I Ron Butterfly

I booked a honeymoon flight YYZ-IAD-HND on ANA J with AP many months ago, and just got a call that there was a flight change and we're now booked YYZ-IAD-ORD-HND and now in UA Y instead of ANA J. Needless to say, disappointing and frustrating as this is for December and there's of course no award availability left.

I was trawling some old FT threads and have seen some instances a few years ago where they were able to get AP to book you a revenue ticket when you got bumped and there was no award availability remaining. I just called AP and got a pretty flat "no" but wondering if anyone has any more up-to-date experience or if i have any leg to stand on here to get carriage in the class of service I was ticketed. If it makes a difference, it seems the cancellation was part of ANA's schedule change.

pentiumvi

I think there may be 2 options you can try to pursue:

1) Look for another routing that you are satisfied with which has award availability, and ask to change to those flights w/o re-pricing.

2) Ask to get routed through YVR and put on the AC YVR-NRT flight. It may be more likely that AC will be willing to route you on AC metal in original class of service.

On a side note, I am doubtful Japan is going to be open to foreign tourism by December...

YOWgary

Yes, when this comes up Aeroplan does have more latitude to move you onto revenue space on AC metal than partner metal, which is to say "some". It's possible, I've done it, but I wouldn't call it something you can expect. That's also not specifically an AC thing, United and many others are the same way.
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That said, yeah, no, unless you've got a Japanese passport I would be looking for a new destination for December.

aeroman380

Agree. They are probably just plugging in HND and not NRT when searching for you. This would open up Montreal NRT flight and possible YYC if it is still around though doubt it. I have had that happen before. You will have to do all the leg work segment by segment. Try all major cities in Canada then US. KIX has always been overlooked.

Don't forget about the cowtool which is awesome at looking availability up. Keep us updated

I Ron Butterfly

Thanks for this - unfortunately award availability is pretty much zilch in J. On the entry requirements, agreed - I'm catching a connecting flight at HND (which is allowing overnight transiting) so the NRT options don't work for that reason.

ChrisA330

I would HUCA. Given this is as a result of a schedule change by ANA, I would push for a supervisor at Aeroplan to try and work with ANA directly to get them to reaccomodate you on another service.

Unfortunately this is a bit of a YMMV situation.

I Ron Butterfly

Thanks - yeah I figured so. I called late last night and didn't have a lot of fight left in this dog, but it seems being direct and not accepting the (lame) alternate options is key to getting somewhere. Will HUCA and make a move to get up the ladder today. Thanks again!

Stranger

Actually there should be no need for award availability for rebooking on AC. If on other partners, yes there should. But on AC they can open up from regular inventory.

canadiancow

I wouldn't waste my time.

Exactly. Pick some AC flights that get you where you want. Feed those to the agent. They can be J2 and it's no issue.

I Ron Butterfly

Hey there, since you asked for an update.....

I called in to AP on a different matter and had *such* a helpful and capable agent that I figured worth asking him if there was anything I could do to shake out a J itinerary from the revenue pool for this, and he was able to rebook me YYZ-YVR (AC), YVR-HND (ANA) for which there's no J award space. Even better, the fare class is P, so I think I'll even earn status mileage on it?

Thanks for your input (and to everyone else as well) - honeymoon saved!

canadiancow

There's J reward space on every flight that has paid J space.

That's not how it works. You can book an Aeroplan ticket in JCDZPI.

Adam Smith

On AC, but that YVR-HND leg is on NH... @I Ron Butterfly, are you saying the NH leg is in P?

P.S. In the Garden of Eden is my favourite hymn

canadiancow

Oh sorry I missed that. I don't know why they'd put you on NH to TYO if there's no I space, when they could just fly you on AC.

Adam Smith

Perhaps it's one of the days YVR-NRT isn't operating.

I Ron Butterfly

That's right, both the AC and NH legs are P.

And glad to find another fan of rock and/or roll!