Flights by Princess - good or bad.

[Hobby3333]

We are using EZ Air this summer to fly to Barcelona.   Round trip with BC to Barcelona and PE home from Rome.   Total airfare for two is $4830.00.  We leave from Shreveport , La.  There are two stops on way to Barcelona and from Rome nonstop to Dallas then to Shreveport.  From what I have been able to research this seems to be a great price.  Time will tell.

[ISABELLA]

3 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Since most airlines are very flexible and allowing flight changes without fees and flight credits, I only use cruise company flights when it is significantly less expensive.  I keep checking until the point where I can no longer change the Cruise Line flights without an additional fee.

 

Make sure you do not just check two one way fares, especially on international flights.  Check the multi city fares.  I notice the most significant savings with T.A. or T.P. flights  and cruises.  One way International flights is where EZ air usually offers a very significant savings.  
I also try to fly a on a Oneworld airlines (preferred AA and non stop or one stop only)..

 

But I also do not believe that EZ Air or other cruise lines, change from your selected flights to save money.  I believe those changes are initially driven from a change that the airline makes.  Working with a third party (EZ air) adds a level of complexity that may add to confusion.

 

if I book directly with AA and they make a significant change (hours or cancel), they book me on another flight that their system thinks is better.  If I do not like the change, I find a flight that I like better, call AA, and they change my flight without any additional cost.

 

If you give us your Cruise ship/date and your originating city, we can show you an example.

 

Good luck.

So many configurations to consider. I have by checking EZair for about a month and not many itineraries are satisfactory with 1stop. 

Our cruise starts in Rome on May 18, finishing in Barcelona June 1. We would like to arrive May 17. We are planning to spend few days in Barcelona, flying home on June 3

We are flying from Orlando FL.

Any input greatly appreciated.

[memoak]

4 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Are you saying that the routing changed after you (she) booked the flight?

This was long time ago like in the 1980’s. Just never trusted Princess air after that. If I am sailing from the west coast we mostly travel by train

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

3 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I’m not sure. We still haven’t booked it, but I’ve been lurking on the Roll Call. I keep checking airfare thinking that if it suddenly skyrockets, I can finally dismiss the possibility of being on the ship but airfare has been really reasonable. DH would be flying from FLL through Houston and Auckland but I would probably go on the United flight from LAX.
 

ETA I have actually booked the hotel in Sydney but it is refundable. 

Excellent!!!!!!!

[PescadoAmarillo]

9 minutes ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Excellent!!!!!!!

😆😆😆

[PescadoAmarillo]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

This was long time ago like in the 1980’s. Just never trusted Princess air after that. If I am sailing from the west coast we mostly travel by train

So not necessarily a condemnation of EZ Air today. Good to know. 

[Hlitner]

I think folks need to accept that booking air, these days, is best done by looking at all your options and weighing pros/cons.  EZAIR can sometimes be wonderful (especially for international Business/First Class) but other times may not offer much of a deal (or the desired flights).  We do agree that if things go wrong with the airlines (i.e. schedule changes or cancellations) EZAIR may prove to be a real negative.  Trying to deal with any third party booking company (like EZAIR) is often a negative when things go bad.  The airlines will often refuse to help, insisting you must deal with EZAIR (or other third party companies) and those other entities may or may not be helpful.  

 

Folks may find it useful to use EZAIR Flex Air bookings as a "holding action" to secure a reservation months in advance.  As the time draws near to actually pay for that EZAIR reservation, it is often wise to again look at other options (such as booking direct with an airline) and cancelling EZAIR.  One also needs to keep themselves up to date on schedule changes (you may find out about changes by watching the airline web sites long before you hear from EZAIR).

 

We often like to use the the term "its a jungle out there" when it comes to dealing with airlines.  Let the consumer beware.  These days, folks who take ownership of their own travel, and act accordingly, are often the ones who are not disappointed.

 

Hank

[cruise4mom]

We have used EZ air a couple of times and had no issues. Their price was always cheaper. 
 

I would suggest researching your own flights and see if there is a couple you like and submit them to EZ air and compare.  We did this for our next cruise and discovered that the cruise air was for economy and roughly $400 more than our chosen flights in Comfort Plus. 

[Steelers36]

12 hours ago, CruiseCrabs said:

We have had two awful experiences with EZ Air (both international) and vowed to never go through it again. Nonstop flights are less of a challenge but flights with connections have been a saga of having to track multiple itinerary changes that were not airline itinerary changes, seat assignments that made no sense, and changes in connecting cities that severely increased the potential for travel delays due to weather. EZ Air was great many years ago but we simply won’t chance it anymore.

<withdrawn - question was answered earlier>

Edited February 2 by Steelers36

[Steelers36]

11 hours ago, memoak said:

We prefer to book our own flights to avoid layovers. Princess once sent my mother from Acapulco to San Francisco via Miami with 2 layovers. Not for me

<I see there is an explanation for this on page 2 and I had responded when seeing post on page 1>

Edited February 2 by Steelers36

[mevs904]

15 hours ago, ISABELLA said:

We will be flying to Rome and coming back from Barcelona. And were considering getting (prem economy  or Business) flights through Princess. Please share your good or bad experiences doing it. Any suggestions or tips for booking flights are greatly appreciated. 

Getting back to your original question, we booked  this same itinerary with EZAir  last summer for our Enchanted Mediterranean cruise.  We flew from JFK and our flights were perfect.  We flew Delta to Rome and American from Barcelona back to JFK.  Both flights were nonstop, left at  convenient times, and were significantly less than if we had booked the flights ourselves.  We also used EZ Air for our Baltic cruise a few years ago and flew round trip out of Newark.  We’re very satisfied with EZ Air for international flights, but we book our own flights domestic travel.

[ISABELLA]

All good advices. Not a lot of good/ convenient itineraries from Orlando.

Might have to look into flying to NY and search for flights from NY. 

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. And we always get travel insurance.

 

[lahlah57]

22 hours ago, CruiseCrabs said:

We have had two awful experiences with EZ Air (both international) and vowed to never go through it again. Nonstop flights are less of a challenge but flights with connections have been a saga of having to track multiple itinerary changes that were not airline itinerary changes, seat assignments that made no sense, and changes in connecting cities that severely increased the potential for travel delays due to weather. EZ Air was great many years ago but we simply won’t chance it anymore.

Yes......we did ez air and chose non stop to forgo connections. Going from ontario ca to seattle is only 2.5 hours so why hassle with connections!? 

Its an Alaska airline flight so all we have to worry about is the doors blasting off mid air! 😅

[DCThunder]

1 hour ago, ISABELLA said:

All good advices. Not a lot of good/ convenient itineraries from Orlando.

Might have to look into flying to NY and search for flights from NY. 

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences. And we always get travel insurance.

 

Why don't you check out Miami or Atlanta?  And frankly I'm surprised that there aren't good flights to MCO from European cities.  Don't Euros want to come see The Mouse?

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

17 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Here is a flight I’ve been watching for a while.  The first pic below is EZ Air pricing; the second is the same flight booked direct through United. EZ Air is about half the price of booking direct.

Darn.  We are going from SFO,........

[PescadoAmarillo]

24 minutes ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Darn.  We are going from SFO,........

I know!  I saw you on the roll call. Plenty of time to catch up on board!

[LACruiser88]

48 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I know!  I saw you on the roll call. Plenty of time to catch up on board!

On the April 10th, Majestic Princess cruise, Sydney to Seattle?  I don't see @AnyMajorCruiseDude on the Roll Call spreadsheet???

[arizonaperson]

On 2/1/2024 at 6:03 AM, ISABELLA said:

We will be flying to Rome and coming back from Barcelona. And were considering getting (prem economy  or Business) flights through Princess. Please share your good or bad experiences doing it. Any suggestions or tips for booking flights are greatly appreciated. 

I have not booked any EZ Air through cruise line….. I would think a con would be that you would not be able to choose seats( which I like to know if I’m sitting by a window or with my traveling partner, etc. -right when I book )when you book the airfare for an international flight in premium economy or business class, until after the cruise is paid for, but I’m not entirely sure on this. Not sure how much control you have over your reservation, as opposed to booking it through the airline direct? That would be my con. 

[DCThunder]

9 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

I have not booked any EZ Air through cruise line….. I would think a con would be that you would not be able to choose seats( which I like to know if I’m sitting by a window or with my traveling partner, etc. -right when I book )when you book the airfare for an international flight in premium economy or business class, until after the cruise is paid for, but I’m not entirely sure on this. Not sure how much control you have over your reservation, as opposed to booking it through the airline direct? That would be my con. 

You are allowed to select seats if the class of service you book allows it.  Once the booking is made, you get a record locator and can go to the airline website and do all the same things you could if booking directly with the airline.  The only difference is the flight isn't ticketed until 30-45 days before departure and you don't have to pay for the flight until final payment for the cruise. is made.  This is, of course, depending on how far in advance you make the flight booking.

[LACruiser88]

10 minutes ago, DCThunder said:

You are allowed to select seats if the class of service you book allows it.  Once the booking is made, you get a record locator and can go to the airline website and do all the same things you could if booking directly with the airline.  The only difference is the flight isn't ticketed until 30-45 days before departure and you don't have to pay for the flight until final payment for the cruise. is made.  This is, of course, depending on how far in advance you make the flight booking.

We have had no issues selecting our international BC seats right after we book via EZair.  As mentioned above, the EZair booking will provide the airlines locator number to use on the airlines web site for seat selection.

[PescadoAmarillo]

42 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

On the April 10th, Majestic Princess cruise, Sydney to Seattle?  I don't see @AnyMajorCruiseDude on the Roll Call spreadsheet???

He posted very early on that he had put a hold on the cruise. Perhaps his plans have changed…but then his post above doesn’t make sense. 🤷‍♂️

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

56 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

On the April 10th, Majestic Princess cruise, Sydney to Seattle?  I don't see @AnyMajorCruiseDude on the Roll Call spreadsheet???

See post 2 on roll call, right after you started it!

[LACruiser88]

8 minutes ago, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

See post 2 on roll call, right after you started it!

Gotcha!  See you onboard! 🙂  

[AnyMajorCruiseDude]

33 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

Gotcha!  See you onboard! 🙂  

We are still on a waitlist for the earlier Grand sailing, for a particular category.  Unlikely we will get anything, so we will just fool around in Sydney for a week.  We fly in March 30.  See you later!

[nymshowdown]

Many have already pointed out that EZAir can offer some great discounts on F/J cabins on international flights. Even better is that they sometimes offer excellent deals on one-way tickets. Almost all airlines "punish" you when booking a one-way international ticket by charging close to the RT price. EZAir doesn't in many cases

 

There have been a few cruises where I was able to find good milage redemptions for one of the flights but not the other. This is where EZAir can come in clutch with the great one-way pricing. Last year I redeemed AA miles for my outbound to FCO, but couldn't find anything decent for the return. Checked EZAir and it was only $800 for Delta One FCO-ATL-MIA