johnep1

I've emailed EF (through the contact us link on their site) but the responses have not been on point (they obviously didn't read my note). So I'm posting here to see if anyone else has experienced this issue.

About 4 weeks ago I noticed that I wasn't getting seat alerts when I would expect to (where an F seat opens up 30 minutes prior to the next earlier flight, for example). I checked availability manually two consecutive weeks and it showed F1 - yet I never got the alert. I was able to snag the seat both times, but EF was not helpful.

Contrast this to the past few years (I've been an annual member for a few years now and have recommended the service to numerous folks in the office) when I would get an alert as soon as the seat opened up.

Has anyone else experienced a decline in their "found" seat alerts? Mine have been for F availability on US.

ExpertFlyer Voice

As has been asked and answered prior, Flight & Seat Alerts check several times a day at least, but not constantly. It is possible for you to find the inventory manually before the next scheduled check of the alert. In the case of F1 then going to F0 because you took the last F seat, there would of course be no alert as the next check would see F0. The frequency of our alert checks hasn't changed recently so that would not affect the outcome. You could be checking manually more often and/or getting better with your timing in doing so.

You can check the validity of alerts by using the Quick Check feature on the View Saved Alerts page. If you see inventory manually, you can use a Quick Check to determine if the alert would alert you if it was checked at that moment.

ToneDaBass

ExpertFlyer Voice, can you please give us an update on the prospects for being able to set upgrade fare alerts for United flights? Is this feature dead and never coming back, or is EF still working toward regaining this feature? Thank you.

inlanikai

This was answered in the EF Master Info thread 2 weeks ago. No updates since then:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22398448-post902.html

gcashin

ExpertFlyer has been causing my browser to crash every time I try to do a search for availability. I've used it on an off for the past year, but in the past month, I can log in OK, but when I try to do a search, it crashes. Same result using both Firefox and IE. Any ideas? I'm ready to cancel my subscription, but figured I'd see if anyone else had suggestions.

ExpertFlyer Voice

ExpertFlyer should not cause browsers to crash, and others have not reported any issues. Are you doing a multi-day availability search? Try it for just 1 day. Also are you using the latest version of both Firefox and IE? Did you try a different computer? It sounds like there is an issue with your computer since it's affecting both browsers, please email us to help you track down the issue.

Passmethesickbag

I have several pending alerts on Expertflyer (class availability and seat availability). I have just checked, and the class I requested is available (7 seats) and has presumably been so since my upgrade cleared two days ago. The alerts I set up for my economy seats being available have also not triggered any e-mail, and yet they are still available since I got upgraded. The check now button for all of the alerts also indicates no availability. I have tried reporting this by clicking on the "Contact support" button. The submit button there leads to the error message "An unknown or unexpected error has occurred. Please contact us if this problem persists.". Gee, thanks guys, that's what I am trying to do using the only method that you have made available to me. Very unhappy with EF after many years as a satisfied customer. What is going on?

Ocn Vw 1K

Please follow as the thread moves to the Travel Tools forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

nrr

I've had similar things happen re "alerts". The answer seems to be that they do periodic checks, so your upgrade may have cleared between their checks; since you were upgraded no more were available.
I had a different issue with them: I was waitlisted for an intl upgrade on AA. I received an email from EF that an upgrade was available, BUT, it was time stamped 5 minutes after the flight departed.

BobbySteel

yep, it's periodic. you'll get a notification eventually when they run the next poll.

ExpertFlyer Voice

You can email us at any time at [email protected]. The email address is both listed in the first post of our support thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...sk-thread.html and on our About Us page: http://www.expertflyer.com/about-expertflyer

Please close your browser then login to EF again. If you are still experiencing a problem now please email us with the exact time that you tried to click on the Contact Support link so we can look at our logs.

Regarding the alerts, as has been mentioned on the EF Help Desk thread before, alerts are checked several times a day, not every minute. If the Quick Check isn't returning the results you think it should first make sure you aren't running into married segment logic by only doing the flight search for just the segment that the alert is looking at. If you need us to further investigate let us know the exact name of the alert on your account along with your account info via email.

Spiff

I think it is broken. I keep seeing C0 on my flights.

topcat_dcx

I see a particular fare class showing availability on EF but 2 different UA agents told me there is no availability at all. Same exact flights, route ... so what's driving the differences?

cmn.jcs

Can you provide a little more context? I have a couple ideas off the top of my head, but without more info I can't distinguish between them.

topcat_dcx

trying to SDC my flight for tomorrow to a better option that leaves slightly later in the day. Routing is CVG-ORD-XXX-HNL. My original flight is a 6am and the option i wanted to SDC to starts at 10:56am. UA agents keep telling me no K class is available but EF showed K2, then K3 and K2. I was on phone with UA agent and ran EF simultaneously yet the results were different.