Originally Posted by mathemagic

First time poster. I encountered this situation for the first time this year and I was livid, so I thought I would share some of my experience and what I learned. Last year I booked a J ticket to Europe on Avion points (paid the difference) and earned reward points on that flight with Icelandair no problem. This year, after reading some of this thread, I inquired with AC about an upcoming TPAC (codeshare) trip I have booked with Avion. Before booking I had no idea the statement/credit strategy was a thing because I never had problems in the past. Surprise. They told me this flight would not qualify for AQM and to ask Aeroplan why because they didn't know (just that it showed up as not qualifying for AQM). So I called up Aeroplan and asked where this was stated in the terms and conditions... After 30+ minutes (!) of the agent clicking through the website with me (they were sympathetic and very kind during the whole thing), we came across a document called "Accumulation of Aeroplan Miles for flight activities". FT won't let me post the URL since I don't have 5 posts (...) but if you Google that phrase you'll find the PDF.

In that document it does say: "Flight reward tickets" are excluded,and if they don't earn Aeroplan miles, they don't earn AQM. This is nowhere on the RBC site as far as I could see. I'm still upset about this because I always thought Avion was merely a travel agent that bought tickets for you as a mechanism to redeem points, and that it's separate from things like Aeroplan rewards. My upcoming TPAC trip would have been a lot of AQMs.

Further, when I pointed out that my fare classes were in the charts for AQM accumulation, I learned that there are "fare classes" and there are fare classes. Behind the scenes there is some tag which can eliminate AQM earning but you would never know on your end. Had I not booked with Avion, the same "fare class" (or fare class?) would have earned AQMs.

For extra fun I also asked AC if their 50% off companion business tickets (for TD/CIBC Visa Infinite Privilege card holders) would qualify for AQM and was told no. So not only do they give you a useless "coupon" to overspend on a flexible business ticket, they add insult to injury by taking away all of the AQM eligibility. The reward environment has seriously eroded. I hope that WS gets their game on business class soon so that AC has some meaningful competition in Canada. Anyway, I hope this is helpful.

Originally Posted by bcnfish

I just checked saudia.com for the details of a business/premium economy booking done through Avion. I'm having trouble understanding the fare basis though, can someone please help? As all J/PE fares are mileage earning I wasn't too concerned during booking what fare type of was booked.

Originally Posted by Fiordland

Booked through the portal at fixed points. Clearly I ended up getting value in that saudia.com lists the value of the flight as $765.00. Fare base were

S18ULCTG/CORP (Vancouver to Montreal)
T21ULCTG/CORP (Montreal to Saskatoon and then a few days later return to Vancouver).