My first FT posting, on a subject which consumed far too much time and generated a huge amount of frustration this past summer....Still makes my blood boil!

I did what is being recommended here - calling AC to confirm booking classes and points eligibility - but even that didn't work! My teenage daughter was travelling to Mumbai for a month of volunteer work with her school. She was flying a lot in 2011 and attaining Elite status was important to her, so she asked me to make sure to book in a way that her flights qualified. I had the choice of booking through Lufthansa (where we have booked 8 trips in the past year without any difficulty or unwanted surprises) or AC. The price and flights were identical (code-sharing some flights either way). I booked with AC for Calgary-Frankfurt-Mumbai return, with the Frankfurt-Mumbai portion being a code-share on Lufthansa. Spent huge amounts of time (on hold, mostly!) confirming with AC that the entire trip was eligible for full Aeroplan miles.

YYC-FRA flights from the outbound trip posted promptly, and FRA-BOM did not. Called Aeroplan to check. Over 1 hour on hold. Informed that flight didn't qualify for miles. Told them that I confirmed with AC before purchase that it did. Advised that it was up to Lufthansa as their flight was in a booking class which didn't qualify (after "mapping" of codes). Asked how one was to get the info about how booking codes mapped onto other airlines. They responded that a travel agent could get this info, or to call AE, not AC, prior to booking. As advised, called Lufthansa. They responded that flight should have earned miles, but if it didn't, I should call AC as they sold the seats and gave me the info. Called AC. Over 1 hour on hold....again! They were "sorry" but have nothing to do with Aeroplan points on another airline, "AE is a different company" blah blah blah. Need to speak directly to Aeroplan. Back to AE....more on hold time....I needed to take it up with AC who sold the ticket....Back to AC....Emails sent to customer service....not answered for many weeks...Finally got a form-letter response, completely unhelpful, hoping to welcome her back on AC soon. Sent back another email to customer service, still no helpful response when they finally bothered to answer.

There were over 8,000 miles at stake here, and the bottom line was she'd get Elite status at the end of the trip with the miles, and would not if they weren't awarded. Finally found an AC agent who was willing to change the booking class on the return BOM-FRA flight to something which tracked into a points-earning code....for a $250 change fee plus a couple hundred dollars in additional charges. Would not budge on waiving the change fee even though AC gave me the info in the first place that the flight would earn points! Told me that customer service might refund change fee if I emailed them. Did so, never got a response of any kind. I've only been waiting 6 months, maybe they'll get to it soon. I decided to pay up so she'd get the status for 2012. And no points were ever awarded for FRA-BOM.

My daughter did finally qualify for Elite later in the year, but missed all the benefits on her final trip to Europe...no upgrade opportunity, lounge, preferred seating, extra luggage, etc. Very disappointing.

I did also suggest to one AC agent that I could cancel her return flight with AC and rebook the one-way on Lufthansa for full miles. At the time, Lufthansa was offering that flight one-way, still for the same cost as initially purchased (cheaper than the $450 to change it). I don't have the exact wording handy, but the AC ticket conditions said that if partially used, the remainder could be submitted for refund of the unused portion. Not so....They informed me that a 1-way ticket cost more than double the price of a return ticket, and that this value would be used in their calculations. So, I would actually owe them money if I cancelled the return.....

Bottom line - Our family (including 3 Elites) feels totally cheated by AC and Aeroplan. Have never contended with such terrible customer service anywhere as in trying to resolve this problem.

BUYER BEWARE!!!