You can now book AC reward travel on CO.com. Unlike AC, CO does not charge YQ on Aeroplan tickets!

But of course one must have CO miles...

I flew Western ex-YEG through the 80s and that carrier was serving Edmonton through the 70s too. It was taken over by DL in the late 80s or early 90s. So I would say 4 decades -- give or take a year or two -- is "decades". Of course, given more non-stops to US coastal cities, aggressive competition to hub people through SEA by ALASKA/HORIZON, UAEXPRESS into DEN, and even AC non-stops, the old YEG-SLC-LAX run was bound to lose business no matter what DL charged. It was an orphan alliance up in the north woods too.

They still seem to have their license to operate, so I don't see the problem. But in any case, that means less competition for cheap flights, so ^

It gives some flexibility to those of us who collect Amex points. They can be converted to CO miles and now redeemed for AC flights.

CO also flies YYT-EWR I believe, which adds some *A options for the folks out there.

Interesting though that CO and AC are not codesharing on the YEG_IAH route...protecting the YYC-IAH route.

I just tried to book some reward flights using my OnePass miles on the CO website and noticed that:

-the CO website for bookings is fast and easy to use;
-taxes/fees for reward travel on CO.com are calculated directly during the booking process without having to call in to a customer service representative; for the same flights that I was searching for on aeroplan.com, I had to call customer service to calculate the taxes/fees manually;
-availability for SQ operated flights does not seem to appear on Co.com, but were available on aeroplan.com (example was PEK-SIN-PEK where only Air China operated flights were shown on CO.com but SQ operated flights were also shown on aeroplan.com)

As someone who took advantage of YOW-CLE whenever I could, I can't rave about it enough! CLE was not prone to delays, easy to navigate, nice PC, quick and easy connections. In short, everything EWR / PHL isn't!
Holding hope for M-F early AM YOW-CLE on CO ERJ 135s . . . Not likely but hoping

I never had a chance to fly the YOW CLE flight, but have done EWR-YOW. Taking that route for a connecting flight is just opening the door and putting down the red carpet for a day full of delays, cancellations and anything else that can go wrong. With CO in *A, I'd be all over the YOW-CLE flight, whether its operated by CO or AC. I'd even be happy if it was just a Dash-8. Anything but Chicago and Philadelphia is my mantra.

haha . . . Sounds like we've had similar transborder experiences from YOW. Nothing is worse than EWR in the afternoon. Nothing. The 6am to EWR flight is okay but wont touch anyhing else. The 530p YOW-EWR is laughable. Can't even believe they keep it on the schedule . . . Might as well book your hotel in lovely Newark before boarding that if you have a CO connection anywhere

Just looking at flights from NYC to YUL and noticed AC only has one direct flight on Saturdays from EWR. Does anyone know if they have recently cut back? Is this in result of CO entering *A?

Personally I'm concerned about this alliance and what it will do to reduce already minimal competition into YUL.

interesting now that CO is part of Star we didnt notice many changes what happens when CO becomes part of UA?

UA will have a lot of NEW flights to Europe, also AC is going to be managed by CO President, perhaps better in flight service to go with all these new cities.

i think AC is focusing on YYZ-EWR with flights every 2 hours or so... and hourly flights between YYZ-YUL... so they might connect u through YYZ.....

Since initiating this thread, I've been flying CO quite a bit more. I'm really loving the ERJs. When booked through CO website, I can almost always reserve a "A" row seat, meaning the best of both worlds; isle and window. Flying in the 737 series in CO isn't nearly as nice as E+ on UA, but CO does seem to treat AC SE's with a fair bit of respect, especially for seats closer to the front. It will be really interesting to see how things shape up out of YOW on the *new* United. I realize the Cleveland hub will likely be dropped, which unfortunately resigns all us YOWers the "treat" of EWR, ORD and limited IAD.

I've usually had pretty decent luck out of IAD, but these past few months of intense storms in the Northeast has really made flying to the big hubs a gamble. My new rule of thumb is to fly early AM and hope to be at my US destination before midnight. Anything less than that is a bonus!

I've even done USAir a few more times, which is not bad, so long as I don't need to check luggage! I've not yet had a chance to experience the the Charlotte flight, but my next trip to Washington National I think I'll try US, as AC is now in the rat-infested terminal there.

While I agree the afternoon/evening departures out of YOW can be dodgy with an onward connection, it's trade off considering the inconvenience of US preclearance in YYZ or YUL.