Globaliser

US POS seems to be returning zeroes at the moment, but UK POS seems to be working normally. It's the reverse of the problem that we were having a few weeks ago (UK POS zeroed, but US POS working fine).

JIMCHI

EF seems to have ongoing issues with BA availability. Award availability has been unavailable for many months now and EF has been unwilling and uninterested in fixing it.

sunshinebob

Many thanks.. Switching to a UK POS now shows that the flight is indeed not zeroed out which ties back to whats available for sale on ba.com

I very much appreciate your help.

ExpertFlyer Voice

Thanks for letting us know. We have let BA know about the issue and expect them to fix it like they did with the UK POS. We will let you know when they do that.

Full Score

I agree wholeheartedly.

The other current problem is BA flights being zero-ed out. I was scheduled to fly SAN-LHR in Mar next and fully expected it to be cancelled, whereupon A availability comes into play vs Z award seatsI. I've been checking daily to find out when SAN-LHR becomes zero-ed out so as not to have to wait for BA's cancellation Email. The alternative, LAX-LHR, has limited First availability.

Yesterday I switched my flight to the only date in mid-March showing Z availability to ensure that I had a seat as, since Covid began, BA have been condensing their two LAX flights into one, therefore making availability much less certain.

Now I find that this was yet another ExpertFlyer/BA glitch and the flights have not yet been cancelled. How can EF go month after month without fixing their ongoing BA problems AND without offering their users detailed explanations?

ExpertFlyer Voice

We posted last night about the USA-POS issue which just started occurring late yesterday. Again, we asked BA to fix the issue and they will, just like last time when the UK-POS had an issue.

As for the award data, like stated before, we are working on a solution, it just isn't quick or easy. Just because it's not ready yet, doesn't mean we're not working on it or ignoring it. Thanks.

FleyeSkyHigh

Anyone notice or can anyone explain why AA MileSaver Award inventory is no longer showing on EF? It looks as of mid-day yesterday ExpertFlyer is no longer displaying U, T and W inventory levels. Did AA now restrict the GDS from viewing these inventories and if so was this expected or announced? IF this is a permanent change then this is a really big deal especially since the change affecting A and C upgrade availability with AA that happened several months ago.

Full Score

As I've mentioned many times in this thread, award availability IS being correctly shown on Reward Flight Finder AND SeatSpy - the downside is that they tell you when there is availability on a particular day, but not which specific flights. EF has always been the go-to place for this, but for months you've dropped the ball. How is it that these other sites keep up to date, but not EF? To keep telling your users that you're "working on it" gives no comfort.

Globaliser

To be fair to EF, I think that the other sites work on a different basis. AIUI, they're interrogating an API which only provides day-by-day availability information, and it is cached information so it can be out of date. In contrast, I believe that EF interrogates live availability for each specific flight at the time of your request, in the same way as for non-award inventory. So it isn't difficult to see how the other sites can continue to work, using the mechanism that they use, even if EF's access to its (different) data source has been interrupted or terminated.

Full Score

Thank you for the technical explanation for which I've been looking for a long time. "Different data source" explains a lot. Now it's for EF to explain why it's been broken for (literally) months.

ExpertFlyer Voice

We already mentioned that EF and the other sites you mentioned use a different data source back in this post: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32842827-post2248.html in November. Also like we said before, the different data source is what's broken. Also like we said before, we will let you know when it's fixed.

ExpertFlyer Voice

Fixed. Apparently, after a few years of having ZUTW classes show in the clear, AA re-hid them. We just had to flip a switch on our end to get them as hidden inventory classes, so now they are available again via the Award & Upgrade search, but won't be seen in the general Flight Availability search.

FleyeSkyHigh

Thanks. Is there any reason that you can not have them show up in general flight availability searches as well? It was helpful to see all the inventories on one screen.

ExpertFlyer Voice

Because AA no longer returns them in the general flight availability response. This is the way it always was up until a couple years ago, then the award classes started showing up in the general flight availability response. Looks like they fixed that "bug" today. However that is why we include 3 "Other Classes" fields in the Award search, to add in revenue fare classes to the Award response.

llcooljayce

Can anyone provide an update as to when EK award availability might be back up and running? Getting the error: EK award inventory is temporarily unavailable due to an issue with our data provider. They are actively working to fix the issue. Thank you for your patience.