I looked for a general EF feedback thread and didn't see one, my apologies if this post belongs in a better place.
I book or change my travel arrangements pretty much constantly, usually keeping at least one airline site and one Expedia window open all day. I recently subscribed to EF to help watch for availability and upgrades and have found it largely useful. It's now part of my standard array of travel windows that stays open all day and I flip to as necessary.
However, one of the most maddening aspects of EF is that it's constantly signing me out. I checked out
their FAQ and this is the #1 "Navigating ExpertFlyer.com" question:
Why do I have to log in again after I am idle on your site?
As a security measure, ExpertFlyer.com will automatically log you off if you have no activity on the site after 45 minutes
This seems like a pretty bogus argument, however. First of all, whose security are we protecting here? My security, in case I leave my computer unattended and an unauthorized person hops on immediately? Though I do have a couple of saved queries related to upcoming/potential flights, there's basically no information that's available to my logged-in account that isn't already publicly available. The credit card details are ***'d out, so the worst thing someone could do to me is turn back on auto-renew!
No, I suspect the "security" we're protecting is access to the valuable information that people pay EF for. The site owners seem to be concerned that I might log on to EF (in an airport lounge, perhaps?) and then leave the computer unattended, after which some malicious pirate could freely access flight status information they've not paid for. But since this user could never count on consistent access to forgotten EF logins, they couldn't really use this occasional chance access as a substitute for a paid subscription. [In my case, I only ever access EF from my phone or personal computer, but I understand there are others who make use of public terminals.]
It seems that the 45-minute policy functions much the same as DRM on music - it makes life super difficult for legitimate users but doesn't protect the music publishers from anything. It's a security fallacy, something that makes the owners sleep well at night because they have something they can call protection, but it doesn't really protect against any lost revenue. I would hope that the EF administrators could reconsider this policy.
Does anyone else use EF this way? Does it annoy you as much as it does me? Do you have any tricks or workarounds to help alleviate the problem?