Originally Posted by
PursuitTraveller
Hi All,
We're planning on going to Asia in December and wondering how early should we book our flights on Aeroplan? The time frame would be from mid to late December. I know the norm is as "early as possible" but the Aeroplan rep I spoke with said that the reward seats are introduced throughout the year and that booking a year in advance theory is a myth?
Would love to hear experiences from travelers that have booked flights during the holiday season and how early were the booking made?
Thanks!
It's definitely not a myth if you really need seats on a specific route. I just booked an April/May 2019 trip to Japan. Much like OP I'd been monitoring the releases for about a month prior, and I saw that an I class seat was released at midnight EST on YYZ-HND and HND-YYZ 355 days out, actually became bookable at 3am EST, and not long after they disappeared. That being said, it's not impossible to find availability without staying up late 355 days out. For example, in my case I'm seeing a few days most months with I availability on my YYZ-HND route, so hopefully something similar would be there for you.
Also something to keep in mind is that if you want to book right when seats are released, you're inevitably going to lose out on the stopover perks for round trips because you have to book the outbound and return trip individually. You also can't connect on carriers that don't release until after another one does.