Hey guys,

To the moderator: feel free to move my thread or merge it if this is a duplicate post.

I want to share my experience with Future Travel Credit (FTC), since there are quite some limitations and I couldn't find a complete overview of the options in this forum on via blogs (except for the expected FQTV-bloggers spamming creditcards obviously ).

I called in about 8 times in order to verify my options to use FTC, since not all agents seem to be aware of the options to redeem. At the moment I am an Aeroplan 35K, just FYI.

For what it's worth: FTC is completely different from Ecoupons, Gift Cards or AC Wallet.

1. You can not combine several FTC's in a new reservation.
2. Online you are only able to use two forms of payment to a booking.
3. The Call Center is able to apply three forms of payment to a booking.
4. You actually, can combine a FTC with an Ecoupon, Gift Card, or AC Wallet, but only if the currency of all those forms of payment are the same. In my case, all my payment options where in CAD, but only my AC Wallet was in EUR. Computer says noooooooo.
5. If you have a return trip, or an one-way trip, you cancel and select FTC as 'refund option', you have a lot of flexibility.
6. For example, you can exchange the FTC into your AC Wallet.
7. In my case, I had a return ticket (CUN-YYZ-AMS v.v.), and cancelled the return leg (AMS-YYZ-AMS) and opted for FTC. Unfortunately I was very limited in redeeming the FTC eventually.
8. I was only able to use the FTC for Europe > Canada and/or Mexico. Luckily I was not limited to AMS only as departure.
9. I also had another ticket AMS-YUL v.v.. I used AMS-YUL, and cancelled YUL-AMS opting for FTC.
10. In this case I was again only able to use it in the same direction, however, I was not limited to YUL as departure airport of AMS as arrival airport. Luckily I had options for all airports in Canada to all airports in Europe.
11. You are able to use FTC on codeshare partners as well, of course, as long as there is an AC-flightnumber, the metal doesn't need to be AC.
12. The expiration date of your FTC is one year after the date of issue of the original ticket. Therefore, you have to use your FTC before the date of issue +1 year, of you original ticket. Using a FTC for a booking made before the expiration date and flying after the expiration date, is not possible.
13. There is no way of extending it. Hence, FTC's are pretty limited.
14. Your FTC is stored with AC as your original PNR.

I hope this helps forum members here, since it was a pretty big struggle for me to figure out how to use my FTC.

Happy flying guys!

Excellent -- I have never had many of this type of instrument and know why I want to avoid getting them. Seems like if you do get them a lot--you need this kind of info!

Something's wrong here. Did you mean "The expiration date of your FTC is the expiration date of the original ticket"?Which would normally be one year: https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/ado/...alidity.html#/

My (limited) experience is that you must fly all legs within one year of the date the original ticket was issued.

Thanks, this is v helpful. Given your experience, do you have suggestions on the easiest way to confirm one's options for using a FTC? I have one and would like to avoid calling 8 times myself.

Look for a flight you want via the AC website.
Take all restrictions into account which I summed up,
Make the call

If you comply with the restrictions, the agents issue a ticket within 5 minutes!

You are totally right! Thanks! I adjusted it now.

Maybe this was implicit in @GVDM's number 8, but I was surprised to discover that my FTC can supposedly only be used for a *one way* overseas flight. The original booking was latitude, UK-Canada-UK, I flew the outbound, and then a couple of days before the inbound I converted it to a FTC because the flight date was Sept 18 (the strike). Now the agent tells me the only possible way I can use the credit is to fly one-way from Canada to Europe. I can't use it on a Canada-Europe-Canada booking.

This of course represents a huge loss in value given the cost of one-way flights compared to returns.

I guess I understand the policy, in that if it could be used for return flights, then availing oneself of the FTC option would be an easy trick to get a one-way trip for a good price (buy a return, fly the outbound, cancel to FTC, then buy a return from where you are now repositioned). But given my latitude fare was scheduled for Sept 18th and even people with unflown basic fares were offered full refunds bc of the looming strike, it's annoying. If I wanted to fly on Sept 18th, my only option was to cross my fingers and hope there was no strike, in which case I would be royally screwed, or buy on a different airline and punt the latitude fare to the future or to a FTC. Someone on a latitude fare shouldn't be in a worse position for adjusting to the strike than someone who bought a basic fare just because they've already flown the outbound.

I think Europe-only was an agent oversimplification (though it does depend on the specific rules involved). For a partially flown ticket, think of this as similar to you making a voluntary change without the cancel step in between.
It will be repriced from the point of origin. If you book A-B-C-D, fly A-B and cancel C-D, and then later add E-F, then it will have to be priced A-B-E-F. It's just easier for agents to say it has to be something basically the same as before, as that will likely price. I'd expect Canada-Africa to also price in your case for instance.

I finally used up a leftover one of these recently. Because of the rules for what I had already flown, I was only allowed to use the remaining (not-small) value of the 014 ticket on USA domestic UA flights... so I flew lots of them. In the end it looked nothing like the original booking, but it would have been nice to be able to use it to fly AC.

Side note: I find it hard to believe that AC imposes a 1 year from date of original issue restriction for partially used tickets as implied in this thread, especially when they don't impose it on TAs. It should be 1 year from the first flight (i.e. ticket validity as mentioned in post #3, which depends on whether it is unused or partially used).

Okay thanks, I'll call back. When the agent said it had to be a one way flight, I said something like 'what? one way flights are so much more expensive. I'm struggling to believe this is the actual policy.' She didn't say "oh, I just meant you have to fly the return bound of your original ticket, it won't price as a one way". Instead, she affirmed that one ways were a lot more expensive. I hope this is just a case of her being clueless.

Is there no way to convert them to wallet funds?

If eligible, sure. Not in this case. Unfortunately lots of things are not eligible for the wallet, including partially used tickets and fully refundable fares.
A refund should be fine though (after recalculating the price for what was actually flown).

Is there a subject line I can search my email inbox for when a FTC is issued? Preferably around February 2024, lol, in case they changed their formatting

I could have sworn I converted funds into FTC, but I can't find proof of it, and I have a handful of PNRs that I could just call AC and ask about, I just thought I could get a hint here and deal with it faster

IIRC the e mails come from Customer care or customer service. I'm not on a desktop so I can't confirm. Try searching with this maybe.

I have a rather dumb question, but on the screen where you select your cancellation.. is there another confirmation screen before your cancellation is processed? Or once you select one of these options here, it immediately processes the cancellation? (either refund or flight cancelled)

And it wasn't clear in the original post, but it seems like the FTC can only be used on a new one way flight in the same direction if you're cancelling a partially flown ticket? (as I am thinking of doing, CDG-YYZ-CDG, used CDG-YYZ already)