Originally Posted by
mozilla
Just having a fare basis is not enough. You must meet all of the requirements and restrictions in the fare. You must be eligible to buy that fare. There must be appropriate inventory available to use that fare on the flights you want to take. All of these items can be researched on ExpertFlyer; it involves more work than just finding a fare basis you like.
If your goal is just to find the cheapest fare for a certain flight, Google Flights will suit you better. EF is more about finding out why a cheap fare is not available for your desired travel dates, and what you need to change in your itinerary to get the cheap fare (if at all possible).
Thank you! The goal is to find the right flight, price and make sure its available and book it. I found the right flight and fare, (not sure about eligibility. How/where to read this?) and was blocked at the booking stage. Lets assume if I got all that, is calling the airline with the fare code is the only way?