laner

On check-in at YYZ last week I had the agent remove my AP# and add my A3#, and the outbound flight posted correctly to A3. Unfortunately the return flight a few days later posted to AP, despite my again confirming with the check-in agent that I would be accruing to A3.

Has anyone had success in getting Air Canada/Aeroplan to remove a transaction from their account so you could do a retro claim with A3?

gnof

I'm waiting for the same thing. I contacted *A after I was rejected at check-in and at the gate in PVG. The agents had never heard of Aegean. They credited the flight to AP.

*A put me in touch with Aegean, who said they will take at most 4 weeks to resolve the matter. This was in July and I have yet to receive an update.

laner

Let us know how it goes, I'm still trying to get Aeroplan to remove the miles directly but if that fails I'll try contacting *A.

midnightflight

update: my miles that went to the wrong program eventually got credited into my a3-account

IMH

Better late than never... Congratulations for staying on the case (and thanks for reminding us all, again, that it is best to lock all other FFP cards in a lead lined safe before even thinking about booking a flight that one plans to credit to A3).

gnof

Bad news.

Reply from them:
Ugh, seems like I'll be stuck at 19k and not make it to 20k for *G

LH2100

Well, it isn't unpossible to remove the miles and credit them to another account. But, it is very difficult and complicated to do this. It is more easier to fly for the missing 1000 miles.

PVDtoDEL

Time for a milerun methinks

wyvern

It definitely isn't impossible - other *A carriers have reversed miles credits. Once uncredited, you can just claim the flight to A3 as a retro-credit.

In gnof's case, it looks as if this is the airline's error, if the agents refused to enter the A3 number at your request due to never having heard of A3. However, if the airline don't want to uncredit the miles, there is not much you can do except escalate all the way to the top.

As last resort you may be able to appeal to A3's goodwill as they do have the ability to give you an ex gratia credit at their discretion. If you show you have attempted to resolve this with the airline and that the airline was inflexible, and point out that the reason for the matter is the refusal of the airline's agents to enter your A3 number in the first place - due to not having heard of A3 - this may help your case.

Air Rarotonga

Of course we can blame the check-in agents that could not *change* the FFP in their system... But I think we also have to blame the OP's that book flights with a different FFP (for what reasons ever - perks?) and then want to change last minute the FFP at the airport! Book with the right FFP from the beginning or leave it blank, then you can still re-claim the missing miles!

I hope that A3 will strictly enforce this rule to not credit any flights that have already been credited to another FFP. This costs the airline unnecessary money and wastes the time of its Rep!

gnof

Thanks, everyone, for all the advice.

I'll contact AC to see if they can reverse the credit as it seems like I won't get the chance to fly *A before January (when I enrolled in A3).

gnof

In my case, I had my original reservation (booked with AC #) before I joined A3. After learning about A3's easier path towards *G, and knowing that I had just enough flights in this year to make it to *G, I credited all my *A flights to A3. This worked at the airport with Swiss, Continental, United, and ANA in Zurich, Toronto, Chicago, and Hong Kong, respectively.

I knew my YYZ-HKG, PVG-YYZ would push me >20k and give me *G. But I had AC attached to this reservation. So I tried changing it to A3 on AC's website. But it didn't allow me. On the YYZ-HKG flight, I was able to change it to A3 at check-in. Got to 19k. At PVG, agents at check-in did not know A3. Tried again at the gate but same response.

Flight that would have put me >20k on A3 ended up being credited to AC as I had it on my original reservation and was unable to change it.

I feel that the responsibility falls on Star Alliance with regards to my problem. As they admitted A3 to its network, Star Alliance should have made sure (at least try) that agents know what A3 is. A3, knowing that this might be a problem, may also want to alert its Star Alliance partners.

PVDtoDEL

You should always get these kinds of issues sorted out before getting to the airport. Air Canada's call center would have had no trouble changing the number for you, and you always have the option to hang up and call back if you get an incompetent agent...

zerogx

I don't get this. Why do they need to "know" A3.. can't they just type it in and see what happens?

gnof

With hindsight, yes, I should've.
But after 6 flights without a problem, I didn't think it was necessary.