Air Canada / Aeroplan newbie thread

[Captain Halliday]

While Air Canada and Aeroplan are less commonly used by AU based flyers, this thread is intended to serve the same purpose as the similarly named threads for Qantas and Virgin Australia.

As I have a some AC sectors coming up, I'll kick things off.


1. I have reviewed this page about Air Canada baggage and optional services. It indicates you should add and pay for the required number of bags at time of booking.

However, my flight is a Velocity redemption on AC metal so there was no option to add bags.

I have tried the AC MMB and can't seem to find an option there.

How do I add the required number of checked bags?

If I wait until checking will I be slugged a higher fee for not adding bags and paying online?

 

[Captain Halliday]

2. Does anyone know the fare buckets AC/Aeroplan use for Velocity awards?

On my preferred day of travel there are awards only on the last flight of the day even though loads the following day appear identical.

Here's the two days from EF.

Flights highlighted have award seats available via Velocity.

My preferred flight, is indicated by the red box.



Given the need to be flexible with award travel, the last flight on 23rd or the afternoon flight on the 24th are possible but would require other changes to our plans.

Before I make any changes, I'm just wondering if anyone with more Aeroplan experience might offer a view on whether awards might become available, noting the proximity to Christmas.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I looked at my ticket from earlier this year, issued by Aeroplan. The VA flight is showing as ‘Z’ class.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Are there any tricks to successfully selecting a seat with AC?

I have been able to view the seat map, choose standard seats for all passengers and proceed to the summary page.

However, when clicking "continue" it repeatedly generates an error. See sequence below.

Seat map available including both paid and free seats.



Seats successfully selected:



Error message:

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Regarding the above, I assumed you were looking for business class? Which is Z.

I think economy is ‘X’

Are seat selection, is that on the air canada app? Sometimes the app and website can be different.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Regarding the above, I assumed you were looking for business class? Which is Z.

I think economy is ‘X’

Are seat selection, is that on the air canada app? Sometimes the app and website can be different.

Yeah, it’s an all Y Dash-8.

 

[elanshin]

Hopefully all operations will be back to normal by the time you fly. The strike has caused all sorts of mayhem with AC, almost as if the company didn't know it was happening.