supatight80

​​​​I booked an award ticket with itinerary as:
Jan 6: Cairo to Aswan
Jan 12: Luxor to Cairo

I wanted to change the outbound travel to:
Jan 6: Sharm el-Sheikh to Aswan (via Cairo)
Jan 12: Luxor Cairo

Was told this new itinerary is an illegal booking Escalated to supervisor was told the same thing as cannot book 2 one ways in a single ticket. (eg. YUL-YVR/YYC-YYZ)

Told her that Egyptair and other OTAs is selling the exact same itinerary online with $. Aircanada.com is also allowing to book this itinerary using points. She then said well points have different rules VS cash payments. And it won't work.

Finally, I did a dummy booking with the supervisor using my points and card payment and it did go through. She then said it is a glitch but she will honor the changes as Aircanada.com allowed it.

2 questions:
1) Is this new itinerary an illegal booking as stated by many reps/supervisor?

2) in regards to flight cancelations (SSH-CAI-ASW)
If Egyptair, cancels my SSH-CAI leg, and puts me on a later flight which will cause me to misconnect my CAI-ASW flight, can the AP reps rebook me to:

Jan 6: SSH-CAI (overnight)
Jan 7: CAI-ASW (first flight available after misconnect)
Jan 12: LXR-CAI

Reason I'm asking is because MS seems to be canceling a lot of flights last minute due to COVID.

Thanks!

robsaw

You can do open-jaws and stopovers on Aeroplan awards but what you have is an "open" at both ends (i.e. not returning to the point of origin - that isn't allowed) and stopovers must be at the furthest point not backtracking.

Google "Aeroplan's award routing and stopover rules" and you should find some explanatory articles that are better than my brief and incomplete summary.

YOWgary

Always interesting to see people using Aeroplan for flights that never go anywhere near Canada!

Keep in mind that any description of Aeroplan's award routing and stopover rules that's more than a few months old, is likely still built around the old rules pre-November-2020.

OP, I'm wondering if there's any obstacle to just splitting your award into a pair of one-ways?

supatight80

Yah that's what the agent told me as well. But Air Canada.com is allowing open at both ends itinerary booked online using awards. Egyptair and all other OTAs are selling the same route but using $

Adam Smith

I've certainly booked double open jaws on ac.com for revenue tickets. Is this potentially a positive impact of the new program? YOWgary, any thoughts on whether there's anything in the new routing rules that would prevent combining these two one-way bounds on the same ticket?

That being said, OP, different airlines have different routing rules, so just because MS will sell you this itinerary doesn't mean that AC will or should. But glad it has worked out for you

supatight80

I would gladly have done that except
A) seats are not available any longer on the final leg (LXR - CAI) on a particular flight.
B) I have attached a $150 e-coupon on the ticket to lessen taxes (2 pax/reduced miles)

I read somewhere on FT that the value of ecoupons attached to ticket is canceled, it can't be used right away? I'm not too sure but if memory serves me right, it'll take 3 weeks for the value of the coupon to be returned.

I'm more concerned about the misconnect. What would AP do in my situation? SSH-CAI flight canceled. Puts us on a later flight, which causes us to misconnect our CAI - ASW flight. Will AP rebook to:
1st leg - SSH - CAI (overnight)
2nd leg - CAI - ASW
3rd leg - LXR - CAI without me having to fork out extra miles, Especially if that reps are on the old rules that my ticket is "illegal"?

YOWgary

I haven't tried an A-B // C-D open-jaw yet, but I booked an IAD-AUH-SIN // KUL-HND-IAD without any issue last week, and without triggering a stop-over fee for the open-jaw.

Adam Smith

It's not cancelled, but it may take a few days to come back.

I made a change to a ticket booked with an eCoupon on Friday that generated a partial refund. I tried to check whether it was available right afterwards, and it wasn't. But today, no problem using it. I also outright cancelled a ticket that had been paid for partly with an eCoupon last week, and again, a few days later, the eCoupon was available.

So, somewhere between 5 minutes and ~3 days, but not 3 weeks. If you want to cancel and re-book right away though, I probably wouldn't bet on being able to use it for that.