Flight Ease and United 737 max

[pmjnh]

 We booked air to NZ for an upcoming cruise via flight ease. Final payment has come and gone. We are booked on a United flight to LAX from the east coast on one of the Boeing Max that has been grounded by the FAA. Our flight is not til March. I read on another social media site of some people having issues with United assisting passengers with other flights. Has anyone had any recent issues with Flight Ease assisting passengers with these cancelled flights that are specific to the Boeing Max issue?

[GeezerCouple]

23 minutes ago, pmjnh said:

 We booked air to NZ for an upcoming cruise via flight ease. Final payment has come and gone. We are booked on a United flight to LAX from the east coast on one of the Boeing Max that has been grounded by the FAA. Our flight is not til March. I read on another social media site of some people having issues with United assisting passengers with other flights. Has anyone had any recent issues with Flight Ease assisting passengers with these cancelled flights that are specific to the Boeing Max issue?

 

It looks like you are taking a cruise very similar to our last one.  We also waited out the "plague" (we're older, more at risk, etc.).

Anyway, it was our first HAL cruise.  We were also on the Noordam in Dec, 2019, Auckland to Sydney, and we LOVED it.

 

What is your timing like in terms of when you plan to arrive in NZ and when you actually sail?

We always allow extra time in case of flight delays, etc., and especially so when it's a distant port *and* with connections.  The Boeing Max situation would make us especially cautious with scheduling.

That is, how many flights are there from LAX to NZ each day?  It's not like changing a flight early in the day, when there are 3 others later in the day.

And not booking directly through the airline introduces another complication.

 

We always make our own air reservations, and for any overseas flights, we always use awards.

We always arrive well in advance, leaving us a nice buffer IF needed, plua giving us time to recover from jetlag if necessary, before boarding the ship. We also often spend a few extra days before and after the cruise, if it's a port we've never been to yet.

 

Is it too late to change air reservations?  Perhaps at least add an extra day prior to the cruise if you haven't already?

 

That was one of our favorite cruises.  We book private excursions, and we gave ourselves several wonderful opportunities with those wonderfully different animals in the area.

 

Enjoy!

 

GC

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, pmjnh said:

 We booked air to NZ for an upcoming cruise via flight ease. Final payment has come and gone. We are booked on a United flight to LAX from the east coast on one of the Boeing Max that has been grounded by the FAA. Our flight is not til March. I read on another social media site of some people having issues with United assisting passengers with other flights. Has anyone had any recent issues with Flight Ease assisting passengers with these cancelled flights that are specific to the Boeing Max issue?

Has your flight actually been cancelled?  Once cancelled you should be able to go to the United website and select a new flight.  Flight Ease will assist but not until the flight is cancelled.   

[Real NHDOC]

1 hour ago, pmjnh said:

 We booked air to NZ for an upcoming cruise via flight ease. Final payment has come and gone. We are booked on a United flight to LAX from the east coast on one of the Boeing Max that has been grounded by the FAA. Our flight is not til March. I read on another social media site of some people having issues with United assisting passengers with other flights. Has anyone had any recent issues with Flight Ease assisting passengers with these cancelled flights that are specific to the Boeing Max issue?

Until United changes the flight schedule Flight Ease probably won’t do anything. If I were you I would just keep monitoring the status and schedule of the flight and if it changes then contact Flight Ease and they can make any necessary changes. 

[pmjnh]

@GeezerCouple  we generally do book our own but HALs rates were better this time.  We are scheduled to arrive in Auckland 2 full days prior to cruise departure, so we have a little bit of a buffer, thankfully.

it is our first time in this part of the world and we are very excited. Bucket list!

 

@NHDOC , thanks, yes, we will definitely be  monitoring this situation.

 

@Mary229  no, the flight has not been cancelled yet.

 

thanks, all!

[3rdGenCunarder]

1 hour ago, Real NHDOC said:

Until United changes the flight schedule Flight Ease probably won’t do anything. If I were you I would just keep monitoring the status and schedule of the flight and if it changes then contact Flight Ease and they can make any necessary changes. 

 

Yes, haunt United's website. They are sloppy about letting people know about changes. Maybe they're better working with a cruise line. But don't trust them to keep you informed. Even for people not on a Max, it's good to keep checking. Airlines may have to do some shuffling if the Max planes don't come back online when they're needed.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

The grounding only affects the Max-9 variant, and it is uncertain how long it will last.  United most likely will not make any schedule adjustments related to the Max-9 fleet until within 2 weeks of your scheduled flight.  In the airline world March is a long, long,  LONG way off and you could have multiple routine schedule/equipment changes between now and then totally unrelated to the Max-9 grounding.

[ModMs]

We are on an Alaska Max 9 flight in April. I did call the Flight Ease people and they did tell me to wait and see what the airline does with the aircraft and any schedule changes. I was told they do wait until the flight is actually cancelled before working on alternate flights. - Debbie

[Hlitner]

This news might answer some questions:

Boeing 737 Max 9s: FAA approves a path for grounded planes to return to operations | CNN Business

 

Hank