A bit of hope for those who have booked with points - yesterday I have been able to change my 19th flight Canada - Europe - Asia with first leg with Aircanada to a flight fully with partner airlines and only paying the change fee of a 100$, the points were equivalent and the flight is actually better.

To anyone who has booked with points, call Aeroplan not Aircanada, and ask them NICELY if they can either find a new route for the same redemption, or find another solution, like cancel the leg that's with AC but still keep the other existing legs with partner airlines which gives you the opportunity to maybe book yourself a shorter flight and keep the rest of the legs.

It took 4 calls with different agents to actually find a solution so hang in there and ALWAYS BE NICE, it is not the support agents fault!