ExpertFlyer Voice

We were showing the exact seat map we were being sent by the reservation system, the issue is on their side. We switched CA seat maps to a different reservation system in the mean time.

TheCount2

The business class map for this flight is missing from your website. The First and Economy class maps do appear.

Globaliser

I can see it. Business class has rows 11-15 and rows 80-87.

TheCount2

I could not see it at the time, but eventually received a seat alert from EF for the for which I had requested that alert. Perhaps the information provided by CA is sporadically incorrect or missing. My earlier post pointed out an incorrect seat map for the same flight.

Globaliser

Yes, this does happen. All that EF can do is faithfully report the information that it receives from the GDS. As always, don't shoot the messenger!

sharp5flat9

I've had a recent back-and-forth with EF support over their implementation of a piece of software from distil networks, and am getting nowhere fast.

If I'm on a slow/laggy/crappy network link (e.g. 3G tethered or hotel wifi) I will often see this error. It seems to think I'm a hacker or robot or something. I am not, honest

The problem with EF is when you need to use it, you often *really* need to use it urgently, and this is *very* frustrating, especially as it then blocks me for a period of time thereafter, even if my network link has improved.

Network links are often crappy when travelling and I accept that. I am ok with slow page loads, so long as I get the data I need. This piece of software seems to be registering false positives and 10 mins later I'm still locked out. Needless to say, every other website is working fine, if a little slowly.

</rant>

ExpertFlyer Voice

Hi sharp5flat9, we're sorry you're having issues, however as we discussed over email back in March the issue is that your browser isn't loading JavaScript. Since you can't use ExpertFlyer without loading JS in the first place, this generally isn't a problem and we haven't heard of this issue from other customers. Have you tried using a different browser to see if that helps? You can also try using the mobile site (from your regular full browser) at https://www.expertflyer.com/mobile/login.do Since it's a much smaller page load that may allow you to use EF without issue.

-EFV

sharp5flat9

Thank you for the reply. The mobile site looks sufficiently functional and much lighter weight. I have a decent 3G signal right now but I'll test it next time I don't.

The major pain is once the 'trap' has been inadvertantly sprung, I am blocked for a period of time (up to 30 mins in my experience the other evening) and there is no way back, other than to sit and wait, or try to change network (and so IP address). I assume this will apply to the mobile site too, unless that doesn't use the distil filter.

I assume this piece of software is primarily there to identify non-browser clients and implement rate-limiting, i.e. more queries than a human being could reasonably issue. That's always going to be a challenge with a fixed-price, all-you-can-eat payment plan.

ExpertFlyer Voice

If the issue was just velocity of searches you would see a simple CAPTCHA that you could answer and then continue. The block you are seeing only happens when the system thinks the agent is a bot due to lack of JavaScript loading.

sharp5flat9

This is what I mean by false positive. My browser (and I've tried the three usual suspects on my Mac) is not restricted. The system is interpreting the lack of response (due to a laggy network) as a failure to load the JS or execute the script, and identifying me as a nefarious non-browser.

I do appreciate your need to do this. Maybe you could feed this back to the supplier ? I guess 99% of users are sitting comfortably in their homes or offices with high bandwidth, low latency networks.

But for now, the mobile site option seems to be the solution for me. Thanks.

armouredant

Apologies if this has already been asked (I'm sure it has, but Googling didn't help).

Is it possible to create a seat alert for when a seat is *taken*? I have a seat empty next to my window seat, but I'd prefer to move to an aisle seat if the empty next to me is taken. Is that possible?

wideman

There seems to be some really bad stuff going on with EF and ex-JNB RTW fares. For the most popular fares, EF's fare quotes for US$ and Euros are off by more than $1000. The South African Rand (ZAR) price is accurate for some of those fares where the US$ price is way off, but on some other fares the ZAR price is non-existent. (The ZAR price is key for an ex-JNB RTW. In order to take advantage of the very low price for an ex-JNB RTW, the ticket must be issued in South Africa and priced in ZAR.)

Prime example is the OneWorld Explorer ticket. Ask EF for the price of a 5-continent RTW in business class (DONE5, on BA) in US$, and EF tells you it's US$4,410, a really good price! Problem is, EF is wrong: the actual price in South African Rand, which EF correctly quotes, is 67880 ZAR -- and at today's exchange rate, that's $5,613. Still a good price, but nowhere near the $4,410 that EF quotes. (And, of course, the actual price you pay is the base fare plus lots and lots of additional charges, but I'm only discussing the base fare in this post.)

The problem is similar for a 4-continent first class ticket (AONE4): EF says it's US$6,270. But if you ask for the quote in Rand, EF (again correctly) quotes 96500 ZAR, which is actually US$7,981. Things get really weird for some fares: EF says that an AONE5 costs US$7,213 or 0 ZAR. (Hint: neither is correct.)

Star Alliance ex-JNB RTW fares have their own problems. Ask for a RTW price in ZAR in either business or first (using LH), and EF tells you that all the fares are 0 ZAR. The US$ fares seem to be appropriate (e.g., US$7,345 for a CRWSTAR1), but I don't know if they're in fact correct.

The whole thing seems really odd. I was a software designer much of my professional life, and the obvious way (to me) of showing the US$ price would be to get the source price (ZAR) and convert to US$ by today's exchange rate. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

CLG

Hi there, just posted this question in the TK forum, but then found this thread.

This morning I received my ExpertFlyer alert that TK76 had (at least) 3 business class "I" fare seats available for booking. Unfortunately for me, neither United nor Air Canada can see and/or book the supposed space.

The query is still showing "YES" by the way...

Is there a way to correct this phantom award space query?

Edited to add: Dates I'm searching for LAX-IST are Sunday through Thursday, September 11-15, 2016.

Thx,
CLG

ExpertFlyer Voice

We show the exact data that is being returned by the airline reservation system. We don't choose or convert currencies, we report back exactly what a travel agent would see when requesting the same information. The GDS conversion rates don't always match the market spot rate, on purpose. It is not a bug or issue with ExpertFlyer.

If you want us to show you the raw output we receive please email your request to customercare@

ExpertFlyer Voice

That search shows no I inventory for those flights, please try again.

If you have a question for us directly, please email us directly at [email protected] to receive a prompt answer.