recreationaltimetraveller

I did get the miles for a cancelled booking to miles, but no gift cards yet.

gcashin

How long did it take between when you'd submitted the request and got the miles?

beastmaster

For reference, I received the gift card and PIN emails July 27 for a cancelled domestic flight that was set to fly out June 5 return June 8. I made the call to AC about this flight June 3. I also had filled out the online AC refund form the first week of July but not sure if that had any bearing on the gift card email time line.

recreationaltimetraveller

5 weeks. I made requests earlier for gift cards, so maybe this was easier to implement.

dr_torch

Well it's been 6 weeks for me now. It's a touch frustrating as I would use the gift card right away to book flight towards the end of December. I need it since the fare difference is less than what I paid in the first place and I don't want to lose the residual value.

I was thinking of calling into customer service but I am guessing the response is, please send an email and we will get back to you in 6-8 weeks.

Adam Smith

You can't call in to customer service, only reservations. A limited number of things are in their hands. I'm sure there's nothing they can do to speed this up. And given the massive queue, I suspect an e-mail to customer service wouldn't do anything to speed it up either.

gcashin

I've got some funds tied up in credits with AC, and I tried to use one recently cancelled booking to rebook using a credit for a cancelled flight rather than request the gift card and wait 5+ weeks. What a mess.

I tried to use a credit from a cancelled YYC-PDX to rebook and use on a YYC-LAS. Essentially because the taxes/surcharges are different, most of the taxes/fees couldn't be applied towards the new booking, so I'd effectively forefeit a significant part of the taxes/fees which amounted to about $160 for 2 pax. Spent over an hour on the phone with Reservations and they couldn't get it to work without forefeiting a significant amount of the value.

So AC refuses to refund bookings that they've cancelled, the vouchers have so many strings attached that it's unlikely to get the full value out of them, and the wait time to get a cancelled booking converted into a gift card seems to be 5 weeks and counting for many people. Very annoying.

dr_torch

There must be somebody that I can irritate? I'm usually quite good at it

bakersdozen

Still waiting on the AC travel voucher for a flight canceled June 10th and a second June 15th. Both trips were booked with "good will gesture" credits in entirety. Glad to hear you folks are also having delays at it isn't just me due to these credits.

So 7 weeks and no word for the June 10th one.

Adam Smith

You can certainly irritate the reservations people, it just won't really do you much good, unless you really value the venting in and of itself.

yyz2bgo

how were the taxes and fees that different?! Did the agent elaborate? Both itineraries are ex-YYC, transborder (so same YYC fee, same customs fees, same GST, etc). The only difference is PDX vs LAS landing/pax charges. There's no way 2 people incur $160 above PDX charges to land at LAS.

Not doubting you so much as utterly shocked - and wondering if the agent helping you was somehow goofing up your booking.

I wonder if you pulled a quote from ITA Matrix for YYC-PDX and YYC-LAS what it would show for the difference in taxes/fees.

rankourabu

So wait, if the taxes are different, you forefeit that part of the ticket when trying to use a credit?

So if you try to rebook lets say a domestic with $100 in tax to a transborder with $7 in tax - you lose $100?

gcashin

I was really surprised at the difference as well. Looking at it a bit closer, the taxes were $138 per pax for Portland. Apparently only ~$80 per pax could be applied towards the Vegas booking, and the amount forefeited would be $58 CAD per pax ($116 for 2 pax, with the remaining ~$42 as seat selection). It took 75 mins, the majority of which the agent was on the phone with the rate desk. She insisted that she had exhausted all options with the rate desk to try to get the full value out of the voucher, and there was nothing further that could be done. I was tired and annoyed after 75 mins on the phone so didn't ask for a line by line breakdown of what could be applied and what couldn't. I gave up and went and booked the trip to LAS on WS instead and I'll get the useless AC vouchers converted into a gift card and use it for something else in the future.

Apparently the amount of taxes forefeited would have been even worse if I was trying to rebook for a domestic trip or overseas trip.

yyz2bgo

Wow.. Again, shocked that the difference in tax would be C$58/pax. Sounds like the agent did their best. Glad you can obtain a gift card.

rankourabu

This is insane. So the vouchers are not even for the full value of a ticket...

Imagine the surprise of everyone who will be trying to use them in the next 2 years.