CanadaDH

Yesterday, I made a change to an Aeroplan booking for travel this coming Saturday. I was travelling in AC Business YYZ-YUL-GVA. Availability opened up, and I changed for 2 First seats on LH, flying YYZ-MUC-GVA.

I've heard that it can take time to get ticketed, and they prioritize based on departure date/time, but is there any risk that it won't eventually ticket and I could lose those seats (and not even have the AC seats I gave up to switch to LH)?

Thanks!

Stranger

I have had reservations lapse because after one week they had not ticketed.

As it happened, the leg in question turned out to still be available. The hard part was convincing the agent that there was a leg missing.

So if close to the date, or close to one week bafter the new reservation was made, it's still not ticketed, better phone them and remind them the thing is becoming urgent.

I fear it's going to go from bad to worse with recent job cuts.

CanadaDH

I'll keep and eye on it and call back again this evening if still not done.

Fortunately, even though they keep playing the recording about higher than normal call volumes and long wait times, I've been getting through to an agent within about 60 seconds each time I call lately.

guessaaa

I can confirm that any changes drop off after a week if the ticket number doesn't change (aka not reticketed). I had this happen twice for the same change before and the third time I insisted that it be reticketed immediately and before I hang up so that the changes don't drop off again. In my case I had a reroute from HKT-PEK-FRA to HKT-ICN-FRA due to a schedule change for HKT-PEK.

CanadaDH

Finally got it ticketed. First spoke with an agent who said she would elevate it to high priority, and would be done within 48 hours. That hardly seemed like high priority.

Called back later, spoke to another agent, who asked to put me on hold for 10 minutes while she spoke to ticketing directly. She also found they had an incorrect credit card number to process the change in taxes (unsure how that happened, since the card hasn't changed since the original booking). After Aeroplan was done with their work, she verified that everything was correct in the Amadeus system with LH.

All sorted out, took a total of about 15 minutes in the end, but it took a total of 5 phone calls to get there. Like so many issues with Aeroplan, the success and ease with which things happen seems to depend on getting a good agent. Today, I had a good one. ^

I was planning on watching to see if any F seats open up for my return flight a month from now, but I'm not sure I want to go through that change process again, especially while I'm away on vacation. I may just keep my J seats on OS for the return flight.

yyz_atc_qq

LH F, especially if you have a long enough lay over so you go landside and walk to the FCT in FRA is worth the effort.

CanadaDH

I'd love to, except I'm connecting through MUC. I think LH stopped flying from YYZ to FRA with an F cabin last fall. I think they use the 744 on that route, which is only J/PY/Y. It's the 747-8 that still has F. Only way I could connect through FRA in F on the return would be to make it a 2-stop flight, and go ZRH-FRA-???-YYZ.

IluvSQ

I always insist on having the tickets issued immed.
I am flying YYZ-PVG this week on an AE reward, and I called a couple of weeks ago
to change the date. The agent told me it was done, and I asked for an email
confirmation while I was on the phone with her. She said she could not since it
needed to be re-ticketed, and it was not done yet. I told her that I had to make
other flight reservations contingent on the change, and wanted the ticketing done
immediately. She called back into ticketing, and it was done 10 minutes later.

I have learned from past experience with AE to always insist on a ticket, not just
a PNR.