Aeroplan rant---again

[minnie56]

Every time I redeem points I ask myself why I use Aeroplan and not my Avion points more!

Just booked 3 of us to NYC this Wed. Three days...took 45,000 points and cost me $445 in taxes. What a rip.

Okay-rant over

 

[stefanospops]

I hear you Minnie! I just drive to Buffalo from now on and fly JetBlue. Flights are cheap and I get better value using my Aeroplan miles for car rentals instead. I have priced 5 tickets from Buffalo to Orlando at under $1000US return.

 

[braddillman]

Flying out of Halifax, NS usually comes in around $650pp. So 25k aeroplan points + $135 saves me net about $515pp. For a family of 5, that's over $2,500. My other choice is to fly out of Bangor, probably < $250pp, but it's a 7 hour drive (1-way from Halifax). I'll probably try that someday, but right now I've got over 111,000 pts and I'm not planning to return to Orlando until Q4 2010 when I'll have even more pts. So I'll use my points to avoid the drive (I live right next to the Halifax airport, say a 10 minute drive).

In general, the more expensive the flight, the more you can get for your points. For example, try flying 1st class to Hong Kong.

I found some pretty good, detailed advice here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-canada-aeroplan-375/

But in your shoes I'd probably fly out of Buffalo, too. I don't know if I'd continue collecting pts if I were in your shoes; I might, but not for travel within North America. You're so close to Toronto and Buffalo. Maybe consider switching to another credit card for cash back or more flexible travel points (I don't know, maybe check out RBC Avion).

 

[MikeyNS]

We fly primarily on our Avion (~$140/ticket) with Air Canada and earn Aeroplan points to use at a later date.. best of both worlds!

 

[minnie56]

Totally agree stefanospops..I sat on the fence too long with Jetblue. The flights were $39 each way...then they hit $49--$79 and $124. Today they are $154 soooooo silly me. I have a $700 credit w/JB but really hated to use all of that on what is usually a cheap fare! Rather save it towards a bigger tkt.

Is that what the costs are with Avion MikeyNS?I wondered after if I should have called and used that but it wouldn't have made much difference. I guess taxes are taxes. AND I have an AC credit too..almost $200 but I couldn't apply that to an Aeroplan flight! Grrr...

 

[MikeyNS]

Totally agree stefanospops..I sat on the fence too long with Jetblue. The flights were $39 each way...then they hit $49--$79 and $124. Today they are $154 soooooo silly me. I have a $700 credit w/JB but really hated to use all of that on what is usually a cheap fare! Rather save it towards a bigger tkt.

Is that what the costs are with Avion MikeyNS?I wondered after if I should have called and used that but it wouldn't have made much difference. I guess taxes are taxes. AND I have an AC credit too..almost $200 but I couldn't apply that to an Aeroplan flight! Grrr...

I think that's the upperend of the fees. We booked another 3? for March and it was $140 each.. but the base fare was close to the $750 max allowed.. unfortunately I live about 6-7 hours away from the Bangor airport, so going with cheap US flights aren't a viable option for us. Almost EVERYTHING goes on our Avion card, while gas, groceries (the things that give you 1.5pts per dollar) go on our Aeroplan VISA. Adds up sooo quickly.

 

[AndyMcV]

I've truely given up flying out of YYZ with Air Canada and Aeroplan points to MCO. The taxes are brutal. Last June our family of 4 flew out of Buffalo for a TOTAL of under $800. That's close to just the taxes you'd pay if we did Aeroplan.

With out Aeroplan, our quoted price with AC was about $2600. I'd like to keep my money with AC but that is rediculous. Too bad they (AC and YYZ) could not come up with fares that matched SWA. I'd fly out of Pearson for sure then.

Andy

 

[stefanospops]

I have a spreadsheet I use prior to using my aeroplan miles on anything. It calculates the money I spent accumulating those miles versus what I save spending them on the thing I am considering. In general, most things come up at less than 1%.

I have an Aeroplan AMEX so i accumulate at 1.25 miles for every dollar spent. It is true that the flights to Hawaii or Hong Kong, for example, give you the best bang for your buck, but I am finding that since they changed the way you use points that it is becoming more economical to use them short haul flights, but only if you can get in at the lowest level. I find the car rentals are better value. It costs over $500 to rent a minivan for a week out of Orlando. The same car costs me 44,500 aeroplan miles, so that is definitely better than the 1% you typically get.

If you can book your flight on the first day it is available with JetBlue you get the least expensive seat. So as long as you can plan ahead, JetBlue makes so much sense. I'll take the drive to Buffalo. Pearson is not even 10 minutes from where I live and Buffalo is just over an hour. But that drive is worth the money I save.

On top of that, if I do the Disney Express service I can check into my flight at the resort in Disney since it is a domestic flight. They take my luggage right to the plane and clearing customs is that much easier. I'll take a border crossing my three kids in the car anyday over airport security!

 

[minnie56]

I know--I should have booked right away but we were not 100% sure on dates. My daughter is heading to school in NYC this Fall and we were awaiting the New Student Reception info. Funny thing is--I booked a flight last month to NYC and the next day (VERY next day!) it dropped $30 pp. Jeeez...

I have the Platinum Aerogold Amex-CIBC Aerogold-Infinite as well as Platinum Avion soooo as you can see-I am trying hard to get those miles!!! It's when I redeem them I get ticked. One day I will quit playing this game!

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Here is my rant against Aeroplan and it's something I will never figure out. Back on February 1, 2008 my dad used his Aeroplan points to book a flight from Toronto - Orlando and our return flight from Tampa - Toronto, for our WDW/Clearwater Beach vacation in December 2008. Anyway that day was the 1st chance anyone could make Aeroplan reservations online for the days we wanted to travel. Fast forward a few months when we check-in online for our flight to Orlando our boarding passes don't list our seat numbers. Well it turned out we never had confirmed seats going to Orlando and we only had seats for our retrun flight from Tampa - Toronto, so we had to go standby. Now we were lucky that they put us and the other standby passengers in Business Class since no one purchased those seats, however why could the Aeroplan site not say the Economy seats were sold out? I mean it's almost like we agreed to fly standby and unless you don't mind waiting who would agree to do that?

It's because of that experience that whenever my family and I fly from Toronto we will always try to fly WestJet, because they don't overbook their flights and their website says if you purchase a seat on their flights it's your seat. So because of that when we made our flight reservations for this December we thought it was worth it and pre-paid for our seat locations.

 

[OntFamily]

Here is my rant against Aeroplan and it's something I will never figure out. Back on February 1, 2008 my dad used his Aeroplan points to book a flight from Toronto - Orlando and our return flight from Tampa - Toronto, for our WDW/Clearwater Beach vacation in December 2008. Anyway that day was the 1st chance anyone could make Aeroplan reservations online for the days we wanted to travel. Fast forward a few months when we check-in online for our flight to Orlando our boarding passes don't list our seat numbers. Well it turned out we never had confirmed seats going to Orlando and we only had seats for our retrun flight from Tampa - Toronto, so we had to go standby. Now we were lucky that they put us and the other standby passengers in Business Class since no one purchased those seats, however why could the Aeroplan site not say the Economy seats were sold out? I mean it's almost like we agreed to fly standby and unless you don't mind waiting who would agree to do that?

It's because of that experience that whenever my family and I fly from Toronto we will always try to fly WestJet, because they don't overbook their flights and their website says if you purchase a seat on their flights it's your seat. So because of that when we made our flight reservations for this December we thought it was worth it and pre-paid for our seat locations.

To be fair to Air Canada and/or Aeroplan, this issue is not related to the use of Aeroplan points. It is not uncommon when booking air travel, that seats are not preassigned (even when your fare includes "free" reserved seats). There's only a certain number of seats that Air Canada (or Westjet, and most other airlines) will allow to be pre-assigned. Once those seats have been assigned, the remaining seats are not available until check in timing (only exception is for upper tier frequent flyer members).

How can you know if the seats are not preassigned? Check your when you complete your booking- if your expecting a preassigned seat, and you don't see the seat assignment, call the airline.

This issue is not related to overbooking. Overbooking is a separate issue.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

To be fair to Air Canada and/or Aeroplan, this issue is not related to the use of Aeroplan points. It is not uncommon when booking air travel, that seats are not preassigned (even when your fare includes "free" reserved seats). There's only a certain number of seats that Air Canada (or Westjet, and most other airlines) will allow to be pre-assigned. Once those seats have been assigned, the remaining seats are not available until check in timing (only exception is for upper tier frequent flyer members).

How can you know if the seats are not preassigned? Check your when you complete your booking- if your expecting a preassigned seat, and you don't see the seat assignment, call the airline.

This issue is not related to overbooking. Overbooking is a separate issue.

Well in the past when using Aeroplan points we never had this issue happen before. Now no matter how many seats got set aside for Aeroplan if the Economy seats were sold out shouldn't that have been on their website when making the reservation?

Also on WestJet you have the option of pre-paying for your seats or not doing that. So if someone wants to do that when making the reservation online there is a seating chart of the plane and it shows which seats are available and which ones not available. Now when calling for reservations the WestJet agent can see this on their computer. So they don't have a certin number of pre-assigned seats. Finally for those who don't want to pre-pay for their seats then those people will find out where they will be sitting once they check-in, however they will be on their flight since they don't overbook them.

 

[crashbb]

Also on WestJet you have the option of pre-paying for your seats or not doing that. So if someone wants to do that when making the reservation online there is a seating chart of the plane and it shows which seats are available and which ones not available. Now when calling for reservations the WestJet agent can see this on their computer. So they don't have a certin number of pre-assigned seats. Finally for those who don't want to pre-pay for their seats then those people will find out where they will be sitting once they check-in, however they will be on their flight since they don't overbook them.

Actually, WJ DOES have a certain number of pre-assigned seats. If you book late and many people have pre-selected their seats, you will not have the option of pre-selecting your seat. It has happened to me. I don't know the percentage of seats available for pre-selection though.

And, despite WJ's advertisement of never overbooking, the only airline that has bumped me from a flight in the past 2 years was WJ (and I've flown about 50 flights in those 24 months). If there were extenuating circumstances (i.e. another flight getting canceled and people getting shoved onto my flight), I wasn't told about it and (and, frankly, the people on the canceled flight would have been stand-by and wouldn't not have been given my seat). I was unaware of the "no overbooking" promise at the time of the flight, or I would have questioned it more.

 

[AddictedtoFL]

Just found out I lost 55900 point due to non activity. now i'm back to 500 points all these time we accumulated the points and didn't even get a chance to redeem for anything and now back to square on. So i told them to take my membership and shove it up the CEO a$$.

 

[MikeyNS]

Just found out I lost 55900 point due to non activity. now i'm back to 500 points all these time we accumulated the points and didn't even get a chance to redeem for anything and now back to square on. So i told them to take my membership and shove it up the CEO a$$.

That totally sucks.. and all you needed to do is buy a box of oatmeal or OJ and get those points in your account..

 

[minnie56]

That totally sucks.. and all you needed to do is buy a box of oatmeal or OJ and get those points in your account..

They emailed me awhile back that my DD22 was going to lose hers shortly--noooo way was that happening!! So I have been using her card at ESSO every time I get fuel lately to breathe life back into it. Whew..

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Actually, WJ DOES have a certain number of pre-assigned seats. If you book late and many people have pre-selected their seats, you will not have the option of pre-selecting your seat. It has happened to me. I don't know the percentage of seats available for pre-selection though.

And, despite WJ's advertisement of never overbooking, the only airline that has bumped me from a flight in the past 2 years was WJ (and I've flown about 50 flights in those 24 months). If there were extenuating circumstances (i.e. another flight getting canceled and people getting shoved onto my flight), I wasn't told about it and (and, frankly, the people on the canceled flight would have been stand-by and wouldn't not have been given my seat). I was unaware of the "no overbooking" promise at the time of the flight, or I would have questioned it more.

Well I don't know what to say about you getting bumped off that WestJet flight, but here is what they say on their website about overbookings.

We will not overbook your flight.
It's common practice in the airline industry for more seats to be sold on a flight than actually exist. At WestJet, we promise that if you buy a seat on a flight - that seat is yours.

http://c5dsp.westjet.com/guest/spare2.jsp#overbook

That was also told to me on the phone when I called WestJet and asked them about that.

 

[damo]

They emailed me awhile back that my DD22 was going to lose hers shortly--noooo way was that happening!! So I have been using her card at ESSO every time I get fuel lately to breathe life back into it. Whew..

And it also says right on your aeroplan profile how long you have until they expire.

 

[OntFamily]

Well in the past when using Aeroplan points we never had this issue happen before. Now no matter how many seats got set aside for Aeroplan if the Economy seats were sold out shouldn't that have been on their website when making the reservation?

It has not necessarily anything to do with Economy seats being "sold out". It may have been no "pre-assigned" seats were available, or there was a glitch in the booking procedure. Regardless, as I mentioned previously, if you were expecting preassigned seats, and no preassignment is showing on your itinerary simply call the airline. They'll probably be able to fix it for you. And, it shouldn't have been a surprise (your itinerary that is issued at the time of booking would tell you the relevant info).

Also, according to Aeroplan, there are no preset # of seats on Air Canada flights for Aeroplan redemption. Every seat is available for reward booking, however the points needed to book the seat will increase as the number of seats remaining decline.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

It has not necessarily anything to do with Economy seats being "sold out". It may have been no "pre-assigned" seats were available, or there was a glitch in the booking procedure. Regardless, as I mentioned previously, if you were expecting preassigned seats, and no preassignment is showing on your itinerary simply call the airline. They'll probably be able to fix it for you. And, it shouldn't have been a surprise (your itinerary that is issued at the time of booking would tell you the relevant info).

Also, according to Aeroplan, there are no preset # of seats on Air Canada flights for Aeroplan redemption. Every seat is available for reward booking, however the points needed to book the seat will increase as the number of seats remaining decline.

Well it was only after that we realized the seats listed on our confirmation were only for our return flight back to Toronto, because we assumed it was for both of our flights and that was our mistake for not realizing that. However after we checked-in online and realized the problem we did try to call Air Canada and no one there ever picks up their phone, because we were on hold for more then an hour. We even tried calling Aeroplan and once again were on hold forever and no one picked up our call. Finally on my dad's statement and online it was shown when he used his Aeroplan points because they were deducted, so that went through.