PointWeasel

I forgot that Rupert was still on medical leave, but I took the time to resurrect the email thread from last year to his colleagues at Aimia. There is no excuse for this (and lack of any updates or acknowledgement of same on the website).

Flying AM J today instead to my destination, but not happy about it.

YYZMcGee

What is the process for escalating this with Aimia? Email address, phone?? Its unacceptable. I think this is a story the media would be interested in especially given the new interest in unacceptable airline policies thanks to United.

zonelad

Yeah this is getting ridiculous... still nothing on the AE front to fix this.

weyoun

Been savings points for a big trip that needs Avianca. This bug came up a month ago. I called Aeroplan and they said it was a temporary problem their IT is trying to fix.

It's been a month. This is very frustrating. I saved points just for this trip.

Any suggestions on how to get this fixed?

It's definitely a bug and it's definitely something they know about.

Does anyone know any managers or seniors at Aeroplan or Air Canada we can complain to?

canadiancow

I know people at Air Canada but they don't have much control over this.

Maybe I should send a more formal email.

drvannostren

I've never had any issues with AV, though they seem to not release much space to their North American flights I feel like, and almost nothing to EZE, but that seems to not just be them, had the same issue looking at LATAM.

Copa has been an issue forever now, it's really bogus since AV doesn't have great space to some places, CM would be the backup plan. Was trying to book a multi city, YVR-EZE-MSY-YVR. It's available, but the only routing I was given (since it's more than 330 out) was YVR-YYZ-EZE-YYZ-MSY-YYZ-YVR, which obviously isn't bookable cuz you can't transit the same city twice. Brilliant. This thing has to get fixed.

I'm ok with them blocking CA awards. They've had way too many people show up to CA flights and be told "you don't have a ticket" apparently. So until that's sorted out, I'd rather not have those situations happen to me or anyone else. I wanna fly CA, but I don't wanna get stuck. Maybe I'll use SQ points for a CA flight, but who knows.

LX disappeared for like a week there, a week where I was furiously trying to book an award. Sure enough like the day after I book, it's back lol. At least it was resolved quickly.

WinnipegMax

This is no bug; Aeroplan differs from the other Star carriers in that it is operated by a company (Aimia) rather than a carrier. When the airlines negotiate between each other they work on two basic currencies: money and seats. Aimia can play the money game, but have no control over the amount of space that AC will release.

Bear in mind too that Aimia operate Air Miles, a loyalty program that actually "buys" seats from AC, and it is in their interest to see more "A" class seats for that usage that push the carrier to open up more space for their partners. So we are caught in the middle.

AP is a good program, but as access to the promised space is denied because of a negotiating issue over which Aimia has little control, we will see fees for AC rise and space on other Star carriers decrease.

Why, however, will Aimia not be honest and tell us what is going on. Instead they bleat about it being an "IT" problem. Well, the two computer systems can talk well enough if it is a revenue seat, and the operating systems don't know the functional difference between booking classes - they just capture space and establish a payable for its use.

Come on Aimia, open up and tell us where on earth Aeroplan is going to go.

PointWeasel

Huh? Is this fake news?

Aimia has their fingers into alot of pies, but AirMiles is not one of them. AirMiles is owned by LoyaltyOne and their parent is Alliance Data.

YYZMcGee

Air Canada announces today they are ending the relationship with AIMA and the Aeroplan program as of July 2020. Now I know why I can't get Avianca seats anymore. Hopefully now that the terms of the agreement (3 year notice) have been announced they will open up Avianca seats again.

aisleorwindow

Here's an article, for those interested:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air-...plan-1.4109868

PointWeasel

More fake news.

The AV/CM issue has nothing to do with the developments over the past 24 hours. I received a callback from the AE call centre manager who advised me of the ongoing IT challenges they are having with those 2 carriers.

I will leave it to others to answer to the ongoing CA blocking.

LX comes and goes. IT issue?

Dai.Lo

except for the fact that these negotiations don't come as a surprise to the two parties involved - aimia/ac - they have been discussing at least for a few months. My gut says aimia blocking a bunch of award inventory for multiple *A so as not get get a run on the bank...points situation.

edit: super frustrating, looking for award inventory in SA but being unable to use it... I need the emoji for a super angry face

rankourabu

Still no Copa.

Client tried to book SCL-PTY-YYZ... Showing on lifemiles and united.com - not via AE

Jma12

I have a feeling that AP will continue to block spaces until June 2020...

rankourabu

Well when YYZ-SCL is $70ish in taxes on Copa/Avianca, and $350 on AC metal (Y) - it makes total sense why CM/AV is blocked.