What is the procedure if AC cancels a route? for revenue passengers and reward passengers. Revenue, they will probably book you on another airline. Reward? refund your miles?

Don't have to worry. They will not tell you 'too bad, you're not flying, here's your miles'. As long as you're ticketed, AC will protect you. Whether the option offered is acceptable or not is another issue.

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As you may know from other threads, I had 2 Aeroplan D-class tickets on flights on the now-defunct YYZ-SAN route for later in the summer. After receiving confirmation of the cancellations, yesterday I set out to make alternate plans to get there. Armed with little more than the above quote (from one way more knowledgable than I ) and prayer, I found out just what it means to be "protected" on an Aeroplan ticket. And it may surprise you...

First up, a call to AC reservations. Yup, the flights were cancelled and I've been re-routed through SFO. SFO?? Why on earth do I want to go through SFO to get to SAN? Surely, I must have other options?? Well, the kind lady at AC reservations said, I did. In fact, as a "protected, ticketed passenger", I could basically pick any ol' routing that suited my fancy, under two conditions. First, that the flights were on either AC or UA metal, and second that there were sufficient "F" seats available. I asked the lady specifically if I had to have space in award inventory. "Nope, you are not looking for an award flight. You are a protected, ticketed passenger on flights we've cancelled. We have to get you where you want to go.". Nice... oh, and there would be no additional charges as a result of any change, as the changes were not really of my doing. No change fees, no airport taxes for connections, nothing. But I'd have to call Aeroplan to make the actual changes. AC reservations can't touch Aeroplan bookings.

Sounds reasonable, if not good. It isn't any longer a direct flight, but at least there is some flexibility.

Next stop, FT (where else? ). Need advice on desirable routings. As usual, get expert help and personal experiences from many (for which I am thankful!). Then, a couple of hours with Galileo trying to piece it all together. It took longer than I thought it would... you folks who seemingly do this in minutes have my admiration.

Onward, to Aeroplan. I speak with a friendly agent who sees what I already know - namely that my flights have been cancelled and that I'm routed through SFO. I tell her that I don't wish to go through SFO, and that I have a desired routing (YYZ-ORD-SAN outbound, SAN-LAX-ORD-YYZ coming home, all on UA). I give her specific flight numbers, and away she goes. After a rather long period of time listening to recorded messages, she returns. "Sir, who gave you these flights?". I told her I'd done it myself. "Well, sir, there are no seats on any of these flights.". Huh?? I'd checked, and they all said "F9" except for one which was "F6". "No, sir, there are no award seats on any of these flights.".

Oh, now hang on a second. I relayed my earlier conversation with the AC reservation agent, and specifically that I didn't have to go through award inventory. The Aeroplan agent seemed a little confused, and put me on hold again to check. More recorded messages... and an annoying song in the background. Eventually she returns to repeat to me that I have been routed through SFO. Again, I tell her that I have no desire to go through SFO, and that I've been told I can pick my own routing (being "protected" and all). On hold again...

The next voice I hear is that of an Aeroplan supervisor. And, I must say, a really pleasant one at that. Though I didn't get the same messages from the people I talked to yesterday, they were all quite pleasant to deal with. Anyway, pretty much the first thing the supervisor did was to apologize to me for the mixed messages I'd received. She allowed me to breifly summarize the morning conversation with AC reservations, and then told me (with frustration clearly evident) that the agent was "misinformed", but that it happens way more often than she could tell me. The supervisor then gave me the skinny on the actual rules in these cases. Basically, on Aeroplan tickets, one is only "protected" on AC-operated flights. If there are no award seats left (but revenue tickets remaining) on the "replacement" flights, then revenue seats are pulled. But any connecting flights on UA must come from award inventory. The supervisor said, that while she thought that rule was dead wrong for an already-ticketed passenger, it was a very strict rule that they had to follow. Aeroplan can't (her term, don't know if it is actually "won't"... maybe it's a status thing) pull revenue seats from a UA-operated flight. So, my re-routing through SFO was because 2 business-class award seats were available SFO-SAN on UA flights (and on return as well). Had my tickets been revenue tickets (paid for with cash, not points) there would have been many more options as far as pulling seats on UA.

So, I asked the supervisor (pleaded, really) if I had any other alternate routing, and she herself spent the next half hour finding me a way (through DEN) to get there, 1 hour stopovers each way. She had to pull revenue J seats on the AC flights YYZ-DEN (each way), but there were UA award seats to get me the rest of the way. At the end of the day, I'm satisfied, relieved, and more than a little grateful for her help. Oh, and no additional charges... at least that part was right!

As she tidied up the details of the bookings, and in light of the quote that I opened this tale with, I asked her one last question. Suppose no UA award seats had been available, SFO-SAN, DEN-SAN or any other possible connection. What would have happened to my booking? She said they would try looking at the days on either side of the original departure and return dates to see if anything was available there. But if not, they would have no other option but to redeposit the miles and cancel the bookings. This, she said, was why she so disagreed with the rules she was obliged to follow.

I learned a lot yesterday. And I thought I'd post this for those other of you with Aeroplan tickets on now-cancelled runs. Being "protected" isn't quite what you might think it is...

-P