Travel Tools - ExpertFlyer Now Showing Waitlist Status

It seems that, as of today(?), EF is now showing the waitlist status on some carriers which a fare bucket is sold out.

So, instead of showing 0 in a fare bucket, it will slow L, R or C, which mean:

L: Waitlist available, contact airline
R: Waitlist may be available, contact airline
C: Waitlist closed

So, where is EF getting this info? Do airlines publish this info into the GDS proactively now? Curiously, would a flight on an airline that participates in this ever show 0 in a bucket now, or just L, R or C (which provide more information)?

Not sure if this has been discussed/disclosed, but I found it interesting. So far, I see OZ and EK participate. Don't know who else.

I see that with CM, 4M and AR.

Called the three airlines (also on behalf of my TA).

All three said they do not have waitlists for regular passengers.

Just to clarify, the waitlist codes were always there, however until now we had just shown a 0 (zero) whenever we encountered them. We have been asked if we could show waitlist information before so we thought it would be a good idea to show it since we had it.

An airline may not have a waitlist "for regular passengers" however it doesn't mean that they don't use one internally. Since we tap into the airline reservation systems directly, we may see a waitlist that they setup internally to manage upgrade requests or overselling at the gate, or whatever else.

Don’t forget, the airlines don’t really expect the flying public to be able to see this information, so always ask and confirm what is available to you. The LAN airlines in particular are notorious for not properly updating the GDSs, so be sure to specify the airline to get the best results (we'll do a direct connect).

As part of this update, we'll also show when a flight is canceled in the Flight Availability results

Since we tap into the airline reservation systems directly, we may see a waitlist that they setup internally to manage upgrade requests or overselling at the gate, or whatever else.

So would it be possible to see how many seats your flight is overbooked by on some airlines? Could be useful for non-elite flyers planning on showing up at the last minute or pax interested in a bump. :D

Unfortunately not because that data isn't provided. Only an inventory value from 0-9 or the L,C,R statuses.