zam

Sorry, but I don't understand what you mean. The rule clearly stipulates Europe and the Middle East destinations cannot be reached from North American origins via the Pacific region. It does not state that all Atlantic destinations cannot be reached from North American origins via the Pacific region.

zam

I'd be very curious to hear why OP's routing got disallowed. Maybe try calling in again and seeing if it's agent fault? There's numerous stories including my own where one agent says "that's not possible we can't do that" and the next agent does it in ten seconds.[/QUOTE]

I am curious as well but we won't be finding out now. After spending the time with the first agent and ending up empty handed, I did not have a block of free time to HUCA until more than a day later,and by then one of the key segments for my dates was gone. I ended up having to do a slightly different itinerary which was clearly going to price at three segments. Cost me 85K points so I hope that there really is some rule and this was not simply agent incompetence.

FreedomIsntFree

I scored a couple of J fares for my wife & infant from YVR-LHR for 66k points and her flight home from CDG-YVR for 67k in April/May. Thank you Cow tool!

Now I’m trying to build an intra Europe flights on Aegan and for sound great flights from Italy NAP>CHQ to Greece and Greece to Paris CHQ>CDG.

Cash fares for Latitude equivalent two one way flights x 2 passengers with infant on lap was $900.

On the points end, the surcharges were $600 plus 36k points for the same flights in standard equivalent. Assume it’s normal for high surcharges with Europe on Aegan? Any suggestions on how to reduce the surcharges down?

zam

Are you trying to continue ex-LHR? Fees are crazy out of that airport.

ChrisA330

Sounds like to me you chose a different redemption option that adjusts the amount of points you need, and in turn adjusts the amount of cash you need to pay. It's extremely misleading as the option listed as 'popular' reduces the amount of miles, but increases the amount of cash required.

FreedomIsntFree

Digging into this a bit more. Yes, you're correct. My eyes fooled me onto the popular option. I'm going to book these with cash as I would still need to shell out about $400 plus 50K points. Redemption wise, better to save those points for the next rewards J ticket for the wife. If we didn't have many bags then the economy standard redemptions make more sense.

To the earlier question, no not going outbound after LHR on points. Booking with BA for LGW to BRI direct.

Thank you!

LeonSays

Hi all, I'm new to flyertalk and this is my first post.

I spent the last couple of days reading through this thread entirely on my spare times. (Yes.. all 40+ pages lol )

I was used to old Aeroplan system and even purposely booked several domestic/international trips for 2021 before the change in 2020, as I considered it is a devaluation for the points I've earned. (Although they all ended up being cancelled due to the continuity of pandemic uncertainty in early/mid 2021)

After reading here + additional research on AC documents & 3rd party bloggers' websites, I think I'm confident to say that I know the new Aeroplan system well enough now. (I hope so)

I know it's still a frustration as stopovers on flight reward are not bookable online. (Come on AC/Aeroplan.. seriously?)

Currently I'm planning a future round trip to Pacific zone and just wanted to make sure my itinerary is bookable via call centre:

Segment 1: YYZ-IST (via Turkish Airlines, layover ~11 hours)
Segment 2: IST-MLE (via Turkish Airlines, stopover)
Segment 3: MLE-AUH (via Etihad Airways, layover ~23 hours)
Segment 4: AUH-BKK (via Etihad Airways, destination)
Segment 5: BKK-ICN (via Asiana Airlines, layover ~24 hours)
Segment 6: ICN-NRT (via Asiana Airlines, stopover)
Segment 7: NRT-JFK (via All Nippon Airways, destination)

Technically, the total amount of points to book all segments in business class should be 2 x (85,000 pts + 5,000 pts) = 180,000 pts.
I tried to avoid Air Canada as much as I could, due to its dynamic pricing might screw up the calculation.

Some questions here -

(1) Will this itinerary work when I call Aeroplan?

(2) MLE is a place I picked as I think it's nice to visit, though I know everything is very expensive down there. lol
Other than MLE, any other recommendations for a stopover in Atlantic or Pacific zone before BKK?

(3) I was thinking of swapping the second layover from AUH (via Etihad Airways) to SIN (via Singapore Airlines).
Which place or airline would you prefer more and why?

(4) I chose JFK as destination instead of YYZ, because I checked United Airlines' routes from NRT to YYZ and all the connecting flights through DEN, ORD or EWR are as First Class on the last segment (DEN/ORD/EWR-YYZ) somehow.. which makes me worried it would screw up the required point amount as well. Amy I wrong about it? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for reading my long essay.. lol

Smiley90

Let's split your idea into two one ways to get the correct pricing:

First one-way is YYZ-IST-MLE(stop)-AUH-BKK, which will book into the longest distance NA-Pacific band at 13800 mi and cost 105k+5k for the stopover

Second one way is BKK-ICN-NRT(stop)-JFK-YYZ (United domestic first just counts as business class for award purposes except for select routes), which is 9500mi and goes into the second highest Pacific band at 85k+5k.

So this entire trip should cost 200k.

LeonSays

Thanks for getting back to me, Smiley90!

Apparently it's a rookie mistake + I was sleepy typing last night and my brain was not functional. lol

If I change the first one-way to YYZ-IST-MLE(stop)-SIN, it's getting very close to second highest Pacific band (7,501-11,000 mi) at 85K+5K. Would Aeroplan system follow that or potentially charge the highest band for extra $20K?

PS: Thank you so much for answering my UA domestic first class question.

ChrisA330

Two points here: 1) You're going to find it challenging to get MLE-SIN in J 2) the only issue with respect to distance is Aeroplan's distances don't always follow what gcmap.com displays, but the distances are only off a few miles here and there, so it'll be tight, but suspect you'd be fine.

pentiumvi

As mentioned above, MLE-SIN may be tough to find award availability.

I've also not had much luck finding YYZ-IST on TK in the past. Perhaps things may have changed, but did you actually find dates that worked for you? Or are you just coming with a routing that you'd like to fly?

FFSaver

I meant to say I wanted a stopover in SIN, hence the +5K.

Anyway, I called twice and each time waited at least 45 min... Not sure if what I want to book is too complicated or I got an agent who doesn't know the rules/system.
First call: was not able to piece together YYZ (AC in Y) - IAD (EY in J) - AUH (EY in J ) - SIN (SQ in Y) -HAN... She kept saying the system will not allow... I didn't try to price the return leg with her
Second call: I asked the agent to price the return leg: HAN (SQ in Y) - SIN (SQ in J) - AUH stop-over (EY in J) - DUB (AC in J) - YYZ... This agent insisted the system will price this as 2 separate segments. She puts the info into the computer and came back with 50K for the HAN-SIN-AUH (all in Y) and 85K (AUH - ZRH - YYZ in J) = 135K... Is this correct? Since this routing contains an AC flight, is there a way to predict the dynamic pricing within a multi-airline itinerary?

ChrisA330

You're getting caught in this rule: Flight Reward itineraries with a direction of travel wholly operated by Air Canada, or operated by Air Canada and Aeroplan partner airlines, may be subject to the routing rules of the equivalent retail fare.

If you can find options without any AC segments, I suspect it would price out just fine.

LeonSays

Thanks for your suggestions, ChrisA330!

Why is it challenging to get MLE-SIN in business class?
Is it because Singapore Airlines was awarded as world's best airline so a lot of people would prefer to fly this route?

Smiley90

SQ does not make a lot of their flights available for partner award redemption. Really you're better off looking for possible routings by availability than by what's "possible", because a lot of routes are only theoretically redeemable... Even more so during peak travel times.