gspurr

I'm apologize if this should go elsewhere. I scrolled through quite a few pages of threads and couldn't find a place to put this.

I'm looking at flights from Asia to YYZ next summer and I'm finding a fair bit of availability on United and ANA award sight for flights on EVA, UA, Thai and ANA. When I turn to look for these awards on Aeroplan nothing at all appears. Pretty much all the options are flights with an AC segment. I can't even find any of the individual segments that appear on other *A websites (such as Bkk-TPE before on to North America).

Is Air Canada still part of Star Alliance?

canadiancow

Oh the hyperbole...

Are the flights bookable on the other sites? AC said they put a lot of effort into completely eliminating phantom availability.

zappy312

Just guessing, but there might be some married segment logic in play too.

Jasper2009

The short answer: It's complicated.

1) NH releases more award availability to its own members than it releases to partners.

2) UA releases more award availability at the saver level than it releases to partners.

3) Sometimes AC awards are available at the saver level to partners, but not to Aeroplan members at the "lower end of the pricing band" (as one may expect).

4) And to make things more fun, LH is experimenting with a new inventory management system whereby it releases different award availability to different airlines. In the past this was sometimes a pathetic excuse by incompetent agents, but LH has made it a reality.

5) If you're checking availability on connecting flights on the same airline, make sure to check the same origin-destination on all sites due to married segment availability.

6) Sometimes other airline websites will show "false positives".

7) And between all of that, the AE website sometimes doesn't show award availability that is in fact bookable (by calling AE). However, with new AE search tool, this is quite rare. So if you could post some specific examples, that would be helpful.

24left

@gspurr
In the old and large Aeroplan thread - the one under the old program, there were often posts that said not all airlines release the same awards to all partner airlines. Even looking on the FT forums for ANA, EVA, and even SQ, I've seen plenty of posts where people write "But I saw availability on Aeroplan or UA MP.

For every single award I looked for in the old program, I searched by sector. There was rarely anything I wanted on the YYZ-Asia/SE Asia/Oceania routes so I searched to or from YVR, LAX, SFO, and anywhere else partners had routes.

Perhaps BKK-TPE isn't available because those countries are still closed or mostly closed to foreigners. I personally would not book anything on a route where I do not have access of entry or transit and even some of the countries that allow transit, are making it very challenging. But that's me.

My own personal experience with the NEW Aeroplan program is when I've searched my routes, it forces me via Europe and sure, AC metal is part of the offering. But so was EY, and LO and others. I am not interested in going via Europe and so I keep looking.there were plenty of offerings from YVR etc so one could build an itinerary. I am very flexible on dates and I've had insane but fun routings before.

The Now Times are challenging for many. Sure, there are some on this forum who are faster or smarter and can find everything they want on the days they want it. You either have to keep looking or as many do, hire someone to do the work for you.

Finally, have you visited the Air Canada website? Because right there, you'll see this




Safe & happy travels!

EDIT TO ADD: @Jasper2009 posted while I was writing. Great info from him.
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canadiancow

And those posts were inaccurate pretty much 100% of the time.

24left

In your opinion and in your experience, which does not always represent what others experience. Nor does everyone on FT or AC FT have the same search skills. I'm also sure you read the post above mine.

No matter. OP is having some challenges trying to find what they are looking for. Perhaps you can help them.
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canadiancow

No, in fact.

gspurr

Thanks for so many responses. The awards that I was seeing on United that made me questions Aeroplan's Award availability were ones on other *A partner airlines (i.e. not United or Air Canada).

For and example, on August 7 United is showing partner awards on Eva Air BKK-TPE-ORD for 99K (their price for partner awards) in business. There is also the option of doing the first leg on Thai Airways instead of Eva. Neither of these show up on Aeroplan. The long haul TPE-ORD can be booked individually on Aeroplan but neither of the two BKK-TPE segments show up on Aeroplan. They appear to be bookable on United. I got as far as the payment page.

Yes, I was being rather hyberbolic with my comment on AC and Star Alliance, but I was getting rather frustrated trying to find awards tickets that seemed to be offered by other Star Alliance carriers.

Jasper2009

For Aug. 7 I'm seeing one business class award seat on both BR212 BKK-TPE -> BR56 TPE-ORD and TG632 BKK-TPE -> BR56 TPE-ORD:

1. when searching on the UA website
2. when searching on the NH website when searching segment-by-segment
3. when searching on the SQ website

However, neither of the two BKK-TPE flights show up on the AC website, whether searching origin-destination or segment-by-segment

Not 100% conclusive, but my experience would suggest that AC is having issues.

gspurr

Thanks for checking this. At the very least I'm glad I'm not seeing something that isn't there on these other sites and it appears as if the problem is with AC. The itinerary I provided was just one example, but I could have provided a few dozen more from BKK to ORD or BKK to YYZ from around these dates for single seats on partner airlines. I've found that phantom seat issues are more common when searching for multiple seats, especially more than two, as many airlines, such as Ethiopian and Thai, usually only have two awards seats open at one time in business for their partners. I was searching for a single seat and while I didn't take all of the itineraries through to the payment stage of booking, I did a few and they all seemed valid on the United booking portal.

drvannostren

They've definitely had some issues with phantom availability, perhaps there's phantom UNavailability? It sucks, but I would try to call and ask for the segment in question, see what they say. Sometimes they just use the search engine, which would be a waste of time, but who knows, sometimes they seem to come up with other results. I was showing CM availability on a flight I wanted for days and days, tried to call in and piece it together, didn't work, they couldn't find it. So I tried booking online and it errored out each time. So who knows, can't hurt to call.

gspurr

That was my impression when I was searching as pretty much the only results I was getting from Aeroplan were itineraries that had AC for the TPAC leg and all were of the dreaded "mixed" variety. Other partners were shoing all sorts of all J class flights on partner airlines for the Asian and TPAC legs. I figured Aeroplan might not have the United TPAC legs in J, but there is no reason why they shouldn't have had the EVA air flights, both TPAC and within Asia.

Thanks for the advice on calling. If I do and get some sort of answer I'll repost.

rugrgrli

Hi,
Pardon if this is in the incorrect place...further to the original question, I am looking for YVR-SFO on UA metal for Sep next year. UA show several award flights available, (including biz), but these do not show on AP. Are these available to AP members? Do I have to call AP to get this booked? Thank you.

mahasamatman

Every airline releases inventory to their own members that are not available to Star Alliance partners.