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How accurate is Expert Flyer?

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Old Nov 4, 2017, 7:48 am
  #1  
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Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: West Sussex, UK
Programs: BAEC, Silver
Posts: 148
How accurate is Expert Flyer?
As the title says - how accurate is EF?

I’m unable to upload photos, however EF says certain seats are unavailable, but when I go to select seats in the BA app, it shows those seats as available.
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Old Nov 4, 2017, 8:02 am
  #2  
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Join Date: May 2014
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Are they “blocked” or occupied? If blocked then high status holders can still take them (except bassinets)

In my experience, it is very accurate
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Old Nov 4, 2017, 8:22 am
  #3  
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Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: West Sussex, UK
Programs: BAEC, Silver
Posts: 148
Originally Posted by mikeyfly
Are they “blocked” or occupied? If blocked then high status holders can still take them (except bassinets)

In my experience, it is very accurate
For example the below diagram - 10G is actually available, as is 11G, 12 D/G and plenty of others.
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Old Nov 4, 2017, 8:52 am
  #4  
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
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What flight is your example from?

Like mikeyfly I have found EF accurate when I use it.
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Old Nov 4, 2017, 9:03 am
  #5  
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: AMS
Programs: KL PFL; BA Gold; A3 Silver; EY Silver; SU Silver
Posts: 2,488
BA uses 'preassigning' seats so blocked seats may actually have different actual statuses, particularly after check in starts.
Taken seats are taken, but blocked an many cases can be given to you by BA check in staff.
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Old Nov 5, 2017, 4:40 pm
  #6  
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA GGL
Posts: 1,578
Also, EF uses the US date format by default; double check you're looking at the right day (e.g. 11/12/17 vs 12/11/17)
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Old Nov 6, 2017, 1:52 am
  #7  
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Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: West Sussex, UK
Programs: BAEC, Silver
Posts: 148
Apologies all - my mistake!
I’ve been a complete muppet and was looking at the wrong date!
all is well now.
Thank you all for your responses though.
LCSinTexas and armouredant like this.
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Old Nov 6, 2017, 4:40 am
  #8  
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: AUH
Posts: 8,266
Also, for a few airlines including BA and QF which allocate different choice of seats based on passenger value, you need to have your status FFP details in your ExpertFlyer profile in order to show an accurate seatmap of what will be available to you. Otherwise, it will only show the seats available to those without status.

EDIT: Hmm, just tried it out on EF, it's definitely the case for QF but I'm not sure whether it is for BA?
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Old Nov 6, 2017, 4:59 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by stargold
EDIT: Hmm, just tried it out on EF, it's definitely the case for QF but I'm not sure whether it is for BA?
IME, yes.
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Old Nov 6, 2017, 7:59 am
  #10  
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Sin, HKG
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Expertflyer forCX can be very interesting in the hour before boarding.I have seen myself being pushed out of a seat and could guess accurately what seat they had upgraded me to.
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Old Nov 6, 2017, 9:11 am
  #11  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 847
Originally Posted by Globaliser
IME, yes.
For some reason this has never worked for me. Despite having my BAEC number stored in my EF account, I still see blocked seats which are in fact available to me as a gold member. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
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Old Nov 6, 2017, 9:30 am
  #12  
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Join Date: Aug 2002
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Originally Posted by volar
For some reason this has never worked for me. Despite having my BAEC number stored in my EF account, I still see blocked seats which are in fact available to me as a gold member. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
I think the acid test is checking a seat map for First on a 747. If you can see 1A and 1K available to you (assuming that they're not occupied), then EF is not showing you only non-status seats.

If it still doesn't work, make sure that your EF account name is the same as your BAEC account name.
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Old Nov 6, 2017, 1:31 pm
  #13  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 847
Originally Posted by Globaliser
If it still doesn't work, make sure that your EF account name is the same as your BAEC account name.
This seems to have fixed it - I was using a shortened version of my name in the EF account, all working now. Thanks! ^
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