kalderlake

Burn and spurn, I guess.

imverge

It may be the same number from 2007 that only tells me they've been paying for a 1800 number for the last 10 years they haven't used again until now.

I think you need to stop spending your time wondering if others are wondering about conspiracy theories

mapleg

Chicken...egg...chicken..egg...Agh!

imverge

uh uh... don't put your eggs all in one basket

InTheAirGuy

Here's my guess as to what actually happened.

Aeroplan neither has the IT infrastructure or IT competence to test a policy change on a test system in advance of rolling it out.

Hence, they tested a forthcoming policy change on the live system in order to see how it would work. Once they got those details, they config'd back.

I suspect you will thus likely see this 'enhancement' in the next short while.

InTheAirGuy

This.

Exactly.

We are going to see a continued chipping away of everything and anything.

flybit

reality is Aeroplan/Air Canada has always been a time bomb, and now the fuse is burning, a quick change to new credit cards and using up points sooner rather than later is what people should be doing.

Guava

That would be my guess as well. This glitch just comes across as a little too "coincidental" to me. And it makes sense from a business standpoint to generate extra revenue from fees when the customer demand is rather inflexible. Customers who seek to book award travel on flights not to/from NA are part of a very selective group of clientele. They are not going to abandon using their Aeroplan points due to the phone booking fee. Maybe they can eventually adapt in the long run, but right now, all the customers can do is to take it like a man (woman). Aeroplan needs liquidity, anything that can generate extra cash should be given priority.

Yet, there are still many FTers here who say it's business as usual for them. If there is eventually a stampede, which I hope there won't be, it is likely going to be far worse than Air Miles last year.

LoveGlobeTrottin

I want to add one more piece of info that may embolden the hypotheses of the so-called 'conspiracy theorists.'

When I spoke with the Aeroplan agent a few days ago, it took awhile to get the point across that I couldn't make non U.S. or Canada segment searches. That's because when I gave her an example of one that I was looking for she said that she could see flights. I had to reiterate myself a few times to get the point across that even though she could search the segments, I couldn't. That was the point in which she said she was going to ask a supervisor for clarification.

So, for the people saying it was just a glitch, why could AE agents do the search, but we couldn't. I've been told many times that they cannot see anymore flights and so forth than we can.

ridefar

That isn't entirely true. They have 2 search engines internally. The one you and I have access to and one that actually works.

Transpacificflyer

And still, no specific communication from Aeroplan. One would expect that a company already burdened with a negative reputation would act to quickly address the issue. What is so difficult in having a press release or a note on its website? Why not offer an explanation? Apparently, it is not part of the Aeroplan operating model .

In contrast, over at Skymiles, there was an issue with "fuel" surcharges being added to redemptions. Some similar comments over there as here. Yet, Skymiles responded relatively fast to quell concerns.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkyMilesTeam

To clarify and alleviate any confusion, the surcharges that were being applied to Virgin Atlantic Award Tickets was an error that was quickly fixed.

What a difference. What a lesson in transparency and operational integrity. This, ladies and gentleman is how Aeroplan could have dealt with problem. Instead, it chose to hide. It failed its clients when it did not provide an explanation. This is why people do not trust the company.

InTheAirGuy

Aeroplan had little of this before the announced break. What type of ethics drive the decision to regularly provide mixed economy/biz awards for overseas flights when all the overseas portions are in economy. Clearly their game is to take advantage of customer ignorance.

My belief is they have no grounding ethics, and this will only become worse with the new circumstance.

24left

A long time ago, in another thread when AC FT was speculating about whether AC would renew the contract with Aeroplan, someone posted something along the lines of "the divorce is going to be messy and no one knows who will get custody of the kids".

Stay tuned.

1Newflyer

At best "the kids" will be sent with foster parents but most likely will be left on their own. Need to grow up fast.

altor

I just got off the phone with a helpful aeroplan agent (yay, feeling like I won the lottery!) after booking a reward ticket from NRT-PHN. I originally booked through aeroplan.com, but after getting to the last step of the booking, it brought me to a screen that gave me my PNR and said that I needed to call aeroplan within 24 hours to fully complete the booking. Is this normal? This is my first time making a booking that "doesn't touch North America" (that was the aeroplan agent's use of words), so I'm not sure if this step was a requirement prior to the so-called 'glitch' that occurred a couple of nights ago.


The aeroplan agent told me that the reason for calling in to complete the booking (basically, to pay the YQ over the phone) is to prevent fraud that was originating overseas and involved stolen aeroplan miles, hacked accounts, etc. If the "call in to complete your booking" truly is a new feature, I guess this explanation may be plausible considering some of the recent posts on FlyerTalk regarding hacked accounts and stolen miles. And it may be what they were trying to implement the other night which resulted in all non-north American itineraries being unsearchable. Just one theory, feel free to dispel!



I should also mention, no added service change for the call-in, since it's part of the process for that booking type. The agent made sure to put great emphasis on this at the beginning of our call.