FlyerTalker70

This is a complete legal itinerary (albeit not the most ambitious). Checking the Aeroplan site it will build out the itinerary for you. However, a difficulty is the segment between ATH and DBV where availability is limited (at least online). You could make use of an open jaw (see below) so flying something like YVR -> ATH then say CDG->YVR.

Here are the rules Aeroplan sets out for international award bookings:
You can either have 2 stopovers between your origin and destination or 1 stopover and 1 open jaw.

To give you a recent example of how I've used this trick, I booked the following for 80,000 miles in economy (same number of points required to travel roundtrip in economy between YYZ and DXB):
1) YYZ -> DXB
2) DXB -> CAI
3) CAI -> ZRH
4) ZRH -> YYZ

To make that booking I had to book it over the phone, where I was charged a $30 booking fee. If booking J for a family I'd highly recommend this over doing it online since the agents can often find availability or routings you won't see on the Aeroplan site (the itinerary . To avoid the nasty surprise of taxes and fees you need to avoid certain airlines like Air Canada and Lufthansa (see here). From a routing standpoint that means you want to be flying either United, Swiss, Croatian, Aegean, etc to get you to where you want to be. On a side note, as an E50K there should be no taxes & fees for AC flights within Canada/US so they may not charge you taxes & fees on AC segments that lay directly inside North America (i.e. YVR -> EWR on AC). If that is the case then the itinerary could be built out as follows:

1) YVR -> EWR on AC (signature 787 experience)
2) EWR -> FRA on UA
3) FRA -> ATH on A3

Another example using this approach would be:
1) YVR -> YUL on AC (signature 787 experience)
2) YUL -> ZRH on LX
3) ZRH -> ATH on LX

(1-3 would count as one direction of travel so you'd be free to have 2 stopovers or 1 stopover and a open jaw). Do the opposite to return back to YVR. Between YVR and ATH there's a lot to explore and stopover for free (here are some ideas):

• San Francisco
• Chicago
• New York
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• London, England
• Paris
• Madrid
• Barcelona
• Rome
• Zurich
• Copenhagen
• Frankfurt
• Vienna

Of course all of these routings and suggestions are hypothetical and depend on seat availability at time of booking which can be especially challenging if travelling with family in tow. You may want to look into a tool like ExpertFlyer which will allow you to scan out the award availability at a much larger scale than a single query on the Aeroplan site. Also speaking with a phone agent can be useful in pinpointing the ideal itinerary. Aeroplan agents don't charge any fee if you call and just ask them a bunch of questions on availability (i.e. they only charge if you make an actual booking). I've used this trick on several occasions to make tricky bookings like YOW -> YFB on Canadian North where availability is notorious to find even with tools like ExpertFlyer.

Hope that provides some insight.

Safe Travels,

​​​​​​​James

mk7735

Thanks!! Appreciate the help!

coltonatx

I did a quick search but can't quite find an answer.

I secured ORD-FRA-GLA in LH F and booked it as a OW bc I couldn't find a return segment.

A feasible return itinerary finally appeared. Is it feasible for me to add a return segment, turn my original booking into a RT and take advantage of the free stop overs?

What are the fees incurred?

peroorim

chx1975

I just saw something weird and I am at a complete loss as how to continue: I had a YVR-LHR-VIE flight with much lower YQ than YVR-LHR and since this happens with paid fares, that was good. I was lining up the return flight and when I refreshed it jumped to the YVR-LHR YQ! Should I wait? Which one is the fluke?

tdot_guy

Does anyone know if Swiss releases seats in intervals?
I am looking for late November flights and had one until last week(YUL-ZRH) I waited too long and lost it .
Is it worth waiting ?

FlyerTalker70

Have you looked into UA? I find they tend to have more availability on that route and, like LX, don't charge any YQ for the privilege of flying them. Flying through to ZRH on UA is a breeze (i.e. bags will check through to ZRH) thanks to pre-clearance. On the way back, it might be a pain to fly them since you have to clear immigration stateside, recheck bags, re-clear security, etc. Perhaps that leg could be the one operated by LX?

Also are you flying in Y or J? Consensus from FT community is that bulk of J availability on the LH Group (incl LX) tends to be released within the last 2-3 weeks.

Finally, if you're *A Gold (i.e. AC E50,E750,SE) or travelling in J you'll have access to the AC Maple Leaf Lounge at YUL and Swiss lounge at ZRH. The LX lounge at ZRH is one of the best European *A lounges I've been to (i.e. good food spread including omelette station with chef during morning grind).

Safe Travels,

James

tdot_guy

I'm looking for business , I collect miles with Aeroplan so cant use UA( if thats what u meant ) Also I dont see any UA reward ticket on aeroplan . I have heard about the 2 week rule too but its for F on LH . For Swiss it was showing availability few days ago.

briantoronto

Swiss availability is up and down as of late due to Aeroplan IT more than anything, it appears. It was back a couple days ago but appears to be gone again. Searching for GVA-ZRH is a good measure of this. If you can't see that route on Aeroplan, you know things are just not working.

tdot_guy

You guys are right , its available as Business saver on united, but when I called them they said they dont see anything . so frustrating. If its available on business saver on UA I would hope it should be available on Aeroplan

FlyerTalker70

Good news! There are some non-stop flights between YUL and ZRH. I've just checked my MilagePlus account and see the following:



Other possible dates include Sunday Nov 18, Sun Nov 25, Tues Nov 27, Wed Nov 28, and Fri Nov 30. You might be asking yourself, "What does United's availability have anything to do with Aeroplan?" Well, it turns out that *A partners like AC and UA all draw from the same fare availability/buckets. So if you see something crop up on a partner airline's program (in Saver, I,) you can generally request that from your program. Hence, it seems like Aeroplan's IT systems have messed up here. I'd strongly recommend calling Aeroplan and requesting them to book you on one of those flights with availability. Sure you'll pay a small phone booking fee but you'll guarantee you've got a J seat rather than sitting around and praying you end up getting one in the end. Heck, you might even get the agent to waive the fee since the website doesn't let you book it!

Hope that provides some insight.

Safe Travels,

James

tdot_guy

Thank you, the agent I called did not help, she said she does not see any thing I'll try again

FlyerTalker70

tdot_guy

So the agent I spoke to just now told me that they have temporarily removed SAS, SWISS and ANA from their booking tool as "Something is broken" , according to him no one can book on those airlines through Aeroplan/AC . He said to keep checking and it might ok by monday.

jc94