thanks for responses.

As it turns out ... I was online in both my account and my travelling companion's (I always make all the flying arrangements for our trips....), and as I logged out of the accounts it occurred to me that I was trying to view the availabilty in my my friends' account, which wasn't in expert mode. Mine is, obviously, as I do this often.

Since I have been able to see inventory for years, I forgot about expert mode!

thanks all,