ExpertFlyer & GDS
 

Does anyone know whether a subscription to ExpertFlyer offers any advantage to someone who can get free access to a GDS like Amadeus or Sabre?

The seat alert feature of ExpertFlyer is something you will not find in either Amadeus or Sabre which I have access to both. Hence your subscription is money well spent.

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We use EF at our agency extensively for award travel (upgrades), seat alerts, better workflows.

ExpertFlyer question re R fares
 

Is the only way to get an automated update/email from ET on R class availability to sign up for $10/month service. I probably need that feature one to two times/year so it's a bit price for me and I can't find the 99 cent one-time usage option either (like you can do with the seats)

Any advice from folks?

Thanks

Hi eagle007. The monthly service is monthly with no long term commitment. So just activate the subscription when you need it, and once the Flight Alert is finished, cancel the renewal until you need it again.

The $.99 one-time usage option for non-subscribers is only for Seat Alerts, not Flight Alerts.

I have no idea what your travel habits are, and I have no vested interest in it (other than being a subscriber), but my guess is you'll be surprised how much you use ET. It's by far the best $100 I've spent as far as ROI...

R availability is one thing (which hopefully united will sort out on its own, so UGs will clear correctly and you won't have to watch), but If you ever use miles for flights, the saver award alerts are terrific for finding seats which open up, saving some serious miles. Even helps if you've already booked standard awards, as you can change once you've booked.

With regards to the fare buckets in the availability page, can I ask what the difference between 'C' and '0' is?

If you click on the class code you'll see a popup with an explanation of what it means. C means that it has a closed wait-list.

I have a question if it is possible to set up an alert to tell if a certain fare bucket is available when that flight is booked as a combination with another flight? Maybe I didn't word that correctly, so here is an example...

I want to purchase an I class business fare on Emirates (EK) from CAI-DXB-AKL on the 22nd of Dec. If I search CAI-AKL on ExpertFlyer for departure on 22nd Dec, the 3 flights are shown, and I class is zero for all (EK flies from CAI via DXB and then SYD, MEL, or BNE to AKL). So, that's fine. However, if I make a flight alert for any of these flights (DXB-AKL via SYD, MEL, or BNE) for I class greater than 1, it immediately tells me that the fare has been found. This is because if you search for I class DXB-AKL on the 22nd of Dec, there is a lot of availability on any of the three flights. EK is limiting the I class for bookings originating in Cairo, but not in Dubai, for their flights to Auckland.

So, can I set up an alert that will tell me if I class is available on DXB-AKL when I am flying this leg as a part of an itinerary that originates in Cairo?

Sorry for a complex question. I use ExpertFlyer a lot, but couldn't work this out...

Married connections alerts...genius! +1

It'll be an interesting coding problem for the guys at EF, though, but they seem to be good at responding to challenges.

You are describing married segment logic which Flight Alerts does not support at this time.

ExpertFlyer.com Help Desk thread
 

Welcome to the ExpertFlyer.com Help Desk thread. This is a central place for user-to-user questions, guidance, and help for using ExpertFlyer tools and services. When appropriate, we will also participate in the discussion.

If you have a question that is related to your account or you do not want to publicly post information about your searches, please email [email protected] with any ExpertFlyer support questions.

General Support Links:

• New to ExpertFlyer? Bookmark this page
• General Support page
• ExpertFlyer User Guide
• EduGuide: Understanding how to use ExpertFlyer to your advantage
• FAQ’s
• ExpertFlyer's Mobile Edition

Airlines Supported by ExpertFlyer:

• Just about all airlines that participate in the global airline reservation systems support Flight Availability, Flight Status, Flight Details and Fare Information
• For the listing of airlines that we have Award and Upgrade availability data for, click here.
• For the listing of airlines that we can show Seat Maps for, click here.

To find out more about ExpertFlyer:

• Start on our home page
• Take a Virtual Tour of the ExpertFlyer services
• Subscriber Testimonials
• Service Plans, Features and Rates page for our Paid subscriptions,along with screen shots of all features
• Information about our Free Account level for Seat Alerts

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Thank you for your support,
-EFV

ExpertFlyer.com Help Desk thread
 

Hope this is the appropriate place to ask this question...

I'm a new Premium subscriber to EF. I'm trying to book a couple of biz award seats on a challenging route.

I want to set up a Flight Alert for the route in question, so I'm alerted when new award inventory becomes available. I've figured out how to set up an alert, but it appears that EF will only search for new award seats that become available plus-or-minus three days from any specified date. That's not what I want. I want to set up an alert and essentially "leave it running" and receive alerts whenever new inventory becomes available - not just for 3 days beyond a specific date (which does not seem all that useful to me).

Basically I want to feed it my departure and arrival cities, airline, and the "starting" date for the query, and I want it to ping me via email whenever new inventory that meets those criteria become available.

Am I missing how to do this, or is this just not possible? (and if it's not, is there another tool that does)?

Thanks.

Welcome to ExpertFlyer! I think you may be confusing the Award & Upgrade search and Flight Alerts.

The Award & Upgrade search allows you to search for +/- 3 days. You can then save the search under Saved Queries as a shortcut for the search so you don't have to enter the search parameters again.

Flight Alerts are what check for award or upgrade inventory for you. Each Flight Alert is for a specific day/flight/class and will keep checking the inventory until it either finds the inventory or the flight departs.

Could be!

So, it's not possible to just set a Flight Alert to ping me the next time any award inventory opens up on a specified flight - only when inventory opens up for that flight on a specified day? If, for example, I wanted to be alerted if/when inventory opened up on a specific flight any time in the next two weeks, I would need to set up 14 different alerts for that flight - one for every day in the next 2 weeks?

Thanks.