garyschmitt

I spoke to a 3rd Air Canada CSR to try to reserve a flight. Even though every leg from A to B involves AC flights, the rep refused to book my trip because return segments used United Airlines. He said I must use AC flights for the return trip also, and refused to book the flight. He tried to convince me to return on AC flights that would be 8 hours longer.

Is it accurate that AC can only book flights that are 100% AC? Are AC's partnerships really this weak? He told me I needed to use a travel agent -- even though AC would be bringing me overseas end to end on the way there.

This is my 3rd attempt to book a flight from AC. My first attempt was with a CSR who refused my itinerary because it did not begin or end in Canada (destination is the US).

My 2nd attempt was with a CSR who could not make my flights class K (despite ITA finding class K flights).

It's almost tempting to book the trip through United, but they have a $25 booking fee. I might rather go with an entirely different alliance on general principal.

jarusoba

I almost always book AC fares which include other airlines. Most of my itineraries don't begin in Canada either.

And I use AC phone reservation most of the time. Not problems there.

jlisi984

I know for LH it's at least one long-haul. Same with CO. Have you tried expedia and orbitz?

garyschmitt

Thanks for the feedback. The 4th rep I spoke to did not hassle me about the return trip using non-AC airlines. However, he told me that the United flight I wanted was sold out at the price I wanted, and he said I would have to pay more for the same flight I'm requesting, or use AC flights on the return as well (the AC flights take ~4-5 hours more of my time).

jlisi984- i tried to book online but it's quite difficult. I have particular requirements. I don't think I'll be able to find this itinerary on a site that sells tickets.

Dorian

I almost believe they or you misunderstood....or maybe some new 'sales tactic' going on.

I can't even count the number of flights I've booked via AC that involved other airlines.

toflyer

I would be VERY curious to know what this requirement is - because I thought my itineraries are complicated and I have always been able to ticket using expedia/orbitz.

B1

Then why not just book it through United.com's Canadian web site? They have no problem booking Air Canada and you get seat reservations at no charge. Luggage fees depend on the airline that is doing the initial flight. United charges for phone reservations as does AC.

garyschmitt

I need a 4-6 hour layover in one city along the way, mid-day, and with relatively short layovers everywhere else. All the sites I have searched seem to be designed to give the first connection possible. I've never found a site with ticket sales that allows for min layover specifications.

Ace Cdn

In my opinion considering how much time you already have apparently spent trying to book this I would just have eaten the $25.00 booking fee rather than spend so much time on the phone.

jlisi984

Call United, try to book with them. A travel agent would cost even more then their phone fee.

Yes, AC doesn't always have access to all booking classes on other airlines. Once I tried doing FRA-CDG in H, and they couldn't, they could only see S, K, W classes (ie the cheaper ones). Same with other airlines.

ABG

Amen..... not to mention the time it takes to start 3 FT threads about his trip

wwtsang

AC doesn't charge for phone reservations... AP does on the other hand

daniellam

It is better to book with a live travel agent (eg. I sometimes the consumer branch of my corporate trave agent).

The GDS systems used by the travel agents tend to show better availability on all carriers.

Airlines tend to have better "participation" with the GDS systems compared to with other carriers.

garyschmitt

United has the same visibility problem that you're saying AC has, I've discovered. I also tried Lufthansa, who did not even have visibility to some of their own flights, which I found quite ironic. I eventually solved my problem.

When booking an unusual route in the future, I'll start by calling the airlines with free phone booking (with an understanding that they only have marginal visibility to the database). If they don't see a flight I'm after, I'll then go straight to a travel agent without wasting time and money on airlines that have partial access and who still charge a fee. Travel agents do indeed seem to have better database access.

Stranger

I would actually still start with airlines web sites, and with matrix, before phoning. Odds are that the agent on the phone will tell you the same crap as the web site, but maybe not.

Matrix should tell you good stuff. If you find a good itinerary on Matrix, you can try spoon-feeding it to the agent on the phone. Who may or may not find the same fare. If he does not and if he is a good one, he might forward your request to their fare desk. These are the people who understand the issue.

I once needed a ticket initiating in PEK, to Canada, then back to NRT, stopover, and finally from NRT to CAN. I wanted a latitude fare. Would not price on aircanada.com. Checking on expedia, they would price me a supposedly changeable fare at an acceptable price, about 3k. I seem to remember I could not get a reasonable itinerary on Matrix. Anyway, I was suspicious. Phoning Expedia, there was no way their "agent" could tell me what fare this was, "short of purchasing it." Phoning AC, the agent quoted me something like 6k.

I found I could buy a similar itinerary, but with last leg NRT-PEK on aircanada.com, at a price comparable to expedia. Somehow the leg from Canada to NRT priced in Y. I bought it, thinking (1) I could always get a separate ticket fairly cheap PEK-CAN, and (2) this was changeable and refundable.

Couple of days later, I phoned AC again, asking if they could change the last leg to CAN instead of PEK. Obviously that was beyond what the agent could do. So he passed my request to the fares desk. The actually came back with a cheaper itinerary, "why did you book the leg to NRT in Y instead of B?"

Well, duh, because aircanada.com mysteriously did... (No, I did not say, just kept my mouth shut.)