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What’s Happening with Aeroplan Partner Award Availability?
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Thanks PoT for this insight. I was able to call in and book a ORD-NRT on ANA business…however, on Expert Flyers it’s showing a ton of availability from YYZ-TPE on EVA Air business, but upon calling in, the reps were not able to find it! This is calling over a couple days…any ideas? Availability is still showing on ExpertFlyers so i assume everyone else is having the same issue…
Indeed, Aeroplan is still having lots of “award-appearing” issues. Were you able to see the flights on United also? We are still waiting for Aeroplan to rectify this also. We hope to hear from them soon.
yes – I was actually hoping to book a UA flight from YYZ-ORD on the same day as my ORD-NRT. However, they couldnt find it when i called in, and had to book an AC flight the day before and stay overnight..hope they get this fixed soon
Hi,
Even though UA is a good alternative to search for star alliance flights, do note that, UA flights appearing on UA site does not necessarily mean it is offered to Aeroplan or other star alliance partners. Since UA Site has more control over its own UA flights.
Are there any AC flights that Aeroplan agents can find for that day? Even on economy? This way it might save you a few hundred bucks. As long as the 2 flights are less than 12 hours apart.
On a side note, if you haven’t already joined our Facebook group, where constructive discussions are constantly held by members for members, such as this question you had for us, consider checking it out, where more like-minded people come together to answer tricky questions together:
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In addition, if you would like to be part of an even more exclusive community and have attentive discussions, consider becoming Prince Of Travel “Platinum Member” which you will be invited to join our discord group:
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Hope all this that helps!
The PoT team really needs to call in on whatever contacts they have within AC and push them on this, at this stage it’s clear that AC are restricting premium cabin bookings on various partner airlines and routes at this stages.
So you can call in to book the flights that are not listed on their website. Unfortunately they charge $30 booking fee/person when you’re booking award flights by phone. Very shady way to generate additional revenue for flights that are easily bookable online via another Star Alliance partner like United.
With Aeroplan’ sky high prices (points) today, and limited availability of partner awards, I kind of view Aeroplan as useless to me right now.
It’s clearly air Canada trying to force Aeroplan member to pay their egregious award rates by virtually eliminating partner airline rates from being seen.
If you were trying to sell a new car for 10x what the actually price is why work you show a bunch of other sellers ads for the real accurate and fair price.
The new Aeroplan is a totally Fing sham and you guys are risking losing follower like me my not truthfully saying what’s happening.
In fact, prince of travel is borderline support of this tactic by not calling it what it is. You would not have reported on this fact this way 5 years ago.
Here’s another example: YVR-Paris CDG Aug 6, 2023. Aeroplan: Business class – not available (Premium Economy 92.3K points). United Mileage Plus: YVR-Munich-Vienna-Paris 88,000 points business class on Lufthansa and Austrian — both Aeroplan partners. Air Canada needs to explain this.
Hi TJ. I made a lot of search on Alaska Mileage recently and it seems they might have the same availability problem. Anyway, I hope Aeroplan will find a solution to this soon. The call centre will be very busy. Thank you for the info and alternative solution.
How do you get that monthly availability calendar for LifeMiles?
@Tony: For Etihad, use Etihad’s website and search for “GuestSeat” availability. You won’t enjoy the process but sadly their other partner American, which has an otherwise excellent search tool (including month-at-a-time availability display) doesn’t display EY availability.
@Jim: I’m giving TJ a pass on the issue you’re complaining about (valid complaint). AC is in the penalty box at the moment. Many airlines are allowing their space to be sold by United and Avianca and others, but not by Air Canada. Air Canada needs to demonstrate humility (!!!), to satisfy Thai, EVA, Oman, Swiss and others that they can run a booking website in a satisfactory way. I looked up “humility” on Wikipedia and there was a pic of AC’s senior management.
This is a big problem for Aeroplan users in Vancouver. Long haul business class flights simply do not show up on many routes even when booking the maximum number of days in advance. An example today, Eva Air business class flights from Taipei to Vancouver are not available, while Taipei to Seattle business class flights do show up. And good luck trying to get a direct YVR-Frankfurt business class flight at the base Aeroplan price. This seems to be more than just glitches in the system.
Better to fly BR to SEA anyways, not like it’s that inconvenient to reposition to YVR after that, lol.
That’s not the point though, is it? I’ve been an Aeroplan member since the start in 1984. I used to be able to use my points fairly easily for long-haul business class from Vancouver. Now, I can’t. Aeroplan needs to explain that.
100%
Hi Ron
I’ve suspected for quite some time now on your question, and 8 think there’s much more to it than the problem with “these so called brokers”. I’m sure Air Canada does not show partner airline flights because they’re trying to flog the grossly overpriced of their own. It’s obscene how many points Air Canada is charging for award flights, especially the business class ones.
Can’t agree more. I was kinda toying with diff route planning to determine my next yrs travel destinations and I couldn’t help but notice this’s a pattern on most flights- not only there’s almost no partner flight availability, AP also drastically devalued the points and now point requirements are almost always on the upper band of the flight chart. At this point I just refuse to believe its a result of a counter measure for the scammers as explained by the above article.
No so long ago I could regularly book transocean business class on Aeroplan from Vancouver with no problem. But that was then. Since the dynamic pricing model was introduced it is virtually impossible. In essence, it is a huge devaluation of our points. I agree with you about the ‘obscene’ level of points now charged.
Why can you not get a clear explanation from AC? Your story reads like AC is your “off the record” principal source. More transparency for loyal Aeroplan members who don’t abuse the system would be welcome. PoT would serve its members better by securing a clear explanation from AC.
EVA is a special case. This year they dramatically throttled partner availability for their flights, which in any case are full to Canadian cities. I achieved an EVA booking recently by getting some EVA points and booking from their program. the seats I found were never available to MIleagePlus, LifeMiles, Aeroplan or others, only to Infinity MileageLands. Give up on finding “I” space on EVA TransPacific flights. Citi ThankYou is a transfer partner for EVA. That’s the only access now.
this was intended as a reply to RON, not to Jim. Not sure how I got it in the wrong place, sorry.
Hi TJ. What tool do you use to find Etihad award Availability once seats are released as ExpertFlyer does not track them. Thank you.