mcjava

As others have mentioned, it is important to put in a dept time that matches the flight you are looking for. If 4:30 pm dept, put in 4 pm. I often also use "check +/- 3 days" as well (I have the $9.95/month premium service so unlimited searches), because I have almost never seen where not one single day in the week doesn't have availibility. This let's me know that I have input the other things correctly. If all 7 days come back a big zero, then I check to see if I input something incorrectly.

jpdx

Another issue -- ExpertFlyer does have a tendency to return false positives. It often shows Z2 when there is no Z availability. Is there anything that can be done about this?

mcjava

Is there any particular route or rhyme or reason to the false values? For my ATL-NRT flights I have found it to be spot on so far. But I think mostly when I plan my trip and check for availability, it seems most days of the week are zero, then there are 2 days with Z4 or more.

Perhaps it is an issue with the Z1 and Z2's?? Just the lower numbers?

opus17

I've seen false negatives, too. I had a flight showing no Z availabilty, but I was immediately able to upgrade (BCN-ATL-SFO) when I called Delta.

jeffreyt

Okay, believe me when I say this but I've searched and seached and I can't seem to find the answer. But I've never used Expertflyer.com for looking up DL award tickets. Only AA. And luckly, today finally, I was able to snag 2 FC awards on Qantas to OZ and back for early next year by using Expertflyer. Once I found them, I called AA and booked the awards. But I can not seem to find O - Business Elite and R - Domestic First Class Awards by using this tool. Am I doing something wrong or do they not exist?

What about I and Z class on SQ using a DL award? Same issue?

Am I out of luck?

TTT

Expert Flyer does not show O or R for DL

Here is a list of the fare classes they can show.

vasantn

Sad but true.

Only in a minor way, I'd say. Congratulations!

cordileran

I just subscribed to expert flyer and was searching some sample itineraries. roundtrip SAV-ATL on 7/12/06 to 7/19/06 both showed t class availability but only able to book q fare on dl.com. i assume this is due to advance purchase requirements? Why is the fare listed as available if you can't book it?

Lehava

I believe those buckets still remain so that CSR and GA's can use them if needing to change itineries and so on. Keep in mind we are seeing back side information with EF

vasantn

Correct. Just because a fare bucket is available doesn't mean that it is being offered for sale.

TTT

Are you just flying SAV-ATL, or are you connecting beyond ATL. If you are connecting, then journey control could be bumping you into the Q bucket. Looking at the available fares though, the T, U and L fares all have advanced ticketing requirements of greater than 2 days so you can't buy them now. Also, as Leheva said, the buckets are held if DL Res needs to change anything. They could also be available for other routes to access. For example, a T fare may not be available ATL-SAV for the 7/12 but a T fare MCO-SAV via ATL may be available up to the day of departure, so those buckets are held open for passengers connecting in markets that have different advanced ticketing requirements.

I hope that that made some sense.

cordileran

I figured journey control might play a role so I searched just SAV-ATL. How does journey control interact with EF? If I search for an itinerary connecting through ATL with T availability on both legs I might not be able to book it, even complying with advance purchase restrictions?

DlRes

The posibility of a T fare with no advance purchase is minimal, since you're looking at a departure in 2 days you're probably getting a Q0NBV a fare with no advance purchase, can't verify for sure since I'm not at work but it certainly sounds like it. Other markets as mentioned before have no T fares and only in apear in hte fare buckets because of the hundreds of possible markets that might have a T fare.

Why is the fare listed as available if you can't book it?....Lets say you already booked ATL-SAV-ATL and got a T fare in both directions , you decide to change your return if T class is available and if you meet all the requirements then you will only pay the $50 ASC however if the T bucket is empty you will need to upgrade to a higher fare thus having to pay an additional amount, the less buckets available the fuller the flight is and the more $$$ you're going to pay if you want to change your return.

TTT

If you are just flying SAV-ATL-SAV, then Journey Control shouldn't have anything to do with your itinerary. But, if you are flying SAV-ATL-FLL, then Journey Control will play a role. If you search on ExpertFlyer for availability from SAV-FLL via ATL, then it may show Y-T on one segment but only Y-Q on another. Generally this means that the lowest class available for the married flights is Q, and that is all that the Delta's Res-O-Matic will let you book. In some cases, thought, ExpertFlyer will show one thing, but Delta will show something else. I am not sure the reason behind this, but I have seen it happen once in a while. Most of the time though, ExpertFlyer is pretty accurate. You may want to look at this thread for a good (but long) discussion on the inner workings of Journey Control.

addixion

Hi folks-

So I am trying to upgrade a DL itinerary (using SkyMiles) on a LAX-BOM-LAX flight and there seems to be a discrepancy between what ExpertFlyer shows and what the representatives are telling me.

ExpertFlyer is showing Z9 availability for the BOM-JFK leg on Feb 22, 2007, but the phone reps are telling me "the waitlist is closed for upgrades" for that leg.

This has happened for over a week, so I don't think it's just the EF data being out of date.

Is this a common occurrence with ExpertFlyer?