SCHEDULE CHANGE POLICY for TRAVEL AGENTS

A schedule change (SKCH) is defined as a time change, a flight number change, routing/airport change, operating carrier change, cabin change and flight cancellation, all occurring more than 48 hours of the original scheduled departure time. 

It applies to:

• 014 tickets, all fare types including Group PNRs
• Air Canada to Air Canada misconnection on the same day with separate tickets
• Air Canada schedule change causing misconnection with other airlines on 014 tickets
• Other airlines schedule change on 014 tickets

It does not apply to:

• Reprotection on flights with an earlier arrival time, and/or when connecting fights provide a better connection/connecting time which do not case a misconnection.

Air Canada sends schedule change notifications to the booking source and travellers up to 180 days prior to departure.

• If travellers find the protection not acceptable, they are permitted one free change (change fee and additional collection waived) within the rebooking window. They can also cancel the booking and keep the value of the ticket as a Future Travel Credit or if eligible, transfer the value of the unused tickets to an Air Canada Travel Voucher.
• You must action segment status changes (TK) 48 hours prior to departure at the latest. This includes cancelling ticketed or un-ticketed segments with TK status code.
• Once the protection is accepted, further voluntary changes or refunds are as per fare rules.
• If you don’t action the schedule change, Air Canada will assume the re-protected flights are acceptable. As such, in the event of a no-show, it will be considered a voluntary cancellation.

Air Canada sends a schedule change notification to the booking source which is responsible for handling the schedule change. If the re-protection offered by Air Canada is unsuitable, the issuing agent or the other airline will re-accommodate according to their policies, which means the baggage policy of the other airline will apply.

Unused tickets: Departure time change of 3 hours or less

+/- 3 days before/after original travel dates for North America
+/- 7 days before/after original travel dates for all other destinations

Unused tickets: Departure time change of 3 hours or more

+/- 30 days before/after original travel dates for all destinations

Partially used tickets: Departure time change of 3 hours or less 

+/- 3 days before/after original travel dates of remaining flight coupons for North America
+/- 7 days before/after original travel dates of remaining flight coupons for all other destinations

Partially used tickets: Departure time change of 3 hours or more

+/- 30 days before/after original travel dates of the remaining flight coupons for all destinations

Resumed flights

Up to 30 days from the date Air Canada resumes service, or after blackout dates

Origin/Destination

• Must remain the same to prevent additional collection.
• Change of connecting point is permitted.
• With AC operated flights, alternate AC stations can be offered to/from sister cities and any AC stations within 200 miles. Example MIA and FLL, LYS and GVA
• Exception for flights within Canada affected by a schedule change, which are part of a connecting itinerary, the O and D can be changed to allow customers to make their own way to/from the nearest airport, next airport in the itinerary. Process an even exchange and enter DUE SKCH in the endorsement box of the ticket.  Refer to Partial Refund section for more information.
• When the schedule change is to other airlines’ operated flights, rebooking on alternate stations is not permitted
• Same global direction must be respected (exception: AC flight to India)

Length of Stay

• For travellers with 014 tickets, the departure or return date can be changed to preserve original length of stay. The flights not affected by the schedule change must be booked on original routing and carrier

Economy Cabin

• Rebook same booking class, up to Y for Latitude, up to M for Basic, Standard, Flex, and Comfort. When only higher than M class is available, the change fee is waived but additional collection applies
• For other airlines, rebook same class up to Y
• For Qantas operated flights, you may only rebook in E, O, Q, G, N, S, V and L class

Premium Economy Cabin

• Rebook same booking code, up to O
• For protection on airlines that do not offer Premium Economy, you must rebook in economy, and request a refund for the difference online

Premium Rouge Cabin

• Rebook same booking code, up to J
• For protection on airlines that do not offer Premium Economy, you must rebook in economy, and request a refund for the difference online

Business and Signature Class

• Rebook same booking code, up to J
• For Qantas operated flights, you may only rebook in D class
• For airlines that only offer Economy and First Class, you must rebook in economy.  Request a refund for the difference online

Aeroplan Redemption

• Please contact the Aeroplan Contact Centre

AC BID Upgrade and Last Minute Upgrade Purchase

• Business and Signature Class: Up to J for AC and other airlines
• Premium Economy: Up to O on AC, and any Premium Economy class for other airlines

Waitlist

• Permitted if original purchased fare permits

Rebooking is not permitted on WJ or any airlines with whom AC does not have a interline eTicket agreement with.

1. Air Canada, Air Canada Express, Air Canada Rouge
2. Atlantic Joint Venture carriers for Transatlantic routings only (AC, UA and LHG*)
3. AC codeshare flights operated by Star Alliance
4. Pure Star Alliance flights, book lowest available booking code in the same cabin
5. AC codeshare flights operated by other airlines
6. Other airlines for itineraries in North America, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America
7. Other airlines for Australia and New Zealand only if AC Transpacific flights are not available. Protection on UA is not permitted to/from/via Australia
8. Other pure Star Alliance or other airlines flights for Transatlantic, Transpacific and South America segments. This last option can only be used if AC is not available for the transatlantic or transpacific segments, and the segment between Canada - South America

Cuba

• U.S. laws, governing travel to Cuba, prohibits any United States carrier's flight from inclusion in a PNR with any other airline. Therefore, carriers can’t be used as protection on AC bookings, as they will be refused and cancelled per U.S. laws.
• American citizens cannot be re-routed via Cuba

Transatlantic

• Over-the-water protection flights must be operated by Air Canada, or AC codeshare flights operated by Lufthansa Group airlines, or the airline in the original booking.
• To/from Istanbul and Warsaw, rebooking on AC marketed flights operated by TK or LOT is not permitted. Between European hubs, rebooking on LOT can only be in economy, lowest to highest, O, U, L, W, V.

Transpacific

Over-the-water protection flights must be marketed and operated by Air Canada, or by the airline in the original booking. 

To/from/via Australia and New Zealand, rebooking on:

• UA is not permitted
• CX is not permitted in G class
• QF is permitted in Economy E, O, Q, G, N, S, V and L class, and in D class for Business

South America

• Rebooking between Canada - South America must be on AC marketed and operated flights, or the airline in the original booking. Rebooking is not permitted via the U.S., the Caribbean or Central America.

Due to an equipment change, and/or aircraft reconfiguration, customers may be involuntary downgraded to a different cabin.

SKCH notification more 48 hours prior to departure

Traveller wants to stay in original cabin

• Rebook on another flight with the same routing in their original cabin of service
• If not available, offer alternate routes via another gateway
• Compensation or refunds are not applicable

Traveller accepts the rebooking in a downgraded cabin

• Rebook in the class of service of the downgraded cabin (Y or O)
• Once the travel is completed, request partial refund from Customer Relations

Traveller voluntary requests an upgrade

• Premium Economy customers downgraded to economy may be rebooked in Business Class subject to additional collection; change fee is waived.
  

SKCH notification within 48 hours of departure

• Economy: rebook up to Y
• Premium Economy: rebook same class up to O, and up to J if Premium Economy is not available or offered
• Premium Rouge: rebook up to J
• For refund and compensation, please contact Customer Relations

Tickets must be reissued for flight number, routing and date change.  Enter DUE SKCH in the endorsement box of the reissued tickets.
You don’t need to reissue tickets for flight time or aircraft change.

Refunds are permitted if your customers’ flights are affected as follows:

• Departure or arrival time change of more than 3 hours
• Cancellation without protection, or with protection of more than 3 hours from original departure/arrival time
• Change from a non-stop to a connecting itinerary, or change results to more stops or connections
• Routing (origin/destination)/airport change
• Not permitting a same-day connection
• Schedule change creating a misconnection

Enter Refund Waiver Code ACUSKEDCHG and the flight number (example ACUSKEDCHG0411) in the GDS refund waiver field before you cancel the PNR.

Refunds are not permitted in the following scenarios:

• Departure time change of 3 hours or less
• Cancellation with protection 3 hours or less from original departure/arrival time
• Aircraft change resulting in a cabin change
• Change of operating carrier

PARTIAL REFUNDS

When flights within Canada which are part of a connecting itinerary are affected by an
Air Canada initiated schedule change, and customers don’t use the affected flight coupon (ex. drive to nearest Canadian airport or next airport on their itinerary or continue to destination at their own expense) a partial refund of the unused affected flight may apply if within permitted refund scenarios.

Please call the Contact Centre or queue your PNR to the rates desk for calculation and processing of the partial refund, if any.  Reminder that some cities are common rated which mean a refund may not be due.

Your customers can keep their tickets as Future Travel Credit. The following conditions apply upon exchanging the tickets:

• If the new fare is lower, the residual value is lost 
• Change fee is waived, but additional collection applies
• Some original non-refundable taxes remain non-refundable and new taxes must be collected
• Refundable taxes that do not apply on the exchanged tickets can be refunded. 

AIR CANADA TRAVEL VOUCHER

Customers can also request to transfer the value of eligible tickets to ACTV. Please note IT/BT tickets are not eligible.  Please review Requesting an Air Canada Travel Voucher