jonecasey

I am in the process of trying to book a Lufstansa first class award (less than 14 days out). I've been watching ANA, United, and Aeroplan site for the seats to open for the flight I'm trying to take which is currently sitting at F4. Last nite availability showed up on the ANA site and United site, but Aeroplan still didn't show any seats in first. Tried calling Aeroplan and the agent didn't see anything either. This morning ANA and United both still show 1 seat and again Aeroplan both web and agent don't show a seat.

The day before and day after all 3 ANA, United, and Aeroplan show availability on the same flight so it doesn't seem like the space is being blocked. Has anyone else experienced this where ANA and United show Lufstansa first and Aeroplan does not?

pewpew

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BB10; Touch) AppleWebKit/537.35+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.3.1.2576 Mobile Safari/537.35+)

LH can choose to whom and even when and where (POS) it shows availability.

jonecasey

Really, that is the first I've heard of that, very interesting. So LH has decided to make space available to some Star A partners (at least United and ANA) but not to Aeroplan. I checked this same route on multiple other days an the availability matches between the 3 ANA, United, and Aeroplan. Also on the same day there is availability out of other US cities in LH F that matches between all 3. This is the only place I don't see matching availability and it happens to be the flight I need!

In past cases, does LH eventually open the space to everyone if it is booked right away?

300rwhp

id suggest the long sell language but i could be wrong

allbrosca

I have seen something similar when I was trying to book YYZ-FRA in F approximately 2 years ago 14 days out. It was back in the day when there was a lot of phantom availability on LH so agents had a lot of experience trying to book LH flights that weren't there. I saw it and called in and the agent couldn't find it but he could see it 11, 12 days out etc. I called in every day until the agent could see it. My recollection was it was 10 days out but I did eventually get it.

jonecasey

I tried asking the agent to long sell but they didn't seem to like that idea, suggested that Aeroplan doesn't have the same availability as the other carriers and they only "buy" some seats. I didn't buy this, but I have not found an agent yet who would try long selling. Has anyone had luck doing this on Lufstansa?

superangrypenguin

Side note: Why are you curious that the agent was fibbing?

It makes sense to me. The airline releases inventory (whenever they choose to), and then Aimia has to then buy those seats. At least, that's the way I've always understood it.

If Aimia chooses not to buy those seats, then we have no access to redeem them.

pitz

My understanding is that the deal between AC and Aeroplan entitles Aeroplan to so many redemptions per year in consideration of whatever fee Aeroplan pays. Its obviously AC's preference to have these redemptions on the least costly flights, hence, busy flights that have any expectation of selling out will have almost no inventory. For the Star Alliance carriers, effectively redemptions are netted out to zero and no money actually trades hands. My best guess is that this is all calculated between the carriers using the published full-Y and full-J fares (which almost nobody pays anymore, but are extensively used as the reference fares for inter-carrier pricing agreements).

So effectively redemptions on LH by AC's customers must match LH customers' redemptions on AC. Imbalances are rectified simply through inventory reductions. The balance between LH and AC can very well be different than that of LH and UA, for instance. With YYZ-DXB and YYZ-DEL/BOM coming in the future on AC, there might be less pressure on LH redemptions. Likewise YVR-BNE might open up some (scarce) space on NZ and SQ.

jonecasey

It appears that must be what is happening. I am seeing the same flight the day before and day after show up through Aeropoan (also on united and ANA) but for some reason this flight that I am looking to book shows up with space on ANA and United but not with Aeroplan so they must for some reason not be releasing this specific flight. It's like they are individually starnet blocking.

pewpew

I'll believe that when I see it

TelFunku

What about, say, LH vs AV? With the whole Lifemiles feeding frenzy that went on for years was there ever a chance of an equilibrium?

daniellam

Airlines typically control POS (Point of Sale) availability by the country of sale (country the booking terminal [airline's office ID] is located).

UA uses a US point of sale, and NH uses a Japan point of sale.

While Aeroplan in Canada (website and call center uses a Canadian office ID on AC's system) uses a Canadian point of sale.

Has anyone considered calling Aeroplan in Japan (if they have a number there) to see if there is availability? The agents in Japan would probably have access to the same availability as you see on NH's website since they are a Japan point of sale as opposed to Canadian point of sale.

Perhaps LH things Canada is a "lower yield" market while US/Japan are higher yielding markets (since customers in US/Japan markets are typically UA and NH members and whose programs have higher redemption rates in their programs) so they release less availability to Canada?

Deathray

This has happened to me on many ocassions. I think its more a result of AE IT incompetence than anything else....sometimes it takes more time for the AE IT system to sync than it takes everyone else (and even then it seems selective at times).

The way I usually handle it is that I insist to the agent that I see the flight when doing a point to point search on the aeroplane website (even though I can't). After a couple minutes of hand ringing they eventually get on line with someone in their support department who knows what they're doing. That has worked for me every time so far....last time was in April this year.

daniellam

Although the changes of this happening is very very slim...but just my wishful thinking, this is another reason for AC/Aeroplan to ditch their current reservations system and switch to Amadeus.

Amadeus is used by a handful of other *A carriers as their reservation system. This way, there would be no delay/time lag in seat availability since it is the same system (not taking into account POS restrictions)!

why fly

star blocking by AC has been going on for years.