I'm trying to book a mini-RTW with Aeroplan and have been advised that AE can no longer look up availability nor book using each carrier's flight numbers. They are only able to view what the website gives them which has limited options.
I have since spoken to a supervisor who claims this is the new mandate to all front line agents and if one wants to book specific flights not showing on their screens you much be transferred to a supervisor.
This sounds ridiculous to me and is going to make for some very frustrating calls and busy supervisors.
I wish this was an April Fool's Joke...the supervisor I'm speaking to is very helpful and go figure, everything ANA tool said was available is, even though virtually none of it showed on AE's site. With me the issue is with LX and OZ long haul availability which typically never showed on the website but was always bookable via an agent with the flight numbers.
At least I got what I wanted so the flights are available unlike with UA Starnet blocking.
They are available from UA...if you can convince an agent to do a long sell...which they are not supposed to do. Your booking experience today suggests AE is hiding flight visibility and telling agents not to look up or request/long sell a flight. It's a bad sign.
Programs: Via Preference Privilege, AC*A, Fairmont Plat, SPG Gold
Posts: 1,118
Quote:
Originally Posted by wolvie007
I wish this was an April Fool's Joke...the supervisor I'm speaking to is very helpful and go figure, everything ANA tool said was available is, even though virtually none of it showed on AE's site. With me the issue is with LX and OZ long haul availability which typically never showed on the website but was always bookable via an agent with the flight numbers.
Another "stealth" reduction in AE benefits.
If you can still do it, its not actually a reduction in benefits. If they decided to prevent you from getting to Asia via Europe, that WOULD be a reduction in benefits (or actually blocking the booking of partners).
AE has less incentive to Starnet block, there paid upfront for every mile unlike other FF programs that simply set aside a liability for them. That's not to say they won't do it, but it's not exactly the same situation as MP.
What we don't know and likely will never find out is how much they actually pay for a Mini-RTW type routing. The answer to that would determine the likely hood of them to really clamp down on "creative" reward redemptions. For a company to purchase the miles for a mini-RTW it would probably be $2400 in F (120,000 *.02), I would guess most times they pay less than that to partners.
Programs: EK Gold/ CX MPO Gold / SQ full fare F / R, CX disc/full F, Paid domestic F, LHW - Leaders Club
Posts: 2,560
So does anyone know if Aeroplan is making their agents use the same web based interface as aeroplan.com?
I just got off the phone with Aeroplan trying to get availability information and it took a long time for the agent to get back the information required (as he said the system was slow).
I remember booking an Aeroplan award a year ago and the agents were quickly able to get availability.
Programs: Aeroplan, Finnair Plus, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
Posts: 109
hmm.. not sure! I called them up yesterday because I didn't like the flight availability that was showing up when I did a search and the rep was able to see more than what i was able to. I didn't cite a specific flight though.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.1+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.285 Mobile Safari/534.1+)
Quote:
Originally Posted by daniellam
So does anyone know if Aeroplan is making their agents use the same web based interface as aeroplan.com?
I just got off the phone with Aeroplan trying to get availability information and it took a long time for the agent to get back the information required (as he said the system was slow).
I remember booking an Aeroplan award a year ago and the agents were quickly able to get availability.
A few weeks ago an agent told me their new engine would be similar to the website one but that for now this 'new' website engine has more power than the current agent engine. They likely have more options than are available on the web though.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.1+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.285 Mobile Safari/534.1+)
A few weeks ago an agent told me their new engine would be similar to the website one but that for now this 'new' website engine has more power than the current agent engine. They likely have more options than are available on the web though.
I was given the same info during my last booking. That said, the agent was able to book the flights I had found based on the flight number. FWIW, I had always assumed that AE agents used a standard GDS type mainframe booking system rather than a customer interface.
Programs: EK Gold/ CX MPO Gold / SQ full fare F / R, CX disc/full F, Paid domestic F, LHW - Leaders Club
Posts: 2,560
Quote:
Originally Posted by *A Flyer
I was given the same info during my last booking. That said, the agent was able to book the flights I had found based on the flight number. FWIW, I had always assumed that AE agents used a standard GDS type mainframe booking system rather than a customer interface.
I asked the AE agent "how many seats are available" and was told either "1" or "2", so I am assuming they still get to see the GDS type availability response.
However, I am assuming what they have is just a more "graphical" and "user friendly" interface that sends queries to the GDS booking system.
Actually, if you have an AE reward tkt and you paid J class on at least one segment we are able to book a specific flight #. Same thing if you are travelling with someone that has a revenue tkt.
