EZAir price increase

[basil92008]

I reserved EZ Air flights for my trip to Alaska this summer on 3/19/22. Each ticket was $682.

 

The original flight was cancelled by United, but Princess failed to update the trip details. So I called them to rebook the flights on 5/9.

 

The agent I spoke to said there was no charge, but requested my credit card number for some nominal fee - I can't remember if it was $1 or $2. 

 

However, I am just now noticing that they actually increased the price of each ticket to $1073 and charged my credit card for the difference. This is a substantial amount of money.

 

What is my best recourse? 

[basil92008]

this is actually a thread I made about it at the time 

 

 

I just talked to a Princess agent who basically said "well of course, if you chose new flights, you would be charged more" So mad.

[basil92008]

Transferred to "resolutions" but they hung up on me after 1.5 hours on hold.

Try to call via TA but their hold time is between 1-1.5 hours.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, basil92008 said:

I reserved EZ Air flights for my trip to Alaska this summer on 3/19/22. Each ticket was $682.

 

The original flight was cancelled by United, but Princess failed to update the trip details. So I called them to rebook the flights on 5/9.

 

The agent I spoke to said there was no charge, but requested my credit card number for some nominal fee - I can't remember if it was $1 or $2. 

 

However, I am just now noticing that they actually increased the price of each ticket to $1073 and charged my credit card for the difference. This is a substantial amount of money.

 

What is my best recourse? 

Since your flight was cancelled by the airline, my understanding is that it is up to EZ-Air to find you new flights.  Of course, you can do it yourself, but when discovering a new booking cost is way up, anyone would want to contact EZ-Air to resolve the problem.  Sounds like you may have got hornswaggled.  I have never heard of a $1 or $2 nominal fee - makes no sense.  I guess you should have pinned the rep down more.  It isn't clear if you were talking to an EZ-Air rep or a regular Princess rep.  If the latter, they did nothing for you that you could not have done yourself.

 

Try calling early in morning when PCL lines open and ask for Customer Relations (you could try for an EZ-Air rep first if you weren't talking to one in the first place, but IDK if they can do anything without escalation).  Note that CR dept won't be open until 9am PT.

 

[nini]

When is your cruise? Have you made final payment? We have found EZAir to be a good deal for international flights,  but NOT domestic.

If final payment has not been made and you are 45 days away from the cruise, there should be no penalty. However, fares change; often on an hourly basis.

[caribill]

4 minutes ago, nini said:

When is your cruise? Have you made final payment? We have found EZAir to be a good deal for international flights,  but NOT domestic.

 

 

As you say, it is usually no better trhan booking directly with an airline for domestic flights.

 

But, EZAir allows repricing up to 45 days before the flight/cruise and there is no charge if Princess cancels the cruise. Booking with the airline does not have these benefits for economy class bookings and a cancelled cruise means no refund for your paid ticket to the airlines.

[nini]

@caribill Yes, as a I stated regarding  the 45 days and domestic fares.

I am well aware of the issue of cancellations, which is why we go through EZAir.

[basil92008]

We are 42 days out now. 

 

I booked the flights at 130 days out. The flights were changed at 76 days out. As stated, I chose EZAir because of the flexibility to cancel if the cruise had cancelled (or we decided not to go). But now really regret the decision. (and I feel REALLY stupid for not noticing until now)

As Steelers stated, and as noted in the message I got when I tried to log into the cancelled flights - "The flight itinerary you are trying to retrieve is not available because of a schedule change. Your flights will be updated shortly or you may search for new flights." Kind of implied that they would change the flights at no charge since the itinerary we had selected was no longer available. And that's also what I was told on the phone by the EZ Air agent I spoke to at the time.

 

Steelers is also correct that I could have rebooked the flights online myself if I had wanted to pay the extra money, that's why I called them in the first place!

 

I mean, if I booked a flight on United/American/Southwest/Delta, and then the flight was cancelled, they are obligated to put my on a different flight at the same price, right?

 

I feel trapped/scammed/hoodwinked/lied to 😞

 

Any tips on how to resolve, would much appreciate it. Will try calling Princess again and try to get customer relations as Steelers said when they open today.

Edited June 12, 2022 by basil92008

[nini]

Princess is closed on Sundays.

[hapster85]

On 6/12/2022 at 5:55 AM, basil92008 said:

We are 42 days out now. 

 

I booked the flights at 130 days out. The flights were changed at 76 days out. As stated, I chose EZAir because of the flexibility to cancel if the cruise had cancelled (or we decided not to go). But now really regret the decision. (and I feel REALLY stupid for not noticing until now)

As Steelers stated, and as noted in the message I got when I tried to log into the cancelled flights - "The flight itinerary you are trying to retrieve is not available because of a schedule change. Your flights will be updated shortly or you may search for new flights." Kind of implied that they would change the flights at no charge since the itinerary we had selected was no longer available. And that's also what I was told on the phone by the EZ Air agent I spoke to at the time.

 

Steelers is also correct that I could have rebooked the flights online myself if I had wanted to pay the extra money, that's why I called them in the first place!

 

I mean, if I booked a flight on United/American/Southwest/Delta, and then the flight was cancelled, they are obligated to put my on a different flight at the same price, right?

 

I feel trapped/scammed/hoodwinked/lied to 😞

 

Any tips on how to resolve, would much appreciate it. Will try calling Princess again and try to get customer relations as Steelers said when they open today.

In all likelihood, the person you talked to on the phone when you rebooked was not an air department employee, even if you chose EZAir on the phone tree. The air department is swamped, so calls are being handled by regular reps, who pretty much just have the same tools available that you do for booking flights yourself. You really have to push to get an actual air department rep. Even then, depending on how far out you are, they still may not transfer you.

 

Unfortunately, you should have just left it alone, until the air department eventually rebooked you. Your original price was guaranteed that way. By calling and asking to book new flights, you were subject to the then current fares, just as if you'd done it yourself on the EZAir site. It is highly unlikely that you will get any refund of the difference at this point, certainly worth trying.

 

We were in the same situation, when American cancelled our return flight back in February. EZAir continued to show the original flight, with the same schedule change message when you clicked on "add or modify flights". American put us on a new flight that was incompatible with the cruise; they actually made multiple changes, each one earlier than the last. Anyway, I was my own worst enemy by checking the EZAir site daily to see if they'd taken care of it. It took 3 months for them to resolve it. Like I said before, they are swamped, and our flight wasn't a priority until closer to departure. We were about 50 days out when EZAir rebooked us on United. No additional fees required.

 

Good luck. 🤞

[suekel]

On 6/12/2022 at 4:55 AM, basil92008 said:

We are 42 days out now. 

 

I booked the flights at 130 days out. The flights were changed at 76 days out. As stated, I chose EZAir because of the flexibility to cancel if the cruise had cancelled (or we decided not to go). But now really regret the decision. (and I feel REALLY stupid for not noticing until now)

As Steelers stated, and as noted in the message I got when I tried to log into the cancelled flights - "The flight itinerary you are trying to retrieve is not available because of a schedule change. Your flights will be updated shortly or you may search for new flights." Kind of implied that they would change the flights at no charge since the itinerary we had selected was no longer available. And that's also what I was told on the phone by the EZ Air agent I spoke to at the time.

 

Steelers is also correct that I could have rebooked the flights online myself if I had wanted to pay the extra money, that's why I called them in the first place!

 

I mean, if I booked a flight on United/American/Southwest/Delta, and then the flight was cancelled, they are obligated to put my on a different flight at the same price, right?

 

I feel trapped/scammed/hoodwinked/lied to 😞

 

Any tips on how to resolve, would much appreciate it. Will try calling Princess again and try to get customer relations as Steelers said when they open today.

I don't know how to solve it but I have the same thing.  My flight was cancelled.  But Delta rebooked me.  Didn't have to go through EZAir at all to rebook.  What airline was it and why didn't they rebook it?

[caribill]

3 minutes ago, suekel said:

I don't know how to solve it but I have the same thing.  My flight was cancelled.  But Delta rebooked me.  Didn't have to go through EZAir at all to rebook. 

 

That is the way it usually works when an airline cancels/changes a flight.

 

It only becomes a Princess problem to solve if the airline that cancelled does not have a suitable alternative and Princess must switch the passenger to a different airline. But even that should not be at an increase in price to the passenger....as long as Princess totally handles it, not the passenger asking Princess to rebook.

[dreaminofcruisin]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

That is the way it usually works when an airline cancels/changes a flight.

 

It only becomes a Princess problem to solve if the airline that cancelled does not have a suitable alternative and Princess must switch the passenger to a different airline. But even that should not be at an increase in price to the passenger....as long as Princess totally handles it, not the passenger asking Princess to rebook.

 

Yup. That's what happened to me. Delta cancelled and booked a new flight, but told me I would miss the connection. It was the last flight out, so nothing Delta had that day. Princess never updated the flight at all to indicate it was gone. I tried calling my CVP who told me to call EZ Air. They told me (at 90 days out), they were dealing with people flying in the next 2 weeks!!! I could wait for them to get to me or rebook myself online. So, it ended up costing me another $300 (Business class-International). I could have waited, but the flights I wanted were filling up and I am not comfortable waiting until 2 weeks out to see if they will get around to me.... 

 

I know that more flights are being cancelled these days, but in the past there was actually timely response from EZ Air (regardless how far out it was), so you wouldn't end up paying more. It's really disappointing that Princess is no longer handling this very well.

 

[basil92008]

Thank you all. It seems like Hapster is most likely correct. The person I spoke to did not seem confident/competent and seemed to struggle with the project of changing the flights (6 people across 2 different reservations). It's just SUCH poor customer service to say that there is no charge, and then charge what amounts to about $2200 on my credit card!!!

 

Caribill - United cancelled the flight. There were other suitable itineraries available, just increased in price from the original. I was promised there was no charge, but then charged $2200 for the change (to another United flight). If I had known of the charge, I obviously would have waited, but I was either lied to or dealt with someone so incompetent that they didn't know what they were charging. If I were dealing with United directly, I assume I would have been rebooked without a charge.

 

I suppose I should have waited for Princess to change it, but I did not know any better. This is my first cruise with Princess and my first time using EZAir. I was nervous that the flights would fill and I would have difficulty getting seats together with my young children. It seemed like calling was the right thing to do at the time, as that's what I would have done if dealing directly with an airline. I would NEVER imagine being told they were charging my credit card $1 but then being charged $2200!

 

I haven't had time to sit on the phone for hours since I posted, I'm not even sure when I can get to it. It's really so much money and it's so upsetting to me. 

Edited June 14, 2022 by basil92008

[basil92008]

I thought I would come back to update this, in case someone was dealing with a similar scenario. 

 

I tried a few more times to get through to someone on the phone but was not successful. I work full time and my kids have a lot of activities and I just don't have hours to spend on the phone on hold. My husband encouraged me to just let it go as the cost of doing business/traveling in these crazy times. 

 

Someone suggested to me that I should contact them through social media. I send PMs on Twitter and Instagram but received no response. 

 

Finally, I posted on their Facebook page, basically a 2 sentence description of what happened. I had never done such a thing before, and was a bit embarrassed when I realized all of my friends could view it. However, I received a reply to send a PM on Twitter or Instagram, which I had already done, but I resent it.

 

Within hours, I received a reply that they would look into it. Later that evening, I received a call from an representative who already understood what had happened and admitted the error. There were some remaining confusion about reservations and card numbers, and he stated he would call me back the next day. He did, in fact, call me back, and process the refund. It is now credited to my original credit card. 

 

I am disappointed that I had to resort to social media shaming in order to access a representative who was trained to deal with such issues. I am disappointed that the first representative had such poor training as to mis-process the change in the first place. But I am glad to have my money back! And looking forward to my cruise.

[GloriaF]

Glad to hear it worked out in the end, and that everyone is happy with the results.  You trued valiantly to reach Princess without using social media to no avail, and you should not feel bad that it took a fb message to get results.  

[dog]

Glad you came back to share.

I ‘ve posted on Instagram and got help before. Through private message.

 

 

[Riley_Mon]

the flight situations are frustrating now. You choose your flight months out, the best flight option for you but there is no guarantee that you will actually get that flight when it comes time to travel.

 

Had direct flights coming and going to Seattle on Delta 9 months out from the cruise date. Ended up with connecting flights thru Atlanta (which I try to avoid in the summer on Delta) on the way out and a red eye thru Detroit on the way back. That doesn't even address the cancellations that happened during the actual flights.

 

Did I pay more for direct flights with Delta? does it matter? do I have any recourse?

 

its all part of the "be thankful you got to where you were going" post pandemic era now. If I wanted to cruise, that was my option.

 

glad to read the OP got some satisfaction from the efforts and noted that social media input could create a response.

 

I think generally they try to do the right thing, but doing the right thing today versus 2 years ago is different animal altogether.

[Cruise Raider]

Something similar happened to me earlier this year.  I had found a smoking deal on EZ air for a flight from SFO to LAX.  I believe it was like $16 pp each way.  Unheard of, right?  
Anyway, one of the flights was rescheduled for a time that didn’t fit into the EZ Air timeline.  They could have placed me onto a different flight that worked for me but, of course, it would have gone up exponentially if I did it.  So, they just canceled the flight.  
I had a great travel agent that had them change it to the schedule that worked and they had to honor the original pricing.  A good TA can work wonders.