Caution: Amex To Aeroplan Transfers Limited To Once Daily

So we’re you able to book the other two tickets?

Twenty one days for a resolution seems too long, but good to know. Thanks for sharing this knowledge.

How did you ultimately book the flight?

There are many IT changes happening at Aeroplan daily. On everything Aeroplan, YMMV. Don't assume, don't rely. Use something reliable like LifeMiles

WOW...very timely! I had planned to make two transfers to Aeroplan today. Yikes! Thanks Tiffany.

I occasionally have a transfer rejected but it is refunded back to Amex same day and trying again usually yields the desired result.

Had same situation last week but both transfers from my wife and my MR accounts were transfered into my Aeroplan account instantly.

Had something very similar happen nearly 18 months when, oddly, also booking a trip to Australia. Had to pull/push points from two AmEx accounts. Points never appeared in Aeroplan. AmEx pointed at Aeroplan. Aeroplan's stereotypical French Canadian CSRs (read: snooty and thoroughly useless) just shrugged, tried absolutely nothing and somehow were already out of ideas, said they simply couldn't help , then bid me adieu. Points finally posted in Aeroplan about 4 days later, somewhat randomly. I only know because I checked on my own just in case.

I really hope AC does some housekeeping when they take Aeroplan back. I can count on zero hands how many folks I know that have had pleasant interactions with Aeroplan outside of run-of-the-mill redemptions that require no actual work from Aeroplan staff.

Lucky it took 21 days only. I had about 10 calls to Amex and 34 days later the points turned up in my account. No call from Amex - just frustration that their membership rewards team can do nothing but send a note to the back office. Absolutely no escalation possible. Luckily they were able to return points to my account since the flights I wanted were long gone!

@ Justin @ Daniel -- I haven't booked anything for the other two yet...nothing available, so will just wait and see what opens up.

You reference one thing that I've also noticed and found frustrating but never really understood: why is it that programs/companies like AmEx/Membership Rewards are so reluctant to add helpful notes or warnings that admittedly will only apply in relatively limited situations (like this one) but would be extremely useful to know in such cases?

Separately, it would really be nice if AmEx's contracts with the frequent flyer programs required them to deliver comparable service to AmEx itself in following up on these issues or had some way to force a faster resolution for customers.

And this is why people, TRANSFERABLE POINTS ISN'T AS USEFUL OR WORTH AS MUCH AS WHAT BLOGGERS LIKE TO TELL YOU.

THEY ARE NOT IMMUNE TO DEVALUATION.

Hi Tiffany, thank you for sharing. Bummer about the miles transfer, I could see this happening to me if I were trying to book tickets for my parents, so good tip.

I'm curious to see how you approach this as their travel is in November and get your thought process. Is there a certain point where if seats don't open up, you would just pay cash for a ticket? Book them in economy? What is that tipping point for you?

I am asking because I was trying to book seats for my entire family to Santorini last summer, and I got them all on the same Austrian Air flight from EWR to Santorini, but there wasn't a seat opening up for me. I set alerts on expert flyer and kept checking for inventory to no avail. Finally, by the time June rolled around (for our August trip), I was getting nervous and just booked myself in business on a Delta flight instead. Would be helpful to see how you as a mileage guru think about it!

Hello i had the same think about a mount ago i made a transfer from two amex accounts to aeroplan and the first one went thru right away and the second one never went thru i had the same think to Lifemiles

Not just Aeroplan transfers. Needed some points for an AS JAL reservation so purchased 80000 from Alaska points. Normally an instant transfer. Took 4 days and no quarantee I would ever see the points
By the time they arrived the best flight options were gone so I had to change dates and flights to a much lesser itinerary.

"Don’t make multiple transfers to a single Aeroplan account from American Express (whether one Membership Rewards account or multiple) in a 24-hour window. "

This statement is false. There is no issue when transferring from one MR account. Issues only happen when transferring from multiple MR accounts.

John: I'd have to disagree - I made two transfers from the same MR account and my second transfer didn't take. Took me 34 days to get a refund of my points.

So I am inclined to agree with 1 transfer a day max rule even when transferring from one MR account. YMMV.

You want to hear another MR transfer issue? Last month, I transferred 176k to ANA to book myself and my daughter to South America in biz. Since ANA will only let me redeem for immediate family members, I then tried to transfer 88k to my sister's ANA account (she's an authorized user on my Amex card) so that she could book my niece.

ANA flagged the transfer as fraud and labeled it as potential selling of points, which caused Amex to freeze my MR account for over a week, which meant that I couldn't even transfer to Aeroplan to book my niece. I even got a call from ANA's fraud department who told me that they only allow MR transfers to the primary cardholder account and that they considered what I tried to do as fraud -- all of which is ridiculous, as I was certainly not violating any published MR or ANA rules.

Luckily for me, the Copa award space I wanted was still available a week later when my MR account was unfrozen, and I was then able to transfer to Aeroplan to book my niece.

I'm so glad i stumbled on this post, was just about to do just about the same thing... Any word on if this is still a problem?
Find an amazing how AMEX customer service can be so great except when it comes to membership rewards... Then suddenly they are useless