Air Canada & Aeroplan websites/call centres will be unavailable November 18-19 for their new reservation system migration

The time has finally come where Air Canada will migrate its current reservation system over to Amadeus. This move has been two years in the making since it was first announced that AC would move to Amadeus from a 25+ year old in-house RESIII system. That being said, the migration will force Air Canada and Aeroplan to move their websites to off-line status and close their call centres for 12 hours or more on November 18 through to the 19th. If all goes well the system along with the websites and call centres should be back online by mid day on the 19th. Both Air Canada and Aeroplan have posted notices on their websites about what you as a passenger or someone looking to buy a ticket need to do during this down time:

From Air Canada:

From November 18-19, 2019, we will be migrating to a new Reservation system to improve your travel experience. If you’re booking or travelling during this period, here is important information you need to know:

•  Starting at 20:00 ET on Nov. 18, the aircanada.com website as well as our phone Contact Centres will be off-line for making new bookings or changes until approximately mid-day Nov. 19.
• Any required bookings or changes to current bookings for travel during this period should be made prior to the start of migration on Nov. 18.
• Flights will be available for purchase and bookings will be available for modification as usual once our new system is live on Nov. 19.

 The following functions remain available as usual during the Nov. 18-19 migration period:

•  Check-in online, via App and at Kiosks
• Flight Status online and via App

You can visit the Air Canada webpage for the system update for more information and a detailed FAQ.  For our Air Canada Altitude readers you may want to take a closer look at this excerpt from the FAQ that will affect eUpgrades:

"Over the next few months while we update our airport systems, you will not be able to request upgrades at the airport, and upgrades which were not cleared prior to check-in will not be processed at the gate, even if a seat is available. In light of this, rest assured that we will work diligently to confirm more upgrades ahead of check-in."

From Aeroplan

Air Canada is in the process of migrating to a new reservation system, a project we're undertaking to improve your travel experience. Here's what this means for you as an Aeroplan member:

Aeroplan will be temporarily unavailable, both online and on the phone
Aeroplan.com and the Aeroplan App will be unavailable from November 18^th at 8pm EST until midday November 19^th. In addition, during this period while the migration to the new system takes place, the Aeroplan Contact Centre will not be able to assist you with any new or existing Flight Reward bookings. We encourage you to plan ahead and book any Aeroplan Rewards outside of this period.

We encourage you to self-serve at aeroplan.com
We understand your time is valuable and we anticipate an increase in Contact Centre wait times in the days that follow this transition period. Those looking to make or change a Flight Reward booking on or after November 19^th are encouraged to do so at aeroplan.com to save time and money. To change an existing reservation on aeroplan.com, simply cancel your booking to receive an immediate refund of your Aeroplan Miles, then book your new flight without incurring a booking fee.

We will temporarily reduce the aeroplan.com Refund Fee
To assist with this transition, from November 15^th, 2019 to January 31^st, 2020, the fee for refunding a booking online will be reduced to $75 – a savings of $75 versus requesting a refund via the Contact Centre.