Delta forces ExpertFlyer to remove Elite Upgrade availability
Oct 19, 2013, 4:50 am
#77
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: CLT
Programs: DL Medialia Platina
Posts: 770
Keep watching. OP posted it at 1:50 according to his post. Mine showed up at around 5 PM EST. Looks like maybe they're rolling out the e-mails in batches versus pushing them out to everyone at once...Or, maybe they're going out to renewals that are do soon first? Who knows...
Oct 19, 2013, 5:12 am
#78
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: ATL - DL DM/3MM - HH Lifetime Diamond - Marriott Lifetime Plat
Posts: 3,117
Oct 19, 2013, 6:25 am
#79
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: MSP
Programs: DL DM, Marriott Plat, National Exec Elite
Posts: 1,357
i didn't receive anything anyways
Mine just renewed last month, i went online and took off auto renewal and they emailed me back within an hr and told me to contact delta
Oct 19, 2013, 6:57 am
#80
Join Date: May 2009
Location: PHL
Programs: AA EXP, DL DM HH Gold, Marriot Titanium
Posts: 1,298
If everyone thinks about it for a minute, this is the MO DL is going with: catering to high value customers. Or at least HVC to Delta. HVC in their eyes isn't going to care about the ability to see what their UPG chances are, they are already sitting in F.
It has truly saddened me to see that people spend the money for an EF subscription solely based on the fact that they can see where they might have a chance for an upgrade. Don't get me wrong, it truly is valuable to see this, but it helps in so many more ways than just this. Don't hurt EF because of something a third party did and for only 5% of the usefulness of what they have to offer.
It has truly saddened me to see that people spend the money for an EF subscription solely based on the fact that they can see where they might have a chance for an upgrade. Don't get me wrong, it truly is valuable to see this, but it helps in so many more ways than just this. Don't hurt EF because of something a third party did and for only 5% of the usefulness of what they have to offer.
Oct 19, 2013, 8:33 am
#81
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^^
I remember telling Bob Soukup at NW how valuable EF was to me. He explained that he has to pay a few pennies to the GDS each time we use it and that he could pull that access in one phone call, but understood how valuable it was to super-elite customers and he acknowledged that even nwa.com didn't provide some of the info EF did.
There are soooo many other features that make EF valuable and why I will keep my subscription (seat alerts, SWU/award avail, alternate flights during IRROPS, etc.)
I remember telling Bob Soukup at NW how valuable EF was to me. He explained that he has to pay a few pennies to the GDS each time we use it and that he could pull that access in one phone call, but understood how valuable it was to super-elite customers and he acknowledged that even nwa.com didn't provide some of the info EF did.
There are soooo many other features that make EF valuable and why I will keep my subscription (seat alerts, SWU/award avail, alternate flights during IRROPS, etc.)
(using Amadeus, I can see the following fare classes.)
F A P G Y B M S H Q K L U T X V E
Oct 19, 2013, 8:48 am
#82
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 3,647
Perhaps this has changed, but in the old days, a request from the GDS to the airline reservation system included a "Pseudo City Code", a identifier that tells the airline who is asking for information. Within the airline system, they can use this identifying information as criteria to decide what to send back.
Expert Flyer has an identity that is shared with the airline and anyone else who has GDS access has an identity, though different from Expert Flyer. DL or any responding airline may decide not to show classes of service... not to make available certain prices... it's up to the airline and the GDS agreements what gets returned. A GDS user who is not Expert Flyer can get significantly different results to the same query.
It's possible these fundamentals have changed, though I suspect this is still valid even if the mechanics are different.
Expert Flyer has an identity that is shared with the airline and anyone else who has GDS access has an identity, though different from Expert Flyer. DL or any responding airline may decide not to show classes of service... not to make available certain prices... it's up to the airline and the GDS agreements what gets returned. A GDS user who is not Expert Flyer can get significantly different results to the same query.
It's possible these fundamentals have changed, though I suspect this is still valid even if the mechanics are different.
Oct 19, 2013, 9:10 am
#83
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: LAX/TPE
Programs: United 1K, JAL Sapphire, SPG Lifetime Platinum, National Executive Elite, Hertz PC, Avis PC
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To clarify on two points of speculation:
- ExpertFlyer does not screen scrape any information from Delta.com. We get our DL information directly from the GDS systems, which is what allowed us to uniquely see the upgrade inventory in the first place. Our lack of screen scraping is also why we do not have DL award inventory, as the DL or Air France websites are the only source for that information which is not available in GDSs. This is something that we have explained and posted about many times in the past.
- The email that the OP references only went out to those subscribers that had active Flight Alerts for the affected classes. We didn't want anyone that had previously created an alert thinking that it was still working and relying on it.
- ExpertFlyer does not screen scrape any information from Delta.com. We get our DL information directly from the GDS systems, which is what allowed us to uniquely see the upgrade inventory in the first place. Our lack of screen scraping is also why we do not have DL award inventory, as the DL or Air France websites are the only source for that information which is not available in GDSs. This is something that we have explained and posted about many times in the past.
- The email that the OP references only went out to those subscribers that had active Flight Alerts for the affected classes. We didn't want anyone that had previously created an alert thinking that it was still working and relying on it.
To clarify on two points of speculation:
- ExpertFlyer does not screen scrape any information from Delta.com. We get our DL information directly from the GDS systems, which is what allowed us to uniquely see the upgrade inventory in the first place. Our lack of screen scraping is also why we do not have DL award inventory, as the DL or Air France websites are the only source for that information which is not available in GDSs. This is something that we have explained and posted about many times in the past.
- The email that the OP references only went out to those subscribers that had active Flight Alerts for the affected classes. We didn't want anyone that had previously created an alert thinking that it was still working and relying on it.
- ExpertFlyer does not screen scrape any information from Delta.com. We get our DL information directly from the GDS systems, which is what allowed us to uniquely see the upgrade inventory in the first place. Our lack of screen scraping is also why we do not have DL award inventory, as the DL or Air France websites are the only source for that information which is not available in GDSs. This is something that we have explained and posted about many times in the past.
- The email that the OP references only went out to those subscribers that had active Flight Alerts for the affected classes. We didn't want anyone that had previously created an alert thinking that it was still working and relying on it.
Are you able/willing to share which GDS you use here or by PM? I just went into Apollo and was able to long sell a segment in O class, so for me what I need is still visible.
Oct 19, 2013, 9:17 am
#84
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If this is the case, it will affect me as a TA - most of my business is based on providing my customers with access to upgrades and DL even provides us with certificates to do so - I am not going to waste time calling and asking every time I need to book a customer, thus I will steer them to another carrier.
Are you able/willing to share which GDS you use here or by PM? I just went into Apollo and was able to long sell a segment in O class, so for me what I need is still visible.
Are you able/willing to share which GDS you use here or by PM? I just went into Apollo and was able to long sell a segment in O class, so for me what I need is still visible.
Oct 19, 2013, 10:13 am
#85
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: LAX/TPE
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Bottom line...if it makes our lives harder, we will steer our customers to other programs...most of them are program agnostic or have memberships everywhere and don't really care.
Oct 19, 2013, 12:50 pm
#86
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Twin Cities
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Oct 19, 2013, 4:17 pm
#87
Join Date: Aug 2013
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Oct 19, 2013, 5:39 pm
#88
Join Date: Dec 2008
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I remember telling Bob Soukup at NW how valuable EF was to me. He explained that he has to pay a few pennies to the GDS each time we use it and that he could pull that access in one phone call, but understood how valuable it was to super-elite customers and he acknowledged that even nwa.com didn't provide some of the info EF did.
Oct 19, 2013, 5:48 pm
#89
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Programs: DL DM, UA 1K, AA EXP, US G, SPG P, HH D, MR G, NEXUS/GE, DL AMEX Reserve
Posts: 2,035
I can testify that this is 10000 percent true. It's night and day.
Oct 19, 2013, 8:32 pm
#90
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,079