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 24, 2020, 6:27 pm
#1171
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: 44,354
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... 
And even then I'm not sure, because there's no reason not to accept $2000 of points to overbook a flight.
Dec 24, 2020, 6:47 pm
#1172
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 151
Really? I am looking now and flights with a dozen open J seats just flag as unavailable for points. And even worse some disappear when I turn on a priority reward. This is October to Europe in J.
Dec 24, 2020, 6:56 pm
#1173
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: 16,779
That's not how it's supposed to work. Can you provide details on flights, dates, etc?
Dec 24, 2020, 7:10 pm
#1174
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 151
Sure - I was looking for YEG to LHR. I get these for points and $ respectively. I did think it should work as you said (that the points cost just rose as the buckets filled) - but I just get classes blocked out.
Dec 24, 2020, 7:19 pm
#1175
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: SFO/YYZ
Programs: AC 25K, AS MVP Gold, BA Bronze, UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 2,472
EDIT: Oddly enough it does show up for me on Sept 22, and I'm not even logged in.
Dec 24, 2020, 7:26 pm
#1176
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 151
Heh. I confess that the first time I went to the 'new' aeroplan site, I groaned at the realization that we would now be using AC IT. Which seems to spend its budget on spinning logos... 
Appreciate you guys sanity-checking me.
Appreciate you guys sanity-checking me.
Dec 24, 2020, 7:30 pm
#1177
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: SFO/YYZ
Programs: AC 25K, AS MVP Gold, BA Bronze, UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 2,472
Well, if it was the old Aeroplan site you would have just gotten approximately 3 search results max, the best of which being YEG-YYC-YYZ-LHR where only YYC-YYZ was in business on the A320. New site is infinitely better in terms of the results produced, issues like this aside.
Dec 26, 2020, 9:01 am
#1178
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: 44,354
Remember when they said we'd have a redemption calendar by EOY 
Last edited by Adam Smith; Jul 29, 2021 at 10:46 pm Reason: Edit to reflect thread move
Dec 26, 2020, 9:40 am
#1179
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,410
Dec 26, 2020, 9:42 pm
#1180
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE
Posts: 2,343
What happened to AC Bistro (promo) codes?
Does anyone recall what happened with the AC onboard bistro codes that were a status benefit (i.e. the promo codes that could be viewed from the Altitude Dashboard and could be added to economy reservations)? From my recollection, I thought I saw some wording to say that the current 2020/2021 codes were still valid to book until ~Feb 28 2021, but wouldn't be viewable on the Aeroplan website after the launch of the new program in November. I seem to recall some wording that AC would e-mail out the unused codes to members with the launch of the new program, but don't seem to recall getting anything. I can't seem to find that wording on the AC website any more. Anyone have the exact wording/details on what was happening with these, and any way to retrieve them?
Dec 26, 2020, 9:49 pm
#1181
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: 44,354
Does anyone recall what happened with the AC onboard bistro codes that were a status benefit (i.e. the promo codes that could be viewed from the Altitude Dashboard and could be added to economy reservations)? From my recollection, I thought I saw some wording to say that the current 2020/2021 codes were still valid to book until ~Feb 28 2021, but wouldn't be viewable on the Aeroplan website after the launch of the new program in November. I seem to recall some wording that AC would e-mail out the unused codes to members with the launch of the new program, but don't seem to recall getting anything. I can't seem to find that wording on the AC website any more. Anyone have the exact wording/details on what was happening with these, and any way to retrieve them?
In my mind, it was "shortly after the launch of the new program".
I don't have much more to say than that though.
Dec 29, 2020, 11:00 am
#1182
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Vancouver
Programs: AC SE100K 1MM, FB Platinum, Bonvoy Platinum Elite, IHG Gold Elite, Hilton Gold
Posts: 1,605
Is there a time frame where the "enhanced" booking engine will be available. It is a challenge to put together the stopovers at present.
Dec 29, 2020, 7:22 pm
#1183
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: YSC (and all its regularly scheduled flights)
Posts: 2,521
Dr. PITUK
Jan 1, 2021, 12:41 pm
#1184
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 524
So I understand the dumb new $39 partner booking fee. But why did US Taxes go up? Before I could book on Aeroplan from NYC to Tokyo on UA metal with the standard $5.60 fee. Now, there is $32 in fees and taxes charged in addition to the partner booking fee. Is this some COVID-related government change I am not aware of, or is it a new way to nickle and dime customers by Air Canada? Thanks.
Jan 1, 2021, 1:38 pm
#1185
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Toronto, ON
Programs: AC 75K
Posts: 6,363
So I understand the dumb new $39 partner booking fee. But why did US Taxes go up? Before I could book on Aeroplan from NYC to Tokyo on UA metal with the standard $5.60 fee. Now, there is $32 in fees and taxes charged in addition to the partner booking fee. Is this some COVID-related government change I am not aware of, or is it a new way to nickle and dime customers by Air Canada? Thanks.
Taxes, fees and charges
September 11th Security Fee - United States ($7.16x1). $7.16
Transportation International/Domestic Tax - United States ($24.42x1). $24.42