As an ExpertFlyer subscriber, I just got the below email. I thought it would be of interest especially to those who dont have the time or the willingness to search for award/ug availability. I think its a great tool that I'll certainly be using. Happy Travels.


Dear ExpertFlyer Premium Subscriber:

You asked for it, and now you have it!

We are pleased to announce the addition of Flight Alerts to your Premium subscription - at no additional charge.

Flight Alerts from ExpertFlyer allows you to tell us what flights you want us to check for upgrade or award availability on an ongoing basis right up to departure time. If we find availability, we'll send an email to up to three addresses to let you know we found availability.

Here's how it works:



Log on to ExpertFlyer.com

Go the My Account section and optionally add up to two more email addresses for Flight Alert Notification. These can be email addresses that go to your cell phone, PDA or PC. Your regular email address will always receive the Flight Alert notification as well.

Click Save

Click on Create Flight Alert in the blue section on the left side of the screen

Enter the flight information you want us to check for you

Check the box if you want a Test message sent to all your email addresses for this Flight Alert

Click Verify and Create

That's it! We'll do the rest.

Flight Alerts are available for the airlines with upgrade/award classes we support. Here is the current list:

Supported Award and Upgrade Classes

We hope you'll enjoy Flight Alerts - our newest addition to your Premium subscription.

Does this venture ask for 100 bucks/year to use this commercial service? If so, which features supporting by ExpertFlyer are not included in KVS Availability Tool, the other commercial service I found lately. If I calculated correctly KVS asks for 60 bucks/year.

Any help most welcome!

Perhaps the biggest difference is the viewability of some airlines' award and upgrade availability. AA's is one big difference. Our service also has direct contracted access to the GDSs we use and it is not done through third-party sites. Also, easy to access seat maps to over 100 airlines and now the addition of Flight Alerts. We are also browser based and platform independent so there is nothing to download and access is available through any device with access to the internet.

But you need to judge the value of our service offerings relative to others for yourself. Rather than explain them all here, I suggest you go to our Support page and click on one or more of the many links to find out more:

https://www.expertflyer.com/support.jsp

Thank you for your interest,
ExpertFlyer Voice

Thank you ExpertFlyer Voice for your advice!

I navigated to some of the many links you provided; the service you are offering is quite impressive. I am mainly interesting in fares and there rules, specifically to find out if I can lower my overall cash out if I purchase my ticket in a specific city. What I experienced so far is this: There are a lot of �local� fares which are not loaded for public view.

Here are three additional questions:

• What�s the difference between ExpertFlyer and access to AMADEUS?
• Do I have access to local fares via ExpertFlyer (AFAIK Amadeus don�t have this option)?
• Do you offer a trial period for free?

These questions are better addressed directly to ExpertFlyer, as ExpertFlyer Voice has suggested (and provided a link for). Or you could continue the conversation via PM.

* We do not access Amedeus. We access three other GDSs - Sabre, Apollo and Galileo depending on the information that you request.
* Many airlines have their own private fares or web only fares that are not loaded into any GDS and, as such, are not viewable.
* PM me and it will be arranged.

Is the information on Amadeus the same as in the other GDSs?. I tested the system with a CX flight class X from SYD to HKG on Nov 10. Amadeus shows me there are spaces available on the three CX direct flights on that date, expert Flyer does not show me any direct flight.

The information on each GDS will vary slightly by airline depending on which airline uses which GDS as their "host", if any. Even the same information may be presently differently through different GDSs.

But, the industry is in a state of flux as airlines and GDS relationships are renegotiated. To add to the drama, new GDS upstarts like ITA are influencing traditional relationships.

I too have wondered why I should pick EF over KVS. Does EF show award/upgrade inventory for UA?

Neither one does.