bankerflyer

I am contemplating a booking through Aeroplan but I have a concern transferring the AMEX points only to find the flights are no longer available. A couple of questions. Can I call in advance of the transfer and put on hold the flights? Any recent experience of Membership Rewards to Aeroplan transfers with a U.S. Amex card?

TIA

fysloc

I believe Amex is an insta-transfer to Aeroplan 90% of the time for both US and Canadian cards. The other 10% is because there's an issue with the transfer, systems, or name mismatch, but if you successfully transferred in the past, it should be pretty instant.

guv1976

In the past, people have the reported the ability to have an Aeroplan phone agent put an award itinerary on a brief hold, as long as you are able and willing to transfer your Amex points while you are still on the call. You would obviously have to have everything set up on your computer for the transfer before you called Aeroplan, so that all you would have to do is press one button when the Aeroplan agent holds the flights.

No idea if this is still an option.

hoc022

I would transfer the points first then use it to book the flight. Like fysloc said most time the transfer is instant.

dorakk

but with that I’ll need to pay booking fee for my reward flight, right? Coz I’m booking it thru an agent?

guv1976

Correct. That's the price you pay to ensure against phantom availability, transfer problems, or someone snatching the award seat in the normally-short time it takes for the transfer to go through. Only you can decide whether that's worth it to you.

mjrobson

I did this unintentionally recently. I transfered my points from Amex while I was on hold and the agent did up the multi-segment booking and it somehow ended up being more points than I priced out online so I was short like 350 points... I transfered over another 1000 and completed it without issue.

caiicaii

I’ve transferred between a US Amex and Aeroplan before and it’s near instant. This was when they had a 20% transfer bonus to Aeroplan so I transferred it all lol

SaintsFanInVan

I just transferred Amex MR points to Aeroplan last week and the transfer was nearly instant. Within a few minutes I could see the points on my Aeroplan account.

MillennialMiles

I had this instance where Aeroplan sometimes occasionally holds Amex pts transfer. Eg. you see it immediately in your Aeroplan account but you can't use them until they are "approved.' Seems to be a new thing implemented recently

SaintsFanInVan

I just made another MR to Aeroplan points transfer and what you've described just happened to me. Do you know how long the points are on hold for?

MillennialMiles

It seems to be "manually reviewed by someone at Aeroplan so a few business days.

burnedpixel

Ugh, I'm dealing with this right now. Have transferred MR over in the past and been instantly credited and able to spend right away.

Transferred over a bunch for some J tickets last night and while the "Recent activity" list shows the move, the total balance flickers between the new total balance and the pre-transfer balance. Going to the booking page always flips the balance to the pre-transfer total.

Frustrated, I tried moving a test amount from Cap One, those are also stuck. Thinking it was a first name mismatch (full legal name vs shortened nickname) I tried my wife's account which is 100% 1:1 with a test amount from Amex and hers is also still suck.

If they're going to do this for every transfer going forward the appeal of using Aeroplan is significantly lower as the risk of losing the award space is super high if you're looking at a 24-48hr+ approval window.

MillennialMiles

I've noticed this has been the case since the new T&Cs were updated in December. They might be doing this temporarily to stamp out any transfers done from different Amex MR to Aeroplan accounts to stop points brokers. My theory is they are a bit more proactive or just auditing a sample of transfers. Regardless, everyone should be cautioned before they make a transfer that it will not be instant and to not rely on it prior to making a booking.

burnedpixel

For what it's worth, the points now were available and spendable as of this morning, so a little over 24hrs from transfer time. I might try a test amount again later tonight just to see if it takes another 24h for those, or if some automated process broke over the holiday weekend and the staff just now fixed it this morning.