Steve685

Been an A3 Gold for some time but won’t make it to gold this year so I figured I would burn off my points. I used 84,000 of my 84,455 miles to book a business class trip for my wife and me to Curaçao in the Caribbean from ymm. I found all the flights and mapped it out and then took the 40 mins on the phone with Aegean to get it all booked.

Everything was great for a few days; I booked all my hotels, also in yyz ( my only connection) and booked my parents flights from yvr to come meet us there. The same lady who booked the trip called me to say that ticketing considered Curaçao part of South America and they wanted 90K points each for the flights.

In Aegean’s geographic region country list it doesn’t have Curaçao listed at all. Aruba, its next door neighbor is listed as North America, as is Trinidad and Tobago that is further away and closer to South America.
It has me panicking a bit and the wife is just hoping I can sort it out. The lady who called said that the ticketing will be open Monday and that she will call back and hopefully sort it out. She said she has booked the Caribbean many times and agrees it is a 42k point trip and also agreed that Curaçao is in the Caribbean but said she was being forced by ticketing to give back my fees and points.

What angle do I need to approach this from? Any hints, experiences? Maybe Aegean contacts?
We’ve booked our fishing and everything, REALLY don’t want to try and cancel.

Thanks for any info,

Steve

sokolov

You could try to book a flight to a close "actually Caribbean" island, and then just take a cheap hopper flight or even a ferry over to Curacao. Please note that I have not researched that and have never done that. It is just an exit strategy in case they really try to shaft you this way.

Good luck!

Xandrios

Wow, quite nasty indeed. Your original itinerary was ticketed already too?

The 'Netherlands Antilles' is listed on the Aegean award chart, and one can argue that Curaçao falls into that category. Which falls under "North America"...

irishguy28

I would dispute this in the strongest possible terms.

In the list of geographic regions listed on their website (the link appears on the very last line of the *A redemption table page, they list "Netherlands Antilles" amongst the "North America" region.

Notwithstanding that the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved as an official entity in 2010, Curaçao was a member right up until the end; after 2010 Curaçao (along with Sint Maarten) joined Aruba and The Netherlands as constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The remaining territories of the Netherlands Antilles - Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba - became special municipalities of The Netherlands proper. Aruba had already seceded from the Netherlands Antilles, and become a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, back in 1986.

Based on their table, which hasn't been updated since at least 2010, you must argue that as the Netherlands Antilles is what Curaçao is, you should get the "North America" table rather than "South America". [And besides - Aruba was placed in North America, so it makes no sense to put either Curaçao or Sint Maarten in South America]

NWIFlyer

Sadly, we have no official A3 rep on here to turn to, and knowledge of people sufficiently senior in the airline to intervene here is less than sketchy.

However, the info you've been given by irishguy28 is indeed superb, and gives you a really good platform to make your argument from.

I would add that presumably there is a recording of your initial conversation with the M+B department somewhere in which they stated 42k was the correct amount of miles. The fact that they then took your money and went on to ticket will have created a binding contract, so I would also ask them to review the recording (probably at supervisor level). That really should leave them no-where whatsoever to turn to, and they should honour the initial reservation. In UK law at least, and it's probably similar in other EU countries, they would need to show that the error the agent made in the initial booking was "manifest", and that you knowingly took advantage of that. There is no way whatsoever they are going to be able to win on that if you sued them (not that I'm suggesting it, it's obviously far better to get it resolved with the airline), but it's a possible lever to getting the result you want.

Steve685

Great news, they are going to accept the tickets and allow us to fly. She said they called Air Canada about it and nothing else was needed from my part. Also stated that each airline is free to classify countries as they wish and that it has nothing to do with actual geography.

I knew posting here would get great information to use if it came to battling; such as the "Netherlands Antilles" history lesson. Better it didn't come to that though.

Concerns me if they had called someone else and they had lost their flights. I absolutely refused the miles and fee refund when they called and said we would need to talk to someone else in the matter.

I had browsed other islands and even looked at cheap flights; sadly it is extremely hard to find flights from my small town to the Caribbean with only one connection. We do have a daily flight to Toronto YYZ but finding 2 business class seats on that flight that line up with business seats leaving is the issue.

Thanks again,

Steve

irishguy28

Glad it worked out OK; though what the rep said - which seems to suggest they were "blaming" AC - is irrelevant; each airline is, indeed, free to divide/subdivide the globe into whatever regions they wish for mileage redemption purposes, but regardless of what region AC may consider Curaçao to be, it is clear that A3 considers/considered it to be part of "North America", and that is the only scheme that applies to you, as the A3 customer.

If A3 is no longer happy with this, then they are free to update their table, though the clear implication there is that all islands as far as the coast of Venezuela, i.e. the entire Caribbean, were intended to belong to the "North America" zone.

Enjoy the trip! Curaçao is lovely, but I guess you already know that ^

(I also think that accepting a ticket to a different Caribbean point, and then arranging a flight/boat from there to Curaçao, would have worked out about almost as expensive as buying a ticket from your origin to Curaçao)

headingwest

Glad to hear it. Well done! ^

Jma12

Glad it worked out for you, quite disappointed A3 trying to blame AC for their error. It is their chart that defines the geography, they should update their chart.

irishguy28

No...they really shouldn't!