nzchick

31 Oct SYD to DXB. Bus class upgrade (D) not showing on Expertflyer, but is showing as available in manage my booking on Emirates app.

HB7

Has this issue been resolved yet? I want to save a few seat alerts but what's the point if EF isn't showing correct information?

ExpertFlyer Voice

Update: The issue is affecting the display of flights that aren't to/from North America only. An alternative method of getting the data for all EK flights will be implemented within the next few weeks, at the latest. We will make an announcement when that is ready. Thank you for your patience.

m3red

So many flights not showing. Pls let us know when fixed or why am I paying?

Dave Noble

Or put in a less spin way - this is affecting all flights other than the few USA-DXB v/v flights

HB7

+1

If both the Qantas and Emirates websites are showing availability, I don't see any reason for EF not to show availability.

ExpertFlyer Voice

ExpertFlyer has many features that work for many different airlines, including EK for which all other search functions are unaffected.

Since the data was coming from a reservation system, and not an airline website. You're comparing two different things and expecting them to be the same. Airlines can make inadvertent changes that what data is available thru different channels, so we are writing the code to get the data thru a different channel, and as previously stated, we will let you know when it is available. But if you happen to have technical knowledge of airline reservation and GDS systems that you think would be beneficial, feel free to share via email.

Also, as we stated in our last post

evilbrian

I emailed EF about this a few days back, and did get a quick response the next day with the info detailed at post 33. My only quibble is the time being taken to fix it. While EF does provide a wealth of information, for the vast majority of people here I'd think that the awards and upgrades one would be the most useful, and the reason why we pay our subscriptions in the first place. I'd respectfully suggest to ExpertFlyer Voice that taking a few weeks to fix this is a case of misplaced priorities.

ExpertFlyer Voice

How you can you determine "misplaced priorities" without knowing what our priorities are? This fix is actually next up in our development queue, however we didn't want to over promise and under deliver on time. It will probably take a shorter amount of time then stated, however we would rather it be quicker then promised than longer. Also, you don't know the development effort involved or how long it might take, the solution isn't quick or simple, and I'm sure you rather we take the time to get it right the first time.

kuroko

from which gds did you took the data so far?

ukdoctor

The alert I had set up for D category seats for EK 513 on 26/10/15 did not trigger.

I was checking this daily on the EK website and I managed to upgrade the ticket.

I understand that Expertflyer is having technical issues which can happen to any company and that they are working to sort it out. I have therefore sent an email to Expertflyer querying whether they can extend my current subscription for the period that they are not able to provide the services that I signed up for.

eternaltransit

I totally sympathise with any company launching a product and still regarding it as "their baby", especially by software developers, but once you release it to the public and then take their money, I think you also need to empathise with customer concerns. It's now no longer a pet project, but a service where customer priorities are implicitly taken into account by virtue of their (ongoing) purchasing of your service/product.

In the age of two-way communication like this, for which I commend you for replying, the product is no longer a "take it or leave it" proposition which seems to be the implicit tone you are conveying here in your responses to customers. (Well, of course it could be, but "leave it" might be financially damaging, so it really depends on the owners of the company, right?)

Of course customers have their demands, and engineers have their reality, and neither the two should meet - it's the job of customer interacting staff to tactfully manage both groups to everyone leaves just about satisfied, if not entirely happy. This is no different to any other company in the world that deals with the general public - customers don't care at all (and one could argue, why should they care?) about internal difficulties in providing an advertised service, whilst the company's operations people decry customers for not knowing "how hard it is" to do a certain thing. Thus the corporate culture becomes critical in how this dilemma is presented and resolved without sacrificing business (or staff).

This is of course, why front-facing customer interacting positions are generally not filled by people who work on the product directly (especially technology companies) - criticism can be taken rather too personally...

pete4212

Are you serious? Given the arrogance and nastiness of the replies directed to EFV, I give him/her credit for not straight up calling you all di$%ks. Who are any of you to pretend you know the workings, technical or otherwise of EF better then EFV? I know this is FT really...

EFV acknowledged there was a problem, presumably after EK made some change on their end, noted what was going to happen to fix it, and gave a time frame for doing so. If you had a question about the issue/fix/time frame, then act like adults and just ask.

Instead, evilbrian pretended that he knew better and accused EFV/EF of having "misplaced priorities" because he thought the time frame for the fix was too long. How in the world would you know what the time frame should or shouldn't be? Do you know how long programming the fix would take? Are you a secret employee of EF and you know something that we don't about how their systems work? Unlikely. But that's ok, you obliviously know better about how EF works then EFV.

eternaltransit, thanks for the speech but that in no way addressed EFV's comments of fixing the problem. I'm sure EFV appreciated you talking down to him/her, I'm sure that will make their replies happier in the future. How do you know that EFV is a programmer? Lot's of assumptions again.

HB7, what's your problem? You have been the most arrogant of them all. After EFV said the issue was going to be fixed, you couldn't help but acting like you knew better how EF's system works with your comment of "If both the Qantas and Emirates websites are showing availability...". Do you know better how EF's IT systems and code work? Do you know what caused the problem in the first place or if it's related to an airline website which you compare it to? Probably not.

At the beginning it looks like EFV didn't understand that the issue was with non-NA flight searches. However you didn't provide an example search until asked repeatedly to do so. Maybe they would work faster if they had the relevant information sooner.

Why the sarcastic remark after EFV said they were going to fix it? A simple "thanks, keep us posted" would have been fine. I think EFV already knows that if EK awards don't come back that some people may not continue their subscriptions. If you need someone to tell you why you pay for a service, then that's a different story, but if you were just being a jerk then don't blame EFV for standing up for him/her self and replying with an actual answer your sarcastic question.

I think EF/EFV has to support the community and give reasonable answers to questions and issues as they come up, however they don't have to put up with your arrogance and sarcastic comments. You probably wouldn't speak to people that way in person, so don't to it here and expect a different result.

Dave Noble

Indeed. EFV, like any member, has the right to be treated courteously.

EFV has acknowledged that there is a problem and has given a timescale to fix it - Expecting it to be fixed instantly seems to be unreasonable expectation

The only negative I have really read by EFV before this is the trying to spin it by saying that it only impacts flights that are not to/from the USA given that those are a small minority of flights

It seems reasonable to give EF time to try and address the issue of the GDS

ukdoctor

An email along the lines of "sorry we have a technical glitch with EK award space searches. We are working on it and will update you as soon as it is sorted" would have been nice.

At least I wouldn't have wasted two potential upgrades and would have checked the EK website directly rather than just waiting for my EF alert to work.