eishv

Hi all - bit of an Aeroplan noob here, with a pretty fundamental question.

A friend of mine was saying that the Aeroplan website does NOT list all the flights available for redemeptions (i.e. looking on the United website will show different flights available than what is necessarily listed on the Aeroplan website). I've also heard that if you phone and talk to an agent they "find" flights not listed on the website.

Any truth to either one of these? If so, any strategies for searching? I find, for example, Lufthansa's website, to search you need to be an independent member of their "Miles and More".

Also, does anyone particularly recommend against or for certain airlines for North America to Europe Business Class?

Thanks!

Adam Smith

I can only answer part of your question, which is that yes, Aeroplan reps may be able to get flights that are not listed on the website when you do your search.

Someone else will have to answer on how to find those without calling Aeoplan, I've seen people comment on an ANA tool and other options, but don't know anything about them myself.

kwflyer

It has been this way for years. Online search engines (like AP's) are biased and don't necessarily show all flights available.

This is especially true if YQ is involved or you have a complicated routing, or looking to travel during peak times.

beep88

As for using UA to search, only "saver" award flights are available for Aeroplan booking.

I use ANA search extensively, supplemented by UA.

abari

+1 for the ANA tool, i ended up moving some hilton hhonors points to my ANA account so that i could use the star alliance search without jumping through hoops. AP gives such a huge preference to AC and LH that it helps to find some more options.

To OP if you're looking there's ways around it but i found this blog post helpful: http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...d-search-tool/

rankourabu

Exactly - some of it is bias towards YQ options, compounded on top of the fact the website simply limits the number of options displayed.

On United.com - when searching - increase the search to 50 - and you ll see many more results than a regular search would yield.

eishv

Thank you so much all!

JJonahJ

The Wandering Aramean (Seth Miller) also has a Grease Monkey script that you can use with Firefox, to get around the "crack" way.
http://blog.wandr.me/2012/08/reintro...r-search-link/

eishv

Quick followup question all; once you find a flight on ANA, how do you go about booking it? (call Aeroplan and give them the flight number?).

Thanks!

rankourabu

yes, spoonfeed, flight by flight

Royal Flusher

Just checked out the ANA search engine for the first time - cool!

Does it include all levels of Award including MarketFare or just Classic level? Any way to differentiate if it does?

rankourabu

Classic Level.
Market level is for AC flights only - and has pretty much fixed pricing vs a revenue ticket at 1-1.5 cents/mile

So if a revenue ticket is $800 to Europe - chances are market fare will be around 45000 points + $500

Royal Flusher

Thanks. Color me stubborn (or cheap) but I refuse to redeem anything other than Classic.

DavidYYC

Yup.

And your best value for AP point redemption is looking for business class seats on the few remaining *A carriers that don't rip you off with "fuel surcharges"....! Look at those you will be amazed.

Jessee Paa

Does ana do multicity? I couldnt find the function.