While you can mark this story as “developing,” it appears as if Air Canada’s Aeroplan program is blocking some transatlantic Lufthansa first class award space.
For example, both the ANA and United websites show Lufthansa first class award space between Detroit and Frankfurt every single day for the next week:
ANA website
United website
However, Aeroplan’s website doesn’t show any first class award space on any of those flights for the entire week:
Aeroplan website
Displayed another way, here are the dates that Award Nexus shows Lufthansa first class award space when pulling space from the ANA website:
While here are the dates (or lack thereof) they show Lufthansa first class award space when pulling from the Aeroplan website:
I called Aeroplan and they didn’t see the space by phone either, so it’s not just a website glitch.
I then had a look at non-transatlantic routes, and interestingly Aeroplan’s website seems to accurately display first class award space for flights to Asia, the Middle East, India, etc.
After doing some more digging I also noticed Aeroplan isn’t actually blocking all transatlantic Lufthansa first class award space. For example, between Boston and Frankfurt, ANA shows first class award space on October 24, 26, 28, and 29, while Aeroplan only shows space on October 26 and 28.
I’ve sent a request to Aeroplan for clarification, so will report back as soon as I hear from them. Ultimately redeeming Aeroplan miles for Lufthansa first class wasn’t a great value to begin with given that they impose fuel surcharges for redemptions on Lufthansa. That being said, if this is indeed intentional blocking and not a glitch then I think Lufthansa first class awards may be on the way out soon, much like what’s happening with Swiss.
US Airways already completely blocks Lufthansa first class awards. First they started blocking transatlantic first class awards on Lufthansa, and later they started blocking all Lufthansa first class flights.
I’ll update when I know more!
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