Today I booked an Aeroplan award for a shorthaul ticket in the near future. I’ve started switching from KrisFlyer to Aeroplan with my Star Alliance accrual (mainly because the rates are better for partner awards, and they have more partners), and I’ve heard many good things about the programme – they also are a HeyMax transfer option. I love the ways you can get creative with your ticketing.
However, after booking an Aeroplan award, I’m a bit shocked at the difference between booking via Air Canada’s Aeroplan, mainly compared to American Airlines’ AAdvantage (one of the few other great award programmes in North America). I thought I’d detail my experience, and share my thoughts.
Air Canada Aeroplan vs. American Airlines AAdvantage – what’s available online?
I only make an airline booking via call if it’s the only way to get the booking done. In American Airlines’ case, the AAdvantage booking process is fairly easy. You can book reservations of up to three segments directly on the airline website, whereas you’ll have to call to book if you want to make a four-segment reservation (four is the maximum number of segments allowed on a single itinerary).
American Airlines will show you any available award online that meets the route requirements, even if the layover is long (the below example has a layover of 21h 35m). However, American Airlines doesn’t allow stopovers on award tickets, so you can’t book an award with a >24h layover.
A good chance to visit Kuala Lumpur during the 21h 35m in the middle!
Meanwhile, Aeroplan only shows you either stopovers (>24h and up to 7 days with a 5,000 mile cost on top of the ticket), or “sensible” connection times. If you want to see connection times between around 13h and 23h, you’ll have to call to book. In my case I wanted to price two flights as a single ticket (so I could review two airlines shorthaul and also meet a friend in the intermediary destination), and couldn’t do this on the website, even with the “Multi-City” option.
Aeroplan isn’t showing me layovers longer than these, even though the itinerary is still legal
As a super minor point, I also like that AAdvantage lets you view options without logging in, whereas I have to go through the entire 2FA process with Air Canada just to see award availability.
Air Canada Aeroplan vs. American Airlines AAdvantage – hold times
While I’ve occasionally experienced hold times with AAdvantage, they’ve all been in the realm of 15-20 minutes maximum. My Air Canada hold time experience was a little different – I called at around 9 AM ET, and held for an hour. Apparently that’s among the shortest hold times that people face, based on experiences I’ve heard about Air Canada’s hold time online.
The Aeroplan office is open from 7 AM until 12 AM ET. That in itself lags behind competitors, as AAdvantage is open round the clock. Additionally, various people have talked about when’s best to call the Aeroplan office, and nobody has a real answer – you’ll just have to experience a wait time whenever you call. In this case, I had a work from home day, and was able to tune out the not-too-obnoxious call centre music before having someone pick up just under the hour mark (funnily enough at this point the frequency I wanted on the first segment of my booking had been snapped up, though fortunately there was another flight that worked just as well for me).
I had to wait over an hour just to speak to an Aeroplan agent
Air Canada Aeroplan vs. American Airlines AAdvantage – the ability to actually call mileage reservations
I was calling from the UK, and reached the Air Canada reservations office, as opposed to the separate Aeroplan reservations office. I spoke to her for a few minutes as she listened confused, before realising I had come through to the wrong department. (On a funny note, it took her a couple of minutes to figure out that I was trying to book a ticket from London, UK, not London, Ottawa.)
I asked what the Aeroplan number was, and the friendly agent quoted the exact same number I had called. Later when trying to call the number again, I realised there just isn’t an option to route my call directly to Aeroplan mileage reservations – not even during the interactive voice response bit.
This isn’t a big deal – once the call centre agent routed me over to an Aeroplan agent, someone picked up right away, and I didn’t have to hold for any longer. However, how cause-ineffective is it that you can’t even dial straight into Aeroplan, when they’re two separate call centres? I’m sure that this is a major contributing factor to the lengthy hold times we’re seeing these days.
Turkish Airlines business class
AAdvantage also puts you through to the same call centre as general reservations, though at least that call centre is able to manage award tickets.
Air Canada Aeroplan vs. American Airlines AAdvantage – call centre and partner booking additional fee
American Airlines doesn’t have a phone booking fee anymore, whereas Aeroplan does. I get the principle of a phone booking fee when the option is available online – after all, you do want to fairly compensate agents and incentivise them to be helpful for your booking.
However, even when American Airlines had a phone booking fee, they waived it for partners or award types that weren’t bookable online. I wish that Air Canada did this. The CA$30 (£16/HK$172) booking fee wasn’t too bad for me, though I still was annoyed that I had to hold for an hour, only to pay for the privilege of booking an (already expensive) award over the phone.
I’m not a fan of the fact that Air Canada charges extra for phone bookings that you can’t book online
Oh, and Air Canada also has a 39 CAD (£21/HK$224) partner booking fee for any partner award you book, whether it’s online or via the phone. That’s not a huge fee, though adds up.
Air Canada Aeroplan vs. American Airlines AAdvantage – general agent capability and training
On the plus side, the Aeroplan agent was extremely friendly, and really wanted to help. She also was eventually able to price my reservation as I’d expected, and easy to communicate with.
However, I just felt like I generally have better experiences with AAdvantage than I did with the Aeroplan agent this time round. Here are a few feedback points, not just for the agent but also for the company’s overall tech:
- This was a simple two-stop itinerary outside of Canada with a ~22h layover, and the fact that it was legal as per routing rules should be basic knowledge for the agent
- I felt like I had to lead the call; I wouldn’t have felt able to book the flight as a less confident traveller
- On the tech side, when I was sent a payment link, it didn’t come through to my email: the agent had to wait with me in silence for a few minutes, before eventually reverting to the “old” way of doing it via phone
- This is a minor point, but when you’re put on hold as the agent is processing your reservation, they just mute the line: I would’ve preferred some form of holding music, as opposed to complete silence
Generally I feel like I work with AAdvantage agents to put together itineraries, whereas in this case I had to lead the Aeroplan agent in order to book my itinerary. I don’t know how easy it would’ve been to price a six-segment itinerary with this agent this time round, so was glad I wasn’t doing so.
I felt in better hands with AAdvantage agents than with the Aeroplan agent this time round
Air Canada Aeroplan vs. American Airlines AAdvantage – change and cancellation fees
Air Canada’s Aeroplan is the only major points programme in North America that charges change and cancellation fees. A change costs CA$100 (£54/HK$573), whereas a cancellation costs CA$175 (£94/HK$1,003). That’s definitely one of the least generous change and cancellation policies offered by any airline.
AAdvantage doesn’t have fees for changes and cancellations – they pulled both fees over COVID-19, and have never re-introduced them.
Conclusion
I booked an Aeroplan award via the phone today. While it overall was a positive interaction, I’m not a fan of the fact that I had to hold on the phone for over an hour, which seems to be a very common complaint according to the internet. I also wasn’t a fan of the fact that I couldn’t route directly through to the Aeroplan office, and instead had to be routed through from general reservations.
While I enjoyed my chat with the Aeroplan agent, I can’t help but feel in better hands with AAdvantage agents generally – both with their knowledge of routing rules, as well as the smoothness of their IT system. I’ll continue to use Aeroplan due to the creative airline partners and routings allowed, though am apprehensive about how well their call centre serves less confident travellers.
Additionally, between the call centre booking fee, the partner award fee, and any fees I’d have to pay in terms of changes and cancellations, the fees racked up in a way I don’t experience with American Airlines AAdvantage.
Do you use AAdvantage and Aeroplan often? Does my experience resonate with yours?
