Changing Tickets Booked with Aeroplan Miles on *A Partner??
 

I recently booked flights using Aeroplan miles for an itinerary that includes flights on SAS and Lufthansa. When I booked, they told me that the tickets could not be changed. Now, of course, I need to make a change. The agent with whom I spoke indicated that my only option for making a change would be to redeposit the miles (for a fee) by sending in the tickets and rebook. Has anyone out there been able to change tickets booked through Aeroplan on a *A partner without having to go through all that? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

what the agent told you is essentially correct.

Redeposit the miles and start over.

However, a few of us have had good experience just showing up if all you want is a date change (earlier not later). Many partners seem to honor it at checkin but they nor Aeroplan will change it over the phone.

If you need a confirmed date and have no flexibility, it likely will mean redeposit the miles and rebook (if reward seats are available--the closer to the date, the less likely you may find them). The rules are quite clear for Star Alliance/partner awards but it doesn't make it any easier to take.

Good luck!

I don't think that you'll be able to do anything. This is one of the rules that seems to be quite inflexible -- and perhaps not under Aeroplan's control. Once the tickets have been issued, the only way to change is by cancelling and rebooking. I've not heard of anyone able to get round this, so I'd be interested to see some contrary responses.

If there is a schedule change in your itinerary you *may* be able to sneak in a change if it is not too major. Some agents want to help and will sneak it in knowing that since they can change the booking due to sched change they are not likely to be taken to task making another minor change at the same time. Don't ask AP if there are sched changes, investigate this on your own and try to disguise the rebooking as due to the sced change. Long shot but you never know!

I am in the same position as Hitemstraight - wanting to change an existing Star Alliance reward booking to add on an extra segment that has just opened up (GRU-LPB). I am OK with cancelling, re-booking and paying the fees, but my big concern is losing the segments that I already have (YYZ-GRU and LIM-YYZ), since no extra reward seats are open for my YYZ-GRU flight.

I have heard various comments from Aeroplan agents on the cancel/rebook process - that it may take a few minutes to process, that the Aeroplan system may decide not to reopen/reoffer my cancelled segments (based on current load factors), and that even if the segments are offered someone else could snag them before I was able to rebook.

Can someone familiar with the booking systems clarify the steps and risks involved? (Empress?) If the chance of losing YYZ-GRU is high I may just buy a GRU-LPB ticket for $500. (The third alternative of spending 25K points on a one-way flight within South America seems unwise)

Hi everyone,
I thought I would just share my limited experiences on this subject. When SARS broke out I was able to make quite a few changes to a few Aeroplan Star tickets with any problem. However, those were done under quite extraordinary circumstances. Had the itineraries not been changed, my whole family would have been quaranteened for days. The concierges at YVR were particularly helpful. They even allowed date changes in addition to routing changes. ^ All in all, I agree with previous posters that unless it's something exceptional it's essentially not possible to make any changes. Redepositing the miles seems to be the only way. :(