them again.  Believe me, hold times for the airlines is not short 😱. All airlines are in a mess right now.  Travel is up and they don’t have the staff IMO.  Not sure why they offer the flights if they can’t fulfill them, but it is what it is.

 

All the blame doesn’t go on Flight Ease.  I think they are in the same boat as the airlines - short staffed.  Companies let people go and big surprise, not everyone wants to come back.

[Unlvswezel]

Yes, I’ve had similar issues. If it’s one lesson I’ve learned is that having a TA book flights through Flight Ease is a recipe for added hours of time on hold. There is simply no ease in dealing with HAL. 

[dfish]

My PCC was able to untangle reservations for me.  I am so thankful to her!

[eagletwo]

Holland air is a real disappointment. 

[rodndonna]

18 hours ago, kazu said:

All the blame doesn’t go on Flight Ease.  I think they are in the same boat as the airlines - short staffed.  Companies let people go and big surprise, not everyone wants to come back.

 

I think you are spot on.

 

We have bookings with Flightease and got an email last week stating something along the lines that as the call in wait times and response time is long, if you are travelling within 7 days and there us a change, you can cancel and rebook yourself (direct with airlines or whatever) and they waive the cancellation charge. Basically, "there is no easy way right now, if you can do better yourself - go for it!"   🙂

 

Found the  statement we received - 

 

""Thank you for purchasing your flights through Holland America Line's Flight Ease air. Due to an unprecedented number of airline schedule changes and cancellations, our team is currently managing an extremely high call volume with long hold times. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

We are working on changes in travel date order, and appreciate your patience. We respectfully ask that guests and travel advisors only call if your flight is
in the next seven days.

If your flights have changed and you would prefer to rebook your flights yourself, you may cancel your flight through the Flight Ease tool and we will waive any cancel fees so you may rebook through Flight Ease or purchase independent air.""

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by rodndonna
more info

[Kamfish642]

Finally, I was connected with a Lufthansa representative who could at least confirm we had seats somewhere on plane, but he could not process payment of specific seat selections in advance due to an error in Lufthansa system for booking.  According to Lufthansa representation, the confusion appears to be the result of HAL setting up separate Airline COLs for Lufthansa flights MIA-FRA-AMS and Delta AMS-JFK-MIA, but having electronic tickets issued by Delta to Lufthansa. 

 

My concern is that initially HAL, Lufthansa and Delta websites all showed confirmed; yet, when I inquired when I could not pay for assigned seats on Lufthansa, Delta identified that flights had been cancelled and refund provided at HAL's request due to a flight change in arrival time only.  Wonder what would have happened if I had not pushed this issue and simply showed up at airport.

 

This was the first time we have every booked flights through cruiseline.  Right now, I will be assigned seats from MIA-AMS upon check-in for Lufthansa flights.  After all this we will be happy to get middle seats on wide-body aircraft, so long as we get to AMS.

[KiwiGal117]

22 hours ago, jeh10641 said:

I was thinking of using RCI's flight program next year for Sothampton to Bayonne cruise. Now, I am having second thoughts.

 

Jim

I was just over on the RCI boards, and they don't seem to be having the same issues.  Or at least there doesn't seem to be reports of issues in the first few pages of the boards.

[Hlitner]

Those who have not been traveling/flying have little idea of the huge mess involving everything air!  It is not just Flightease or any other cruise air program but simply chaos in both the US and Europe at airports, with the airlines, etc.   Even booking flights that get you to a cruise port 1 or 2 days early is no longer a guarantee.   This is an era where it makes sense to drive hours to get non-stop flights and allow a lot more time at airports than is the norm.  Even arriving 3 hours before a flight may not be early enough in some airports.  The Points Guy recently talked about 6 hour security lines at Schipol, which traditionally has been one of the better airports in Europe.  We somehow managed to fly from Nice-Amsterdam-Prague with only a couple of hours of delay (and we were the lucky ones).  Getting home (USA) from Europe was a challenge (3 cancelled flights, change in airlines, change in airports, etc).

 

I could point the finger at Flightease (we used the Seabourn air which are the same folks) but the truth is that they are also wrestling with the constant airline mess of cancelled/delayed flights.  For folks that normally depend on others to make their arrangements, handle transfers, etc. the situation is a complete nightmare.  For those of us used to independent travel and always thinking "Plan B, C, etc" it is also a nightmare although we can often work through issues.  

 

But my message to fellow cruisers is what some others have said which is you need to carefully monitor all of your travel arrangements and be thinking about alternatives (Plan B).  If you expect to get help from the cruise lines or even airlines.....good luck.  You are more likely to find yourself dealing with hours on the phone (mostly in hold).   One vital travel item is a working Smartphone!  Those who have and use the apps on phones can sometimes bypass the impossible hold times.  While others are on hold you can be making alternative arrangements and perhaps snagging that last seat or room.  I should add that those who have Smartphones and do not have service at their destinations (such as Europe) need to rethink their strategy.  While it is sometimes OK to rely on available WiFi, there are times when WiFi is hardly working and having cell service is a lifesaver.

 

Probably the most depressing part of this cruise/travel game is it is likely to get worse!  Staffing shortages seem to be increasing, pilot shortages are going to be the norm for several years, and cruise lines are no longer reliable (in terms of maintaining schedules, excursions, etc).  When we were recently chatting with some fellow travelers at our Prague hotel a lady said she already missed the "good ole days of travel."  She got that right!

 

Hank

 

Hank

[Btimmer]

We flew home from Munich last week and it took us 3 hours to reach our gate before waiting on the plane for another hour and 45 minutes for a weather related ground hold.  The Munich airport was total chaos with long queues for virtually every activity.

[Hlitner]

44 minutes ago, Btimmer said:

We flew home from Munich last week and it took us 3 hours to reach our gate before waiting on the plane for another hour and 45 minutes for a weather related ground hold.  The Munich airport was total chaos with long queues for virtually every activity.

WOW!  We flew through Munich on May 16, and I guess we beat the real mess.  We flew in from Prague (nearly on time) and changed to a Lufthansa flight to Newark.  That flight left about 40 min late but still reached Newark on schedule.  But the writing was on the wall in terms of the busy summer season.  For us, this summer is a rare rest from International travel because we are waiting for a Passport renewal.  In retrospect I am happy we do not have to get back into travel mode until October.  Many folks have been sitting at home for two years and have decided to more around this summer...and now they are likely to be slammed by a horrendous airline/airport situation.   We recently read an interesting article how Heathrow is in big trouble because of staffing shortages.  That same article said that most airline clerks at Heathrow can actually make more money working in UK Supermarkets.  The travel world will need to adjust and this is only going to increase the cost of all travel.

 

Hank

[Btimmer]

5 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

WOW!  We flew through Munich on May 16, and I guess we beat the real mess.  We flew in from Prague (nearly on time) and changed to a Lufthansa flight to Newark.  That flight left about 40 min late but still reached Newark on schedule.  But the writing was on the wall in terms of the busy summer season.  For us, this summer is a rare rest from International travel because we are waiting for a Passport renewal.  In retrospect I am happy we do not have to get back into travel mode until October.  Many folks have been sitting at home for two years and have decided to more around this summer...and now they are likely to be slammed by a horrendous airline/airport situation.   We recently read an interesting article how Heathrow is in big trouble because of staffing shortages.  That same article said that most airline clerks at Heathrow can actually make more money working in UK Supermarkets.  The travel world will need to adjust and this is only going to increase the cost of all travel.

 

Hank

We, too, were booked on a Lufthansa flight only to Chicago.  We waited 1/2 hour to check in at a kiosk as the online check in wouldn't work.  I spent another half hour entering data as our passports wouldn't scan and the machine timed out on me erasing all of the data entry.  So we joined the customer service line for another 45 minute wait as there were only 2 agents serving all of the problem cases.  Got gate passes and then waited another 20 minutes to go through security where both of us got a full pat down.  It was 15 minutes to get to a tram to take us to our gate.  Waited there 10 minutes.  At passport control, my wife's passport scanned but mine wouldn't so another 1/2 hour in the queue.  10 minute walk to the COVID letter check line.  20 minutes in line there.  Finally reached the gate and about a 10-15 minute wait to go to a holding area for our bus to the plane on the tarmac.  Another 10-15 minute wait there.  Packed into the bus and rode out to the A-350 and climbed the rear stairs as we had seats in the back.  Seated comfortably when the pilot came on and apologized for the now one hour ground stop for weather.  At the end of the hour, he announced a further hold which turned out to be 45 minutes.  Fortunately they passed out water as it was really needed. 

 

We had a terrific flight and Global Entry worked like a charm getting us through immigration in Chicago in minutes.  Then it was a 1/2 walk to our domestic gate for a flight home to Seattle.  Waited there about an hour and departed close to schedule but arrived early in Seattle.

 

I agree that there seems to be a total shortage of workers.  We have an upcoming land/sea HAL trip on 6/28 (land first), and we're a bit concerned it might be cancelled.  If so, we'll cancel the entire trip.

[Caribbean Chris]

10 hours ago, Btimmer said:

We, too, were booked on a Lufthansa flight only to Chicago.  We waited 1/2 hour to check in at a kiosk as the online check in wouldn't work.  I spent another half hour entering data as our passports wouldn't scan and the machine timed out on me erasing all of the data entry.  So we joined the customer service line for another 45 minute wait as there were only 2 agents serving all of the problem cases.  Got gate passes and then waited another 20 minutes to go through security where both of us got a full pat down.  It was 15 minutes to get to a tram to take us to our gate.  Waited there 10 minutes.  At passport control, my wife's passport scanned but mine wouldn't so another 1/2 hour in the queue.  10 minute walk to the COVID letter check line.  20 minutes in line there.  Finally reached the gate and about a 10-15 minute wait to go to a holding area for our bus to the plane on the tarmac.  Another 10-15 minute wait there.  Packed into the bus and rode out to the A-350 and climbed the rear stairs as we had seats in the back.  Seated comfortably when the pilot came on and apologized for the now one hour ground stop for weather.  At the end of the hour, he announced a further hold which turned out to be 45 minutes.  Fortunately they passed out water as it was really needed. 

 

We had a terrific flight and Global Entry worked like a charm getting us through immigration in Chicago in minutes.  Then it was a 1/2 walk to our domestic gate for a flight home to Seattle.  Waited there about an hour and departed close to schedule but arrived early in Seattle.

 

I agree that there seems to be a total shortage of workers.  We have an upcoming land/sea HAL trip on 6/28 (land first), and we're a bit concerned it might be cancelled.  If so, we'll cancel the entire trip.

 

Yikes, what a mess!
 

Reading this thread and others recently about FlightEase issues has been making me nervous about our flight to Quebec City via Philadelphia (3+ hour layover) this fall. Even though it’s not nearly as complex as others’ itinerary situations, I travel with a Labrador service dog, always an added complication.

 

I didn’t know until reading on Cruise Critic that it’s possible to request early ticketing online…we had already made final payment early (mostly with FCC). Yesterday I went into my account and clicked “early ticketing,” and almost immediately the Passenger Name Record on American showed our status as “ticketed.” The FlightEase record now shows e-doc numbers. No phone calls involved, thankfully. The seat numbers we requested from Day 1 are in place.
 

I’m a little less anxious now. Thank you to all who have posted about this mess, and my fingers are crossed for everyone flying this summer. No guarantees, of course, that our flights won’t end up cancelled.  Hopefully the summer airline crush will ease after Labor Day. As always, I’ll have a Plan B, will check the PNR periodically, and will get to the airport very early.

[terrydtx]

4 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

I didn’t know until reading on Cruise Critic that it’s possible to request early ticketing online…we had already made final payment early (mostly with FCC). Yesterday I went into my account and clicked “early ticketing,” and almost immediately the Passenger Name Record on American showed our status as “ticketed.” The FlightEase record now shows e-doc numbers. No phone calls involved, thankfully. The seat numbers we requested from Day 1 are in place.

I wish we had the option to request early ticketing on our booked FE flights.

 

We are very worried about our flights booked with FE for our business class tickets departing from SAT to Rome on August 2nd returning from Venice on Sept 5th for our August 21 Oosterdam cruise. This cruise had an itinerary change in April for the departing port being moved from Venice to Trieste on Sept 21. HAL immediately froze all FE reservations in the system to allow them time to make any needed changes for air flights to accommodate the change to Trieste. It has been impossible to pull up our flights in FE since this happened. We do not need any changes since we are flying to Rome 18 days before our Oosterdam cruise departs and our flights home are the day after we disembark the cruise. We made our final payments to HAL last week and after a long wait on hold with FE, we were told that HAL and FE: will not pay for our airfare until 30 days from the cruise departure which is only 12 days before our air departure to Rome. I tried explaining this to the FE agent and she said no way they pay any earlier than 30 days out. She said if I do not like this, we could cancel our flights and book direct with the airline. I have to admit the fares we booked on FE were $2000pp less than what we could book this late ourselves direct. Since we cannot pull up our flights online in FE we could not request immediate ticketing, I brought this up with the FE agent and she said for our cruise no FE flights are being paid more than 30 days out from departure regardless of requests to do so. Our biggest fear after reading about the above horror stories, is that United and Delta will not wait until 12 days our from our departure and cancel our flights, which are almost sold out for business class.

[Torquer]

@terrydtx Try the technique I show in the referenced post (comment #56) for getting into FlightEase to manage your flights:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2856034-more-flight-ease-drama/?do=findComment&comment=63359158