Just under a week ago I wrote about how Air Canada’s spun off frequent flyer program, Aeroplan, seemed to have removed all awards from their website that didn’t include travel to or from the United States or Canada. This was an odd change for them to make without any sort of an explanation, other than to say that members needed to call the “Aeroplan Internet Redemption” number to book this type of ticket.
There were quite a few theories as to what was happening here. Keep in mind that Air Canada is taking back their frequent flyer program in 2020, so Aeroplan is in big trouble. Some suggested this was a cost cutting technique, others suggested it was a fraud prevention technique, and others suggested it was somewhere inbetween the two. Fortunately Aeroplan undid these changes within a day, though there was no further explanation as to what happened.
Well it seems like that wasn’t the end of this. Don’t Call The Airline reports that Aeroplan once again isn’t letting you ticket awards online that don’t include travel to or from Canada or the United States.
However, this time around it’s a bit different. Aeroplan is now letting you reserve these tickets online, and then you have 24 hours to phone in and provide your credit card information. They have a special number for you to call, and there are no ticketing fees involved. You’ll get to the booking page, and rather than being prompted to enter your credit card information, you’ll be given a phone number to call, as well as a six digit confirmation number.
You’ll now have to phone Aeroplan to redeem miles for Thai Airways first class
It seems like this is a fraud prevention technique. There’s a lot of fraud when it comes to loyalty program accounts, where people hack these accounts and then make last minute hotel and flight reservations, before airlines or hotels have a chance to fix them. Over the years we’ve seen airline and hotel loyalty programs institute various policies to help minimize this.
However, there’s also no denying that this is an inconvenience. This Aeroplan call center is only open from 7AM until 11PM ET, which is especially unhelpful if you’re trying to book a last minute international award. It’s one thing if Aeroplan’s call center were open 24 hours (in which case this would only be mildly annoying), but…
Does anyone actually have a number at Aeroplan I can call for reporting fraudulent activity? The numbers given on the website require me to enter my membership number, except I never submitted a registration to begin with... Any help is greatly appreciated.
The only thing worse than Aeroplan is Air Canada. Air Canada has abysmal customer service, rude employees and littke to no customer service standards.
Aeroplan does have its value but you need to put up with what you write about.......and Air Canada
Nothing new, they just extended the policy to more flights. When booking intra eu flights, this has been the case for years.
rubbish i'm not canada based and i've redeemed rewards before numerous times for awards in europe and asia and never had to call in..,so don't know what that once guy is talking about.
If you like to wait on hold for extended periods of time Aeroplan is the program for you! If you want to experience Lufthansa first award blocking Aeroplan is the program for you! Once my balance is used, I will NEVER transfer to Aeroplan again. Can't wait to see them gone.
The lack of an open call center has caused me not to transfer to Aeroplan probably seven times.
Ben, this is nothing new. I'm an Aeroplan member based in the UK and I can't remember a time when I haven't had to call in to give card details over the phone when booking rewards. The only exception was a routing within North America. They even have a local toll free UK number to reach the contact centre.