Since the beginning of August, Aeroplan has been experiencing technical difficulties in displaying award tickets from certain carriers. Here we are in September, and these do not seem to be resolved.
Several airlines are currently missing from Aeroplan searches:
On August 14, 2018, Aeroplan had actually issued a statement – since disappeared from the site – warning of technical problems:
As you know, we usually refer you to airlines that do not charge carrier surcharges on Aeroplan such as Swiss.
Right now, if you are looking to fly to Europe from Montreal on Swiss (Direct flight Montreal-Zurich), here are the availabilities posted by the United website.
However, if we do a search for 01/12/2018, the direct Swiss flight does not appear.
We give Aeroplan the benefit of the doubt as to whether these technical problems are real. Indeed, between August 14 and September 5, we were able to book 2 award tickets on different itineraries and in different travel classes with affected companies (Swiss, Thai).
If you find an award ticket through other intermediaries (United, ANA, Expertflyer) that is not posted by Aeroplan, it is tempting to call Aeroplan to ask for actual availability on that flight.
We have tried several times: without success. Our interlocutors explained to us that there is a known technical problem, but no date was advanced to solve it. However, on Flyertalk, several feedbacks mention that they ended up being able to book flights that were not on the Aeroplan platform.
What is strange is to see that it is notably companies that do not charge a carrier surcharge that are impacted. All flights offered by Air Canada or Lufthansa are well displayed. So: is Aeroplan hiding airline awards from its search engine?
We have not received an official response from Aeroplan at this time.
Aeroplan has informed us that they are aware of this problem and are working with Air Canada to resolve it quickly.
We are aware of this issue, which is technical in nature. We want to apologize for any inconvenience this system issue is causing our members. We are working closely with Air Canada and our partners to resolve as quickly as possible. As soon as I have an update I can let you know.
Savings are here:
