Air Miles is a fraud in my humble opinion

I have used Air Miles for years with brief moments of success. That said it is a real crap shoot in my opinion.
We live in an area where you must fly to Vancouver to fly elsewhere. That said, there is rarely tickets available for the trip you require. I recently tried to book a trip to Vancouver on multiple days during the dates between 20th and 30th of the month.
Nothing available to Vancouver, not at anytime at all.
When I tried booking to Toronto from the same city there were seats available.
The point is that if you must go through Vancouver to get to Toronto how can there be any seats to Toronto if there are none on the same day to Vancouver?
There are no direct flights, you must transfer in Vancouver so that means I can use 3200 points ( plus inflated taxes) to make the trip to Toronto but can’t use 950 ( plus the same inflated taxes) to go to Vancouver on the exact same day?
Smells like legal fraud to me… just sayin’.

My sister flew in and out twice in the last two years on airmiles. No problems. Maybe something has changed?

I just booked with Airmiles today for 2, Rupert to Edmonton return in May, dates and flights I wanted, no problem!

I had no issues getting tickets to lethbridge Alb for the upcoming Monster kiss tour in July… we also use points to buy products like a Samsung 3d blue-ray stereo…

You no longer can use Airmiles to go to Vancouver just for the weekend. There are no seats available if you want i. e. fly out Fri. and come back Sun. or Mon. The only option you might get is dep. Sat. and come back Tues.
Anything longer than just the weekend should be still possible if you book at least 3 months in advance.
I recently booked tickets for three using my Airmiles for July - August, Rupert to Castlegar, then Castlegar to Calgary and back again to Rupert.

I tried to book 2 seats on Nov. 15 return Dec. 1 only 1 seat was available . Now thats along way away . wtf ???

Air Miles a fraud…not at all. But like most consumer loyalty programs it does appeal to a desire to ‘get something for nothing’ and it helps if you have an idea of what you can truly expect.

The limited number of seats on flights is a result of decisions made by Air Canada. On routes like Prince Rupert – Vancouver where smaller planes fly on a less frequent schedule fewer seats may be made available if the route is being somewhat successful. So a couple of years ago it was much easier to grab a seat with little advance planning because a higher number of seats were projected to be unsold and were released to Air Miles. (Whereas on more frequently scheduled routes flying larger aircraft – Vancouver to Toronto for example – there are more seats available). The incentive for Air Canada is to fill seats that otherwise might not be sold.

To book a flight often requires substantial advance planning, a good degree of flexibility, and a willingness to accept the reality that you might have to pay to get what you want.

The advantage for Rupert – Vancouver flyers is that the value of an individual Air Mile redeemed for a flight is much greater than the value of an Air Mile redeemed for a Vancouver to Toronto flight simply because of the cost of flights from Rupert.

Frustrating, annoying, and sometimes downright curse worthy – you bet! A fraud – not at all. Welcome to consumer loyalty programs - another form of consumer manipulation and seduction. And living in the north!

[quote=“chien22”]Air Miles a fraud…not at all. But like most consumer loyalty programs it does appeal to a desire to ‘get something for nothing’ and it helps if you have an idea of what you can truly expect.

The limited number of seats on flights is a result of decisions made by Air Canada. On routes like Prince Rupert – Vancouver where smaller planes fly on a less frequent schedule fewer seats may be made available if the route is being somewhat successful. So a couple of years ago it was much easier to grab a seat with little advance planning because a higher number of seats were projected to be unsold and were released to Air Miles. (Whereas on more frequently scheduled routes flying larger aircraft – Vancouver to Toronto for example – there are more seats available). The incentive for Air Canada is to fill seats that otherwise might not be sold.

To book a flight often requires substantial advance planning, a good degree of flexibility, and a willingness to accept the reality that you might have to pay to get what you want.

The advantage for Rupert – Vancouver flyers is that the value of an individual Air Mile redeemed for a flight is much greater than the value of an Air Mile redeemed for a Vancouver to Toronto flight simply because of the cost of flights from Rupert.

Frustrating, annoying, and sometimes downright curse worthy – you bet! A fraud – not at all. Welcome to consumer loyalty programs - another form of consumer manipulation and seduction. And living in the north![/quote]

This makes sense. I remember when Airmiles started and we had to book well in advanced to get the days we wanted. Then it seemed really easy - about the time that you could start booking online instead of phoning. In fact, the first time I knew about online booking was when we had a family emergency and needed to fly to Vancouver at full fare - about $1000 each. An agent at Quadra told me to check airmiles before booking. On a Thursday I was able to get two seats on the Saturday returning on the Sunday. I was hoping for a Friday/Sunday but what we got served its purpose and who could complain saving the money we did and getting enough time to do what we needed to do.

It appears now that we have returned to the more difficult earlier days. Last July I booked a weekend trip for Thanksgiving and the best I could get was Wednesday to Wednesday. Thank goodness for retirement.

try booking out of terrace. but if I remember someone told me there are probably only 2 airmiles seats available per flight in Prince Rupert, maybe someone can confirm this.

Just for clarification … there were flights available on the same days I was wanting to go if I was booking to Toronto out of Prince Rupert. There were no seats available ON THOSE SAME DAYS to fly to Vancouver ONLY.
I get the whole scam that is the customer loyalty and I know something about living in the north as I have been here for over 35 years.
My point was that if I booked a trip to Toronto , paid the taxes and spent the points I would have a seat on the days I was after but if I tried to only spend the smaller amount of points and taxes to get the Vancouver ( same days) there were no seats for me.
Spend more money, get a seat, spend less money, NO SEAT FOR YOU!
That smacks of fraud in my opinion.
Pa -TAY- to Pa -TAH -to I suppose…