Princess EZAir - SO FRUSTRATED

[cr8tiv1]

56 minutes ago, Incredimom said:

 

Honestly I don't know what happened. I thought it must have been because I did the seat selection but I guess not. I probably accidentally pushed the eticket button or something. I know its my mistake and I'm paying for it - I am usually really good with technology, but I was not careful this time and something happened. We obviously don't fly much so it was definitely not something I was aware of. Life is about learning and I guess this is one of those things that I have learned about that I will be much more careful about next time! But hey I get to go on my first cruise, so I really don't have anything to complain about. We will just have to go to Vancouver on another trip or something. 🙂 Thank you all!

 

As far as I know, it is nothing that you did.  There are no buttons to "push".  You have to call them to ticket your air.

 

Don't bother with Princess 800.  Deal directly with EZ Air.  Has your credit card been charged?  Payment isn't charged separately than cruise fare payment.  When was your final payment due?  It should include EZ Air and cruise fare.  

 

Regardless, unless you purchased a restricted air fare, you have until 45 days out to make changes WITHOUT penalty.  Making any changes may increase your fare the closer you get to D-Day.  If you are willing to pay the fare increase, there should not be any penalties to make changes.  Only pay the fare difference.  

 

BTW...you have a very healthy attitude.  Enjoy your Alaskan adventure.  

Edited March 11 by cr8tiv1

[Paula_MacFan]

9 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 There are no buttons to "push".  You have to call them to ticket your air.

 

My Personalizer airfare options have a button to request early ticketing.

 

[dickinson]

11 hours ago, Incredimom said:

 

Honestly I don't know what happened. I thought it must have been because I did the seat selection but I guess not. I probably accidentally pushed the eticket button or something. I know its my mistake and I'm paying for it - I am usually really good with technology, but I was not careful this time and something happened. We obviously don't fly much so it was definitely not something I was aware of. Life is about learning and I guess this is one of those things that I have learned about that I will be much more careful about next time! But hey I get to go on my first cruise, so I really don't have anything to complain about. We will just have to go to Vancouver on another trip or something. 🙂 Thank you all!

I doubt you did anything to make this happen.  We have read on here that some people have been early ticketed months before the 45 days when they did not ask for it.  I would call the EZ Air number someone posted previously and if you don't get anywhere then ask for a manager.  Keep in mind though that prices might be much higher now so the extra day could really cost you.  

[cr8tiv1]

And this is why I don't tamper with my flights.  I always call EZ Air because I seem to miss or mistakenly do something that I know WILL mess up my booking.  Sorry for the misinformation.  Glad @Paula_MacFan provided you with an image.

 

55 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

My Personalizer airfare options have a button to request early ticketing.

 

 

[Princess Chatterer]

After have good luck in years past, last year was different.  That's when I almost got really burned.  Don't know how it happened.  Maybe it was picking seats.  Maybe it was early ticketing.  I do know, with 100% certainty, that the fare was "Flexible."  To straighten things out I had to send a certified letter to the Princess president to plead my case.  My letter finally resulted in Princess straightening out the mess. What I thought at the time and still do, is Princess needs to post, in bold print, the financial danger of picking seats as well as the danger of early booking.

 

Now I'm once again, maybe stupidly, looking at EZAir with United. But there is a big problem.  EZAir is more expensive than booking directly with United in both Economy and Economy Plus.  In First class, even though EZAir is ever so slightly cheaper than United, the actual flight schedule detail on EZAir is different.  The reason is that the United website updated the schedule overnight while EZAir did not.. 

 

Repeating to myself "Do not use Princess EZAir."

Edited March 15 by Princess Chatterer

[cr8tiv1]

33 minutes ago, Princess Chatterer said:

After have good luck in years past, last year was different.  That's when I almost got really burned.  Don't know how it happened.  Maybe it was picking seats.  Maybe it was early ticketing.  I do know, with 100% certainty, that the fare was "Flexible."  To straighten things out I had to send a certified letter to the Princess president to plead my case.  My letter finally resulted in Princess straightening out the mess. What I thought at the time and still do, is Princess needs to post, in bold print, the financial danger of picking seats as well as the danger of early booking.

 

Now I'm once again, maybe stupidly, looking at EZAir with United. But there is a big problem.  EZAir is more expensive than booking directly with United in both Economy and Economy Plus.  In First class, even though EZAir is ever so slightly cheaper than United, the actual flight schedule detail on EZAir is different.  The reason is that the United website updated the schedule overnight while EZAir did not.. 

 

Repeating to myself "Do not use Princess EZAir."

 

There are trade offs for using EZ Air.  If you were to book directly with United, you would have to pay the fare immediately.  If the fare would drop, you would be stuck unless United has a no fee change policy like Southwest or Hawaiian Air 

 

I booked Business with Delta/Virgin Atlantic.  I had troubles getting in to EZ Air (my internet provider did).  When I finally booked, the fare had gone up slightly....and has not dropped since.  Now the same fare is $2000 more and I still haven't paid for my flight.  Locked in at lower fare.

 

EZ Air sometimes gets a bad rap for something the airline does.  I generally will book domestic flights directly and bite the bullet early.  

[Ombud]

On 3/10/2024 at 1:23 PM, Thrak said:

 

.... We just "missed" the second flight.

Airlines are tagging those who do skiplagging with several banning those who do it and a few canceled return flights. In that Redding is your home airport you'd get home but here's hoping you're not flagged for it

[Ombud]

Airlines that let me select a seat and stay flexible: 

AA, UAL, Delta, Alaska

Airlines that let me upgrade from Economy to Preferred Economy:

UAL, Delta, Alaska

AA let's me upgrade but, in that it's at consolidator pricing, the fee was enormous! (Flight SFO -> Sydney / Narita -> SFO: UAL = $229, AA = $1470. RT ticket was $1480 on both)

[Thrak]

31 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Airlines are tagging those who do skiplagging with several banning those who do it and a few canceled return flights. In that Redding is your home airport you'd get home but here's hoping you're not flagged for it

 

Redding hasn't usually been our home airport. We are flying out of there soon but it will be the first time we've flown in or out of that airport. I was advised by two different airline personnel to simply miss that flight but not to try to do it "officially". I had originally intended to use Redding both ways. When our plans changed I checked into changing our booking and dropping the second leg but, by that time, rates had gone up significantly and it was going to be a fair amount more to rebook for just the one leg so I let it go. For the amount we fly the airlines have no worries about us becoming "repeat offenders".

[SCX22]

4 hours ago, Princess Chatterer said:

Repeating to myself "Do not use Princess EZAir."

 

Depends on your home airport.  I'm guessing you live in Oklahoma.  If your home airport is an airline hub like, SFO, JFK, or LAX, where there is a lot of airline competition, EZAir provides amazing pricing.  I've was to snag British Airways tickets to SFO to Rome for $800 last year.  This year my parents are flying to one way SFO to Athens and Rome to SFO, and they were able to snag British Airways tickets for $820 in August, which is a peak time for travel to Europe.  Not to mention if you prefer to fly up front, the EZAir's prices are hard to beat.

 

I will concede, that the trend is that EZAir has competitive prices for long haul international travel and not so much for domestic travel.

 

At the end of the day, passengers really need to do their due diligence on getting the best pricing.

[Paula_MacFan]

We are 74 days from sailing and I just received notice that our EZ Air flights have been ticketed.  We did not ask for early ticketing.  We selected seats when we booked many months ago.  The email notice says 'Provided you do not request Early Ticketing, no fees will be charged for changes or cancellations made to Flexible air flights more than 45 days from the outbound flight or cruise sail departure date (whichever is earlier).'

[Ken the cruiser]

I think we have moved on from using EZAir for booking international flights. For example, we recently booked a refundable Jan 2025 Delta flight with Comfort+ seating to Buenos Aires for $1,182 per person. I just checked EZAir again and their "Flexible Fares" option for the same exact flight and seat category is $2,050 per person. Not sure what's going on, but really don't care.

[Arizona Wildcat]

18 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

We are 74 days from sailing and I just received notice that our EZ Air flights have been ticketed.  We did not ask for early ticketing.  We selected seats when we booked many months ago.  The email notice says 'Provided you do not request Early Ticketing, no fees will be charged for changes or cancellations made to Flexible air flights more than 45 days from the outbound flight or cruise sail departure date (whichever is earlier).'

Depending on the fare code - you probably never saw it - selecting seats can and often does require ticketing.  You possibly are not aware of all the things that caused.

[Paula_MacFan]

21 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Depending on the fare code - you probably never saw it - selecting seats can and often does require ticketing.  You possibly are not aware of all the things that caused.

I check my Personalizer every day and the ticket number was just added, so it coincides with the email notice of early ticketing.  I've used EZ Air many times and have re-fared multiple times when we found better prices or schedules, and I've never had any problems or extra fees.  I only book flights that allow seat selection as I have no desire to leave that to chance.  Maybe we've just gotten lucky with EZ Air 🙂 

[ldubs]

On 3/10/2024 at 1:17 PM, Steelers36 said:

No, that is not true.  Many airlines do allow seat selection as you are making the EZair booking.  Others will not allow it until ticketed.  You have to explicitly request Early Ticketing in EZair page to make that happen (or call in to do that).  When requesting early ticketing, the flight has to be fully paid for.  Just because you selected a seat does not mean the flight is ticketed. 

 

Has EZair changed a policy and presented a message or warning that selecting a seat means you will be ticketed immediately?  Doesn't make sense to me as guests are typically booking flights long before Final Payment date and you cannot be ticketed without paying.

 

We recently experienced exactly what you said.  Had EZAir.  Had seats selected & assigned (won't book air without assigned seats).  Had to cancel and no issues doing that.