shore9

Family of 4 with 4 J seats booked on YVR - BNE in mid May through AP. I'm still holding out hope that we will be able to go, however in light of everything going on the likelihood of this seems to be diminishing by the day.

As far as I can tell the flight hasn't been cancelled yet and I don't intend to attempt to change anything until closer to the date. However, assuming that the flight is cancelled, will we be in the drivers seat to book a new flight on the date of our choice, regardless of AP availability? I'd rather not be stuck sitting on 600K + of AP miles.

It was extremely difficult to find 4 J seats on a route where they only sell 24J, not to mention being able to book it for the duration of time that we wanted.

thanks

mahasamatman

Doubtful. The airline (and Aeroplan) will work hard to attribute the cancellations to force majeure, so a refund is likely all you'll get.

theBeachBoy

I am traveling tomorrow I had a misconnect on my previous AP itinerary due to a cancelled flight.

They were only able to book me on what was available on aeroplan's app. Nothing more, no extra seats or flights. So I had to come back one day later with two stops instead of one.

I can tell you my options were really few.

So unless the rules changes, your only availability will be what is left to Aeroplan awards, nothing more

Adam Smith

Aeroplan has the ability to force open revenue space on AC when flights are cancelled. It's possible that this may change given the current carnage, but what's also true is that bookings are way down and award availability is way up, especially in the short term. So there's no guarantee, but I like OP's chances a lot better than you seem to.

20J or 30J, depending on whether it's operated by 788 or 789 Not sure what's on the route these days.

pitz

The principle of "if you had it booked previously under legitimate inventory availability and were forced to change because of the national crisis/health crisis, you're not the sort of person trying to abuse the system" probably will apply. Or at least that's what we should assume.

It wouldn't surprise me if they end up consolidating all the remaining service to SYD until loads eventually grow back.

Adam Smith

You're travelling at a time when AC has cancelled a massive number of flights and is about to shut down massive parts of the network. Some flights are jammed with people desperately trying to get somewhere before borders close and they get stuck.

OP is talking about re-booking several months out, which is likely to be a different proposition.

Without more information about your situation, it's impossible to say whether AC has changed the rule that allows Aeroplan to force open space. My understanding is there have always been some limitations on that (e.g. I don't think they can force open space if the flight is oversold; I've also been told they can't force open space if there's a very similar alternative available in X/I, e.g. you want them to open a 1-hour earlier YYZ-YVR than what's available in X/I). Did you run in to one of those limitations? Did the agent even know that normally force open space? Assuming you explicitly asked about forcing open space due to the schedule change? (I've encountered agents who either didn't know they could do this, or who initially didn't want to because they didn't realize I was only asking to change due to a SKCH).

Even if they've put some sort of limitation on it, I wouldn't be surprised if it was temporary and wouldn't necessarily affect the OP.

Admiral Ackbar

I have 2 YUL-NRT AE J award seats in July, monitoring the situation is all I can do. I have been tempted to cancel, will reassess on March 31 but I am really leaning towards going (if it makes sense of course.) Was a reward for a tough year that just got tougher!

Bartolo

I got them to force space open on AC metal this week. Some initial reluctance but I was assertive and my choice of alternative itinerary was provided. Repeated the exercise for friends being repatriated yesterday. Also worked.

In both situations the new itineraries were triggered by repatriation exacerbated by replacement itineraries being cancelled. Neither of us received notification of any of the cancellations. AE agent seemed surprised I didn’t get an email. My friends came close to going to the airport for a flight that had been cancelled. They were having computer issues so I was checking flight status for them via Flightaware. More important than ever to check flight status constantly. Especially United.

Surprised that there appeared to be a lot of J space on the alternative I chose as well as my friends’ flight but no AE space open and pricing was high for a revenue seat (transborder). When I flew the other day less than half the seats in J (789 equipment) were occupied. Two pax in PE and maybe 30 in the back.

i can confirm we were not allowed access to washroom near the front galley.

shore9

I should also add that when I say rebook, I am looking several months down the road to when things are somewhat normal again, ie September (hopefully), ie not looking to force an oversell situation. If we have to go via SYD so be it, however with a 2 and a 4 year old, the BNE flight was far more attractive as it meant no connection, so i would only willingly take that option if there is no BNE flight at all. First world problems I know.

Plumber

I have 4 J AE awards to HND for the end of June... Very unlikely we will go now and may cancel soon... when things do calm, we may stay in Canada and spend our money here.

Japan may have to wait till next year or the year after.

shore9

A couple of days ago we were sent a change of itinerary re-routing us via SYD (same dates). That is certainly less than ideal with 2 little kids. Called AP today to see what could be done to change the flight and we were now informed that the SYD flight isn't going either. Looks like all flights to Australia are cancelled through to June 1 now.

Taking a 2 week vacation in June doesn't work for our work schedules and unfortunately this ticket was booked in early July last year, so they've told us that the ticket will expire 1 year from the date of booking, which I get. They've told me our only choice is to either re-book in June (sounds like they will force space on AC) or cancel and re-book subject to AP availability.

It sounds like there's no choice but to re-book, but is there any way to get AP to force space on AC for a later date that does work for us, ie September or October? This agent said no, but I'm wondering if it's just a case of HUCA.