Is Aeroplan blocking Ethiopian business class award seats?
Aug 8, 2017, 9:04 am
#16
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 2,494
Aeroplan: I can only see ET Y seats
United: I do not see ANY ET awards seats
ANA: I see both ET Y and J seats.
I called Aeroplan and asked the rep to check for ET J seats, and as expected she said there was no availability, I then mentioned that I am also an ANA member, and I can see and book ET J seats at the ANA website. But before I could escalate to ask for a supervisor to do a direct booking, she said that others have been asking about this and had been instructed to inform me that UNLESS it shows up on Aeroplan's systems, they can NOT book ET J for me. She was very curt and blunt, so I didn't push for a supervisor.
I haven't called back to try with another rep yet.
United: I do not see ANY ET awards seats
ANA: I see both ET Y and J seats.
I called Aeroplan and asked the rep to check for ET J seats, and as expected she said there was no availability, I then mentioned that I am also an ANA member, and I can see and book ET J seats at the ANA website. But before I could escalate to ask for a supervisor to do a direct booking, she said that others have been asking about this and had been instructed to inform me that UNLESS it shows up on Aeroplan's systems, they can NOT book ET J for me. She was very curt and blunt, so I didn't push for a supervisor.
I haven't called back to try with another rep yet.
Thanks for the update, I am actually looking at a routing that would use Ethiopian in one direction so any further updates would be appreciated.
Aug 8, 2017, 4:17 pm
#17
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,465
After multiple calls, Aeroplan refused to do a direct booking. So only economy is available on Ethiopian. I had to change a destination on my mini-RTW because of that. Now my itinerary does not have any ET segments:
YVR-YYZ-IAD-BRU-DME
VKO-IST-SEZ
SEZ-IST-TPE
TPE-YVR
Also, Aeroplan cannot see any UA flights beyond T-330, even though UA releases award seats at about T-335 or T-340. By the time it gets to T-330, all desirable UA inventory is gone. In this case, Aeroplan also refused to do a direct booking, and my preferred UA flight was gone, but I was lucky that IAD-BRU survived until T-330 and I was able to book it.
YVR-YYZ-IAD-BRU-DME
VKO-IST-SEZ
SEZ-IST-TPE
TPE-YVR
Also, Aeroplan cannot see any UA flights beyond T-330, even though UA releases award seats at about T-335 or T-340. By the time it gets to T-330, all desirable UA inventory is gone. In this case, Aeroplan also refused to do a direct booking, and my preferred UA flight was gone, but I was lucky that IAD-BRU survived until T-330 and I was able to book it.
Aug 9, 2017, 4:45 am
#18
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Canada
Programs: AC SE 2MM, HH Dd, SPG; IC Pl/A; AA; DL
Posts: 14,321
Has anyone have any luck booking ET in business class? Does anyone know when was the last time business class was available for Aeroplan? I need it to complete a journey and I can see availability on ANA/Copa but it isn't showing in Aeroplan. I'm not traveling until May so not sure if I should wait and hope availability will ever come back or just settle for economy. Thanks
Aug 11, 2017, 8:58 am
#22
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 154
After multiple calls, Aeroplan refused to do a direct booking. So only economy is available on Ethiopian. I had to change a destination on my mini-RTW because of that. Now my itinerary does not have any ET segments:
YVR-YYZ-IAD-BRU-DME
VKO-IST-SEZ
SEZ-IST-TPE
TPE-YVR
Also, Aeroplan cannot see any UA flights beyond T-330, even though UA releases award seats at about T-335 or T-340. By the time it gets to T-330, all desirable UA inventory is gone. In this case, Aeroplan also refused to do a direct booking, and my preferred UA flight was gone, but I was lucky that IAD-BRU survived until T-330 and I was able to book it.
YVR-YYZ-IAD-BRU-DME
VKO-IST-SEZ
SEZ-IST-TPE
TPE-YVR
Also, Aeroplan cannot see any UA flights beyond T-330, even though UA releases award seats at about T-335 or T-340. By the time it gets to T-330, all desirable UA inventory is gone. In this case, Aeroplan also refused to do a direct booking, and my preferred UA flight was gone, but I was lucky that IAD-BRU survived until T-330 and I was able to book it.
Sep 6, 2017, 4:11 pm
#23
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 8
Successful booking in J (hopefully)
It's been some time since the original post, but I wanted to share my recent experiences regarding this topic. Apologies for the detail, but I've included as much as possible in case it helps anyone out there.
Before each call to Aeroplan, I checked award space for 2x passengers RT in J on ET 505/504 between LAX-DUB on the dates I wanted to travel Jun/Jul 2018:
On Friday, 01-Sep-2017 at around 7:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), I called the Aeroplan US Call Center at +1-800-361-5373. After reaching an agent, I fed the agent information, and she was able to confirm availability in Y but not J. I asked to speak to a supervisor, citing that I had on good authority I knew J space to be available. I asked if she could perform a "long sell or manual sell." She balked at the suggestion, telling me that the supervisor wouldn't be able to help me out more than she could. I reassured her that while she was extremely helpful, and I believed her, I wanted to ensure I performed adequate due diligence for my own personal needs. She reiterated that this wasn't something they were empowered to escalate to a supervisor, and I decided to drop the issue. I had somewhere else I needed to be, and it was the outcome I expected.
On Tuesday, 05-Sep-2017 at around 9:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), I called the same call center and followed the same prompts to reach an agent. I immediately asked whether it was possible to "long sell, manually issue, or manually request award seats from a partner carrier." The agent confirmed no seats were available in J, and I immediately asked to speak to a supervisor for the same reasons as above. After being met with similar resistance as before, I pushed the issue again and the agent agreed to transfer me. The agent then reassured me that a supervisor would end up telling me the same thing.
After a 12 minute hold, the supervisor arrived on the line and seemed to have been briefed with my desired routing while I was on hold. I made the same request to long sell to the supervisor, and he immediately sprung into action. He seemed to know exactly what to do without me having to hint around. He was extremely competent and friendly, not at all annoyed that I'd escalated the issue.
After requesting the space for 2x passengers in J, they came back with conformable space, and he was able to ticket the award without issue, on the spot. He even proactively volunteered to waive the 30 CAD phone booking fee when I asked about the total cost for taxes and fees (I've heard this is nigh impossible). After ticketing, while he had the AC record locator available, he did not yet have the ET record locator information. I was able to retrieve the ET record locators this with a follow up call to Aeroplan today <24 hrs later. ET's online interface confirms that I'm ticketed.
I can't recall the exact language he used, but during the process, he seemed to reference the fact that he was building some sort of "case file" when referring to the long sell. He also mentioned that they "typically don't do this" and gave the standard line that "partner carriers don't always release the same number of award seats to Aeroplan as for other programs."
From other posts on Flyertalk, I feel like my experience may have been the exception rather than the norm. As the constant pessimist, I'm still waiting for something to go wrong. Hopefully this information is helpful to someone.
Before each call to Aeroplan, I checked award space for 2x passengers RT in J on ET 505/504 between LAX-DUB on the dates I wanted to travel Jun/Jul 2018:
- Expertflyer showed availability in Y and J
- UA showed no availability (expected due to recent reports of blocking)
- Aeroplan showed availability in Y but not J (expected per this thread)
- Lifemiles showed availability in both Y and J (matched Expertflyer)
- Krisflyer (call center) showed availability in Y and J (matched Expertflyer)
On Friday, 01-Sep-2017 at around 7:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), I called the Aeroplan US Call Center at +1-800-361-5373. After reaching an agent, I fed the agent information, and she was able to confirm availability in Y but not J. I asked to speak to a supervisor, citing that I had on good authority I knew J space to be available. I asked if she could perform a "long sell or manual sell." She balked at the suggestion, telling me that the supervisor wouldn't be able to help me out more than she could. I reassured her that while she was extremely helpful, and I believed her, I wanted to ensure I performed adequate due diligence for my own personal needs. She reiterated that this wasn't something they were empowered to escalate to a supervisor, and I decided to drop the issue. I had somewhere else I needed to be, and it was the outcome I expected.
On Tuesday, 05-Sep-2017 at around 9:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), I called the same call center and followed the same prompts to reach an agent. I immediately asked whether it was possible to "long sell, manually issue, or manually request award seats from a partner carrier." The agent confirmed no seats were available in J, and I immediately asked to speak to a supervisor for the same reasons as above. After being met with similar resistance as before, I pushed the issue again and the agent agreed to transfer me. The agent then reassured me that a supervisor would end up telling me the same thing.
After a 12 minute hold, the supervisor arrived on the line and seemed to have been briefed with my desired routing while I was on hold. I made the same request to long sell to the supervisor, and he immediately sprung into action. He seemed to know exactly what to do without me having to hint around. He was extremely competent and friendly, not at all annoyed that I'd escalated the issue.
After requesting the space for 2x passengers in J, they came back with conformable space, and he was able to ticket the award without issue, on the spot. He even proactively volunteered to waive the 30 CAD phone booking fee when I asked about the total cost for taxes and fees (I've heard this is nigh impossible). After ticketing, while he had the AC record locator available, he did not yet have the ET record locator information. I was able to retrieve the ET record locators this with a follow up call to Aeroplan today <24 hrs later. ET's online interface confirms that I'm ticketed.
I can't recall the exact language he used, but during the process, he seemed to reference the fact that he was building some sort of "case file" when referring to the long sell. He also mentioned that they "typically don't do this" and gave the standard line that "partner carriers don't always release the same number of award seats to Aeroplan as for other programs."
From other posts on Flyertalk, I feel like my experience may have been the exception rather than the norm. As the constant pessimist, I'm still waiting for something to go wrong. Hopefully this information is helpful to someone.
Sep 7, 2017, 12:19 pm
#24
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 154
It's been some time since the original post, but I wanted to share my recent experiences regarding this topic. Apologies for the detail, but I've included as much as possible in case it helps anyone out there.
Before each call to Aeroplan, I checked award space for 2x passengers RT in J on ET 505/504 between LAX-DUB on the dates I wanted to travel Jun/Jul 2018:
On Friday, 01-Sep-2017 at around 7:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), I called the Aeroplan US Call Center at +1-800-361-5373. After reaching an agent, I fed the agent information, and she was able to confirm availability in Y but not J. I asked to speak to a supervisor, citing that I had on good authority I knew J space to be available. I asked if she could perform a "long sell or manual sell." She balked at the suggestion, telling me that the supervisor wouldn't be able to help me out more than she could. I reassured her that while she was extremely helpful, and I believed her, I wanted to ensure I performed adequate due diligence for my own personal needs. She reiterated that this wasn't something they were empowered to escalate to a supervisor, and I decided to drop the issue. I had somewhere else I needed to be, and it was the outcome I expected.
On Tuesday, 05-Sep-2017 at around 9:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), I called the same call center and followed the same prompts to reach an agent. I immediately asked whether it was possible to "long sell, manually issue, or manually request award seats from a partner carrier." The agent confirmed no seats were available in J, and I immediately asked to speak to a supervisor for the same reasons as above. After being met with similar resistance as before, I pushed the issue again and the agent agreed to transfer me. The agent then reassured me that a supervisor would end up telling me the same thing.
After a 12 minute hold, the supervisor arrived on the line and seemed to have been briefed with my desired routing while I was on hold. I made the same request to long sell to the supervisor, and he immediately sprung into action. He seemed to know exactly what to do without me having to hint around. He was extremely competent and friendly, not at all annoyed that I'd escalated the issue.
After requesting the space for 2x passengers in J, they came back with conformable space, and he was able to ticket the award without issue, on the spot. He even proactively volunteered to waive the 30 CAD phone booking fee when I asked about the total cost for taxes and fees (I've heard this is nigh impossible). After ticketing, while he had the AC record locator available, he did not yet have the ET record locator information. I was able to retrieve the ET record locators this with a follow up call to Aeroplan today <24 hrs later. ET's online interface confirms that I'm ticketed.
I can't recall the exact language he used, but during the process, he seemed to reference the fact that he was building some sort of "case file" when referring to the long sell. He also mentioned that they "typically don't do this" and gave the standard line that "partner carriers don't always release the same number of award seats to Aeroplan as for other programs."
From other posts on Flyertalk, I feel like my experience may have been the exception rather than the norm. As the constant pessimist, I'm still waiting for something to go wrong. Hopefully this information is helpful to someone.
Before each call to Aeroplan, I checked award space for 2x passengers RT in J on ET 505/504 between LAX-DUB on the dates I wanted to travel Jun/Jul 2018:
- Expertflyer showed availability in Y and J
- UA showed no availability (expected due to recent reports of blocking)
- Aeroplan showed availability in Y but not J (expected per this thread)
- Lifemiles showed availability in both Y and J (matched Expertflyer)
- Krisflyer (call center) showed availability in Y and J (matched Expertflyer)
On Friday, 01-Sep-2017 at around 7:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), I called the Aeroplan US Call Center at +1-800-361-5373. After reaching an agent, I fed the agent information, and she was able to confirm availability in Y but not J. I asked to speak to a supervisor, citing that I had on good authority I knew J space to be available. I asked if she could perform a "long sell or manual sell." She balked at the suggestion, telling me that the supervisor wouldn't be able to help me out more than she could. I reassured her that while she was extremely helpful, and I believed her, I wanted to ensure I performed adequate due diligence for my own personal needs. She reiterated that this wasn't something they were empowered to escalate to a supervisor, and I decided to drop the issue. I had somewhere else I needed to be, and it was the outcome I expected.
On Tuesday, 05-Sep-2017 at around 9:00 PM EDT (GMT-4), I called the same call center and followed the same prompts to reach an agent. I immediately asked whether it was possible to "long sell, manually issue, or manually request award seats from a partner carrier." The agent confirmed no seats were available in J, and I immediately asked to speak to a supervisor for the same reasons as above. After being met with similar resistance as before, I pushed the issue again and the agent agreed to transfer me. The agent then reassured me that a supervisor would end up telling me the same thing.
After a 12 minute hold, the supervisor arrived on the line and seemed to have been briefed with my desired routing while I was on hold. I made the same request to long sell to the supervisor, and he immediately sprung into action. He seemed to know exactly what to do without me having to hint around. He was extremely competent and friendly, not at all annoyed that I'd escalated the issue.
After requesting the space for 2x passengers in J, they came back with conformable space, and he was able to ticket the award without issue, on the spot. He even proactively volunteered to waive the 30 CAD phone booking fee when I asked about the total cost for taxes and fees (I've heard this is nigh impossible). After ticketing, while he had the AC record locator available, he did not yet have the ET record locator information. I was able to retrieve the ET record locators this with a follow up call to Aeroplan today <24 hrs later. ET's online interface confirms that I'm ticketed.
I can't recall the exact language he used, but during the process, he seemed to reference the fact that he was building some sort of "case file" when referring to the long sell. He also mentioned that they "typically don't do this" and gave the standard line that "partner carriers don't always release the same number of award seats to Aeroplan as for other programs."
From other posts on Flyertalk, I feel like my experience may have been the exception rather than the norm. As the constant pessimist, I'm still waiting for something to go wrong. Hopefully this information is helpful to someone.
Sep 28, 2017, 5:06 pm
#27
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 8
@Bartolo
I believe it's also commonly called a "manual sell," where the ticketing carrier/program (Aeroplan in this case) will request award space from the operating carrier (Ethiopian).
An imperfect but nevertheless appropriate analogy is a situation where I'm shopping on behalf of a friend:
Searching a retailer's website, the item my friend wants is listed as out of stock. At this point, I'd tell my friend that it's not available for purchase. Applying the long sell methodology, I've now called the store and told an employee to check the stock room, because I know they just received a shipment of this item and their website isn't accurate. The employee comes back and confirms they do have the item available for sale, and the transaction proceeds.
I believe it's also commonly called a "manual sell," where the ticketing carrier/program (Aeroplan in this case) will request award space from the operating carrier (Ethiopian).
An imperfect but nevertheless appropriate analogy is a situation where I'm shopping on behalf of a friend:
Searching a retailer's website, the item my friend wants is listed as out of stock. At this point, I'd tell my friend that it's not available for purchase. Applying the long sell methodology, I've now called the store and told an employee to check the stock room, because I know they just received a shipment of this item and their website isn't accurate. The employee comes back and confirms they do have the item available for sale, and the transaction proceeds.
Sep 29, 2017, 8:35 am
#28
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Canada
Programs: Aeroplan E50/MM, HH gold, Nat Exec Elite, Kimpton Karma
Posts: 2,354
@Bartolo
I believe it's also commonly called a "manual sell," where the ticketing carrier/program (Aeroplan in this case) will request award space from the operating carrier (Ethiopian).
An imperfect but nevertheless appropriate analogy is a situation where I'm shopping on behalf of a friend:
Searching a retailer's website, the item my friend wants is listed as out of stock. At this point, I'd tell my friend that it's not available for purchase. Applying the long sell methodology, I've now called the store and told an employee to check the stock room, because I know they just received a shipment of this item and their website isn't accurate. The employee comes back and confirms they do have the item available for sale, and the transaction proceeds.
I believe it's also commonly called a "manual sell," where the ticketing carrier/program (Aeroplan in this case) will request award space from the operating carrier (Ethiopian).
An imperfect but nevertheless appropriate analogy is a situation where I'm shopping on behalf of a friend:
Searching a retailer's website, the item my friend wants is listed as out of stock. At this point, I'd tell my friend that it's not available for purchase. Applying the long sell methodology, I've now called the store and told an employee to check the stock room, because I know they just received a shipment of this item and their website isn't accurate. The employee comes back and confirms they do have the item available for sale, and the transaction proceeds.