darkchild

I am hoping to get some ideas here.

I booked a business class ticket with Aeroplan customer service on Tuesday. The ticket has 6 segments and 3 of them are with Air China.

I tried to confirm my seats with Air China yesterday and today, and finally they told me this was an "open" ticket and my seats were not confirmed, and asked me to call Aeroplan about this.

I called Aeroplan and they basically said it was a mistake and this ticket should not even be issued in the first place.

The supervisor offered me 2 solutions: either refund or they just get me to Beijing and I figure out everything else.

What should I do? Is there nothing to protect the passengers? My trip is in 2 weeks.

Thanks everyone for your help!

canadiancow

Call back and tell them that they sold you a ticket to get you to [destination], and it is their responsibility to get you there.

yyz_atc_qq

Politely but strongly request to speak to a supervisor. A contract is a contract. Assuming you have an e-ticket receipt with a ticket number showing segments as originally booked, they are responsible to get you to your ticketed destination.

Sean Peever

+1

Often1

OP - Before doing anything, please check that you have an e-ticket receipt (not simply an itinerary or other document) which shows that each of the CA segments was actually ticketed.

Generally, carriers have 72 hours to accept and confirm and yours appears to be within 48 hours. While it is entirely possible that CA had confirmed, until you know that, don't go off half-cocked and start making demands.

If the ticket was issued, the question is what is the mistake and why should it not have been issued?

darkchild

Yes, I have an e-ticket itinerary/receipt, a PDF that is 6-page. And I have the 13-digit ticket number.

I spoke with the supervisor and he said my booking was actually in a queue that they planned to call back. And the reason they cannot do it is because "Air China's connection to their system is stopped" and they specifically tell agents to not book Air China flights.

So should I wait till it's after 72 hours, will Air China confirm the seats after?

yyz_atc_qq

You have a contract, and they need to uphold their part. Either they find award space elsewhere or they buy revenue space.

darkchild

Thanks! I will use these pointers. They keep on saying it's on Air China, but Air China is Star Alliance...

sbm12

Doesn't really matter.

Sean Peever

Star Alliance is actually irrelevant. If their system sold you a ticket on AA that you have a e-ticket number for, receipt, etc they need to honour it.

RealHJ

OP: I had the same issue with a UA ticketed CA award last year. Long story short, there's likely no way to fix it. Make alternate travel plans and just get a refund on this from AC, and also come compensation. If needed, make a formal complaint of AC failure to honour its ticket with the Canadian equivalent of DoT. But first and foremost, book alternate flights ASAP (or the same CA flights if available using UA miles, that is now safe to book CA awards).

Longer version:
I had two CA flights booked and ticketed with UA back last fall. CA could see it by the ticket # but there was no record (PNR) created on their end actually taking up the available seats, so they canceled the ticket with UA. I got no refund, no notification; it just didn't exist anymore. Took a long fight with UA, escalation to DoT, and several months overall, to get a refund and some compensation for this failure of UA to properly reserve it (it was ticketed, but no PNR ever created with CA) and then UA allowing CA to cancel my res without my authorization and without any notification, refund, nothing. (Thankfully I was able to book a flight on MU a day later, and get UA to also cover the extra night hotel that was necessitated as a result of this.)

I did get my issue escalated higher up at UA, and a few months later they had it fixed and now are able to ticket CA properly, CA can see the record, do seat assignments, etc., so now with UA it's safe to book CA awards again. They recognized the problem and fixed it. But AC and LH and AV obviously have not yet.. though that's a different issue, as they don't even show CA inventory, vs. UA last year would sometimes show it and allow to book it, only not to ticket it properly (which is what it seems like AC was doing, so they pulled all CA inventory to avoid that now a while ago, I suspect - same as UA did back later last fall).

So, I think that your issue likely is that while AC ticketed it, the CA PNR was never created on the CA end, so it's not associated with any PNR on CA end, and thus CA has no record of the flight being booked (even though it is ticketed by AC, CA doesn't have the ticket properly assoc. with a PNR, as one doesn't exist for it). That is what was the problem with UA and CA flights back last year. So happened to many, not just me. I suspect CA changed how they operate, but failed to tell others in *A, and so the process has been broken (perhaps purposefully?) of booking CA awards for many (most?) *A airlines... now it's only safe to book CA with UA that I know of. After I pushed on it for quite a while, they finally recognized and fixed it (it wasn't a quick or easy fix, required quite a bit of work).

As for whose fault it is, I suspect CA for not telling others on *A that it changed its systems/how it operates, but also AC for being lazy and purposefully ignorant and failing to recode/update their end interface with CA and to properly ticket with CA, as AC surely must be, by now, aware of this problem. AC is the ticketing carrier who failed to properly create the CA PNR for you, rendering that part of the ticket invalid, so they do need to get you from point A to point B as ticketed and as you paid them for it, so you can push for it, and may be they'll buy you revenue flights on another airline...but don't count on it, quite unlikely, but you can try. (If I was you, I'd just book alternate flights ASAP and get a full refund + some compensation here from AC. That will save time and headaches and at least give you some certainty.)

Jumper Jack

Well.. apparently its not just CA... but other airline as well with AE.

Sean Peever

Remember that AC and AP are 2 separate companies and doing a reward booking with AP probably doesn't involve AC at all.

yyz_atc_qq

absolutely, and that's why AP has in the past, and likely should now.... sort this out properly, likely though a revenue ticket.

This is a 95% AE issue, and 5% AC issue. I give AC 5% of the blame because they're the ones that chose to have AE be the exclusive ticketing agent for their RDM currency. They didn't have to spin off AE into it's own company, but that was their choice.

Stranger

Alas, the CTA has decided that Aeroplan awards no longer fall within their jurisdiction.

Only option is court, if Aeroplan insists in not delivering. Small claims should be OK.

While they are separate companies, ticket is issued on 014 stock. In other words, Aeroplan issues on behalf of AC. While AC will claim they don't have anything to do with this, surely from a legal standpoint, they do.