Aeroplan Fee Scam
 

My buddy went to aeroplan.com to book a simple, straight-forward YUL-LGA/EWR-YUL. He is given several flight options, it confirms that he can get a Priority Reward as SE, he hits "Book", and keeps getting "we are unable to book this itinerary online", and to call the res centre...where, despite this message, and after waiting an interminably long time, they keep saying "not our problem", and ding him for a service fee.
What a profitable scam...have a crappy website maintained by the Troll Family in Outer Mongolia, that can't book this and can't book that...and then charge a service fee for the privilege of their incompetence and ineptitude. What a way to encourage a member to stay loyal. Bad enough he spent as much time on the phone as the flight itself will take...but then to tell him, "tough luck"...PO, AC and Aeroplan.

Maybe he should book that route on Delta or Southwest next time...:D

And how is your response helpful?
Sounds like a valid beef.

Update
 

I told him the universal proviso of call centres...call back and speak to somebody else. Sure enough he did...and the next person he talked to at Vancouver Centre waived the fee without argument once he read the error message he received...which the previous agent AND Supervisor could have done IF they had wanted to be customer-oriented.

Customers?

We are suckers, not customers.

Our name is not Amex, Hertz, etc.

I fully agree that the booking fees are a little absurd if it´s impossible to make the booking on the AP or AC website.

I recently had some issues with a booking on the AC website, called the res line, got a very helpful agent who tried solving the issue and finally gave in and booked the flights on the phone without charging the telephone booking fee.

Was very impressed and actually sent in a compliment to AC about the great service the agent provided.
(Of course one could argue it´s a little sad that taking repsonsibility for an issue is worthy of a compliment note, but that´s another story)

Don't believe AC charges a fee anymore when booking over the phone. Aeroplan still does though.

Interesting, I was in Europe when I made the booking so called the regional call center. They wanted 40 Euros / about $50 for a booking made over the phone.

So the Canadian/US call centres don´t charge a booking fee anymore?

I came across the NYC - JFK/EWR/LGA 'system glitch' about 2 months ago and the lead agent I spoke with at Aeroplan was apologetic and explained that they new 'enhancements' were causing issues but this one of co-terminals is beyond the website's capabilities. She was great, and waived the $30 fee as one-time exception which I appreciated but why can ANA get it right quite easily and AP manage to cause grief and then blame us when we call in?

Lately, I have been getting error message on many searches and told to call in which is futile as I've posted before. The PEI out sourced call centre needs to be closed, they are horrible.

They presumably removed all booking fees since May 2009, including booking/changes done through local/regional call centers.

If you paid the fee, I'd definitely get in touch with AC and demand a refund!

P.s: Congrats on the Mod status. ^ Couldn't think of a better person for the job.

Thank´s! :)

No, I didn´t end up paying the fee as the first agent said I´d have to pay the fee despite the AC site error, so did the usual trick: hang up politely, call again and found a nice agent who waived the fee.

Do you happen to have alink to the announcement on the AC website that AC doesn´t charge any booking fees? May come in handy...

I've run into this issue before. The problem is with multi-city bookings. The AP website will let you look at a ticket, but will not allow you to book it. You have to call in and pay the booking fee. :(

Thank´s! The website states "Air Canada is eliminating its call-centre booking fees when you call from anywhere in North America", so I guess that means that call centers outside NA still charge booking fees (as reported above, this was my experience calling the British and German call centers)?

You can use skype and make the 1-800 call for free. Also I don't think the HK centre charges fees.