I don't know if any airlines are being more difficult with EF, or if this is an offensive by EF to try to get the airlines to be more helpful. I'm not sure which buckets are shown for AA, but I know that various US upgrade buckets are hidden and I think the same is true for some award/upgrade buckets on other airlines. It might also be that EF would like to publish better fare bucket listings, right now they might list several as "business", but don't elaborate on which are full fare, upgrade, award, etc. Maybe they want official, publishable lists of this info. I know most or all of that info is available here on FT, but for most airlines, it seems to be more "reverse engineered", or pieced together, rather than comprehensive and official.

Yes, it would be nice to find out whether EF is concerned about airlines like AA revoking access, or if their goal is simply to expand the set of airlines for which they have comprehensive information. From their email I could not figure out which it is, or if it is both. Even if it is simply the latter, sending email to AA can't hurt.

The points steven b makes about information asymmetry are quite true, but isn't the argument largely irrelevant because the airlines control the number of seats allocated to each fare bucket and award bucket? Once they have decided how many seats will be sold at each price, don't they want people to find out? And if too many people are finding out about cheap seats or award seats or upgrade seats, can't they just reduce the number allocated to those categories, in favor of the expensive seats?

Maybe the (hypothetical) problem isn't that airlines don't want you to see what's available for you as an individual to purchase, but that they don't want you to see how much is available, i.e., how many seats have been allocated to each bucket? For example, in Southwest's newly crappy FF program, they won't reveal how many award seats are available on each flight, so you can't quantify exactly how crappy their program is. Likewise, because their system is closed off from other GDS's, when they advertise a fare sale it's impossible to know how few seats are actually selling at the cheap price.

Discrepancy between EF and AA.com
 

I'm certainly a big fan of EF and hope that they survive....

This week, I was trying to book a domestic flight with an N fare, and EF kept giving me N0 on the flights I wanted, while AA gave me an N fare on the exact same flights. This was basically a 'real time' phenom., since I was toggling back and forth between EF and AA. Has anyone else seen this happen? I didn't come up with a good explanation for it...

Expert Flyer rocks!
I've sent my email, regular letter and fax to AA, BA and UAL.

AA Response
 

I sent my email to AA this morning. Very short and concise. They replied already, saying that they would take my opinion into account in their continuing review of the Aadvantage program.

What on Earth does EF have to do with the Aadvantage program?

We want to thank you all for your emails of support to the airlines(s). After reading the comments in this thread, I'd like to clarify a few points.

This is not a specific airline issue. No airline, at least that we are aware of, is threatening anything. Our primary GDS, however, is concerened about their best customers', the airlines, view of ExpertFlyer and the possible negative concerns they have about us. I say *possible* because they have not been able to pinpoint to us any specific example of negative concerns they have had from airlines after the PNR issue was resolved.

It is our belief that we have a positive benefit to the airlines and, of course, their customers. There is little if any precedent for an ExpertFlyer type of service. Understandably, the airlines would initially be concerned about who we are, what we do, and what our intentions might be going forward. Fair enough. Except, our efforts to contact various airlines to explain who we are, the value to them and their best customer's, and to address any concerns they might have, have gone nowhere. That is why we sent the email to our subscribers.

Call it a grass roots campaign to let the airlines know, and through them the GDS's we use, the unique value ExpertFlyer has for them and their best customers and in the case of the GDS's, their best customers' best customers.

We have many plans to expand the utility and value of ExpertFlyer and we appreciate your help and feedback in allowing us to achieve them.

Thank you all for your support.

I'm going to move the thread over to Milage Buzz
 

as this is of general use.... and FT does not allow Duplicate threads in other forums...so for maximum exposure Milage Buzz may be a good move. If for some reason the moderators of MB don't like it it's welcome back here.....

Hat Off.... I too am a recent convert to the value of Expert Flyer - still a newbe - but really beginning to understand the value.... would like to see them make it!

AA has about three form letters that they send in response to comments, and this was their idea of the "closest match"?

It seems like the AA board has become one big advertisement for Expert Flyer.

Are you writing?
 

double post.... sorry

Just Curious?
 

Just wondering....

How many of you (us) are actually writing?
Do you see any downside to writing? IE: AA putting a "note" in our personal file? etc....

Just curious...... I think EF is great.... but will writing hurt or help?

Just one piece of information -

nearly every travel agent and travel agency in the country has access to all of AA's buckets, including the ones used for free and upgraded award travel. There is nothing secret about them.

No time to get paranoid. I'm sure that AA (and many other companies) know tons more about us than we might otherwise think (or be comfortable with). This is simply a sign of the times. Personally, I feel that it is important to give feedback--positive or negative; otherwise, how can we expect AA to arrive at enlightened decisions (whether or not they happen to agree with any one customer's needs, wants and desires).