Last post of the day on this, but Aeroplan sent me a statement concerning the cancelled SWISS First Class award bookings and I want to share it with you.
I can assure you that we are not pleased with the situation.
Our members are our priority and Aeroplan will assist affected passengers. We are investigating the situation as to what exactly happened and why these reservations were cancelled. Working with Swiss and Air Canada, we should know more about that early next week. In order to avoid this situation from happening for other members, we pre-emptively inhibited SWISS flight rewards until the situation is resolved.
A couple notes. First, all SWISS award space has been shut off. That’s a shame because though this first class space was a temporary boon, SWISS has been a consistent source of longhaul business class space lately both for close-in and long-term bookings.
Second, I am going to take Aeroplan at its word…for now. Let’s give them till early next week to address this issue. Hopefully, they will make it right and find a way to reinstate the cancelled reservations.
View from the Wing is waiting for the dust settle. Perhaps that was the more prudent course from the start rather than my threat of litigation yesterday. Aeroplan sent him an identical statement. Then again, my goal is not merely in resolving this in my favor, but setting a precedent that an airline or loyalty program cannot get away with cancelling award space at valid/published pricing.
You may think I’m doing this for myself, but I am doing this for all of us. That’s my pledge to you.
Get them good
Sue them!!!
Well, if you are doing it for all of us….
I finally got my refund for out of pocket expenses from Virgin Australia for their fiasco. Next time, I will make it more expensive for them to cancel a flight by booking all my hotels and tours as soon possible after ticketing.
So now I can’t book Swiss business class fares via Aeroplan because of bloggers booking numerous first class fares? Thanks a lot…always a few who end up spoiling it for the many….
I’m down for the ride. If anything it provides different content than 9 bloggers pushing the same boring credit card or cheap but not spectacular fare to X location.
Umm I see a lot of Swiss space in business especially from Zurich to Miami around New Years! So they aren’t blocking Swiss awards right now
Normally I would say let it go, but I think it makes sense to take a stand here. Swiss is basically saying this is the award equivalent of a mistake fare, i.e. “mistake availability”. Their only argument is that Swiss first class awards are almost impossible to book through partners, and since you got one, you therefore should have known it was a mistake. It’s a dangerous precedent if it stands.
SWISS has probably told all star alliance carriers that it will inhibit all F award inventory from them and the carriers took their word for it. When issues like this arise, it is SWISS mistakingly releasing award inventory and not really an issue of Aeroplan or anyone else showing “phantom” availability right away. I’m guessing Aeroplan and others will now take it upon themselves to remove SWISS F from ever displaying in their searches so that this mess/confusion doesn’t happen again. This may be the end of SWISS first class without consulting your mortgage broker.
Definitely sue the bastards.
Why do any of you read Matthew’s blog if all you want to do is complain? What a sad existence.
Agreed with Jules. Everyone now can’t book any SWISS at all because of the bloggers.
They didn’t even send me an email. Aeroplan shows I have a ticket, Swiss site doesn’t!!!
Hey Aeroplan folks!
Give this guy his ticket. Then blackball him for life. You’ll become heros overnight.
Dan, do you realize what you have just suggested? You are suggesting that Matthew get his tickets, and then never be allowed to use Aeroplan for life. Personally, I am supporting Matthew through this, I don’t think he is acting entitled or childish in the slightest and I think that he is right to seek any avenue to get his tickets and advocate for others, , but let’s pretend for a second that the above is not true. Even if I agreed with the folks that say that he is acting entitled and that he is waisting his and every readers’ time, I would still shake my head at this comment. Congratulations, you’ve banned from a booking program for life…until either Matthew or Aeroplan dies, whichever comes first. It would mean that a man in his early 30s would have to die in the next two years for this ban to actually have real significance, since Aeroplan will not be a thing in 2020. Surely, your suggestion would teach Matthew a valuable lesson…
He’s throwing a temper tantrum and acting like a spoiled brat. Sure, LX is acting a bit snotty itself, but the author seems delusional over just how much power he has in this situation.
Miles aren’t money. Miles are the completely artificial constructs of a private company and have far fewer legal protections in place. And membership in a mileage plan isn’t a God given right. If you abuse the system, you should be tossed. And I’m wagering anything that if Aeroplan checked this blog against the bloggers travel history, they could find a tossable violation (ever read the fine print when you enroll? They can toss you for just about anything)
So maybe just play nice? Sometimes you win, sometimes you have to fly first on some other airline.
Dan… OPM does not make you a hero. Just food for thought. YOU come across as spoiled and entitled, and self-righteous.
I’m all about miles chasing. I’ve racked up just shy of a million miles and currently have top tier status with two major airlines. But I understand that miles are effectively Disney bucks.
You are seriously losing perspective.
Your assessment of miles is not correct.
Cuz you say so?
How are they different?
It’s laudable that you’re doing this for us, but have you weighed the possible consequences? What if you win a Pyrrhic victory? Let’s say that Swiss does agree to honor what rather obviously was a glitch. A big win for the little people, right? If Swiss finds ways to avoid this in the future in ways that make this the last hurrah, we may all lose. What if it becomes extraordinarily difficult to book Swiss Business Class in the future? What if Lufthansa refuses any future space to Aeroplan? There are plenty of ways to make things much worse for future award flyers, and sometimes the fight just isn’t worth the ultimate price.
I agree. I think this is different because it was also bookable with UA, LH (non-status), and NH.
Matthew, I applaud your determination in holding Aeroplan/SWISS accountable. Please don’t let a few trolls discourage you. After-all you’ve been down this road before and have come out on top.
I have x3 tickets and they are all still showing up on both AP & SWISS .
The only common thread I can see of the tickets that were canceled are SWISS B777 routes such as SFO & LAX.
Maybe Swiss First award space had been shut off, but Business DEFINITELY HAS NOT.
I just booked LAX to ZRH in business for December 30th. It was 55K Aeroplan or 70K United.
So I’m not blaming “bloggers” for the disappearance of First bookings through Star Alliance. They haven’t been available for years anyways. All they did was alert their followers to availability the suddenly appeared across every Star Alliance booking platform. Oh my how terrible of them!
Since Business bookings are still readily available, there doesn’t seem to be any “damage.”
So stop complaining about something being taken away from you when you never had it in the first place.
Thanks for taking such a stance on this, Matthew. As someone who’s been affected, I really appreciate it.
Matthew, My flight is on dec 6, i took advantage of the availability and Swiss has yet to cancel my 2 seats in first. Should I be proactive and call aeroplan to switch me to a different flight? Last thing I want is to go to the airport and have my tickets be cancelled. As of now, Swiss site shows we still have 2 tickets in first. Any thoughts?
I alternate between thinking that you provide useful info and that you’re a dbag. One of your first inclinations was to sue? Really? Then do it, don’t let Gary’s [blog’s] prudence stop you from being who you really are. If you think it makes a difference, please go through with your threat and see what happens. I’d love to see how Swiss responds.
Agree. He does come off here as an entitled, spoiled child. Everyone who got in on this knew it was a mistake, but was ready to take advantage of the airline mistake with no compunction. The bloggers made a pile of money off all the associated clic bait. Then to complain when Swiss cancels just takes the cake. Anyone with some experience knows that Swiss has cancelled mistake fares before. Big surprise. This was a mistake. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Matthew, keep up the good work and don’t let the naysayers trouble you. Those who do what they believe is right deserve respect even if others disagree with the tactics. I know you have all of our best interests, as well as the big picture, at heart. Keep on trucking!
Acting entitled? of course he’s entitled– like anyone who has a contract is entitled to enforce it.
I wish this were a first class mistake fare. I’d go book $20,000 in non-refundable 5 star accommodations.
Let me give everyone an example of a very costly mistake:
There are some very famous securities trading errors–such as a Mizuho trader selling 600,000 shares at 1 yen instead of 1 share at 600,000 yen, and costing his company $285 million.
I personally have made 6 figure trade mistakes. Do you think the counter-party just let me out of the loss to be nice? Hardly.
Rules apply, not just what everyone thinks ought to apply.
As of this AM… My Swiss flights have now been deleted and are no longer showing on Swiss or AP website.
No communication from AP.
Any update Matthew?
Same here. My flights got deleted too this morning but they left in yyz-yul flights in there on air Canada metal. I can still see the tax charge on my statement.
@IV @Darcy
My flight is still listed as ticketed on Aeroplan but has long been removed from Swiss. Maybe theyre going through all of them one at a time. The lack of communication here is frustrating, but hopefully thats a sign Aeroplan is fighting for consumers.
I heard others speculating that timing of booking may play a role in whether tickets are honored but not sure how that world work. For what its worth, my tickets were booked at 8:59AM on Nov30.
Probably. Mine was booked for December 22
Any updates from AP Matthew? My flight is still showing up in my AP account, but not on Swiss.
Nothing yet. Will be reaching out to them.
Too all the people who are overly upset about Aeroplan’s response and anything Matt had to do with it, at best you’re as childish and tantrum-prone as you claim he’s being. Besides, he’s screwed even more because he owns an award booking service, so this latest development limits his ability to provide viable options for his clients. In other words, relax.
Had a confirmed booking from SFO-ZRH in First class for December 19. My trip started (or was to have started) in YVR. I already selected my seat on the Swiss web site and had it confirmed.
Aeroplan did not even inform me that they just cancelled my ticket. Now some of you say this is a temper tantrum – you guys need to get a reality check. I have to go visit an ailing mother far away and am now stuck with no way of getting there, and worse, unless I had checked it, not aeroplan and not swiss will have informed me about the cancellation. I would have been stranded thousands of miles way from home. So right now i have a ticket to return from a place i cant get to.
Aeroplan is respnsible, that’s simple. If Aeroplan has issues with Swiss or AC or anyone else that it their problem – but my contract is with Aeroplan and they need to honour it.