I have had success booking rewards travel for the past several years... decent connections and total travel times until this year. Latest attempt to book a rewards flight from Winnipeg to Honolulu takes me to Toronto, Washington, San Francisco then finally to Honolulu. What a complete joke! For the amount I spend on my aeroplan visa to get 80, 000 points to use rewards travel to Hawaii I can fly United Airlines to Honolulu with one connection for $865.00. Keep up the great work Air Canada/Aeroplan...other airlines can pick up the slack when you cease flying!

I have yet to meet anybody who is a happy Aeroplan user. I have wasted so much of my time with this company it's now quite liteally a joke. I have just spent several exasperating evenings with this peculiar business and I have a story that is so bad it might be entertaining.
Let start by saying I understand that if you don't lose your points and you book a bazillion years before you travel, they are the best deal for your mile in town. That's why I signed up. But people: it just ain't worth it.
They pulled the stunt on me about because we hadn't used my wife's/kids points for so many years that the points that I earned were no longer ours to use. We lost close to 100, 000 points. Apparently they sent me a letter. I suspect that the letters got lost in a move but the fact of the matter is, I really don't want to have to read all the crap that we are sent by such companies. Every normal business knows that a deals a deal and you don't reneg on people just because they like to save the points for a big trip instead of using them in little bits. Oh, and speaking of using your points...

Have you ever tried to book your flights? Omigosh. It is pathetic! You approach your keyboard with bated breath thinking: "yay, I get to use my points and travel to Mont Jolie, PQ for free. Yippee. So much fun!" Then you try. Then you try again. Change the dates, change the hours, postpone, ... I think they make about one seat available every 4 months for the low price... that's the one I actually signed up for rather than the new rewards that cost you way more miles. I remember one booking where I had to over night in Winnipeg and then Montreal just to go across the country! They give that to you like it's a viable option!

But on to my story... I promise to keep this shorter.

I book on line. Happy day: I book a multi city flight for the fam to go across Canada and it says it's all good. I enter pages of required info ending with credit card #. Oops. In the intervening minutes while the website processes the transaction the flights are actually not available anymore. Ummm okay: must have been booked by somebody else. I try another combination. Yippee! It works again. I re-enter pages of info along with Mr CC. Nope. So you try again. And again. And... well you get it. I call the Aeroplan Customer Service. (The next day because their hours are so restricted) Hmm... they see it is available but you have to pay $30 per person just to do it over the phone. But this is website malfunction. Ahh yes: you must call the web site customer service. Call them (the next day because their customer hours are so restricted for Western Canadians). They so nope. Call usual guys. Call usual guys. Nope: call web site guys. Call and I get to talk to Stephanie. Give her history and she says I can't book such a flight on the website. I say I am doing it right as I talk to her and the guys on the customer service says it is, in fact available. She says to book it through them, then. I say that will cost me an extra $30 per person. She doesn't see a problem. This is the normal way they do business. They are perfectly content to bate and switch on their customers and waste hours of their customers time as they try to apparently book flights on the web when the flights are actually not available at all.

Okay, I admit. I for the first time, started to lose it a bit. I explained not all that calmly but not abusively that they had wasted about 5-6 hours of my time. She then chastised me for not listening to her because she had told me that there was not a problem. This is the way things worked. I had to call the usual guys. Can I speak to manager. Put on hold for several minutes. No. He's gone. What's your name. Just one moment sir. I wait several minutes again and she tells me. Where do we go from here, Stephanie? I'll put you through to customer service. Wait several minutes. Get voicemail saying customer service is now closed. Did I mention that their hours are restricted?

This is where I give up. I call my bank. I tell them that they can cancel the cc that I put over $100K on every year that earns me the privilege of dealing with this detestable company. That's the one I've been using for over 30 years now. I call up "the usual guys" pay my $30 extra per person and hope that I can dissuade any and all who will hear: STAY AWAY FROM AEROPLAN!

Kafka. Pure Kafka.

Aeroplan claims it sent me an e mail in December advising that my miles were going to expire in March of this year.
I NEVER got any such e mail, in fact tracking my e mails the last one I got from Aeroplan was in October of 2010.
They took 293, 000 airline points from me. The Aeroplan agent I spoke to who went by the name Gord seemed to enjoy telling me too bad. Said even if I didn't get the e mail (he just fell short of calling me a liar) that it was in all the newspapers and on the CBC, problem with that is I live in the U.S. When I asked to speak to someone higher up he said there is no one else higher up. He then said if I want the points I can buy them back at a penny a mile. It would cost me $2963.53.
These points were for emergency travel and this is the way Air canada rewards loyality?

For anyone having problems dealing with Aeroplan frequent flyer /loyalty program, I strongly suggest filing legal action against Aeroplan. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to contact them to negotiate a resolution. The only way to reach a remedy with Aeroplan is through the courts. Neither the "customer service" agents nor supervisors have authority to resolve problems. Currently there are many law suits against Aeroplan including a huge class action suit against Aeroplan for "Expired Points" (CTV News, 21 January 2011) and I strongly suggest investigating these actions.

I wanted to share my experience with you on using my Aeroplan points. The bulk of my points are collected using the CIBC Aeroplan card which I have held since 1994.

I have booked many trips in the past using the Aeroplan points collected using the credit card + flying with the airline.

I have been attempting to book at trip online to Florida for the past weeks using my points to get my family there for a vacation. The dates we get are not that important.

Traditionally you need to claim 15000 miles for short haul flights and 25000 miles for flights anywhere in North America. What Aeroplan has now stared doing is rewarding with connecting flights for these point levels. No one wants a connecting flight when a direct one is available. Thus for me to get on the direct flight from Toronto to Ft Lauderdale I need to use up to 55000 miles for what you should get using 25000 miles.

The Aeroplan program has dwindled in value over the past years to the point that is it basically a fraud. For them to simply choose the number of miles required for the reward is on the verge of fraud. The points required for a flight have in the past been and should be fixed.

I would recommended that everyone stop collecting aeroplan points and focus your efforts elsewhere. I will be switching to the Capital One Cash Back credit card now that simply rewards cash to you.