Feb 14, 2015, 12:53 pm
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.
--------------------
Searches currently not working:
To search AA upgrades:
This is a community-maintained wiki, it is not necessarily endorsed by ExpertFlyer.
--------------------
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.
ExpertFlyer.com Help Desk Thread
May 15, 2017, 1:08 am
#1396
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Hawai'i Nei
Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE
Posts: 7,142
Been using EF a lot lately. Anyone else wish for the following features, in no particular order:
- Ability to recall a recent search to quickly redo a search on a subsequent session
- A smart date field (like SFDC and other websites) where you don't have to exactly nail the format
- Ability to click into a flight's detailed status when searching flight status by city pair
- Ability to quickly reset/smartly modify a flight alert. For example, you get notified that a certain seat you had been monitoring opened up, but you want to keep the alert on for the rest of the seats requested.
- Ability to recall a recent search to quickly redo a search on a subsequent session
- A smart date field (like SFDC and other websites) where you don't have to exactly nail the format
- Ability to click into a flight's detailed status when searching flight status by city pair
- Ability to quickly reset/smartly modify a flight alert. For example, you get notified that a certain seat you had been monitoring opened up, but you want to keep the alert on for the rest of the seats requested.
May 15, 2017, 5:04 am
#1397
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
May 16, 2017, 3:25 pm
#1398
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 125
I just signed up for EF monthly premium. I am trying to use AA miles for family of four, from Chicago to Rome at Christmas. I've been reading the manual and threads on EF and want to be sure i'm using it correctly. Right now i have on hold an AA itinerary (held till May 19) the exact routing i want (ORD-PHL-FCO and same on reverse) but not the right dates. It's all AA metal too so my taxes are only $295. The itinerary on hold departs ORD 12/17 and returns from FCO (both via PHL) on 12/25. I prefer 12/25 or 26 departure and 1/4 or 5 return. I set up EF to look for the following:
4 coach on PHL-FCO on 12/25 and 12/26 ( i figure ORD-PHL would be easier to nab)
2 coach and 2 biz on PHL-FCO on 12/25 and 12/26
4 Coach return on 1/4 and 1/5
My wife and I would prefer the biz on the outbound PHL-FCO and kids can go coach.
My questions: does the way i set up the alerts as above make sense? Does my split of 2 biz and 2 coach make it more difficult for me? I'm worried that if only 2 of either class become available for the 25th or 26th, i run the risk of us being separated- eg EF finds two biz on the 25th but no coach. Should this be a concern? Any other advice? thanks so much!!
4 coach on PHL-FCO on 12/25 and 12/26 ( i figure ORD-PHL would be easier to nab)
2 coach and 2 biz on PHL-FCO on 12/25 and 12/26
4 Coach return on 1/4 and 1/5
My wife and I would prefer the biz on the outbound PHL-FCO and kids can go coach.
My questions: does the way i set up the alerts as above make sense? Does my split of 2 biz and 2 coach make it more difficult for me? I'm worried that if only 2 of either class become available for the 25th or 26th, i run the risk of us being separated- eg EF finds two biz on the 25th but no coach. Should this be a concern? Any other advice? thanks so much!!
May 17, 2017, 6:15 am
#1399
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: WAS
Posts: 3,010
I just signed up for EF monthly premium. I am trying to use AA miles for family of four, from Chicago to Rome at Christmas. I've been reading the manual and threads on EF and want to be sure i'm using it correctly. Right now i have on hold an AA itinerary (held till May 19) the exact routing i want (ORD-PHL-FCO and same on reverse) but not the right dates. It's all AA metal too so my taxes are only $295. The itinerary on hold departs ORD 12/17 and returns from FCO (both via PHL) on 12/25. I prefer 12/25 or 26 departure and 1/4 or 5 return. I set up EF to look for the following:
4 coach on PHL-FCO on 12/25 and 12/26 ( i figure ORD-PHL would be easier to nab)
2 coach and 2 biz on PHL-FCO on 12/25 and 12/26
4 Coach return on 1/4 and 1/5
My wife and I would prefer the biz on the outbound PHL-FCO and kids can go coach.
My questions: does the way i set up the alerts as above make sense? Does my split of 2 biz and 2 coach make it more difficult for me? I'm worried that if only 2 of either class become available for the 25th or 26th, i run the risk of us being separated- eg EF finds two biz on the 25th but no coach. Should this be a concern? Any other advice? thanks so much!!
4 coach on PHL-FCO on 12/25 and 12/26 ( i figure ORD-PHL would be easier to nab)
2 coach and 2 biz on PHL-FCO on 12/25 and 12/26
4 Coach return on 1/4 and 1/5
My wife and I would prefer the biz on the outbound PHL-FCO and kids can go coach.
My questions: does the way i set up the alerts as above make sense? Does my split of 2 biz and 2 coach make it more difficult for me? I'm worried that if only 2 of either class become available for the 25th or 26th, i run the risk of us being separated- eg EF finds two biz on the 25th but no coach. Should this be a concern? Any other advice? thanks so much!!
May 20, 2017, 6:37 am
#1401
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 128
How to read ExpertFlyer's Fare Routing
I just subscribed to ExpertFlyer, and I'm having trouble deciphering the "Fare Routing Results" screen. I read their help page, but it's not very detailed.
Here's an example:
/VIA THE ATLANTIC/
DOM ROUTE VALIDATION APPLIES WITHIN ORIG/DEST COUNTRIES
MAP CONSTRUCTED LEFT TO RIGHT AND RIGHT TO LEFT
1. CPH-AB/HG-BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH-AB/HG-BER/DUS-
AB-BOS/CHI/DFW/FMY/MIA/NYC/ORL/SFO-AA/AB-LAX
2. CPH-AB/HG-BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH-AB/HG-BER/DUS-
AB-DUS/FRA-AB-DFW-AA/AB-LAX
My best guess is that this means:
Variation 1
You start in CPH
You must fly on either Air Berlin (AB) or NikiFly (HG)
to get to BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH
-- and from there --
You must fly on AB or HG
to get to BER/DUS
-- and from there --
You must fly on AB
to get to BOS/CHI/DFW/FMY/MIA/NYC/ORL/SFO
-- and from there --
You must fly on American (AA) or Air Berlin (AB)
to get to LAX
Is this correct? Presumably this means that the routing rules would allow an itinerary like CPH-MUC-BER-MIA-LAX (assuming availability of flights, etc). Is this correct? Is there any way to figure out what other cities this Fare Basis Code is valid for (other than guess-and-check)?
FYI, this is the full routing rule:
Search: Departing CPH on 10/15/17 for LAX
Fare basis code I1NCRDK
Flying AB
Routing via North Atlantic
V FARE BASIS BK FARE TRAVEL-TICKET AP MINMAX RTG
1 I1NCRDK I R 1642.00 ----  35;/ 35; SU/12M AT01
PASSENGER TYPE-ADT AUTO PRICE-YES
FROM-CPH TO-LAX CXR-AB TVL-15OCT17 RULE-5000 IPRA/1
FARE BASIS-I1NCRDK SPECIAL FARE DIS-S VENDOR-ATP
FARE TYPE-BRO RT-BUSINESS CLASS PROMOTIONAL
DKK 10969 0300 E31MAR16 D-INFINITY FC-I1NCRDK FN-
SYSTEM DATES - CREATED 30MAR16/1122 EXPIRES INFINITY
PUBLISHED RTG CPH-LAX/AB300 /TAR-TARG EF-31MAR16 DIS-INDEF
/VIA THE ATLANTIC/
DOM ROUTE VALIDATION APPLIES WITHIN ORIG/DEST COUNTRIES
MAP CONSTRUCTED LEFT TO RIGHT AND RIGHT TO LEFT
1. CPH-AB/HG-BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH-AB/HG-BER/DUS-
AB-BOS/CHI/DFW/FMY/MIA/NYC/ORL/SFO-AA/AB-LAX
2. CPH-AB/HG-BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH-AB/HG-BER/DUS-
AB-DUS/FRA-AB-DFW-AA/AB-LAX
.
Here's an example:
/VIA THE ATLANTIC/
DOM ROUTE VALIDATION APPLIES WITHIN ORIG/DEST COUNTRIES
MAP CONSTRUCTED LEFT TO RIGHT AND RIGHT TO LEFT
1. CPH-AB/HG-BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH-AB/HG-BER/DUS-
AB-BOS/CHI/DFW/FMY/MIA/NYC/ORL/SFO-AA/AB-LAX
2. CPH-AB/HG-BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH-AB/HG-BER/DUS-
AB-DUS/FRA-AB-DFW-AA/AB-LAX
My best guess is that this means:
Variation 1
You start in CPH
You must fly on either Air Berlin (AB) or NikiFly (HG)
to get to BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH
-- and from there --
You must fly on AB or HG
to get to BER/DUS
-- and from there --
You must fly on AB
to get to BOS/CHI/DFW/FMY/MIA/NYC/ORL/SFO
-- and from there --
You must fly on American (AA) or Air Berlin (AB)
to get to LAX
Is this correct? Presumably this means that the routing rules would allow an itinerary like CPH-MUC-BER-MIA-LAX (assuming availability of flights, etc). Is this correct? Is there any way to figure out what other cities this Fare Basis Code is valid for (other than guess-and-check)?
FYI, this is the full routing rule:
Search: Departing CPH on 10/15/17 for LAX
Fare basis code I1NCRDK
Flying AB
Routing via North Atlantic
V FARE BASIS BK FARE TRAVEL-TICKET AP MINMAX RTG
1 I1NCRDK I R 1642.00 ----  35;/ 35; SU/12M AT01
PASSENGER TYPE-ADT AUTO PRICE-YES
FROM-CPH TO-LAX CXR-AB TVL-15OCT17 RULE-5000 IPRA/1
FARE BASIS-I1NCRDK SPECIAL FARE DIS-S VENDOR-ATP
FARE TYPE-BRO RT-BUSINESS CLASS PROMOTIONAL
DKK 10969 0300 E31MAR16 D-INFINITY FC-I1NCRDK FN-
SYSTEM DATES - CREATED 30MAR16/1122 EXPIRES INFINITY
PUBLISHED RTG CPH-LAX/AB300 /TAR-TARG EF-31MAR16 DIS-INDEF
/VIA THE ATLANTIC/
DOM ROUTE VALIDATION APPLIES WITHIN ORIG/DEST COUNTRIES
MAP CONSTRUCTED LEFT TO RIGHT AND RIGHT TO LEFT
1. CPH-AB/HG-BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH-AB/HG-BER/DUS-
AB-BOS/CHI/DFW/FMY/MIA/NYC/ORL/SFO-AA/AB-LAX
2. CPH-AB/HG-BER/DUS/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR/VIE/ZRH-AB/HG-BER/DUS-
AB-DUS/FRA-AB-DFW-AA/AB-LAX
.
May 23, 2017, 4:02 pm
#1402
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: WAS
Posts: 1,626
Recently, my EF queries have been taking longer than usual and EF displays the following message when I search, "Please wait while we retrieve the Award & Upgrade data...
(May take up to 2 minutes)"
Have there been some recent changes to the EF website?
Thanks!
(May take up to 2 minutes)"
Have there been some recent changes to the EF website?
Thanks!
May 23, 2017, 5:48 pm
#1403
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S (former 75K, GLD, 1K, and S+, now an elite peon)
Posts: 23,194
GDS queries should be a few seconds at most. Screen scraping can take longer, especially if there are multiple screens the scraper needs to move through to obtain the data.
May 23, 2017, 10:51 pm
#1404
Left Expert Flyer 4/23
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 2,741
However we changed the dynamics of the browser-server communications for the Award & Upgrade search a couple weeks ago to solve issues we were seeing with various proxys and ISPs that are quick to timeout connections for some of our customers.
May 24, 2017, 11:32 am
#1406
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: LI, NY
Programs: AA PLT, AAdv since Day One
Posts: 2,682
You can search plus/minus 3 days from the target date. One trick I use is if the desired date is say the 15th then I set the target date in the search as the 18th +/- 3 days. Then it will give results starting from the 15th through the 21st. You can then do another similar search going backward from the 15th, or 14th.
Jun 1, 2017, 12:36 am
#1407
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: UA 1K/MM, EK Gold, CX Silver
Posts: 880
For each booking class (such as D), I see a range of fares, with slightly different rules.
I often appear to meet the requirements for one of the cheaper fares for the required booking class, and there is availability per EF, but both the airline and other sites only offer the more expensive fares for this booking class.
Can someone please explain to me how the applicable fare is chosen for a given booking class?
I often appear to meet the requirements for one of the cheaper fares for the required booking class, and there is availability per EF, but both the airline and other sites only offer the more expensive fares for this booking class.
Can someone please explain to me how the applicable fare is chosen for a given booking class?
Jun 3, 2017, 9:39 am
#1408
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: BR
Programs: TudoAzul Diamante, Smiles Diamante, Latam Gold
Posts: 102
For each booking class (such as D), I see a range of fares, with slightly different rules.
I often appear to meet the requirements for one of the cheaper fares for the required booking class, and there is availability per EF, but both the airline and other sites only offer the more expensive fares for this booking class.
Can someone please explain to me how the applicable fare is chosen for a given booking class?
I often appear to meet the requirements for one of the cheaper fares for the required booking class, and there is availability per EF, but both the airline and other sites only offer the more expensive fares for this booking class.
Can someone please explain to me how the applicable fare is chosen for a given booking class?
Jun 3, 2017, 9:46 am
#1409
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: BR
Programs: TudoAzul Diamante, Smiles Diamante, Latam Gold
Posts: 102
Just rang up a phone call to Gol support and they gave me a basis fare code (A228EBR) from a flight I was looking.. Why I can't see this base fare at ExpertFlyer?
It's a code share flight, G3, operated by CM, on October 20th, 2017 from PTY to GRU.
It's a code share flight, G3, operated by CM, on October 20th, 2017 from PTY to GRU.
Jun 16, 2017, 2:58 am
#1410
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: London
Programs: AA EXP, SPG Plt
Posts: 2,607
My latest simple feature requests:
1) I'd always like to enable the "exclude codeshares" checkbox in every screen. That's always one hassle as I use this 90% of the time for upgrades. How can I set this as an option? Logically i'd assume for most users, codeshares are less of an issue so you could make a case for the box to just say "include codeshares" and have the opposite effect...
2) Can you please add a cleanup option? It's annoying to delete expired queries and alerts, it must be done one by one. Even tick boxes would be helpful to bulk delete if not a cleanup all expired option.
3) PLEASE turn the CAPTCHA down a little. The mobile site is fast (yay!) but my fingers seem to be too fast for your captcha, as 50% of the time I can trigger it by going into saved queries and clicking upgrades too fast.
1) I'd always like to enable the "exclude codeshares" checkbox in every screen. That's always one hassle as I use this 90% of the time for upgrades. How can I set this as an option? Logically i'd assume for most users, codeshares are less of an issue so you could make a case for the box to just say "include codeshares" and have the opposite effect...
2) Can you please add a cleanup option? It's annoying to delete expired queries and alerts, it must be done one by one. Even tick boxes would be helpful to bulk delete if not a cleanup all expired option.
3) PLEASE turn the CAPTCHA down a little. The mobile site is fast (yay!) but my fingers seem to be too fast for your captcha, as 50% of the time I can trigger it by going into saved queries and clicking upgrades too fast.