Just had an interesting call from Aeroplan (yes, they called me - anyone else had this today?) - effectively trying to convince me to cancel my old-3stop-rule mRTW trip at the end of April.

My domestic leg has been cancelled, so they did offer to rebook me on a different domestic flight, but really they were trying to persuade me to cancel entirely.

Presumably because in June when they announce the new program not only will it only be 2 stops instead of three, but those points will also be worth far less, so they get a huge liability off their books.

The woman also explicitly pointed out that the mRTW trip was booked right before the change to 2 stops, so obviously that's why I booked it then - I said yes, of course it was. (Last I checked it's not against the rules to book something before you change the rules)

I asked pointedly whether if I cancelled they would provide an exception and allow me to have 3 stops when I rebook and got a firm no back, saying that it was out of their control, their system only allows 2 stops now, etc.

I pointed out that that isn't really out of their control - that's their rule that they've set, and their system that they've programmed, but no luck.

Options now seem to be to change dates for sometime in August (1 year from original booking). I asked what would happen if by August we were still in the same situation, and they said, well you can always cancel it then.

They also said that we're unable to make any changes to the routing only the dates - that seems like a new rule - anyone run into that? Could she have meant we can't change the destinations, but the routing to those destinations could be changed? I wasn't able to get a clear answer from her on this.

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Update:

Just had *another* call from another agent who clarified that changes to routing ARE permitted. Still not budging on the 1-year requirement.

I'm aware that's a ticketing restriction, but they could easily get around that by allowing for a one-off exemption to the new mRTW trip rules (ie, instead of changing the booking, just cancel it and immediately book a new one with a new ticket issuing date).