Yes that is correct. Since each day requires a separate GDS search, that is the only way we can offer the alerting functionality.

I am trying to get a flight in A class (discount BusinessFirst) on the United 787 SFO-IAH next month. Two days ago this flight was available; I should have put it on hold, but I didn't. Anyway, now united.com shows only fares in F on this flight (at the corresponding higher price). But ExpertFlyer shows "F9 A9 Z1 P1," which to me says there should be tons of discount fares available. Why can't I find them? What is ExpertFlyer searching that the United website can't see?

Did you use the Fare Information search to see if there are valid fares in those fare classes for your dates of travel and that you meet their advanced purchase requirement? You need both available fare class inventory and a valid published fare to actually book a fare.

No, I was not aware I could do that. (I am new to ExpertFlyer.) So A9 doesn't necessarily mean anything, since their might not actually be any A seats for sale?

Now that I look at it, the Fare Information page doesn't seem to show all available fares. Does it only show non-stop flights?

Edit: OK, I see now. The fare code with the (relatively) low A fares is HUAUPN, and when I read the rules, sure enough one of the rules is: "THE FARE COMPONENT MUST NOT BE ON ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING:
UA FLIGHTS 132 THROUGH 133"
And sure enough my preferred outbound is on UA 132. But two things strike me: one, the return flight on the 787 is not excluded from this fare; and two, this fare was available for UA 132 just a couple days ago. Are these rules being revised constantly according to some arcane logic?

Fares are not flight specific, they are published fare tariffs. Please read our EduGuide for information about the relationship between fares and fare classes: http://www.expertflyer.com/edu-guide.pdf

Also note in our FAQ: http://www.expertflyer.com/expertflyer-support-faq

If you would like specific help, then please post the specific dates and flights you are referring to.

Well, I don't know how much help anyone could be, since it doesn't seem like the flight is available, at least not right now. Mostly I was just trying to understand the apparent conflict between what I could see on ExpertFlyer vs united.com.

But if there is any advice, I would like to fly, preferably in A class:

UA 132 SFO-IAH 11/17 (overnight flight)
UA 1610 IAH-TPA 11/18

UA 1095 TPA-IAH 11/25
UA 1478 IAH-SFO 11/25

The return is available, and there are routings for SFO-TPA departing 11/17 that book into A (with the aforementioned fare code HUAUPN that excludes flight 132 and apparently any other SFO-IAH flights). Like I said before, both UA 132 and UA 1610 show A9, but apparently that does me no good here.

Is there a way to set up an alert to let me know if an A fare does become available?

I'm sorry I missed that before, yes that is the reason why for the outbound segments only an F fare is applied. However if you price it on UA.com, you'll see that an A fare is applied for the return trip as neither of those flight numbers are on the exclusion list.

No I'm sorry we don't have alerts that cover changes in fare rules.

Nooooo... the 15% discount has just expired..

Can you confirm that it was valid until 26/10/2012?

Are there any more discount codes for loyal FTer's ?? ;)

I've been trying to set an alert for LH 446 FRA-DEN on 1/16, but keep getting the message that this is an invalid flight. I've confirmed that the flight is operating that day (and the flight number has always been 446).

Any ideas? :)

I just created an alert for that flight using the Create New Flight Alert page and it worked, you could have typed something wrong on the form. The easier way would be to create the alert from the Flight Availability result page.

new user
 

I'm a new user to ExpertFlyer, I have a premium subscription - Please forgive my question if the answer is obvious to you. Be assured I've tried to do my part and I've spent quite a bit of time reading over users guides and knocking around the site trying to figure out what to do, and I'm still pretty confused.

I'm working on a fairly complicated itinerary for a family vacation next year. It involves travel across the US, to Asia, and to Hawaii, but isn't particularly "easy" and doesn't fit clearly into the round-trip routes that come up on Expertflyer. It involves a fairly big round trip, with stopovers of several days in several cities along the way. In general, should I be looking at doing a series of one-way trips or should I try to jerry-rig a round-trip with stopovers and extra flights on the side (for side trips)? Also, I'm flying out of a fairly small town, but if I put in a round trip flight from my feeder airport somehow fares come up from groups like All Nippon and Singapore, but I cannot access them on their sites. I'm very confused by this.

No matter what I try, the fares I find are more than what come up on Orbitz, so I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, I just cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on.

I'm open to any suggestions and advice.

dcman2

For starters, I'd suggest posting the itinerary you are trying to book.

What information are you trying to obtain from ExpertFlyer (for example that you are not getting from Orbitz)?

http://matrix.itasoftware.com is a good tool for exploring complicated itineraries (but needs some time to find out how to get the best out of it).

Exact dates somewhat flexible - June 2013

6/5 ELM-PDX

6/11 PDX-TYO

6/22 TYO-HNL

6/27 HNL-ELM

So, it goes all over, and the pdx stop throws off some of the usual routings. Any suggestions as to strategies on how to use expertflyer would be helpful. I'm not asking or expecting anyone to do the work for me, I'd rather learn how to use the software and some guidance as to how to go about this would be helpful. (I'm a big believer that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime).


dcman2