canesfan

My wife and I have a one way Business Class flight booked from Chiang Mia, Thailand to Calgary in April. Ticket looks like this: CXN - BKK - TPE - JFK - YYC (we are actually getting to Calgary from EWR). This ticket leaves late Saturday night, and arrives Sunday evening.

We had an EVA AIR flight from BKK - TPE at 2:10am, arriving at 7:05am, now EVA AIR just canceled their TPE - JFK flight (7:50am to 10:10am) and put us on a 7:10pm to 10:05pm flight to JFK. Interesting enough Aeroplan didn't re-schedule us home yet from NYC, as our flight from EWR - YYC was departing at 4:00pm (now 6 hours after flight arrives to JFK). I only found out about the schedule change from EVA Air by checking our flight status, as I usually do so every week. But as it stands, we have a 12 hour layover in TPE, and will have an overnight layover in NYC.

I called Aeroplan and kindly asked to be placed on EVA Air flight from TPE to LAX (10:05am to 6:50am). Then to be placed on Air Canada non-stop from LAX to YYC around 11:45am. This still gets us to Calgary Sunday afternoon/early evening, and allows us about a 3 hour layover in TPE. This is about the only option that routes us to YYC and allows us to leave CXN on Sat evening, and arrive in YYC Sunday afternoon/evening.

Aeroplan agent said she'd have to contact EVA Air and request us to be moved to the LAX flight. EVA Air is the one who canceled our flight to JFK, so I don't see why they wouldn't move us to the LAX flight. The LAX flight is showing 1 business class award seat available, so all they'd have to do is open up 1 seat. Aeroplan agent did say that we should be able to get on the non-stop from LAX to YYC without a problem, even though no Business, or even Economy award seats are available.

Aeroplan did say request to EVA Air would take 48 hours, and it's almost been 48 hours so I'm wondering what's taking so long. Tickets were booked under my wife's Aeroplan account, and she is an Elite 35K member with AC, and Star Alliance Silver member.

If EVA Air doesn't open up the seat for us, then I'm forced to look from routing from TPE to YYC that has award availability, or even BKK to YYC with award availability? Or be stuck with 12 hour layover in TPE and overnight layover in NYC that arrives in Calgary on a Monday?

Thanks for reading and any comments appreciated!

Jasper2009

The agent was pretty much correct. The typical process would be for AE to contact BR and request them to re-accommodate you on the TPE-LAX flight or another suitable BR option.

Usually that's an automated system, though sometimes someone higher up will pick up the phone and actually discuss options with the other airline.

If, for whatever reason, that fails AE would look into other options which currently have award availability (there are many, many routing options from BKK to YYC).

If there's no availability, AE would typically work with AC and rebook you on an AC flight on the TPAC segment (e.g. BKK-PEK/PVG/NRT/HND/HKG/ICN-YVR-YYC)

canesfan

Thanks for the response. Options are vary scarce for award availability, considering we need to be back in Calgary on Sunday evening. Are you saying that if we fly on AC metal, we would pretty much get any flight we want? For example, PEK / HKG to YVR, then onto YYC? We just need to find award availability from BKK to PEK / HKG with Star Alliance (or Thai Airways)?

jerryhung

Too bad AC's new TPE-YVR only starts in Summer 2017
otherwise it'd be easy for AC to open up TPE-YVR-YYC for you

Meanwhile, keep looking
BR has many USA flights, LAX/SFO/SEA/YVR on West Coast, ORD/JFK/IAH/YYZ on East
ORD is usually wide open

Jasper2009

Generally, yes. (Although it can be more complicated than it sounds.)

If AE fails to get BR to rebook you and if AE fails to find award availability on other airlines, the next step would be to rebook you on AC metal.

If you talk to AE again, it may be helpful to be prepared. E.g. "I found award availability on Thai Airways in business class from BKK to HKG. Can you rebook us on the AC flight from HKG to YVR?" IME being prepared, while being reasonable and somewhat flexible, goes a long way.

canesfan

Yeah, problem with BR to West or East Coast is almost all of them arrive late Sunday evening, and require layover. That's why I'm trying to get on flight to LAX which leaves in the morning and arrives in the morning. Our flight from BKK to TPE is red-eye on BR which arrives on Sunday morning.

canesfan

Ok thanks for the clarification. I'll wait to hear if BR approves our request. Given the amount of award availability they've released this past year, have a hard time believing they would deny request.

And I doubt Aeroplan will find availability. When I booked award, I had to spoon feed them the segments and even then they had to check twice, and put me on hold for a couple of them.