It is sad, but I am afraid we need to face the fact that this product is near death. The departure of the last founder with a less than encouraging message was the final alert. I think we can expect them to ride out the subscription revenue for as much as they can milk it with no investment, until it is time to turn it off.

Agreed. I've been using EF for years and the quality has fallen of a lot in the last few years. Totally not worth it anymore (especially if you fly oneworld).

Note: Even though I'm not with EF anymore, I'm responding as a founder with knowledge of how it works, not as a company rep.

The core value of seat maps is the real-time seat data about that specific flight from the airline reservation systems, and the alerts it powers. The SG ratings are overlaid on top of that live data as an added piece, which you can ignore if you want. If you know of a different source for seat ratings data that has an API/data drop, shoot me a PM.

I guess you don't use AA upgrades? I don't think anywhere on the EF website it promises something is offered that isn't. Also it has live lists of supported airlines for awards and seats on the Help page. Wishing it did more is one thing, but don't make it sound like it's somehow duping you.

a) it still works the same as the day I left AFAIK, but I'm keeping an eye on the situation b) you never know what the future might bring...

Guess you don't use AA upgrades either? Yes EF lost some award airlines, but the quality of the data that is currently offered is the same as before. As always, EF publishes the list of what award airlines are supported in real time on the Help page to be transparent. Also all search functions other than awards fully cover all oneworld airlines.

You mean redemption searching?
That's not the point of EF. We have things like CX Elevated plug-in for that.

The point of EF is after the redemption has cleared, what seat to sit on? Any equipment swap? How to score a suite with a suite opposite that is empty to set up a sleeping suite in (don’t bother trying with QF and AA)

Maybe I got EF purpose wrong. The value/point of EF is for seats, not for redemptions?

Any alternatives? I am on Star Alliance so still some value for me, but just curious what else is out there.

https://roame.travel/ is in beta.

They have been making good progress. It is not there yet, but, I have seen a lot of movement in the past few months.
I don't think it is worth a subscription yet. But, there is some value in the free version.

(I have zero affiliation with them. Found them via an Amex thread.)

I think all this EF bashing is a little unfair. I have been a subscriber for more years than I can count and still renew. To me the highest value is not finding award availability. Yes that is useful, but the true value is access to detailed information like all the fare buckets and how many seats are available for sale. And the seat maps, and the alerts.

It really comes into its own during IRROPS, just this morning LH canceled a dozen plus flights from MUC including one I was on to LHR. While the agent in the lounge searched for alternatives, I was doing the same with the EF mobile web page... and seeing lots of zeros :-( but I could check routes to LHR/LGW/LCY and help the agent. Same thing during one of BA's epic meltdowns last winter where I was on one of 3 (yes count them three) flights from JFK to London that got canceled... I was able to suggest alternate routing (through KEF) which got me to my final destination earlier than my original through LHR (or the alternate the booked us on through LGW until that flight canceled as well!).

And the class of service data... monitoring that gives you an indication of how full the flight is going to be. If there are multiple flights a day to somewhere and some are J0 / J1 but others are J7/J9 then you know that your chances of an upgrade clearing are going to be a whole lot better on the J7/J9. The same applies to days of the week... some days are lighter than others, but which? Depends on route... and the class of service data can inform for that too.

And the seat maps... I love that I can monitor that -- in some cases right up to flight time (depending on airline and/or class). A little secret... when airlines start to process the upgrade list, that often frees up prime economy class seats that I can grab.

Yes the user interface is getting a little old, but the current design is actually a strength. Remember, the word Expert is in the name... and the attempted redesign a couple of years ago dumbed it down way too much.

EF is what it is. I think it is terrific... there is no other site out there that provides anything like it. And I do hope that it does not shut down as that would be a significant loss.

DAK.

Whilst I have a support ticket open, I'm more curious as to if others have ideas/thoughts on how to track or be notified of the following scenario:

AA seems to be the worst offender of this (this is definitely my 3rd, maybe 4th time seeing this issue):
Let's say flight #1234 is departing 5/1/23 from AAA-BBB at 9:00 a.m. and arriving at 11:05 a.m.

AA seems to have a nasty habit of "cancelling" (my term) the flight so that flight #1234 is either still operating with the same times, but completely different city pairs (XXX-ZZZ)
OR
if I'm lucky, the times will change (along with the city pairs) so that I can at least get a schedule alert from expertflyer.

Obviously you can see the issues:

1) If the first scenario (city pairs change, but all else remains the same), I get NO alert from Expert Flyer. And AA is infamous (in my experience) for sending the alert email as well, so unless one babysits the reservation constantly, you can be very unpleasantly surprised.
2) If you're lucky and the times change your Expert Flyer alert will trigger, and give you the new times, along with the city pairs, but of course, this comes up as a "schedule change" alert, and (although always possible I'm in the minority) it's easy to skip/glaze over the city pair change and focus on the times changing.

If there's a way to have expert flyer deal with the first scenario (preferably the 2nd with something more obvious that schedule change since the alert itself is based on TIME, not city pairs--at least when constructing the alert, that's your only threshold for triggering), I'd be very appreciative to know what that is.

If expertflyer cannot handle this, is there another site/software/service that can?

The EF schedule change alert alerts on either time change or city pair change and must be created separately from any other type of alert. If the Flight Details data changes, you would get an alert.

BA reward flights?
 

Why can’t I search for reward flight availability for BA? The only option showing is “Economy Gold Elite Award (V)”. No “First (Z)” or “Business (U)”.

Because BA award inventory (and several other airlines) is no longer supported by ExpertFlyer and has not been for quite a some time.

Regards

Thank you. Are there any other tools similar to Expert Flyer which have the capability of showing BA award inventory?

Seat Spy is one (Reward Flight Finder is also available, but has an iffy history...) - all depend on BA's IT though :(

I'm trying to find an award flight FCO-LAX or CDG-LAX on AF/FB. I am new to ExpertFlyer and just bought a premium subscription. Based on my initial searches and reviewing results and prices, it seems as though EF isn't able to distinguish which dates have the lowest fare of 80k miles for one way in J.

Here's what I mean.. for example, there's availability for the low 80k fare on Aug 2, 2023 (CDG-LAX) when I search directly on the AF website, but EF tells me there's no O availability on that day. Am I approaching this incorrectly? How would I be able to set an alert if I don't know what to search for?

Thanks for your help in advance