Aeroplan Update: No News Is Not Good News

Still having trouble booking your Aeroplan award? If so, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, there is still not a global fix to what has become an ongoing issue.

I’ve outlined the problem here. Put simply, Air Canada recently transitioned to a new booking system and Aeroplan, which uses Air Canada to ticket reservations, was not properly migrated. The result has been severe difficulty in booking flight awards. Many accounts are out of sync, meaning awards cannot be issued.

This has created a problem for those with last-minute trips or trying to snag space before others. To complicate matters, Aeroplan (and Air Canada) hold times are still outrageously long. Most still cannot even enter the queue. Instead, you’ll encounter a message that the phone lines are too busy and to try again later.

This problem was initially supposed to have been resolved within three days. It is now pushing three weeks and many are still experiencing issues. What is going on? When can we expect full resolution?

Aeroplan Response: We’re Working On It

I reached out to Aeroplan for an exact answer, seeking a more concrete timeline for a fix. I received a detailed response:

We are working to reduce wait times as quickly as possible but we have no timeline for you. This is because, apart from anticipated call increases related to the new reservation system we cut over to at the end of November, we have also been experiencing higher than normal volumes due to earlier, unrelated initiatives that are making call activity hard to predict. As you may be aware, back in August we asked members to make changes to their login credentials and in October to reset their passwords as part of a security upgrade. Calls about these actions continue to persist and have added to our volumes. That said, we want to assure members we are working very hard to reduce hold times as quickly as we can, including through online options.

We ask members to as much as possible to self-serve on aeroplan.com. Members can continue to redeem flights, hotels, car rentals online as well as self-manage their accounts.

We apologize for any inconvenience to our members.

I’ve also written about the security upgrade issues here.

CONCLUSION

This has been frustrating to me and I know for many of you. I bring this non-update update to ensure you that I am keeping the pressure on Aeroplan to get this done. Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon. In the meantime, hold off on transferring points into Aeroplan until account migrations are complete (or risk orphaning your miles there).

> Read More: O (Air) Canada: Problems At Aeroplan

image: Aeroplan