Happy

Good for those few lucky souls who have positive experiences with CA F.

The hard products are fine. The soft products are nonexistent, from quality of the F&B to the services,
How can there no meal loaded for F? and they could only find 4 spare dishes for us to choose from? I did not have high expectation on CA, F or not. But we wanted to go to PEK at that time. After the experience I would completely rule out CA - and that is not just for the poor offerings, but also the potential danger of mysteriously canceled booking on their F long haul flights because there are inside collusion of selling award seats - when UA ticketed award bookings were vulnerable from such stealing.

https://www.travelcodex.com/more-pro...award-flights/

This remains an ongoing problem since 2016 or even earlier than that,. Never is really resolved because Guess What, it is inside job!

Just a few months ago I read on a Chinese site, someone booked his parents on CA F from China to US. Everything looked fine, until less than a week before departure he got an email "confirming" his cancellation of those bookings! Needless to say he had not canceled anything - the reservations were canceled from inside China, directly into the GDS system... He had to scramble to find alternatives. For that horror show he wrote a Heads Up titled as loosely translated to English "If you value your life, stay away from Air China" to document his very stressful experiences and the tremendous efforts he needed to find seats on NH so his parents could still leave on schedule. Oh, the miles from the canceled bookings were not recoverable due to some technical reasons for which he was told but I forgot what they were.

If you have a chance to modify your itinerary, you would probably be better off to swap out CA.

Shenanigans

I can certainly attest to this. We had the misfortune of one of these princesses on BKK-CDG a few years ago and without any notice in advance. Our pre-selected seats were changed to accommodate her and her entourage which filled all but three seats in F. Many others were in Business. The front lav was off-limits and traffic back and forth was ridiculous. As well, we were certainly not treated as First Class passengers in the presence of someone so special and all of her minions. My recollection after complaining was a refund of some points but don't ask me how many as I don't remember. Not the experience we had previously had in F with TG.

jix

Is US-Canada-US-Asia allowed as a one way aeroplan booking, assuming the stopover time is overnight at Canada and the first leg US-Canada mileage is insignificant.

canadiancow

Yes, just don't do it at BOS, or bad things will happen.

Though the overnight should make things easier.

Happy

What are the reasons not to do it at BOS, and what bad things will happen? Care to give more details?

TTC192Rocket

Booked a relatively simple mini-RTW recently

YYZ-TPE - BR J
TPE-HKG - BR J (789)
HKG-BKK MS (A333, but I believe I read somewhere that MS's new 789 will ply this route during the summer months)
BKK-CAI - MS J (same plane as above)
CAI-ATH - A3 J
ATH-MUC - A3 J
MUC-YYZ - AC J

Taxes and fees were $266-ish. Glad to be able to fly 2 new-to-me airlines.

canadiancow

Those agents have always hassled me about it, accusing my of cabotage (or mispronouncing it sabotage). Sometimes it only happens when you interact with them, other times it's proactive on their part.

The only other station I've seen care is YUL, but they were refusing to TICKET something like BOS-YUL-LAS, whereas BOS doesn't like already-ticketed reservations either.

Happy

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

For the poster's question on US-Canada (overnight layover)-US-Asia - what might be the possible routes that would work? assuming the poster wants to use BR to Asia...

Coasttocoaster

Longtime lurker who has booked his first reward:

YUL-YYC AC J
YYC-NRT AC J stop
HND-GMP ANA J destination
GMP-PEK OZ J
PEK-ZRH LX J stop
ZRH-YUL LX J

Two tickets at 150,000 miles each and $458 per person in taxes and fees, plus call centre fee

May switch the departure for United Polaris if something nice comes up.

Thanks to all here for their contributions over the years! Merci beaucoup!

yscleo

Looking to book RTW for my wife and I for
YYZ-BRU-FRA
FRA-ICN
ICN-HNL (likely via NRT)
HNL-YYZ (probably via SFO or DEN)

If I'd like to use my 75k points and my wife's 75k points, that means two booking/locators. Would the ae agent be able to work on two locators at the same time, or the agent would need to book one, and after that finishes then book the second one?

rankourabu

Tell the agent to work on it together, they can split it just before payment. Both account holders will need to be present on the phone for that.

yscleo

Do you mean to ask the agent to do one booking for 2 people until the entire trip is confirmed, then split into 2 locators, then separate payments? That would be great, my wife pays with her new TD ae visa card (need to spend $1k to get bonus), and I with my TD ae card.

rankourabu

Advise the agent miles will be coming out of 2 accounts, as will payment, at the start of the call.
That will ensure they grab two seats from the start (I dont know if they make two separate PNRs from the start, or split later)
At the end, they will ask each of you for account info and payment.

canadiancow

Can they keep it on one PNR if they split payment?

I've only tried this once, but they denied it, because I was using IKK (though the final ticketed itinerary had no AC after LH F opened).

yscleo

That'd be great if they can keep one PNR, but have I pay my seats and my wife pay her seats, rather than two PNRs and have to link them. One PNR makes it so much easier when getting seat assignments, or any other issues.