Aug 12, 2020, 12:02 am
Last edit by: Adam Smith
You must call in for stopovers, multi-city, or complicated routings, until the new booking system launches in 2021.
I hope others will significantly improve this wiki!
There are four zones: North America (inc Central), South America, Atlantic (including India and Western Russia), Pacific (inc Eastern Russia) and the chart is based which one you start from and which one you end up in, there's ten of these.
Cost is based on distance, which zone pair your flight is in, which class you are flying in.
Partner airlines (again) are a better deal because while Air Canada will calculate cost on a wide ranges but partner airlines are fixed to the bottom of the range.
YQ is eliminated. There's a 39 CAD fee for booking a ticket which contains a flight on a partner airline. Aside from this, there's no incentive any more to book a return flight it seems and every incentive not to.
Note: The partner booking fee is refundable, so it's basically a YQ, rather than a booking fee.
Most flights are devalued. However, the elimination of YQ sweetens this significantly. Within North America, a lot of flights became cheaper, YVR-HNL very significantly. YVR-TYO is much cheaper while YVR-AKL is a little cheaper.
A vastly more powerful booking system is promised for 2021.
There are a lot of new tricks to be learned. https://princeoftravel.com/blog/new-aeroplan-flight-rewards/ is a good start.
Information that is harder to find:
I hope others will significantly improve this wiki!
There are four zones: North America (inc Central), South America, Atlantic (including India and Western Russia), Pacific (inc Eastern Russia) and the chart is based which one you start from and which one you end up in, there's ten of these.
Cost is based on distance, which zone pair your flight is in, which class you are flying in.
Partner airlines (again) are a better deal because while Air Canada will calculate cost on a wide ranges but partner airlines are fixed to the bottom of the range.
YQ is eliminated. There's a 39 CAD fee for booking a ticket which contains a flight on a partner airline. Aside from this, there's no incentive any more to book a return flight it seems and every incentive not to.
Note: The partner booking fee is refundable, so it's basically a YQ, rather than a booking fee.
Most flights are devalued. However, the elimination of YQ sweetens this significantly. Within North America, a lot of flights became cheaper, YVR-HNL very significantly. YVR-TYO is much cheaper while YVR-AKL is a little cheaper.
A vastly more powerful booking system is promised for 2021.
There are a lot of new tricks to be learned. https://princeoftravel.com/blog/new-aeroplan-flight-rewards/ is a good start.
Information that is harder to find:
- SE IKK redemption from the old program can be changed ("within reason") without repricing. Dates, routings, no problem. Origin/destination should be fine. But nothing that would have required a repricing under the old program. This is from Mark Nasr in https://www.facebook.com/pointsmiles...44878252851420
- The "Activity" page only shows you the most recent ~48 transactions. See this post for information on how to get older data.
- A partial refund may not be possible (e.g. if you book RT and outbound flight is cancelled by you or AC, to delete the first flight segment, you have to cancel the entire ticket and rebook the inbound at a potentially higher fare. It seems supervisor can grant exceptions.)
2020 Air Canada Aeroplan Program
Dec 23, 2020, 2:57 pm
#1156
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: AC SE MM, BA Gold, SQ Silver, Bonvoy Tit LTG, Hyatt Glob, HH Diamond
Posts: 44,359
No, I-class was not eligible for concierge service, nor was the BMW transfer.
Dec 23, 2020, 3:30 pm
#1157
Moderator, Air Canada; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE MM, FB Plat, WS Plat, BA Silver, DL GM, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 16,781
Dec 23, 2020, 3:46 pm
#1158
Join Date: Sep 2005
Programs: AC MM E50 , Former SPG, now Marriott LT Plat
Posts: 6,268
I see the current rules exclude I/R class, but that must be a recent change.
Dec 23, 2020, 3:48 pm
#1159
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: YOW
Programs: AC SE, FOTSG Platinum
Posts: 5,734
I-class wasn't eligible for the Signature Suite either, so it's not an altogether unreasonable question.
Dec 23, 2020, 3:59 pm
#1160
Moderator, Air Canada; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE MM, FB Plat, WS Plat, BA Silver, DL GM, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 16,781
I think that text on the website has been there for a couple of years, at least.
Dec 23, 2020, 4:22 pm
#1161
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: YYZ
Programs: AC SE MM, BW Diamond Select
Posts: 706
Mid-October for the surveys.
Airmmilesshops.ca has gotten a lot better; those used to take 4-6 weeks, but whether it's Black Friday or the Boxing Week offers, I am pleased that they post in 1-2 business days.
Airmmilesshops.ca has gotten a lot better; those used to take 4-6 weeks, but whether it's Black Friday or the Boxing Week offers, I am pleased that they post in 1-2 business days.
Dec 23, 2020, 5:52 pm
#1162
Moderator, Air Canada; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE MM, FB Plat, WS Plat, BA Silver, DL GM, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 16,781
Dec 24, 2020, 11:02 am
#1163
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: SPG Gold, Aeroplan, Hilton Honors, Le Club Accor Platinum
Posts: 268
Dec 24, 2020, 11:15 am
#1164
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: YOW
Programs: AC SE, FOTSG Platinum
Posts: 5,734
For example, partner mileage programs cannot book "every seat, every flight" AC operates, those programs only have access to whatever is made available as X or I space, same as before.
Aeroplan points, however, can book any AC flight, but your "Business Flexible" award might have any of several letter codes attached.
Make sense?
Last edited by YOWgary; Dec 24, 2020 at 11:57 am Reason: I accidentally a word
Dec 24, 2020, 11:19 am
#1165
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: AC SE MM, BA Gold, SQ Silver, Bonvoy Tit LTG, Hyatt Glob, HH Diamond
Posts: 44,359
It seems like they want to make fare class irrelevant for everything, but they haven't updated the documentation.
Dec 24, 2020, 11:59 am
#1166
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: YOW
Programs: AC SE, FOTSG Platinum
Posts: 5,734
...I'm not holding my breath for that press release, since just about everyone in the world who cares whether their Business Flexible award is booked into D or C, is currently participating in this discussion.
Dec 24, 2020, 12:08 pm
#1167
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: AC SE MM, BA Gold, SQ Silver, Bonvoy Tit LTG, Hyatt Glob, HH Diamond
Posts: 44,359
I'm not looking for a press release, just for them to update the damn footnote on the SS page.
Dec 24, 2020, 12:30 pm
#1168
Moderator, Air Canada; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE MM, FB Plat, WS Plat, BA Silver, DL GM, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 16,781
Dec 24, 2020, 4:20 pm
#1169
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: SPG Gold, Aeroplan, Hilton Honors, Le Club Accor Platinum
Posts: 268
Thanks for the info. This is very helpful. I’ll wait to see if AC confirms what will be included with business flex before I book.
Dec 24, 2020, 6:17 pm
#1170
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 151
So the new programme is working exactly as I expected it to. Rather than using SKK to open up additional seats as SE we're now all in the same pool, meaning I can get a small number of 50% seats on flights which are already marked as unavailable because they are more than 25% full in J 11 months out. Sometimes it sucks to be right... 