Air Canada’s Aeroplan program has just rolled out a fantastic improvement to its online self-service options. It’s now possible to change Aeroplan awards online, which I’d consider to be a majorly positive development for those of us who frequently use the program for redemptions.
For now this is being marketed as a beta test, though as far as I can tell, this functionality has been pretty widely rolled out.
In this post:
How to change Aeroplan award tickets online
Up until now, it has only been possible to cancel and redeposit Aeroplan awards online, but it hasn’t been possible to change them. That has finally changed. Below I’ll talk more about why that matters, but let’s start by discussing how it works.
If you log into an Aeroplan award reservation, you’ll now see a “Change flight” button at the top of your itinerary (you must also be logged into the Aeroplan account out of which an award was ticketed).
If you click that, you’ll be brought to a page that allows you to change your itinerary. You can enter a new origin and destination, a new date, etc. This means changes aren’t just limited to the same flight on a different date, but rather you can change the award type altogether.
Yes, your domestic United economy award can now be converted into a transatlantic Lufthansa first class award online. You can even change the return portion of a roundtrip after departure of the outbound flight.
For example, I ticketed a Washington to Boston economy award on United, so when I clicked “Change flight,” the same itinerary first auto-populated.
I then changed the route to be from Newark to Miami, so that’s a completely different market.
The results page showed the new award options that are available.
When I selected the flight I wanted, I was asked to just pay the difference in Aeroplan points. I believe I should have also been billed the standard Aeroplan change fee, but for whatever reason, that didn’t show in this case (I suspect that’s a glitch, because within 24 hours of booking, it’s only cancelations that are supposed to be free with Aeroplan, and not changes).
Most kinds of awards should now be changeable online. This is purely speculation on my part, but I imagine that complex itineraries, or itineraries with stopovers, still need to be changed via the call center (after all, the “Change flight” option doesn’t show a stopover option).
Why this Aeroplan change matters
Air Canada Aeroplan is a valuable frequent flyer program given its generous routing rules, the ability to have a stopover for 5,000 points one-way, and the huge array of airline partners that the program has.
However, one pain point of the program has been that call center hold times are often quite long, and the only way to change an award has been to call. When it comes to Aeroplan’s change and cancelation fees for awards, Aeroplan charges up to 100 CAD for changes, and up to 150 CAD for cancellations.
Historically if I needed to change an Aeroplan award, I’d just cancel the award and spend the extra 50 CAD, rather than dealing with the hassle of potentially being on hold for a long time, and the time it takes to make the change by phone.
With Aeroplan changes now easily being possible online, that should save me money, and make changes hassle-free. Furthermore, with more people hopefully using this self-service feature, it should help with reducing hold times at Aeroplan.
Bottom line
Air Canada Aeroplan has introduced online award ticket changes, which is a great development. It’s now possible to change most types of award tickets online, allowing you to avoid being on hold with Aeroplan. Well done, Aeroplan, and hopefully this helps reduce call center hold times.
What do you make of Aeroplan rolling out online award ticket changes?
Not working for me, and can't even get to be on hold on the phone. So now I know this is a trash airline I won't use again.
I've just tried to use this feature to make a change of date and flights. The origin and destination are unchanged, but I'm trying to book a nonstop flight instead of the existing one with a long layover. I get to the point where I've selected the new flight and it says "Loading payment options", then it results in an error: "We are temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again later. (err-7)". I'll try later.
I'm a long time Aeroplan member. Recently (last few years) find it impossible to address any missing points. We travelled on Turkish airlines last year. My wife did not get any points. I was not given points for some legs of the trip. I finally got through to an agent who advised I should send the boarding passes to an email address and the points would be given based on the boarding passes within 45...
I'm a long time Aeroplan member. Recently (last few years) find it impossible to address any missing points. We travelled on Turkish airlines last year. My wife did not get any points. I was not given points for some legs of the trip. I finally got through to an agent who advised I should send the boarding passes to an email address and the points would be given based on the boarding passes within 45 days. It's almost 300 days. No response. I have tried to call Aeroplan. They take the number for call back. The call back comes from Siberian Outfitters and it connects you to an extension that keeps ringing without a response. Is there any human or electronic solution at all? Terribly confused and concerned at the service level
I am a longtime Aeroplan member who unfortunately was called by my 2nd name, which was also the name on my Aeroplan account. In May of 2022, I traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast with a couple of additional stops going & returning. The trip should have accumulated 100s of Aeroplan points. Because I used my passport as my travel ID which is in my full name, I didn't receive any points.
I am a longtime Aeroplan member who unfortunately was called by my 2nd name, which was also the name on my Aeroplan account. In May of 2022, I traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast with a couple of additional stops going & returning. The trip should have accumulated 100s of Aeroplan points. Because I used my passport as my travel ID which is in my full name, I didn't receive any points.
Upon my return home, I tried numerous times in calls to Aeroplan, sending messages through their website, and sending emails to anyone I could identify that may be associated with Aeroplan, to get credit for my missing points. All to no avail. Now I'm being told ... It's too late .... I had only 11 months to notify them. WHAT?
They even sent me an email advising that my account would be credited the points for the last leg of my trip .... No never got the points.
Just ask me what I think about Aeroplan??? The answer would be too full of profanities to print.
Thank god. One out of 20 has brain cells and knowledge that answer the damn telephones. The other 19 are pretty much brain dead. Where they find these agents I do not know but their skill level is next to zero. I recall a phone call recently when I needed to get to Palm Springs California and if you can believe it the agent said to me where's Palm Springs? He asked in Florida? I...
Thank god. One out of 20 has brain cells and knowledge that answer the damn telephones. The other 19 are pretty much brain dead. Where they find these agents I do not know but their skill level is next to zero. I recall a phone call recently when I needed to get to Palm Springs California and if you can believe it the agent said to me where's Palm Springs? He asked in Florida? I said you fly to Palm Springs. If you don't know where you fly as an Airline employee then you need to go sit on the toilet and read the route map. I knew I was in trouble so I simply hung up which I do most of the time because the moment they answer the phone I know that I will lose my mind talking to most of them because they have no skill and no knowledge of the globe whatsoever. I don't think there's a worse bunch out there than those that have been hired at Aeroplan in the past 12 months. Useless!
Just tried changing AUH - JED via EY booked on Aeroplan. they tried charging me 100 CAD for a flight leaving 6 hours later. lol declined.
Thanks for the info!
Had to change a business class ticket. Could not do this on-line because I used a Chase Aeroplan credit card voucher and miles. I spent about 1.5 hours on the phone with a delightful agent, Karl, and got it all done. High marks for Aeroplan and Karl. He was great. Even though we could not change on-line, it all worked and we are happy with the results.
I have a number of bookings and all but one of which has the change feature you mention (thanks!). The only one I can't change (the change feature is shaded out) is one that has an e-upgrade confirmed on one of the segments -- I wonder if that is the reason it can't be changed online...?
You would need to remove the eupgrade before being able to make changes.
I have a booking with Aeroplan but it is a complex 5 leg trip with a stopover. The change booking is grey and says to call to change the booking. I had to piece it together one leg at a time.
REP-SIN-IST-CAI(stopover)-AUH-JFK
I think I want to just go straight home from SIN and drop the rest but don't want to pay a bunch of money to change it
It's crazy that it's 2023, and such a fundamental feature is blowing us away, but I guess that's the sad state of airline websites. Still happy to see this, will come in handy for sure.
Seems like a solid update. Also Ben, any idea why they aren't showing Indian award flights on the website or app, you can only see them and book them by calling AC. The 2 hour waits are really annoying.
I was wondering about that too, there are virtually no flight options available from India going all the way back since beginning of this year.
If this is actually true and the features work as promised, then it's a long time coming plus a giant "thank you" and "it's about d*** time."
Much fewer "can't even wait in phone queue since the queues are too long" or "wait in phone queue for an eternity" instances...
@ Euro -- This is true/has been confirmed to me by Aeroplan.
Don't forget the fees are per per person and per direction. So a 2 people roundtrip costs $600 to cancel.
Yikes... Also, don't forget Etihad and Oman are basically no longer partners for business or first class anymore. Ben, can you reach out to aeroplan on this? Super frustrating.
please do let me know as well of this is true or some sort of a glitch.
@ Andrew -- I'll have a post about that soon. Stay tuned! :-)
Awesome, you're the best!