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temple5 · 10-07-2015, 11:34 AM

I figured I would post the FYI here just so people are aware of what could happen if you book Aeroplan.

So my wife and I have decided to wean ourself off Aeroplan Credit Card and go full on with the Westjet Mastercard because of some issues with out flight to Europe last year with Aeroplan/Air Canada. So we maxed out our points to get enough to have one more trip to hawaii and one more to europe

So we booked YYC-YVR-OGG-YVR-YYC (YVR was simply the place we changed planes, it could have been timbuctu for all I care but).

About 3 weeks ago we got flight schedule change. Usually those are slight changed to times, I took a brief looked at it and saw that we left YYC same time same flight same date and came back to YYC same time same flight same date.

We have in infant in lap so my wife called last week to add our child to the itinerary and the agent asked her about the layover in Vancouver. My wife said yah we dont mind 3-4 hours, it was ok. The Agent said it was a day both directions.

So I went back to check the original change in time email and yes, the actual dates to OGG and back had change from one day later and one day before respectively (it looks like Air Canada cancelled all flights to and from OGG those days)

So on the call with the Agent we would obviously prefer to get there and back on the same days. The Agent put our request in and said it might take a week to get back to us as there were "others in the queue before".

Needless to say that made us a bit nervous as we had already pre-paid accomodations, car rental, and shuttle after we booked with Aeroplan. So yesterday after 8 biz days my wife calls back and a different agent answered and said the likely problem is the vancouver mid point and no other partner carriers fly from vancouver to hawaii. My wife told her we dont care where we fly though we just dont want to fly backwards (say YYC-IAH-OGG) but where we change plans who cares.

So this agent booked us through LAX there and SFO on the way back.

Just be aware when dealing with Aeroplan, obviously Air Canada is to blame for cancelling a flight due to scheduling or profitability issues 60 days before the flight but when you talk with them about changing your flights, especially if its connecting - stress to them you dont care where you connect, just so long as you get there (where you connect and the number of connections is up to you).

So overall I would rate the above Aeroplan/Air Canada as follows

Air Canada -1
Inital itinerary change of 1 day stop over in YVR both days -1 (not sure who to blame there)
Aeroplan first agent - 1
Aeroplan second agent +1.5 (when given clear instructions and not allow them to think for themselves).

10-07-2015, 11:34 AM	#3449
temple5 Crash and Bang Winger Join Date: Jan 2008 Exp:	I figured I would post the FYI here just so people are aware of what could happen if you book Aeroplan. So my wife and I have decided to wean ourself off Aeroplan Credit Card and go full on with the Westjet Mastercard because of some issues with out flight to Europe last year with Aeroplan/Air Canada. So we maxed out our points to get enough to have one more trip to hawaii and one more to europe So we booked YYC-YVR-OGG-YVR-YYC (YVR was simply the place we changed planes, it could have been timbuctu for all I care but). About 3 weeks ago we got flight schedule change. Usually those are slight changed to times, I took a brief looked at it and saw that we left YYC same time same flight same date and came back to YYC same time same flight same date. We have in infant in lap so my wife called last week to add our child to the itinerary and the agent asked her about the layover in Vancouver. My wife said yah we dont mind 3-4 hours, it was ok. The Agent said it was a day both directions. So I went back to check the original change in time email and yes, the actual dates to OGG and back had change from one day later and one day before respectively (it looks like Air Canada cancelled all flights to and from OGG those days) So on the call with the Agent we would obviously prefer to get there and back on the same days. The Agent put our request in and said it might take a week to get back to us as there were "others in the queue before". Needless to say that made us a bit nervous as we had already pre-paid accomodations, car rental, and shuttle after we booked with Aeroplan. So yesterday after 8 biz days my wife calls back and a different agent answered and said the likely problem is the vancouver mid point and no other partner carriers fly from vancouver to hawaii. My wife told her we dont care where we fly though we just dont want to fly backwards (say YYC-IAH-OGG) but where we change plans who cares. So this agent booked us through LAX there and SFO on the way back. Just be aware when dealing with Aeroplan, obviously Air Canada is to blame for cancelling a flight due to scheduling or profitability issues 60 days before the flight but when you talk with them about changing your flights, especially if its connecting - stress to them you dont care where you connect, just so long as you get there (where you connect and the number of connections is up to you). So overall I would rate the above Aeroplan/Air Canada as follows Air Canada -1 Inital itinerary change of 1 day stop over in YVR both days -1 (not sure who to blame there) Aeroplan first agent - 1 Aeroplan second agent +1.5 (when given clear instructions and not allow them to think for themselves).