Transferring out of AC
 

I'm totally fed up with AC Aeroplan Customer Services and am giving up with AC.

Is there any way I can transfer out my miles into another Star Alliance Partner? (e.g. BMI ?)


N.

Nope...but AC will be happy to take them away from you after 1 year of account inactivity.

Yes I know :mad:

Hence part of the dis-satisfaction.

You could swap them to US Airways through points.com, but the conversion rate would likely be horrible.

You could cash in for some premium cabin awards on *A partners.

I cancelled my aerogold visa last week.
"Your reason for cancelling sir?"
"Aeroplan incompetence."

I xxl my aerogold visa last week.

"Reason?"
"CIBC incompetence."

Why are you so pissed off at AE...perhaps a few more words of explanation might gain you a bit more cogent advice. As a newbie you're being very rash and not making the most of what you might get in the way of help from FT.

I too cancelled AMEX
 

fergit it I said... ;)

To "Defect" from Aeroplan dwindle your miles down with awards. When you collect miles, put them in the new program. I keep my Aeroplan balance as low as possible, redeeming almost as quickly as I earn them.

This year I'm on a miles spending spree. Join the club.

Well partly because of the changes in the way they points 'disappear' after 12 months is one reason (I am not currently living in CA and so am using Star Alliance Partners more at this present time).

Also their exchange rate for a lot of Partner flights I am taking (in Europe) is zero. And when I do take flights that are eligable it is a lot of grief to actually get the points added to the account. On one occasion they said the points had been added to a different * partners account (not even in my name) and if I wanted them I had to ring up out of the blue this third party and ask them to be moved!

i.e. a flight with SAA had been credited to a BMI account (I dont have a BMI account but my travelling companion on that occasion did) instead of AC and they told me to call BMI and tell them to move them!

Hence I was hoping to move the points to another * Alliance Partner.

Does that help?

Not sure these complaints are exclusive to AE.

All programs now have an expiry if no account activity has occured for a certain amount of time. AA just announced theirs, which I believe is 18-months. It's now quite normal in all programs. At the same time, all that's needed is a single transaction...even 10 points for orange juice! (I realize not being in Canada any longer is a problem, but this is FT and someone here will always be able to find a way to score a few points: I kept my mother's account alive by completing the CATSA survey a few weeks back.)

As for eligible fares for AE credit, this is not AE's doing, it is a decision by the carrier you are flying. They're the ones that buy the miles from AE, and if the fare you pay is considered too low for them to make any profit, they save the $5 or more that might otherwise go to AE...or their own program. So don't blame AE for that one either.

Posting is always a problem when flying partner airlines. I had a flight with SAA in March and the agent put in the wrong AE number. I only noticed when the miles didn't post after two or three days. I sent a note to AE with the boarding pass stub, and it was fixed in a few days. But again, this is not just limited to AE.

In your case with the BMI mix-up, it would have to be rectified with BMI since they're the ones whose program had the miles go into it. They're the only ones who can remove miles from one of their accounts, not AC. Could you call Amex and ask them to take money out of someone's Visa account? You'd call Visa. Why should this be different?

First, you must submit your pleadings to the AC Office of Reconsiderarion :p

How so? They send me a bill every month, I make an online banking bill payment to them monthly. Simple enough. And, they process the 3.9% balance transfer cheques well.

If you have status with AC, you might be able to get a status match from BMI. Doesn't get you your miles though.

But be warned that BMI's call centre is nearly as dysfunctional as Aeroplan's website. If they only had Aeroplan's business acumen, they would also have an award-booking website that you'd be forced to pay £20 to use when the call centre couldn't get you what you wanted.

So does a CIBC AEROGOLD VISA miles credit (back in Feb 07) count as an activity on the account in a year (so one purchase on the Visa card would stop miles expiring??) with their new policy starting tomorrow :(