Questions and Answers

Hey! Question for all you Aeroplan geniuses out there…

I presently have a roundtrip booking from AMS to YVR in a few months. The outbound leg is going via EWR on United, the return is all on AC via YYZ.

I’ve been dying to try Lufthansa first for a while now, but given that it’s been removed from the FRA-YVR route it’s a bit of a mess to book. I never would fly to Europe via any of the cities where Lufthansa flies a plane with F on it, but when I booked this flight the routing via EWR was all that was available. So it’s the perfect opportunity, since I already have the EWR-YVR segment in business class!

I’m wondering if any of you have had luck dividing a roundtrip booking into two one-way bookings, and if so, does it incur a change fee? Since I’ll only have an F segment in the outbound, being able to do this would save 15,000 miles, the one-way mileage difference between F and J.

Thanks for your help! Any other tips booking Lufthansa first are also appreciated 😉

Aeroplan has some hefty change fees. I’m sure they will want to cancel the R/T and reissue which carries a fee of CAD150 or about $110USD. If they did allow the change on the same ticket it still has a fee of $75 for class change (each direction if changes are made both ways). Plus there is a call center fee of C$30. Also be advised that Aeroplan passes on the LH surcharges which are higher than AC and of course UA doesn’t have them. LH doesn’t open up first class space until 14 days out. Finally, keep in mind you can’t cancel an Aeroplan ticket within 22 days and get a point refund, you have to use the points within a year of the initial issue date. Good luck.

MattT, for future reference, when booking a round tip where one way is one class and the return is a different class, you should book 2 one-way tickets and pay the proper fare for each direction. As you found out you paid the higher fare for both. I would probably call them and split this out anyway, pay the $110USD for my 15,000 points back.

Thanks for your reply Mark. To clarify, the booking is currently roundtrip in J going AMS-EWR-YVR, then YVR-YYZ-AMS. At the time, I didn’t even think about potentially being able to find an F seat 14 days out and switch, so I just ran it through as a roundtrip. As a result, I’m not presently overpaying. What I’m trying to avoid is paying the roundtrip F mileage if I can snag a seat in F on one direction, which the current itinerary makes relatively easy to do. If I was able to split the itinerary into two bookings, then I can pay the F fare for one direction and the J fare for the the other.

As you say, definitely will incur a change fee and LH YQ (plus some German security charges…), you are probably correct they’ll want to consider it a cancellation though. Thankfully, this ticket was booked before the most recent change in fees, so it’s $90 CAD!

Good to hear you didn’t overpay. So it sounds like a cancel and rebook into 2 one-ways isn’t going to cost much more the the difference between change and cancel and if under the old fees might not be a big deal. Of course you’ll be under the new rules if you do this.

Something to wet your appetite. Good luck!

[URL]http://www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2016/1/25/lufthansa-boeing-747-8i-first-class[/URL]

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Mmmm, I can taste the bubbly from here…

Slightly high risk strategy cancelling unfortunately, given the flights may or may not get dumped back into inventory. I’ll keep an eye on it and check in with it closer to the day, it would be more reassuring doing this if there was already some J available just in case it doesn’t all go back.

Thanks again Mark.

I don’t have much experience with Aeroplan agents (maybe someone else does) but I would call them and ask if they would simply do a change which drops the side you want to book with LH and keeps the other side. With American they will do this but reissue the ticket and you have to pay the re-deposit fee. With United they simply treat it as a change. But I wouldn’t outright cancel the ticket. I should have been more clear.

So yes, I had to indulge myself and got the goods from Aeroplan.

The gist of it was, if I wanted a refare, they had to cancel the booking, dump it all back into inventory, and book two one-ways. Maybe the agent I got wasn’t very knowledgeable, but dropping one side apparently wouldn’t work. So basically if I want to have a spin in first, I have to pay the roundtrip first fare… might be worth it given how LH is cutting first availability and I might not get another opportunity at it soon.

There were some interesting tidbits though. Since the December change in fees, Aeroplan Diamond members (which is a status associated with the loyalty program based on miles collected, and has no connection with AC status) get a discounted change fee of $75 or can cancel online outright for $30. So that’s a little bonus for FFs who collect a lot of AP miles.

[USER=2788]@MattT[/USER] Thanks for the info on AP Diamond, didn’t know that.

As far as your situation goes, CHANGE the existing R/T to a one-way. Pay the change fee. Then book a separate return one-way in first. That should work.