Being stranded in the Maldives doesn’t sound so bad right? Wrong. After having a wonderful time at Le Meridien Maldives, I was ready to travel to my next destination. There’s just one problem. I couldn’t board my next flight. Apparently, it’s a fueling stop and it’s not an actual flight that passengers can board. Why did Aeroplan allow me to redeem a flight that is unboardable?
VIDEO – Aeroplan Sold Me An Unboardable Flight – Stranded in the Maldives
Coming soon.
Stranded in the Maldives
Karen and I boarded the seaplane going to Male. The resort has arranged for us to get dropped off at the gate where we can board our plane out of Male to go to Sri Lanka, and Singapore, with the final destination being Nepal.
The flight was smooth and the view of the different atolls was beautiful.
But that would be the end of our happiness on our trip to paradise. As soon as we cleared immigration, we noticed that the Turkish Airlines flight going to Sri Lanka from Male was missing. After talking to the information desk, Turkish Airlines told us that this is a fueling stop and they don’t actually pick up passengers. “Shit, what do we do now?” is what Karen and I were trying to figure out as we were stranded in the Maldives. We ended up booking a flight with Air Asia going to Malaysia with Singapore being the final decision. We would later regret making this booking.
Calling Aeroplan
Karen and I booked a hotel in Male which was rather expensive but we had to find a place to stay the night. I immediately called Aeroplan as soon as their call centre was open. I tried explaining my situation with Aeroplan but the agent instead started judging and lecturing me. She told me it was my fault for not planning ahead and that is why I was unable to board my flight. After pressing her to investigate further, she soon discovered that Aeroplan made a mistake and sold me a flight that didn’t exist. The agent began apologizing profusely and offered me two solutions.
The first one would give me my taxes and points back. Essentially, I would get a full refund. The second option involves disputing the issue with Air Canada and I can potentially get my expenses covered. However, knowing how horrible it is to deal with Air Canada, I picked option one. I rather have the peace of mind getting a full refund than dealing with Air Canada for months to get our expenses reimbursed.
Food poisoning in Male
For dinner, I ended up ordering sweet and sour chicken with rice at the hotel restaurant. This was another bad idea as I ended up having stomach issues for the next several days.
I couldn’t wait to leave Male. While the Maldivian resorts were awesome, staying in Male was a completely different story.
Leaving Male
The next day, Karen and I immediately took a cab to the airport.
It’s as if the pandemic never happened with the airport being full to the brim with tourists.
Unfortunately, the next part of the journey will prove to be worst than what we already experienced. Air Asia will prove that they are a nightmare to deal with as the number of problems they caused Karen and I would be worst than Aeroplan.
Conclusion
Travelling to paradise is awesome until it’s not. The new Air Canada Aeroplan program is full of bugs and you need to look carefully when making a redemption. For this specific redemption, it turns out that Sri Lanka forbids fifth freedom flights which is why boarding the Turkish Airlines flight between Male and Colombo was forbidden. The flight existed as a fueling stop from a flight going from Istanbul to Male to Colombo.
There’s no way to plan for this of course and I hope Aeroplan fixes these flight segments that don’t exist to avoid griefing their customers.
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