Aeroplan's Frustrating Call Center Hold Times

I have maintained Super Elite through the Aeroplan Card and this summer needed to use the call center to cancel an award and can say that at least inSE the call was picked within 3 minutes. Years ago though I agree calls were exceedingly long.

Yes as elites it's super fast, but indeed very long for those who don't have status and therefore don't have priority:/

Glad to see that you finally woke up and wrote something criticising Aeroplan ! Looks like you are looking to book something and going through the same pain we have been complaining for months. Now once you get through to an agent, good luck booking an award that you want !

Aeroplan customer service pain points make you choose to deal with... Lifemiles?!

Here's another area in which Aeroplan's response time has been dismal. Back on September my husband tried to create an Aeroplan Account and inadvertently mistyped his email address. We were told to contact compliance at Aeroplan which we did, and finally after well over two months we got a cursory email back from them that didn't seem to address the problem.
He's definitely given up on Aeroplan and I will find some way to burn my two certificates before I likely do the same:-(

An hour spent waiting for Aeroplan?! Clearly you've never heard of the marathon 6, 7, 8....and even 12 hours waiting on hold for QANTAS! An hour is nothing compared to what QF customers have to deal with on a regular basis..

Worst experience compared to any airline - Aeroplan

Status will get you priority in the queue - mid to top tier status probably has calls answered within 15 minutes, if not within a few rings.

As to the limited hours issue - Aeroplan has told me that Air Canada can service bookings of an urgent nature when the call center is closed (the rep confirmed it in ACpedia and noted it for me on my booking) - unfortunately this is only good in theory, AC CS said to go to the airport, the airport said to call, but of course AC's first flights of the day depart before the Aeroplan call center opens...

so the worst on time performance in North America. without question the WORST airline with IRROPS. Out of date Business class seats for international wide body planes. Pathetic service.
However Aeroplan is actually good.

I fly frequently, internationally. On two occasions , I found it necessary
to ATTEMPT to contact AEROPLAN to no avail.

After using all my points on Aeroplan. I closed my account. (That in itself
took 3 phone calls and 4 emails)
In short, I simply cannot work with anyone who is not reachable in todays highly advanced forms of communication.

Nothing new here It's always been this way. PATHETIC.

I wonder if calling at exactly 7am ET is the best option. If the call center is closed until then, the queue of callers should be the lowest then.

Entitled jerk.

Aeroplan has the worst customer service I know.

Most horrible waiting time, I ve waited almost 2 hours once !
All other times, it was 1h or more. This is ridiculous for such a program with so many partners! I really don’t understand how they can’t hire more people for such an important part of their business!
Kind of reminds of TAP customer service, which is worse as it only provides a paid number and makes wait for more than 30 min at least

Ben, try calling Qantas, Aeroplan would seem like great customer service if you compare it to Qantas. If you have no status with Qantas, expect to wait HOURS to speak to someone, even if you hold a first class ticket booking, because the system is very much prioritised according to status. However even as someone who has platinum status with Qantas (OW emerald), I have been on hold for more than an hour to speak to Qantas, and that's on their "Qantas premium" line. I read in the news that someone was on hold for 14 hours before they got through. I know the call centre wait time is not acceptable for Aeroplan, but it is certainly far from the worst.

Longer hold times for an airline loyalty program? Devaluation coming in the future.

Website is so poor that web-capable people making supposedly web-capable bookings end up in call queues. And to the clown who says status will get me through in 15 mins, I logged in as 75k last night and gave up after 1h20m. Why is it like this? Because it's in their interest. There's no "business case" for excellence in this area of their operations.

I'm a 25K Aeroplan and I find I'm still on hold of hours.

I called Flair Airlines, an ULCC, a few times this week (they are the only airline that operates from my airport nonstop on a few routes), and I never had to wait very long to get someone to answer my calls.

Your employer spends $20k for you to fly AC.
You dont have to wait hours on the phone.

The rest of us do.

Nah. I called exactly at 7am EST one day because I was unable to pay for my ticket online. Ended up holding for 2.5 hours!

And yet everytime they sell miles, every blog has an affiliate link 😉

You should revisit how Etihad J is now available via AA and Asiana but not Aeroplan

Since I have never been able to find an award in a decade of trying this does not affect me

Agree!
Once I was waiting for 2 hours on the phone with Qantas, and they just answered and hung up! I had to ring them again!
And when they eventually answered, a useless untrained agent in Manila couldn’t do any basic request - totally useless!

Aeroplan is by far the worst. Far worse than TAP even.

As 75K (originally comped from AA EXP, since maintained), there is virtually never a wait.

Try calling IRS.

A big issue for the past few months is it seems that Aeroplan blocks some Asian redemptions from showing up online… and if you can find availability via another Star carrier’s site, you have to call Aeroplan to see if they can see the availability on their end and book it for you.

lifemiles is a dream lately. Immediate pick ups and semi-competent agents.

Air Canada's poor customer service is no secret. On the phone, at the airport, in the air. Its lounges are marginal. its catering is marginal. Etc. Etc. Air Canada is a shabby operation. So, if someone who should know better gets sucked in by a juicy partner redemption and subsequently gets hosed by customer service, you did it to yourself. No sympathy.

One of the reasons for long wait times may have to do with a greatly increased number of AC elites - I’ve noticed that once hitting elite 50k, the wait times go down significantly (instant pickup, or a few mins usually), so prioritizing elite calls makes wait times for non-status customers that much longer. Not trying to excuse them (they really should just staff up appropriately), but imagine the large increase of elite ranks of past couple of years contributes to this issue.

more like the empty promise of a juicy partner redemption which is a unicorn since AC has been blocking anything useful, while at the same time not picking up the phone, and selling miles on the cheap so you can spend 400k on inferior AC metal.

I used the call back feature and got a call back after 2 hours. I had an issue with missing points from a partner airlines and was told I had to send an email.

Sent an email and didn't hear back for two weeks. Called back to ask why it was taking so long. Waited another 2 hours for a callback and the agent nonchalantly told me the turnaround time for email escalations is 5 months.

Since I’ve put in the effort to build status with AC, I do appreciate their rewarding us. There are lots of nice bonuses with status, aside from shorter wait times…like e-upgrades, bonus miles, 50% off redemptions etc. Just traveled round trip to Delhi from SFO on a full cash PE fare for US$1,919, upgraded to business for an extra $290 RT. Great service mostly.

Compare elite hold times with AC to those with AA. AA offers very little elite priority, while AC offers lots.

Is the wait shorter when calling the French-speaking AC customer desk?
(I appreciate not everyone speak la langue de Molière)

At least it's not as bad as one of Canada's other loyalty programs, Air Miles

Yeah this is why I'd prefer to spend a few more miles for the same ticket via United. I've found UA agents to generally be pretty competent, and hold times aren't anywhere close to hours. Even if it seems like an Aeroplan award can be booked online, you don't know if you'll run into a problem with it until AFTER the points have been transferred. I'd prefer to transfer points to an airline that I have some confidence will be able to help me out if I need to talk to them.

Absolutely agree with this, Lucky, and I've communicated the same to Aeroplan via their surveys after calls.

The best program from my perspective for customer service calls is Air France/KLM Flying Blue. Hold times are incredibly short, and agents are knowledgeable and friendly. I don't mind their fees for changing/cancelling tickets as I value both my time and also don't mind paying for good service

During the reign of Alan Joyce (now thankfully over), everything moved to favoring their so-called elites, especially those who splashed out bucketloads of cash on their flights and acquired top status on the hamster wheel. These same people are cosseted with gifts of champagne etc. to celebrate some significant time/event of another, invited to elite do's, and may even be teased with an invite to a Chaiman's Lounge, which is actually populated with persons one really wouldn't want to meet under any circumstances.
They are offered exclusively the very best awards on QF metal as they become available, well before the hoi poloi get to pick over the scraps. All done through one of the premium lines at a local call centre staffed by cheery and competent agents.
Qantas has gone from a loved publicly owned and operated airline of the people to a privately-owned airline for the well off and well connected. Those who would disagee are deluded (or one of those mentioned above).

What? .Aeroplan rewarding their most frequent flyers who actually spend money to reach the SQD and not some dude acquiring miles through credit card churning or the guy with a basic ticket to Orlando . How could this be? Super elite here and call answered on first ring 100% of the time as it should be . I don’t think the elite numbers have gone up particularly but elites being prioritized definitely pushes some down the line.

Yeah I’ve changed and cancelled multiple LifeMiles redemptions. Though not seamless it isn’t actually that bad anymore. And the agents are friendly and trying to help.

@Wilo

I feel for you, mate. The shortest wait I had was 45 mins (and that was more than a decade ago). The longest wait so far was 2 hours 15 mins. Thankfully, I fly SQ these days, so QF is minimal in my life. But there was this very determined fella who wanted to prove a point and waited for an agent for about 18 hours. I read someone else waited 'only' 14 hours..

Is it worse than British Airways? I've found them to be effectively unreachable...

You should do a post Ben on best and worst airline/frequent flyer call centres/customer service replies (emails etc.)

I wonder whether Lucky is the US blogger that took a bung from Aeroplan that Rob @ HfP said approached his team.

The articles have been conspicuously glowing compared to actual on the ground experiences.

At least it’s not as bad as Gilbert Ott @ God Save The Points, his sponsored drivel on how good credit card interchange charges are or his “consultancy” payments from BA on the revenue-based Avios changes was shocking.

I have flown BA regularly for years. Only once have I ever had an hour-long wait on a call. Every other call has been from just a few minutes to about 30 minutes. Perhaps I'm just lucky.

Great idea. The fact is that all airlines have numerically staffed call centers such that call wait times are longer than a few years ago. In some cases, even top-tier elite phone lines are affected. Compounding this is lower call center agent expertise. COVID downsizing saw many seasoned agents take retirement. Restaffing on the back end of COVID has been with new and unseasoned agents.

It's a terrible management. They need to have more agents to take calls.

Partners are equally blocked by Aeroplan for everybody. Miles buying blog readers and the unfortunate saps who arw stuck flying AC for work

Ben I m sure rattles some of his bank sponsors when he does these very occasional posts exposing Aeroplan for what it really is.
It doesn't seem they mind as long as he throws in a post of Aeroplan credit cards more frequently

In the past I’ve had to do a 3-way call with a super elite friend to get through within 15 mins, OTHERWISE, the call back was 4 hours, and this was for a departure within 24 hours. Unduly stressful, and equally infuriating when aeroplan’s status prioritization algorithm is SO EXTREME. Easily the worst airline I’ve experienced for wait times. Honestly, I feel sorry for Canadians!

Lucky,
Please stop advertising Aeroplan on your blog and stop claiming it is one of the best frequent flyer programs.
It is NOT.
Numerous, if not all, important partner airlines are effectively blocked from Aeroplan, which makes the program useless.
In addition, the call center wait times are unreal, as you mentioned in this post.
If you keep writing that Aeroplan is a good program, then you are effectively lying, and I hope you will not lie going forward.
Regards,
JL

Now I hope you will also come clean and write an article on the horrible redemption rates to book a reward ticket with Aeroplan. No idea how you manage to book those itineraries with such low redemption rates, and that too on airlines most of us don't even see on Aeroplan anymore. It's time you really showed us what Aeroplan really is.

And if you think the Aeroplan hold time is bad for elite status holders, hope you never have to call the main Air Canada line as a non member customer. You can expect 3+ hours sometimes and during the holidays you’ll just get an automated, “due to high call volume we can’t connect you,” and then it disconnects.

I really try and avoid calling these days, but back when you could have a status with Aeroplan (diamond something...) I would get the line right away.

I booked a partner award on Etihad through Aeroplan. Etihad equipment swapped and changed schedules, which resulted in my flight number being canceled and getting rebooked on the next flight 23 hours later, instead of the new flight an hour earlier.

Took 2.5 hours to get through to an Aeroplan rep (who was extremely helpful when I actually got through), but while I was on hold, I figured I'd try Etihad customer service. Two rings and I was speaking to a live person. She couldn't do anything as it was a partner booking except confirm Aeroplan could make my requested changes when I finally got through, but it was a stark contrast to Aeroplan.

You're not incorrect but I think you're not looking at the broader picture. Redemption rates on AC metal are pretty ridiculous. But if you book far enough out, redemption rates on *A partners are pretty good. I can count on one hand the number of times I've flown AC on a reward ticket. Most times, it's better to just pay for AC flights, especially if you're departing Canada/US on AC metal.

HAH! Just wait. If you think sitting on hold to get your precious free ticket is inconvenient, wait till you’re old and try to reach the Social Security office for something. Then you can whine all you want. In the mean time keep quiet

I tried to make changes online but received an error message and a statement more or less saying the function isn't working. Couldn't get through to the call centre so ended up spending several hundred dollars to cancel then rebook several flights. Ugh!

Nothing is free, genius. Are your Social Security benefits free?

I wasn't even referring to flights on AC metal. Have you checked flights on Emirates it shows First Class with 95 in Economy and the single sector from Dubai to the Indian Subcontinent in First for an insane amount of miles ...once even 400k+.

I've travelled tons with Aeroplan when it was a lot better. And even got the inaugural Bangkok to Vancouver in 2022 in Premium Economy for a reasonable rate.

It appears they have tripled the points required to get business class to Asia, and when you try to book business class online with points it ALWAYS uses connecting flights with only the shortest leg (usually domestic) as business class and the international portion in economy. For business class points. So yes one must call, and suffer. Sadly I cannot agree that this constitutes a good program.

For most Star Alliance bookings I’ll gladly pay the premium to book through United. Many changes can be made online or, if not, there are a variety of ways to reach them. I booked a ticket through Aeroplan recently and it took me three days to finally get through to the call center (this was about a year ago). It’s just not worth the hassle unless I absolutely have to book through them.

Say what you will about the in-flight quality of US carriers, but I think they shine when it comes to online functionality and the ability to reach call centers.

When I'm old, retired and collecting social security I'll have plenty of free time to reach social security or Aeroplan. Hopefully I won't be as whiney as you

The CEO Michael Rousseau should be fired, I REPEAT he should be fired period. A horrible useless CEO of any major corporation thus a lousy company we are seeing today. There was an issue and I missed my connecting flight via US to South America totally not my fault, I received absolutely no support at all from Air Canada and calling aeroplan like what many have described here, if you are lucky you get the option for a call back after few hours but this option is not guaranteed. I got stuck in Washing DC without knowing what to do for my next flight. I have sent emails to CEO of different companies and always get a callback from their teams with 24 to 72 hours. After I returned home, I have sent 3 emails including follow up emails directly to Michael Rousseau but received ZERO response within almost two weeks.....This has never happened to me except from Air Canada. I understand issues has happened but if a company allows such a call centre mess for a long period of time without fixing it, it tells you the kind of leadership of the company. Fire Michael Rousseau.

Couldn’t agree more. I’m changing credit cards because of Aeroplan. I hate it and hate is a strong word. They really don’t care one iota about their customers.

I instead made a call to Hong Kong AC call center. The wait time was about 10 - 15 mins during business hours. However, their call center can't handle any award booking and asked me to call US and Canada.

I had calls responded instant to 4 min including call back. I was 75k and super elite when I had to call this year, 3 times during disruptions in NY and got an agent in 3min while regular air canada centre was busy. They definitely prioritize elite based on the comments I see and my personal experience

Agree and it’s getting to the point that I will never use Aeroplan again. I transfered Chase points to take advantage of the 20% bonus right now — the points transferred, but no bonus (usually both are instant). I’ve called 6 times and one time I was asked to leave my number for a call back… no one ever called back, hours later. Then kept calling and calling and just get a message that their call center is too busy (with no option to hold or get a call back).

Please help aeroplan!
Have phoned 3times and have not received a cAll back?

Agree that Aeroplan is bad but it doesn't even come close to the terrible customer service offered by Turkish Miles&Smiles or other loyalty programs of the middle eastern carriers.

No, their tech changes are not up to snuff. The "change a booking" functionality for Aeroplan based booking is absolutely moronic, and when calling them at sharp 7 AM EST, one immediately gets the "we're experiencing high call volumes".

Air Canada leadership meanwhile makes big bonuses while this level of ineptitude from the flagship Candadian airline, which keeps getting help from govt, is pathetic.

Nonsense. Took me 2 minutes to be in chat with a human at Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, United, American Airlines, and Eva Air. This is an Air Canada specific issue.

That's a sign of a HORRIBLE program.

Singapore Airlines: < 1 min, 24 hours, local numbers in ALL big cities

Cathay Pacific: <1 min, 24 hours, local numbers in ALL big cities

Etc.

There would be a business case if it was being articulated by a half competent person.

I ended up on this site after aggravating searches about how difficult it is to reach Aeroplan. I have to travel to Canada in two weeks. I had a Passport name change and needed to change my Aeroplan name too. I already have a ticket with the old name information. I sent documentation for the name change via the Aeroplan site, and they said, "two weeks." (On the other hand, Delta, AA, JetBlue, UA, SW all made the change same day.) It's been three weeks. Today was my 3rd phone call that went on for over 45 minute wait. I didn't take the call back option first time, and it hasn't been offered since. No email address. No social media contact. It's really embarrassing for non- low cost carrier to be this inept.

Yes extremely long wait times. Also, its confusing why once the ticket is issued any changes cannot be serviced through Air Canada and have to be managed via Aeroplan. This would alleviate some of the pressure on the call centre.

I have cancelled two tickets with aeroplan reward miles.Upon cancellation,they immediately deduct $150 cancelation fees for each booking.However,I never got my refund back.It's been 1 year more my first ticket and almost 2 months now for my second ticket.
Tried to called the aeroplan customer service many times,unable to get through. Very bad service, will never book another ticket using aeroplan miles again.
Will wait couple of months, if still no refund, will probably go to small claims court to get my money back.I feel,aeroplan is just cheating their customers by retaining their refunds.

Nightmare to get thru to Aeroplan. My account was compromised and some hacker tried to steal my points by converting to some type of gift card. Since then i am unable to login to my account.

It says its sending verification thru email with a code - but it never arrives. Today i did that about 25 x still not email from Aeroplan. SO every time i need to login i have to call the support line - and wait 2 - 3 hours

Yes, I’ve had the unfortunate experience of waiting on hold (multiple times) for more than one hour to change my return flight from Asia, which I’m not able to do online. Also, since I’m overseas and using skype, there’s no option of call back. It’s horribly frustrating to have such a low level of adequate customer service from such a large company. I’m guessing they’re just not bothered to train and hire more staff.

Aeroplan is a disaster !!! I have sent them atleast 10 messages through their customer care service about the missed miles atleast 6 different flights, but they don’t even check or read messages they just have a same standard response to apply through their designated service! But my complaint is exactly that I am unable to apply through the missing mikes link!! They are not responsible for customer help or support .

Absolutely horrendous and unacceptable. Put in my call back number twice and never even got a call back. They don't even share anymore how long the hold times are and who can just sit on the phone not knowing whether it's going to be 1 hour or 5 hours or more. I understand it was like that during Covid and right thereafter but I travel a lot and use multiple award programs and all other airlines have minimal hold times so this just comes down to horrific management.

It's a ridiculous service because you can't access it or get into your account at all if your email happens to have changed.I can't tell aeroplan to change it because you wait for hours and after five hours every day waiting for them to call my number.So far nothing.I can't do it on line.I try to sign in and give my Aeroplan number and correct password. They then proceed to send a verification code to an old email address no longer valid.I can't tell them my new one or do it online without them telling me to give the code numbers that they sent to that deleted email.There is no option for an SMS instead .There is no option to update your email address so therefore I can't access my account to make bookings with my points.As the codes they send go to an unseen email account, I can't give the numbers they want because I don't receive the code numbers.If they were being sent to the correct one, I could actually access my account and make the booking I want .To update your email you first have to log into your account. I can't do that.If I am not into my account , I can't give them the code numbers they want because they are sending them to a deleted email which I can't access. What to do .What should be a 2 minute process has taken me 2 days and many hours waiting to speak to a real person. I have quite a lot of points in an Aeroplan account that isn't usable.

I’m on hold right now, waiting for Aeroplan to answer for 2.5 hours!
I called at 7:00 PM today, Tuesday, 30 December 2025. It’s now 9:33 PM
There wasn’t the option for a callback
So listening to the hold music!!!
Also not sure how late agents are available today and not provided the length of the anticipated wait time.