rydeordie99

I just booked my first all J class itinerary with a stopover via the phone.

YEG-YYZ-AUH-MLE (AC + Etihad)
MLE-BAH-ATH-YYZ-YEG (Stopover in ATH) (Gulf Air + AC)

My orginal plan was for FCO but due to not pricing correctly on their end, I hung up and did some research. Eventually changed it to ATH and gave them each of the 3 pieces and told them which ones to choose based on departure time/flight number.

Total cost is 410k + ~$600 fees for 2 ppl. So the correct amount based on the rewards chart.

Annoying part is the dynamic pricing for AC flights. Since I'm in YEG, I almost had no choice but to have AC for the first/last leg.

Thank you so much canadiancow for your tool. Without that, I don't know if I could have put the effort required to search on AirCanada's website.

Adam Smith

Congrats, and welcome to FT!

That does indeed suck. Not sure how long you've been reading FT or in the FF space in general, but many frequent flyers would consider "positioning" for something like this. For instance, if there were space on LH out of YVR but the AC YEG-YVR made pricing ridiculously high, you might consider just dropping YEG-YVR from the Aeroplan itinerary and buying a cheap ticket on Swoop or Flair to get you to YVR.

zam

If flying into ORY and out of CDG within 24 hrs will that be considered a new direction automatically because they are two airports are will they be considered the same and simply be a connection?
thanks

canadiancow

That's a connection.

tracon

Program seems to work as advertised.
Booked YVR-CDG(stop)-MRU.
MRU-LHR-YVR

Agent booked as two separate itineraries.
Booking fee waived both ways.

MRU was a "bargain" add on as it was only about 15,000 points extra each way compared to a simple CDG itinerary.
Which obviously means Canada-Europe is overpriced.

Took about an hour to book. 20 minutes of that was trying a couple different itineraries and responding to my enquiries and changes.

Smiley90

Is flying NA-Asia-Europe as a single one-way award technically possible, as long as it's not 2xdirect distance? Given that Asia-Europe-NA is I'm inclining to believe so, but just want to double check before I begin futile planning

CanadianMike

Glad to hear it went smoothly.
Use Cowtool or AC site to confirm segment availability then piece together for the agent?

rankourabu

It was one of the prohibited routings in the official pdf that a blog published.

zam

I understand that using AC metal for any legs forces the itinerary to be repriced if any changes are made. What I don't know is whether this is only the case if the particular leg or segment containing the AC flight is changed or if anything on the whole itinerary changes? Also, does the repricing occur even if one doesn't change the AC flight itself and the original AC flight was booked in I class- which I assume is the case whenever the segments prices exactly like the partner chart? Thanks!

tracon

Yes, I checked both sites for availability.
Once I talked to the agent, I mentioned wanting to do a o/w with the 5000 points stopover.
Gave the dates and destinations and let him come up with the flights.

I had no idea what the total point deduction was going to be, but the number I was quoted was within the confines of what I would expect.

Initially I was given YVR-YYZ-CDG. I asked about connecting in YUL instead....so I could save the $7.
I ended up saving the $$$ and a few thousand points too.

Smiley90

Booooo. Do you happen to have a link to that by any chance? Thanks for letting me know though!

kalderlake

https://www.aircanada.com/content/da...-policy-en.pdf

Smiley90

Thanks!

"However, the following exceptions apply:• North America to/from Europe: must travel across the Atlantic Ocean• North America to/from Middle East: must travel across the Atlantic Ocean• North America to/from South America: must travel wholly within theWestern Hemisphere "

The middle east exception is actually even more surprising than the Europe one, since something like YVR-TYO-AUH and YVR-EWR-AUH is essentially the same distance and both very "logical" routings..and I much prefer flying west!

zam

Bump - anyone know?
understand that using AC metal for any legs forces the itinerary to be repriced if any changes are made. What I don't know is whether this is only the case if the particular leg or segment containing the AC flight is changed or if anything on the whole itinerary changes? Also, does the repricing occur even if one doesn't change the AC flight itself and the original AC flight was booked in I class- which I assume is the case whenever the segments prices exactly like the partner chart? Thanks![/QUOTE]

YYZ1313

Would SYD-HND-BKK (stop)-AUH-YYZ be a valid routing?