Princess Air? Can't sit together on the plane?

[9999999]

We are doing our very first cruise with a princess land tour-cruise to Alaska starting tomorrow. We bought Princess Air to ensure our transfers, etc went smoothly. We signed up for the cruise last September and received our flight information in July.
It appears that we were never assigned seats for the largest leg of our flights (Minneapolis to Fairbanks via NWA).
I had attempted to get seats almost since the time our AAA agent sent the information and a NWA booking agent said that the airline policy for these seats was to wait until you get to the airport. Today I called NWA and found that there are only 4 seats left and my husband and I get to set **behind each other*** in **middle seats** for a 5 1/2 hour flight to Fairbanks.
What a waste of money doing Princess Air. I will NEVER take this cruise line again just for this reason. I feel like my vacation is already ruined before it started because this indicates what kind of people skills this cruise line has - i.e. none.

 

[Bobbie]

It's not necessarily Princess' fault. They guarantee you a seat on a plane, not seats together. Your TA should have secured you seats together the SAME DAY you were issued tickets. She could've found this information out by calling Princess' Air Dept. way before you were told what the flights were. At that point, she should've been able to get you decent seats.

It sounds to me like NWA didn't have any seats to move you to, so that's why you have to wait until you check-in at the airport. It happens all the time! I can't tell you how many times we've changed seats at the airport!

All you have to do is get there early. ALL airlines hold back a large bank of seats. You simply request to be moved to other seats when you check-in either in person or via the check-in kiosks. Also, you can request bulkhead seats at that time too. You may even end up with the best seats in coach!

Really, this is common practice and not a big deal at all - don't despair!

 

[Beryl]

Do exactly what Bobbie suggests and arrive at the airport extra early to check in! Airlines do not pre-assign every seat on the airplane. In fact they hold back some of the very best seats available. Have a wonderful cruise!!

 

[9999999]

Well thanks for the input but guess what.. there WERE NO SEATS except 4 left (the same 4 I found online). I had to end up **buying upgrades** for the exit row which ended up better since everyone else was pretty stiff after sitting in tight rows for 5 1/2 hours. Also, I found out that the majority of people on that flight were from Princess and taking the cruise (this was Minneapolis to Fairbanks) and virtually *** NO ONE ** had seats together and there was a lot of shifting seats around, complaining, etc. It sounds to me that not all Travel Agents could be responsible for one whole cruise group being so screwed around.
**ALSO**, the flights Princess picked for us on our return made us **ineligible** for their auto checkin/customs process. They essentially ended up **rewarding** people for NOT choosing their air program because it seems those were the only people who ensure they had the correct airlines for this.
Then we had 2 stop overs on the way back with extremely tight connections in Portland. I had to ask the stewardess in the Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Portland if she could ensure they waited (it turned out there were about 23 in a little group in all). We all had to RUN from one end of the Portland airport to the other end to make the flight.
Then they lost our baggage (no surprise).
Well, I guess being delivered a day late isn't exactly "lost" but I lost a day's work to stay home to unpack, etc.
Otherwise the tour and cruise in between was wonderful. The airline program really is far beyond "horrid".

 

[Bobbie]

Lesson learned: book your own air & transfers for flights you can get at comparable prices.