Travel Tools - Web app to book miles seats as they become available

I've got an AAwards membership and recently took a trip to Brazil. I was continually checking on their site for a seat to open up for 60,000 miles round trip (30,000 each way) and was getting annoyed out how often I was having to check.

Anyway, I built a tool that would check availability for me and sent me an email when a seat became available for the dates I wanted for 60,000 miles.

I thought this was very useful, and was wondering if something like this is available? Would anyone be interested in using a web app that would allow them to insert their frequent flier info and have the seat booked automatically for your given dates based on your criteria of mileage requirements?

For instance, you could have the system book you a round trip ticket to Brazil leaving on X and coming back on Y if the seat required a maximum of 30,000 miles.

There are already services that monitor award seat availability and email you when space opens up. Has been around for quite awhile.

As for automatic booking, I'd have to guess that while their may be some value there, it will me impossible to successfully design or implement. Anything but the most basic domestic awards often require booking by phone because the airline websites don't have the capability. Plus, I'd imagine most folks aren't willing to give up that last line of control before booking, in case plans have changed, dates were moved, alternative arrangements have been made, etc.

Can you provide some of these services? I'd love to use them next time - specifically for AA.

Can you provide some of these services? I'd love to use them next time - specifically for AA.

www.expertflyer.com
www.awardnexus.com

Please forgive my ignorance. I am looking for a free site which searches for award seats and alerts by email when something becomes available. Award Nexus seems to require paid premium membership for that function. Expert Flyer does not seem to differentiate between paid and award seats. I also tried Using Miles, which also seemed to require paid membership for that function. Perhaps I’m not using these sites properly, I’d sure appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thank you.

Expert Flyer does not seem to differentiate between paid and award seats.

ExpertFlyer has a separate search for paid seats (Flight Availability search) and award seats (Award & Upgrade search). A Seat Map search just shows which seats are reserved or not and has no bearing on paid or award ticket availability.

The Flight Alert function will correctly know if the class you want to monitor is an award or fare class and do the correct search.

Hello ExpertFlyer Voice,

Thank you very much. Please forgive my very tardy reply, I’ve been away for a while. I’ve visited ExpertFlyer again a few times and I’m still very confused with it. I cannot see anyway to access any functionality other than Seat Alerts. The left side of my home page has the following:

Seat Alerts
View Saved Alerts
Create New Seat Alert
Support
Visit Support Topics
Contact Support
Reference
Airport Codes
Airline Codes
Equipment Codes
Courtesy Resources

I reviewed the User Guide and it states: After you log into ExpertFlyer.com you will be brought to the Home Page for all subscribers. From this page you can navigate to any part of the service. On the left side of the screen, at the top, you can navigate to the five main travel services:
Our Travel Services include:
• Awards & Upgrades
• Flight Availability
• Flight Status
• Flight Details
• Seat Map
• Fare Information
• Travel Information I cannot see any of these functions.

I suspect that somehow I am not arriving at the correct homepage. I would certainly welcome and appreciate any assistance you can offer. Thanks again.

Hello ExpertFlyer Voice,

Thank you very much. Please forgive my very tardy reply, I’ve been away for a while. I’ve visited ExpertFlyer again a few times and I’m still very confused with it. I cannot see anyway to access any functionality other than Seat Alerts. The left side of my home page has the following:



I reviewed the User Guide and it states: I cannot see any of these functions.

I suspect that somehow I am not arriving at the correct homepage. I would certainly welcome and appreciate any assistance you can offer. Thanks again.

You are in the Free version, the Free version is only Seat Alerts. Click the Upgrade button you see after log in to upgrade to the Premium version.

Thanks again ExpertFlyer Voice. My bad. I had written “looking for a free site…” and “Expert Flyer does not seem to differentiate…” and you replied to the “Expert Flyer does not seem to differentiate….”. I interpreted your reply to apply to the “looking for a free site…” as well. My misunderstanding. Thanks again for your very gracious replies.

Still hoping for a site that offers this service for free for those (like me) who only need it very occasionally.

You get what you pay for. Expertflyer isn't expensive and works well.

Would anyone be interested in using a web app that would allow them to insert their frequent flier info and have the seat booked automatically for your given dates based on your criteria of mileage requirements?

yes

You get what you pay for. Expertflyer isn't expensive and works well. Excellent points. In fact, ExpertFlyer just SAVED me about 300 bucks.

Several months ago I booked an award between Germany and NYC, using AA miles. Really wanted to travel on a specific date as the land part is a group trip and I didn’t want to extend my stay just to be able to use an award to return home. I initially ticketed on BA Germany to LHR and BA again LHR to JFK, only flights available that day, along with about $500 in taxes and fees, presumably a large part of those fees being the infamous BA Fuel Surcharge. A couple of weeks ago I bit the bullet and paid for a month of Expert Flyer. Did 4 flight alerts, 2 different AA flights, few hours apart, LHR to JFK, business and first. Got an email this morning, first class seat available on my first choice AA flight. Called AA, switched LHR-JFK to AA flight, $300 taxes and fees to be refunded back to me.

So, ExpertFlyer is indeed not expensive and in this case made me $300.

Thank you very much ExpertFlyer!!!