Global_Hi_Flyer

I use this a lot, too. Helps me decide when and how to book as opposed to spending a lot of time on the phone with SMS trying to figure out the options (most of the time I have to call SMS anyway because of the website bait-switch problems, but EF saves time).

Useful for two of my three primary carriers: AA and DL.

avflyer

I don't know what the OP means about this site being addictive

As for EF:

International Travel - Z Inventory, Z Inventory, Z Inventory - Don't book an M fare without it.

Domestic - Knowing V or X inventory as well as how full the flight is showing in various buckets is invaluable.

DLfan

If ~$100 per year is too high, there is a level of membership that provides a limited number of searches (50, I think) for $4.99 per month.

ExpertFlyer Voice

Just to clarify, the Premium subscription is $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr (2 months free) and includes unlimited queries and full access to all functions.

The Basic subscription is $4.99/mo and includes access to most of the functions and 250 queries a month but you can buy extra queries if you need them.

The details can be found here: http://www.expertflyer.com/rates.jsp

-EFV

jimrpa

Does anyone know what data source ExpertFlyer pulls Z inventory data from? If it's a publicly accessible source, it should be possible to develop a "quick and dirty" web app or code snippet to just pull Z inventory data for Delta flyers. That way, the "casual" flyer with simple needs wouldn't have to use a high-powered system like Expert Flyer.

I'm thinking of something like a Mac OS X "Z Inventory" Dashboard Widget, which should be pretty trivial to create under Leopard, if we can figure out the source for Z data.

flyingfran

I do not understand hardly anything in this thread. I have no idea what "buckets" are or why I would want to know what is in them. I am, however, trying to educate myself. We are casual, recreational flyers....maybe 35,000 to 50,000 miles per year. Is this service something that would be useful to us? We probably make no more than two international flights per year if that is a factor.

SusanDK

That sounds like a great idea! I hope someone can provide the data source.

Susan

Gargoyle

Here's a very rough overview. Buckets are the fare classes, like L, U, T, Y, B, M, etc... each one has different restrictions (as to refundability, upgradability, etc) and falls into different price categories.
On Delta.com you see:
coach (lowest fares)
coach (discounted)
coach (flexible)
first/business
But that simplifies it, there is more to it than it appears at first.

There are also upgrade buckets, the classes (Z) that indicate how many upgradable seats exist on a flight... so if you buy an M ticket, hoping to upgrade, but there is no Z availability, you'll be stuck in back.

See this page for more info.

scunnered

A couple of months ago I booked a B ticket TATL hoping to use PMU's. I got the Eastbound upgrade confirmed at reservation, but was waitlisted for the Westbound.

With 30 days to go, assuming this was some sort of milestone, and having seen on Seatcounter that there were open business seats, I subscribed to ExpertFlyer to keep an eye on things. At 30 days, it showed Z 0. I checked each day, same result. Then with 27 days to go, I opened ExpertFlyer to see Z 0, but opening my intinerary on delta.com, I saw that my Westbound leg status had changed from "Waitlisted" to "Contact Delta".

I called Delta and got a cheerful lady who immediately said "You're calling about your upgrade which has cleared!". She then bashed her keyboard for a long time, asked me aisle or window and gave me a BE seat.

This immediately updated on the delta website, but refreshing ExpertFlyer I still saw Z 0.

I guess this is a timing issue of some kind, but it seemed a bit odd to me. Maybe the number of Z seats released was immediately consumed by processed upgrades, though it seems to me that mine had not actually been processed.

Would my upgrade not have been processed if I had not called?
Why do they not just process it when the seat becomes available?
Is ExpertFlyer not a guaranteed way to be aware of Z inventory?

One last oddity or really question. My itinerary on delta.com still shows the coach line in the itinerary and still shows me with a coach seat, as well as the BE seat, on separate lines in the "Your Seating" section below the itinerary. Should I call Delta to get this fixed or is this how it would normally appear until I have presented the PMU.

donb25

[One last oddity or really question. My itinerary on delta.com still shows the coach line in the itinerary and still shows me with a coach seat, as well as the BE seat, on separate lines in the "Your Seating" section below the itinerary. Should I call Delta to get this fixed or is this how it would normally appear until I have presented the PMU.]

Go ahead and call Delta to be safe. I have never seen this before when using a PMU.

peteropny

I'm not sure how DL runs the sweep for those on a waitlist for Z seats.

In Jan we bought M tickets CVG-CDG-CVG for July - subsequently split into two records. A few weeks ago, I cleared the waitlist for the return, my partner still on the waitlist. This week, ExpertFlyer showed Z2 for the outbound while we were still on the waitlist. As mentioned previously here, I immediately called and we were cleared (I checked back and EF showed Z0 then as expected).

My theory is that Revenue Management released Z seats but the upgrade waitlist sweep is not immediate so they can be grabbed by someone not even on the waitlist.

Erasmus

EF is not a guaranteed way to view Z inventory, but what you describe is what should have happened. DL opened Z inventory, which immediately was moved to your record, and out of the general inventory. If DL had left it in general inventory, someone else might have snagged it before you called! Now, if you leave it unclaimed in your record too long, it your wait-list may 'unclear' and the inventory pop back into Z or away entirely.

FWIW, DL is extremely fickle with both Z and O availability. I've seen entirely month's worth of flights come and go on a day-by-day basis.

scunnered

The apparent explanation for the dual seat assignments up till I checked in is that I had a paper ticket and DL has to collect additional taxes for the UK for business compared to coach. So the Z seat was not finally confirmed until I had paid this which I did when checking in.

This was not known to the check in agent or the first person that he called, so figuring this out took a while. Also I had called the CS line a couple of days before, based on the advice above and the person there told me it was just because of the paper ticket. So this extra tax on upgrading from the UK doesn't appear to be that well known in the system.

My TA issued paper tickets because I had an SK flight in the itinerary. However, DL in ATL was able to check me in for this and issue a BP, so I strongly suspect the TA was wrong in thinking that the paper ticket was necessary.

tarajim

I am kinda new to expert flyer and have used it successfully to get Z avail on international. Is there anyway to use Expert Flyer to find Sky Saver Domestic F tickets? What class would I search? This may not be possible, but any help is grateful if there is someone smarter than me that has figured this out.

Thanks in advance....

mersk862

Don't believe it's possible - under the Awards and Upgrades page, it does not show anything for awards, just upgrades (Medallion Upgrade/PMU upgrades are the options I know of).

It would be N class for coach, R for First, O for Business. Hard to tell which are SkySavers and which are Skychoice though since all awards book into those codes.