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ExpertFlyer.com Help Desk Thread

Old Feb 14, 2015, 12:53 pm
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Last edit by: 747FC
The ExpertFlyer support by email is at [email protected]

This is a community-maintained wiki, it is not necessarily endorsed by ExpertFlyer.

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Searches currently not working:
  • Upgrades - AY, BA, EK, EY, IB, QR, VS
  • Awards - AY, BA, IB, EY, QR, VS

To search AA upgrades:
  • Use the Award & Upgrade tool
  • Only search for individual segments (set the "Connection Preference" drop-down to "Direct/Non-Stop only"). Flight results that are part of a connection won't show the upgrade version of C or A inventory because AA only files upgrade inventory as individual, not married, segments. (Married segments show revenue inventory instead of upgrade inventory.)
  • To avoid confusion, check the "Exclude Codeshares" box, as AA awards and upgrades are not valid on codeshares.




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ExpertFlyer.com Help Desk Thread

Old Feb 9, 2017, 12:37 pm
  #1321  
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Originally Posted by tlawrence85
It appears that ExpertFlyer is returning incorrect award availability, at least on ANA. Here is an example.

Searching for non-stop biz awards on ANA from HND-SIN on 11/02/17 - ExpertFlyer returns availability on NH841. However, this flight can't be found on either united.com or aeroplan.com (both images are sorted by number of stops, so you'd expect any nonstops to show up first).

I have found several examples of this happening for a number of ANA flights, and significantly reduces the usefulness of ExpertFlyer - award search is no longer reliable, and you can't set an alert for these flights since the alerts trigger immediately on the false inventory.

Is this a known issue, or has anyone else run into this?
As we mentioned to you when you emailed us, the availability we show is the same availability for ANA flights that ANA is showing on their own website. It is correct as per ANA.

It looks like there is an issue with ANA syncing their inventory to partners, likely an IT issue that they are working to solve. However this is not an ExpertFlyer issue as we are reflecting what the airline itself is publishing.
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Old Feb 10, 2017, 4:40 am
  #1322  
 
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Originally Posted by tlawrence85
Searching for non-stop biz awards on ANA from HND-SIN on 11/02/17 - ExpertFlyer returns availability on NH841. However, this flight can't be found on either united.com or aeroplan.com (both images are sorted by number of stops, so you'd expect any nonstops to show up first).

I have found several examples of this happening for a number of ANA flights, and significantly reduces the usefulness of ExpertFlyer - award search is no longer reliable, and you can't set an alert for these flights since the alerts trigger immediately on the false inventory.

Is this a known issue, or has anyone else run into this?
This is very common - airlines don't release all of their award inventory to all of their partners, even within alliances. This can be as detailed as not releasing certain flights to being as broad as not letting any award inventory appear at all on certain sites. It has nothing to do with ExpertFlyer.
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Old Feb 17, 2017, 11:19 pm
  #1323  
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Flight availability tool down?
Searching for flights I get the following response:

The requested information could not be retrieved or is not available. This is likely due to invalid input criteria or lack of access to the information from the airline. Please revise the search parameters and try again

???

I can pull up fares though.
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Old Feb 18, 2017, 12:56 am
  #1324  
 
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There is some issue causing all availability requests to fail as of now. Fares and seatmaps work fine.
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Old Feb 18, 2017, 1:01 am
  #1325  
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Originally Posted by Keter
There is some issue causing all availability requests to fail as of now. Fares and seatmaps work fine.
Same here. I came to post but you beat me to it.
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Old Feb 18, 2017, 10:23 am
  #1326  
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We are not experiencing any issues at this time. If you have a specific search example you want us to take a look at please email us the details.
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Old Feb 18, 2017, 11:14 am
  #1327  
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There was definitely a problem when the two earlier posts were made. I was getting either no results or a partial and obviously incomplete list. But the problems were intermittent - repeating the same search would sometimes eventually get a partial list (which was enough for me at the time).

Anyway, it all seems to be running fine now, thank you.
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Old Feb 19, 2017, 7:17 am
  #1328  
 
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I seem to be getting the following error when looking up award availability. Tried a few different airlines, all gave the same error.

An error has occurred while communicating with the airline reservation system. The support team has been notified of this problem. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
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Old Feb 19, 2017, 7:39 am
  #1329  
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Yes, I've just got this. The behaviour on searching for BA awards is very similar to yesterday's problems.

However, non-award availability is working fine at the moment, unlike yesterday.
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Old Feb 19, 2017, 12:18 pm
  #1330  
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We are unable to replicate any issues at the moment. If you want us to investigate a possible technical issue, then email us the specific search to [email protected] instead of posting here, thanks.
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Old Feb 19, 2017, 3:11 pm
  #1331  
 
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How do I search for AY business award seats? I tried to search for Economy (X) and added Other U but it haven't found anything.
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Old Feb 19, 2017, 3:45 pm
  #1332  
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Originally Posted by chx1975
How do I search for AY business award seats? I tried to search for Economy (X) and added Other U but it haven't found anything.
AY U class isn't listed in the Award & Upgrade search because it is not visible. Adding it to the search won't change that unfortunately.
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 11:20 am
  #1333  
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Originally Posted by ExpertFlyer Voice
We are unable to replicate any issues at the moment. If you want us to investigate a possible technical issue, then email us the specific search to [email protected] instead of posting here, thanks.
Speaking for myself, I'm generally posting to this thread to reassure others that they are not alone, rather than using it to alert you and your team.

The error message itself says something along the lines of the support team having already been notified, so if that's right then there doesn't seem to be much point in emailing you separately - would that be a fair inference to draw?
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 12:50 pm
  #1334  
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Originally Posted by Globaliser
Speaking for myself, I'm generally posting to this thread to reassure others that they are not alone, rather than using it to alert you and your team.

The error message itself says something along the lines of the support team having already been notified, so if that's right then there doesn't seem to be much point in emailing you separately - would that be a fair inference to draw?
We are notified if there is a major issue with one of our information providers. However if you have a specific search that is causing an issue, or more commonly that someone needs help in interpreting the results, then the best way to get help is to email us with the specific search so we can replicate.
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Old Feb 21, 2017, 9:52 pm
  #1335  
 
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Can't access seat maps

Same as others, I'm having access problems. AA seat maps won't display. Get the same error message as others. For example, AA233 22Feb17 MIAGRU.
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