canadiancow

I'd like to find a longer non-Asian routing to confirm, but there's a limit to how much searching I'll do.

A sensible rule would be entirely distance-based. It makes little sense if you an do an 11k mile TATL but not a 10k mile TPAC.

I'm pretty sure AUH-HNL would hit the issue I'm describing, where they force you into a much longer routing.

Jasper2009

While I'd love to see a purely distanced-based rule, I can certainly see how some routings would be too "generous" from an AC business perspective, especially given the ability to add a stopover. This would particularly apply to:

- North America - (Western) Europe via Asia
- North America - South America via Europe

canadiancow

Well you're now describing things that we'd already been told are not permitted due to being over twice the non-stop distance.

I'm talking about going 25% over the non-stop distance.

Given the 2x limitation, the alleged "no Asia" restriction makes very little sense.

Jasper2009

No, I'm referring to routes that would be under 2x the non-stop distance and would therefore be permitted if there only were a distance rule, e.g.

SFO-NRT-FRA/MUC/ZRH would be just under 2x the non-stop distance
SFO/SEA/YVR/YYC-FRA-EZE would be under 2x the non-stop distance

While I'd love to book such routings, I can see how AC doesn't want to allow those.

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But I fully agree that disallowing a perfectly logical route such as AUH-NRT-SFO makes no sense. Hopefully this is/was just an inexperienced agent and not an actual rule.

canadiancow

Another agent says she can't get it to price out, so doesn't look very hopeful.

canadiancow

Well this is amusing. Something on my AUH-IST-LAX-SFO was cancelled, so they rebooked me AUH-NRT-SFO.

canadiancow

I booked IAD-AUH in F for 120k.

I want to add SFO-IAH-IAD in Y (ugh) at the start, which would bump it to over 8k miles, to 130k points.

I was quoted the price of booking a new SFO-IAH-IAD redemption (22.5k), rather than extra 10k from 6k-8k to 8k+.

Travel Ops told the agent "if that's what it's quoting, we can't haggle".

So they want a total of 142.5k, which is not a number in the (partner) chart.

On to a supervisor, he told the agent the prices displayed are just estimates, based on "Points displayed are estimated ranges for one-way travel, and are for informational purposes only". He told me the same thing.

He's escalating it to head office and IT to either get it fixed or make the website more clear that partner prices may vary.

This sounds like someone clicked "add bound" instead of "edit bound".

YOWgary

This would be directly contradictory to literally everything we've been told about the new system so far.

I'm not saying it's not true, but I agree with Cow that "badly trained supervisor" sounds as likely as any other outcome.

canadiancow

But it was front-line, travel ops, AND supervisor.

I was so sure the supervisor was going to rectify it.

gospelle

A few days ago, I booked two seats YYC-YVR-TPE-SIN in Biz Lowest (85k/ea). When I booked, it created a booking reference number, put through a pending charge on my credit card for the fees, but did not issue the tickets. Looking at the booking in the My Bookings said, there was an issue, call in. I did. They fixed whatever the issue was and issued the ticket.

YYC-YVR segment on AC and YVR-TPE-SIN on BR.

Today, I decided to go to SIN a few days earlier so went to book. The same "complete" itinerary didn't come up, however, YYC-YVR did show up as bookable and YVR-TPE-SIN also showed up as bookable. These were the EXACT same flights/times as the other one I booked. Called in to stitch them together and was surprised when the agent told me this combination could NOT be booked. The reason given was that the YVR-TPE-SIN flights were Class: I, while the YYC-YVR segment wasn't Class: I. I even asked the agent, could I add on the YYC-YVR segment if I book the YVR-TPE-SIN trip online, and she said no, because the YYC-YVR segments weren't Class: I. Which is kinda bonkers as this is almost a year in advance and there's about 20 direct flights available YYC-YVR with no seats booked.

Does this make any sense? I am almost certain I've booked trips since the new system came in that had mixed Class segments.

I ended up just booking the YVR-TPE-SIN trip online (85k/ea) as it's pretty easy to find a way from YYC-YVR even if I have to drive. But still kinda miffed.

canadiancow

That makes no sense. You should be able to combine any AC J seat, possibly for more points. You should also be able to do it mixed cabin with AC in Y (though again, possibly for more points).

cyralax

Just checking, we still have to call in for multi-city points bookings right? If so, is the best workflow still to use the UA/NH/SQ booking engines to find availability?

Adam Smith

Yes.

You can use one of those. You can also use ac.com or the app. Those will now return results for things like MUC-AMS or BKK-TYO that you couldn't previously book on ac.com (and still can't for revenue tickets). As long as you're searching for each leg individually.

pschafer

As a newbie based in Sydney (Australia) looking at buying points under the current 100% bonus promo - I have a few questions which perhaps someone can asset with:-

1. would the following be valid using the one stopover for 5000 additional miles: SYD-YVR (stopover)- FRA? I thought I read that stopovers in North America were not allowed but I'm hoping this only applies if your origin is within North America. Likewise would SYD-YVR (stopover) - YYZ be valid?

2. Are awards with a stopover still only bookable by phone?

3. would the following (a bit off the wall) routing be valid: SYD-YVR (stopover) - NRT be valid?

Any advice would be most welcome. thanks.

opentag

(2) Yes stopovers can only be booked by phone currently.
(3) The routing can only be a maximum of 2x the direct route. As SYD-NRT is 4846 miles and SYD-YVR-NRT is 12,341 miles that routing would not be legal. (By the announced rules anyway, never know what *might* be OKed)

Not 100% sure on NA stopovers as you ask in (1) but like you my understanding is they're not allowed, though origins outside NA may change that. Also getting availability on SYD-YVR for a reasonable amount of points is likely to remain VERY challenging.