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The Air Canada Stopover Hotel Program [likely terminated as of early 2022]

The Air Canada Stopover Hotel Program [likely terminated as of early 2022]

Old Jan 11, 2020, 8:28 am
  #196  
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 2
Also tried calling ACV, gave up after 2 hours on hold. Tried the contact form listed here, which worked - received a response within an hour but told me my itinerary wasn't eligible I need to contact AIr Canada (even though booking in J). Contacted Air Canada, they confirmed and noted on my file the itinerary as eligible, tried to contact Air Canada Vacations back, again 1.5 hours on hold and had to disconnect. Tried the form again last week - no response.

This program is broken. I just booked a hotel on my own dime.
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Old Jan 11, 2020, 8:42 am
  #197  
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Originally Posted by paulyeg
Also tried calling ACV, gave up after 2 hours on hold. Tried the contact form listed here, which worked - received a response within an hour but told me my itinerary wasn't eligible I need to contact AIr Canada (even though booking in J). Contacted Air Canada, they confirmed and noted on my file the itinerary as eligible, tried to contact Air Canada Vacations back, again 1.5 hours on hold and had to disconnect. Tried the form again last week - no response.

This program is broken. I just booked a hotel on my own dime.
What reason did they give for the itinerary being ineligible? Happened to me and they were right. If AC confirm they are wrong, I would pursue.

Sounds ike the whole AC business is overloaded by the migration to Amadeus; seems they saw it as strictly IT but failed to anticipate that there would be significant repercussions everywher, and now everyone is learning, slowly and painfully. silos and lack of vision at the top?
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Old Jan 11, 2020, 10:09 am
  #198  
 
Join Date: May 2012
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Originally Posted by Stranger
What reason did they give for the itinerary being ineligible? Happened to me and they were right. If AC confirm they are wrong, I would pursue.

Sounds ike the whole AC business is overloaded by the migration to Amadeus; seems they saw it as strictly IT but failed to anticipate that there would be significant repercussions everywher, and now everyone is learning, slowly and painfully. silos and lack of vision at the top?
Having same Experience. They reply to email and say AC needs to be called to add some marker to file. Then when email to say done they tell you to call in to a number which doesnt accept calls or eventually does and on hold for hours and you give up. Even if you get them nothing available (which is odd given no one can get through to book!)
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Old Jan 14, 2020, 2:09 pm
  #199  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
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Looking for clarification.

Flying a multi-city (open jaw) itinerary - so I presumed NOT eligible for hotel stopover given the terms and conditions state that...
YXC - YVR - ICN - TPE (in PE). 15 hour overnight layover in YVR before flying to ICN then TPE
NRT - YVR - YXC (Y)

However, my electronic itinerary says "HHTL - HOTEL STOPOVER PROGRAM - CONFIRMED"

Error on their part? Am I then eligible / worth trying, or will they pick up on it right away?
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Old Jan 17, 2020, 9:29 am
  #200  
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 2,494
Originally Posted by random.parts
Their contact form vacations.aircanada.com/en/contact-us-form received the quickest response for me.

I tried the email listed upthread and was on hold for over 2 hours before giving up and finding the above contact form. Note that their reply email may end up in the spam/junk mail box for whatever reason.

edit: they eventually replied to the email, a bit over a week later. The form was same day.
Yeah, email replies are super delayed

Originally Posted by DrunkCargo
Were you even able to call? The stopover link now redirects here: https://vacations.aircanada.com/c/503.html, which lists 1 800-296-3408, which seems to be out of service when I attempt to call it using various phones. To make things worse, this is the number AC Vacations (hotels?) gives as the number to call DURING travel.

All three of these numbers go to an "out of service" message (not busy, not queue):
866-529-2079
833-752-2210
866-264-7758
800-296-3408

Is this Amadeus fallout or normal for ACV?
This is worse than normal.

Originally Posted by paulyeg
Also tried calling ACV, gave up after 2 hours on hold. Tried the contact form listed here, which worked - received a response within an hour but told me my itinerary wasn't eligible I need to contact AIr Canada (even though booking in J). Contacted Air Canada, they confirmed and noted on my file the itinerary as eligible, tried to contact Air Canada Vacations back, again 1.5 hours on hold and had to disconnect. Tried the form again last week - no response.

This program is broken. I just booked a hotel on my own dime.
More details on my story, they had to check if I was eligible, then later emailed back saying I was eligible, but that they were full.

Originally Posted by yyznomad
Six days...! It's like they waited until they were out of rooms to tell you they were out of rooms.
Yes, exactly, and not even an option to pay a few dollars to go to a different spot. Very disappointing. My experience with this program is 1 out of 4 now.
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Old Jan 29, 2020, 1:12 pm
  #201  
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: Air Canada A35K, Bonvoy Platinum
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Hi all, I was wondering if anyone can clarify whether Aeroplan reservations are eligible for this. Reading through this thread is a bit confusing as there are conflicting reports, some of which are just based on the language in the T+C rather than personal experience. Wondering if anyone has successfully gotten a free hotel on an Aeroplan booking?

I have a one-way booking in I (Aeroplan Business) that goes YXU-YYZ-YVR-SEA-HND. First three flights are on AC metal, last one on ANA. Layovers in YVR and SEA are both overnight 20+ hours. Itinerary was booked pre-Amadeus by feeding segments over the phone (ie. the long layovers were intentionally crafted by me). I'm wondering if I can score a free hotel for my night in Vancouver.
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Old Jan 29, 2020, 1:41 pm
  #202  
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Originally Posted by etgohomeok
Hi all, I was wondering if anyone can clarify whether Aeroplan reservations are eligible for this. Reading through this thread is a bit confusing as there are conflicting reports, some of which are just based on the language in the T+C rather than personal experience. Wondering if anyone has successfully gotten a free hotel on an Aeroplan booking?

I have a one-way booking in I (Aeroplan Business) that goes YXU-YYZ-YVR-SEA-HND. First three flights are on AC metal, last one on ANA. Layovers in YVR and SEA are both overnight 20+ hours. Itinerary was booked pre-Amadeus by feeding segments over the phone (ie. the long layovers were intentionally crafted by me). I'm wondering if I can score a free hotel for my night in Vancouver.
I don't berlieve either Aeroplan or one way itinerary are eligible. Nor are itineraries with open jaws BTW.
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Old Jan 29, 2020, 2:07 pm
  #203  
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: Air Canada A35K, Bonvoy Platinum
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Originally Posted by Stranger
I don't berlieve either Aeroplan or one way itinerary are eligible. Nor are itineraries with open jaws BTW.
It does say on the website that one-way bookings are eligible, and there are no discontinuities in my routing (or stops > 24 hours) so I believe that my itinerary is a one-way booking and not multi-city?

WRT Aeroplan bookings not being eligible, is that based on any confirmed reports of people trying to book a hotel through this program and being rejected due to the booking being a reward booking?

If nobody has tried yet then I'm happy to be the DP I want to see here.
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Old Feb 16, 2020, 10:32 am
  #204  
 
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I received e-mail reply about my itinerary eligibility in a matter of minutes today. I used the contact form on Vacations website.
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Old Feb 17, 2020, 2:36 am
  #205  
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I just made a change to an itinerary that makes it eligible, but there's no HHTL remark on the new booking email. I'll send an email and see what they say. That being said, I need the Fairmont YVR (0640 flight, so I want to be in-terminal), so I'll likely have to just book it myself.

Edit: they said I have to call

Last edited by canadiancow; Feb 17, 2020 at 4:23 am
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Old Mar 8, 2020, 9:41 am
  #206  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
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DJ Bitterbarn Hey when you say you're the centre of the demographic. What are you trying to with the stopover? Being a person who also likes a stop over. I've been working on a direct flight to a cheap multi-flight stopover app so wondering what other use cases there are.
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Old May 20, 2020, 12:22 am
  #207  
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Are non-014 tickets eligible? I have an entirely AC-operated, entirely UA-marketed booking, on 016 stock, and I'm debating rescheduling the SFO-YVR/YYZ flight if I can get a free hotel.
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Old May 20, 2020, 10:13 am
  #208  
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Originally Posted by canadiancow
Are non-014 tickets eligible? I have an entirely AC-operated, entirely UA-marketed booking, on 016 stock, and I'm debating rescheduling the SFO-YVR/YYZ flight if I can get a free hotel.
The T&C say the booking has to be purchased on ac.com or through a TA. I think what they're trying to get at is that it needs to be on AC stock.

But you can easily check whether you're eligible by entering your PNR on the website. Have you tried that?

I would be skeptical that the type of hotels you would want would be available though. When I've looked at it the few times I've been eligible, it has been offering me hotels way off the airport - I think I even posted about it offering me a hotel in Niagara Falls somewhere upthread - or the one time it had the T3 Sheraton, it was more than I could book it for through SPG.
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Old May 20, 2020, 11:12 am
  #209  
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Originally Posted by Adam Smith
The T&C say the booking has to be purchased on ac.com or through a TA. I think what they're trying to get at is that it needs to be on AC stock.
Then why can't they just say that? How many times in the past week have poorly written AC T&C annoyed me...

You can certainly argue whether UA.com counts as a "travel agent", but I could have booked this exact itinerary through an actual TA (but ... why would I?).

Originally Posted by Adam Smith
But you can easily check whether you're eligible by entering your PNR on the website. Have you tried that?
"I'm debating rescheduling the SFO-YVR/YYZ flight if I can get a free hotel."

The ticket, as booked, is not eligible. If UA marketed AC flights on 016 stock are eligible, I would rebook it to have ~18 hours in YYZ. If not, I'm content leaving it as is.

Originally Posted by Adam Smith
I would be skeptical that the type of hotels you would want would be available though. When I've looked at it the few times I've been eligible, it has been offering me hotels way off the airport - I think I even posted about it offering me a hotel in Niagara Falls somewhere upthread - or the one time it had the T3 Sheraton, it was more than I could book it for through SPG.
My goal would be to land in YYZ, get some free sleep, then spend the next morning/afternoon with friends and family who live around YYZ. I got the Holiday Inn Toronto International
Airport. It certainly wasn't the Sheraton Gateway, but it was perfectly acceptable for my needs. Your examples certainly don't sound great though.
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Old May 21, 2020, 11:57 am
  #210  
 
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I've had the T3 Sheraton offered for either very cheap or free back in 2019. So it does happen...
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