Air Canada Change Fee Waiver falls short

Updated post on Mar 11, 2020
Air Canada is now waiving change fees on bookings made prior to March 04, 2020.

If you purchased a ticket before March 4, 2020 for travel before April 30, 2020, Air Canada will allow you to make a one-time change to your flight without incurring a change fee up to 24 hours before your departing flight. You can also cancel your booking and credit what you paid against future travel. In both cases any fare difference will apply, any residual value resulting from a lower fare will be lost, and all travel must be completed by December 31, 2020.

Changes can be made online, through your travel agent, or by calling Air Canada reservations at at 1-888-247-2262.

This policy also applies to Aeroplan Flight Reward bookings.

Air Canada Vactions is also implementing flexible booking policies.

Original Post

Air Canada announced on March 04, 2020 that when you purchase a ticket between March 4 and March 31, 2020, Air Canada will allow you to make a one-time change to your flight without incurring a change fee up to 14 days before travel. Changes can be made online, through your travel agent, or by calling Air Canada Reservations at 1-888-247-2262. The one-time change fee waiver also applies to Aeroplan Flight Reward bookings and you can contact Aeroplan directly if you choose to make changes to your booking.

So whats the catch? It appears Air Canada wants to generate revenue by selling tickets when passengers are shying away from making any reservations due to the uncertainty. Why? Read on….

A one-time change fee waiver will ONLY apply to tickets purchased between March 4 and March 31, 2020 for travel within 12 months of the issue date on your original ticket, provided changes are made at least 14 days before your departing flight. Kindly note that any fare difference will apply. It DOES NOT apply to any tickets that were purchased weeks or months in advance.

The only good thing is that the one-time change fee waiver applies to any of Air Canada’s published fares, regardless of the cabin you selected.

You may cancel your flight and apply any unused value of the ticket toward the purchase of a new ticket within 12 months of the issue date on your original ticket. However applicable change fee and fare difference will apply for new travel dates and will be collected at the time of booking the new ticket. So, you wont get a refund back on your credit card for e.g. and you are locked in with Air Canada for future travel.

The one-time change fee waiver policy also applies to Aeroplan bookings. Additionally, Air Canada Vacations is offering its CareFlex travel protection plan for free on bookings made between March 5 and March 31, 2020. 

Again, these waivers are not there for the best interests of the passengers, but to get us to book flights and have our money locked in with Air Canada.
Air Canada take a leaf from KLM where their waivers seem to be the first and the best among large airlines.

Air Canada #notimpressed.

Be aware of the fine print of the waivers before entering you credit card details to book a flight.

Written by Dominic Fernandes aka CanadaPointsGuy

Image courtesy of aircanada.com