Cancelled CIBC aerogold

I have officially cancelled my CIBC Aerogold Visa card. I have switched to another card to collect points for another airline. I have a couple product suppliers, box company and email marketing company payments going through this card. I should have a business class ticket with in 6 months.

So long Aeroplan!

Empty Seats

I am currently in Bali on a trip which was NOT made with Aeroplan. This was the trip that I was trying to book went the agent ended her shift. In the end I was not able to use any points for this trip.

I was so impressed to see empty seats in the Business Class section and of course throughout the plane even though I could not use my points to book the tickets due to capacity controls.

Thanks for nothing Aeroplan!

By the way, I did not fly this way but I have heard that a better route to get from Vancouver to Denpasar (Bali) is to take Korean Airlines. Fly from YVR to ICN (Korea); then ICN to DPS.

TD Bank Analysts say Buy Aeroplan

Groupe Aeroplan (AER-T) current price is $11.00. With a twelve month target of $16, it may be a good investment. Since they are making killing on selling worthless points it probably is a good business.

Maybe that can be my consolation own the stock not the aeroplan points.

End of Shift

I had another attempt to use up the last of my Aeroplan points. I still 155,000 points and thought that I could use them for my next trip.

I called customer service to book a ticket. After 28 minutes of trying to find available seats on the dates I wanted the agent told me that her shift is ending and she will need to transfer me to another agent. I thought it would be no problem and we were halfway through and the next agent could finish the file. But when I was transferred it was like starting new. I even have to verify my identity again etc. Therefore the first 25 minutes on the telephone were wasted. In the end, I could not have the travel dates that I wanted and could not book a ticket through Aeroplan. So it was a total of 1 hour & 12 minutes completely wasted.

How can Aeroplan management expect agents to assist customers until the end of their shifts without being able to pass a file to another agent without having to start anew?

I wonder how I am ever going to get rid of these Aeroplan points.

Aeroplan Strike two

Well I have had another poor experience with Aeroplan. This time I booked a ticket which left at 6 am in the morning. On the morning of the flight we arrived to checked in at 4:30 am but was told that there was no booking for me. I had to call Aeroplan from a pay phone to have the matter sorted out. When I got through the automated voice recognition system by saying, "agent, agent, agent" over and over again I finally got to speak to someone live. It took about 20 minutes for them to straighten the mess out. When I tried to ask for an explanation as to why my ticket was not processed the agent would not give me any. Just said, "it's fixed now."

Capacity Controls

According to Aeroplan Facts.
http://www.groupeaeroplan.com/PDFS/PDF_Facts/Aeroplan%20Facts%20-%20FINAL%20EN.pdf

"Aeroplan has unrestricted access to 100% of available seats on Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz, offering the highest proportion of seats available of any leading North American airline reward program, and the highest proportion of passengers travelling on reward tickets."

- this is what they want you to believe.

But when I confronted the agent the truth is told. She quickly referred me to rule #16.

" Capacity controls also apply. This means there are a limited number of ClassicFlight reward seats available on a given flight. There may be instances when flights are not completely booked but all available reward seats have been claimed."

as per:
http://www2.aeroplan.com/terms_and_conditions/popup.do?section=rewardair


In their promotional or investor information they want you to believe that Aeroplan offers unlimited access to seats but the truth is that Aeroplan does not offer unlimited access. Be warned.

What Happened?

My first bad experience with Aeroplan happened in Sept 2009. I had been diligently collecting Aeroplan points for many many years. Filling up at Esso, using my Aeroplan Visa card and whenever I would fly on Air Canada I would dutifully dig up my orange and grey Aeroplan card.

I had finally accumulated enough points to travel business class internationally. A reward for myself as I was planning a multi city business trip that literally took me around the world.

I researched the flights that I wanted and even downloaded the Star Alliance Trip Planner to my computer. When I finally figured an itinerary that would suit my needs I contacted Aeroplan by telephone to book the ticket.

To make a longer story short after 45 minutes on the telephone I had my Business Class itinerary or so I thought. When I received my e-ticket by email I quickly noticed that the flights were booked in economy class not business class.

I promptly called back to correct this error but I was told that I would not be able to have the itinerary in Business Class by using Aeroplan points. I would have to change the dates or I could pay full fare for Business Class and not use points. When I asked how come I can find the business class seats available online.
The agent told me that Aeroplan does not have access to all the seats in Business Class.

So in the end the first agent who incorrectly booked my ticket made a promise to me that could not be met. Instead of contacting me to inform that she made a mistake she just pushed it aside. When I called back Aeroplan would not honour the promise their agent made.

I have tried to contact Aeroplan by mail but to no avail.