I’ve received over 50 emails the last two days asking for an update on the Aeroplan/SWISS First Class issue. Thus far, I’ve only been advised to be patient.
At this point, we know that SWISS is the culprit for the cancellations. SWISS mistakenly released the space and SWISS unilaterally cancelled it.
SWISS, in case you didn’t know, thinks its God’s gift to the world. I’ve never dealt wth a more arrogant airline and even the pretentious ground staff in Zürich are among the worst to deal with in the world. That’s a strong charge, but my dealings with SWISS date back more than eight years. I enter every relationship with an open-mind, but I’m tried of the SWISS drama. They’re probably tired of me too.
Anyway, I reached out to my contact at Aeroplan, hoping for positive news for all of us. For now, though, we remain in waiting mode:
Hi Matthew, thanks for your patience. We are working as quickly as possible to provide you with an update. I’ll be in touch as soon as possible.
No News is Good News?
This answer pleases me much more than, “There is nothing we can do. Go pound sand.” I know Aeroplan and Air Canada are working with SWISS to try to resolve this issue. They want SWISS to honor this. That should hearten us, at least a little bit.
If the choice ultimately comes down to Air Canada/Aeroplan having to pay for full fare tickets versus not honor the issued ticket, optimism is not prudent. But I’m hoping that Aeroplan/Air Canada and perhaps even the Star Alliance organization can put some pressure on SWISS to be good neighbors.
I’m going to address this separately tomorrow, but I’ve dealt with a couple SWISS First Class client award tickets over the last few days. The results were not pretty. If you have a ticket in limbo, I do not recommend you call Aeroplan at this time.
CONCLUSION
Is no news, good news? We will soon find out.
image: SWISS
Hi- I had a TLV-ZRH-EWR booking in Swiss F. I called Aeroplan on Sunday to see what could be done. After about 2 hours, I found a supervisor willing to switch my flight to a United TLV-EWR in Polaris! They had to contact united to open up a saver award ticket even though there was none published. What’s better, when I checked United.com, the ticket that had given me was full fare business in Class J!
so it seems like they are trying to get rid of as many tix (either by rebooking or refunds) as possible now to clear it up a bit…
It’s ridiculous that we now will incur cancellation fees for hotels etc if Aeroplan cancels these reservations. And the fact that Aeroplan by not honoring these reservations is tying up the points in the account.
Just seems like a no win situation. I have booked rooms, events etc on a trip to Europe and come with lots of cancellation fees.
Hopefully Aeroplan honors these somehow.
So now it is concluded it is Swiss fault and not Aeroplan’s? when that has been as clear as blue sky from the moment the “mistake” in releasing F awards to partners happened.
Still SUE Aeroplan should your family not get on Swiss F direct flight home from ZRH?
Why not carry out the bold claim in the title of the article a few days ago, AND bring in your award booking clients, as well as whoever who followed your lead in this mess who cares to join the suit?
Go get Aeroplan even though this has not been their fault from the outset despite your claim.
If things turn out the way we don’t want, you should still try to check-in at the airport.
Show LX the same insistence you did with ET. It will be interesting.
Gary says Aeroplan said to pound sand. Your move.
I agree, since Swiss has no refused to honor the fare you should bring your wife and baby to the airport and demand to fly (a la Ethiopian).
Let us know when you file the lawsuit against Aeroplan. lol
Put your money where your mouth is and sue them, as you so clearly said that you would.
Ref the comment gods gift, I used to work for them and yes that’s certainly very true of the cabin crew, which unfortunately has suffered a massive decline in service level.
Lots of young straight from university kids who think they are gods gift, with attitude and customer service to match who will fly a few years and then move onto other jobs.
For the ground staff check in agents they ALL work for Swissport despite wearing a Swiss uniform.
Swissport used to have the same priority and benefits as normal Swissair staff but after bankruptcy it was sold off and they went to the bottom of the priority list.
Sadly the older original employees, of which there are many have a very bitter attitude about this and they are extremely curt with regular travellers and Swiss staff on ID tickets. The long term grudge sadly, in my experience is a Swiss nationality trait.