Aeroplan Award Search Issues
Air Canada Aeroplan is a favorite sweet spot program for the ToP team. But this week, our Award Booking Service team has been having some issues searching. After running a handful of searches, we’ve repeatedly been locked out of further searches. At first, we hoped it was a temporary glitch. But with the problem now spanning several days, we wonder if there might be something else going on. This afternoon, Air Canada posted a notice on its site about technical issues with flight searches and bookings. The carrier says it is working to restore service as quickly as possible. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what’s going on.
Aeroplan Award Search Limits
To investigate the Aeroplan award search issues, Derrick ran test searches from IAD to FRA, MUC, AMS and LHR. He clicked on a few days for each. Then, as soon as he searched LHR, it happened: The search returned no results. He’d run only about a dozen (or fewer) searches, including checking different days on the same route.
When he tried to run more searches, the “Modify” button got grayed out, no longer allowing him to run additional searches.
At first, searches were working fine for me. But after I ran 10 searches between NYC and FRA, GVA, BRU and ATH, I too got locked out. My screen returned the same blank search results that my coworkers have encountered. After hitting what appears to be a search limit, you’ll likely be met with a “No flights available” error—which almost certainly isn’t the case.
Now, a notice has appeared on the Air Canada site that reads: “We’re currently experiencing a technical issue that’s affecting flight searches and bookings on our website and mobile app. If you need to view or manage an existing reservation, you can continue to do so in the Air Canada App. We’re working to restore service as quickly as possible and appreciate your patience. Please note that flight searches using Aeroplan points are not affected by this issue.” Interestingly, it says award searches should not be affected, but that hasn’t been our experience.
Are There Any Workarounds?
When it comes to award travel technical challenges, including award booking problems, our go-to advice is to switch browsers or devices or try the app. After swapping internet browsers, though, we are still having issues. I also tried logging out and waiting an hour to search again, but I encountered the same error. So far, using the app does seem to work for our team.
After getting locked out on the desktop site, I moved over to the app and was able to complete about 20 searches back-to-back. However, we did receive a DP on the Facebook group this morning about a different error using the app. So, YMMV. If you believe the award space you want is there but you aren’t able to successfully locate it because of the Aeroplan award search issues, you can try contacting the airline through its official phone number to see if an agent can help.
Aeroplan Award Search Issues: ToP Thoughts
Though Air Canada now states it is working to restore service as quickly as possible, Aeroplan award search issues have already been ongoing for several days for some. It wouldn’t be a surprise if searches were being limited to prevent aggregators from scraping the carrier’s site. We’ve increasingly seen airlines roll out new measures seemingly aimed at blocking search engines, such as this summer’s new limits for Singapore Airlines searches. But if that’s what’s happening, restricting human users after fewer than a dozen searches would be an extreme response. Have you been encountering any Aeroplan award search issues? Let us know over in the Facebook group.
