Flight troubles

[Belle2002]

We are trying to book a trip to Orlando at the end of august to mid september
with aeroplan points and are having a huge problem!! It seems they don't have any seats even though they have tons of space on all of the flights I have checked. Anyone else have this problem, any advice?/

 

[robsawatsky]

For popular tourist type destinations, during peak tourist seasons (i.e. Winter break, Spring Break, Summer vacation) you should plan on booking up to 1 year ahead for Aeroplan seats. I booked the first week tickets were available (April this year) for Maui in March 2003 and all seats allocated to Aeroplan points redemption were gone in a week (except for a couple unusable combinations).

You should be aware that for each class of fare, including aeroplan award seats, Air Canada will only allocate a particular number of seats with varying restrictions depending on how much the customer is willing to pay and the need for flexibility. Empty seats does not mean that any aeroplan seats are available. There are also black-out dates for certain destinations (including Florida and Hawaii) that will further restrict your attempt at award redemption.

The only alternative may be to try booking on a United Airlines flight through aeroplan if you haven't tried that already.

Basically, you are stuck with the Aeroplan rules and don't get much more choice unless you are an extremely frequent flyer and qualify for the 'higher' levels of aeroplan membership that permit some bypass of the seat restrictions.

 

[bev r.]

At the end of March I redeemed Aeroplan points for November 15-25th. All the Orlando seats were gone, we are flying into Tampa, which is better than what we had in 2000, where we flew into Miami and drove up to Orlando. Those tickets were also booked about 5 months in advance. It was also more difficult for us in that we have 5 in our family.

Redeeming the points for tickets has been the most difficult part of organizing our trips.

 

[Jo-Anne]

I booked four aeroplan points seats to orlando last Oct for our Sept 2002 trip. When I booked, I was told there was only one more seat left for points...and that was 11 months out! I was actually shocked that we got all four bonus point seats...its really hard to get what you want usually without 10-12 months out planning. Good Luck with your quest...did you try getting points to St. Petersberg or Tampa?

 

[hipmaman]

After gotten myself so psyched about going to WDW, I tried to book Aeroplan seats for 4 for the first week of Sept and couldn't. They looked well into October and couldn't find any set of 2 (if dh and I are to split up with one kid each).

So, I am going to plan for next spring or fall to go to WDW. Much to my disappointment, but this is what it would be for us at this time. No WDW!

 

[bunnyfoo]

The same thing happened to me when I tried booking Air Canada tickets to go in May ... sort of. They had space to get me there, but nothing to get me back within a one week period. It was difficult for me to change my dates around since we were going with other people. I also tried getting tickets with Air Miles and ran into the same problem And unfortunately, no one lets you book a one way ticket and pay for the flight back. One of the agents I spoke with says that certain destinations fill up almost one year ahead of time. You probably have to be really organized for that

I finally was able to get a free ticket because my father has Super Elite status on Aeroplan (I owe him a ticket). Apparently, there are tickets available for them as long as there is space on the flight. Go figure.

I agree with Bev, booking airline tickets using rewards can be difficult.

 

[Fºoºz]

Try flying into Tampa ... we did that one year when we couldn't get into Orlando ... but they did have outgoing flights available for reward travel when we wanted to leave. The drive to Orlando is not bad at all.

 

[jjohns]

How far/long is the Tampa-Orlando drive? Is it a tollway or freeway?

TIA, Jeff

 

[blizzard]

Our last trip, about 3 weeks ago we flew in and out of Tampa. It takes about 1:15 - 1:30 from airport to WDW. The roads are all highways and no tolls. It's a fairly pretty drive - lots of green. If you are at all interested in Busch Gardens, it is not too far off the highway just on the outskirts of Tampa.

 

[Belle2002]

Thanks for all of your tips and empathy!! We were able to get flights with our points for this September. They had seats left on United (they have 9 frequent flyer seats per flight) This actually works out pretty good because United has better flight options into Orlando. Thanks again!!

 

[bunnyfoo]

Does anyone know how many seats Air Canada allots for frequent fliers on its flights? Now that I know United only has nine seats, I know why they're gone so quickly.

 

[bev r.]

I know there are at least 5 in the economy class. That's what we have for this November to Tampa.