It may depend upon each individual airline on how they designate the equipment.

ExpertFlyer seat alerts problem
 

Hi, I've searched the forum and can't find an answer to this specific problem - so hopefully someone here can help.

I've just registered on ExpertFlyer and am trying to check availability and set an alert for a Malaysia Airlines flight, but I can't find a flight code that the tool will accept...

Everywhere I've looked the flight code (LHR - KUL) is MAS1, but the ExpertFlyer tool tells me this isn't valid, or specifically as below:

"Flight Number is just the number of the flight, without the 2 letter airline code before it."

The field only allows four characters though, so I can't add the airline code (MH)... Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Welcome to FlyerTalk [MENTION=909498]leem13[/MENTION]!

I merged your question into the ExpertFlyer.com Help Desk Thread.

TWA884
Travel Tools moderator

Correct, as the message says, the flight number is just a number, not the airline code. The airline code is 2 characters "MH" goes in the Airline field and the flight number, a different field, is a number from 1-9999

MAS is the ICAO code for Malaysia Airlines, compared to the IATA code of MH. The flight number is simply 1.

Simple question, I'm sure it's been answered somewhere in the last 123 pages of posts!

I just made the elite level in American that allows unlimited free upgrades. In booking flights, I would like to make an estimate of the likelihood of getting upgraded. I fly almost exclusively between PHL and LAS, sometimes with a connection. Some of my flights are red-eyes.

Would EF be a useful tool? What I would expect to do is look at comparable flights and see how the available upgrade space tracks. I think C is the code for upgrade space. If I see that 72 hours before the flight it is C0 and it remains C0 until departure that's one thing; if it's C6 at 72 hours and still C3 at 24 hours, I'd think upgrade chances are good.

The most significant single question I'll be trying to ask is how upgrade chances vary on a nonstop red-eye LAS-PHL compared to an evening LAS-LAX connecting to a LAX-PHL redeye.

If so, what level of EF would I need?

Got it - I was just misreading the message and overcomplicating it - thanks!

If you are referring to the 500-mile sticker upgrades, those are booked into X/R classes which AA doesn't share. C/A class are for the eVIP confirmed one-way upgrade certificates which is available on ExpertFlyer.

Well, they don't require stickers for the top two elite categories, but I think it's the same pool.

What would be the best strategy for what I want to do? I can track flights based on the seat map, but I know that's inexact because there may tickets sold without seat assignments, and also seats blocked without a booking. (More common in Y that F, but very possible for FAM's.) Is that the best I can do?

POS for alerts
 

Hi, If I create an flight alert for a booking class from the flight availability page, does it inherit the POS of the previous query, or go to the default POS ie USA?
thanks

Yes it does. You can also confirm the POS from the View Saved Alerts page.
The exception is if the class code of the alert is an Award/Upgrade class in which case there is no POS.

AY availability screen
 

I noticed AY availability returns more accurate is if just specify time and HEL as a connecting city (Y9 B8 H3 K1 M0 style) rather than putting AY as a preferred airline (Y4 B4 H4 K0 M0 style).

Could you please check if you can use another GDS to get AY direct display? Obviously current direct display is not the 'direct' one or comes from a wrong GDS.

Yes it is the "direct" one, that's what specifying AY as the airline is doing, specifying a direct connect search. When you do a direct connect search, there is no "wrong GDS" because it bypasses the GDS and talks to the airline host directly, that's what a direct connect search is. It's not uncommon for the direct connect search to be capped at inventory values of 4 instead of 7/9.

We have the option to turn off direct connect searching all together for AY, but we'd need to research if that's a good idea first. Please email us directly with a specific example and why you think the direct connect availability isn't correct. Thanks.

I stand corrected - the direct display only seems to limit the max availability by 4 seats per class, it does not impact the display accuracy though.
In my example this would mean:

generic display (EF know which GDS it is) - Y9 B8 H3 K1 M0
direct display - Y4 B4 H3 K1 M0, ie the accuracy is preserved, just the presentation is less informative.

No problem. That being said since it doesn't look like direct connect is required anymore to get accurate inventories for AY we have turned it off.