Air Canada and Aeroplan: System issues continue to frustrate customers

The continuing issues with Air Canada and Aeroplan bookings after Air Canada's backend system update have meant that customers trying to book award tickets, make seat changes or otherwise alter their reservations are still having trouble.

One TPG reader reports that they purchased a ticket weeks prior via United's website and are due to travel on Dec. 30. Despite weeks of attempts, the ability to purchase seat reservations on Air Canada's website has not panned out. Phone calls in to book seats were met with answering messages — and still no seats to reserve.

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Another reader reports that Air Canada has altered a flight time so that a previously possible connection is now ruined. The result? Multiple phone calls to Air Canada remain unanswered, and the reader is left unable to make changes to a now impossible routing.

A third TPG reader has written in to say that Aeroplan is refusing to accept calls whatsoever, and that when calling in — as advised to do on Aeroplan's own website — customers are greeted with a message from Aeroplan's director of customer service centers.

To confirm this, TPG also attempted several calls with Aeroplan. After being asked to input your Aeroplan number and PIN, a prerecorded message from the aforementioned director states that after Air Canada's update earlier this month, call volumes are higher than normal. He apologizes for being unable to place you on hold and advises those with travel within the next 72 hours to try calling back later. Otherwise, he directs you back to Aeroplan's website — which is still not working properly. The line then hangs up.

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To clarify the situation, TPG reached out to Air Canada. Here's the response:

With any project of this magnitude and complexity — it took two years and 700,000 hours of development — it is inevitable that issues will arise. We continue to work on resolving these and in the meantime we appreciate our customers' patience. It is important to note that our operations continue as normal. For example, since the cutover Nov. 19 we have carried more than 1.7 million customers, which is typical for this time of year.

Assurances notwithstanding, it's clear that Air Canada and Aeroplan have a major issue to resolve. The inability to properly manage online bookings, search for or book award tickets or reach a live representative on the other end of the line has led to unhappy customers and travel plans left hanging. Hopefully Air Canada and Aeroplan are able to hammer out the bugs soon and get systems running normally.