Thanks dstan for an excellent contribution and analysis.

Why is it so?
 

If I do a Flight availability search (not an award seach) eg SYD-EZE 27/4 +/- 3 days with QF listed in the airline filter and the don't show interline connections box checked the result does not return U availability.
If I uncheck the interline connections box then U availability appears for the QF-operated flights SYD-EZE
If I add BA to the airline filter (even though no BA flights appear), the U availabilty for QF-operated flights is there but it also shows U availability for the QF-coded/LA-operated flight SYD-SCL.
Enquiring mind wants to know - although for no good reason ;)

Same if I add BA to QF in the airline preference list for SYD-LAX it will show P and U availability

ExpertFlyer picks from many different ways to access airline data depending on which airline(s) and options you choose in your search. For example, the Don't Show Interline option requires us to use a different GDS then we normally do as it's not supported by our primary one (same for the force 1/2 connections options).

As for QF, specifying just QF as the airline will tell the system to directly access the QF host, thereby allowing you to see flights a full 355 days into the future. If you specify no airline or more then one, then we use the GDS which is only 330/331 days out. As a side effect of this, talking directly to QF only shows classes where the availability is >0 whereas the GDS availability shows classes that are 0.

Making these choices on the back end automatically to get the best possible data for a given request is part of the magic of ExpertFlyer ;)

Thank you for your suggestion.
I was just asking for an information I needed and was surprised by the answers... (rules of FT, sounds like you don't want to pay etc...)
I am just a traveller, glad to help when I can.
I know now where I can't ask for helping.

How can you look up published routings? For example YYC-PER via the Atlantic... Thanks!

If you are referring to flight availability/schedules, just do a Flight Availability search. If you are referring to the Routing Rules of YYC-PER fares, do a Fare Information search and click on the Routing Rules icon to the right of the fare you want to see the valid routing for.

Nope, not schedules. Actually looking at specific routings (not fares) for YYC-PER via FRA, etc. (Atlantic, not Pacific). I assume from your post that the only way to do this is to look hard... :(

Qantas Award/Upgrade Availability 355 days out
 

We're pleased to announce that ExpertFlyer is now able to access Qantas Award/Upgrade availability for all 4 award classes up to the full 355 days in advance. However as a result of the way we have to access the QF host to get the extended information, a flight will only be returned by Qantas in the Award & Upgrade search if the searched class has availability greater then zero.

If you would like to ensure that all direct flights are listed for purposes of creating a Flight Alert, you can add a regular fare class, such as Y, as an "Other Fare Class" in the Award & Upgrade search. Alternatively, you may also perform a regular Flight Availability search as the 4 award classes will also show there when their values are greater then zero and QF is the only airline specified in the search.

If you have any questions about this, please email [email protected]

jlisi984, there's a tool a FTer has created that lists routes various airlines fly. You could use it as a rough guide as to how to get from YYC-PER by selecting your start city and end city and see what common points in Europe come up.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-released.html

Otherwise, yes, it's going to just be hard looking. The published routing depends on the published fare you're looking at, as ExpertFlyer Voice commented before. If you give us a better idea of what you're trying to look for, there are other tools that might help you better. For example, kayak.com offers a tool where you can select what layover airports you want.

Hope this helps!

How to look up MPM? is it the YY fare?
how about the city pair without any published fare?

one example, PEK to YAP
or LXA to ROR?

i guess i do a lot of award ticket on going to remote location.
and so far, CO is really easy as they dont enforce routing restrictions.

How about something like SZX to DPS. it seems that the MPM is useless, and the published routing involves non-star carrier.

Thanks.

MPM for fares that are MPM fares (as opposed to fares restricted by routing) are listed in the Routing Rules for a fare (from the Fare Information results). However if a city pair doesn't have a published airline or YY fare, then there is no published MPM.

Fare information
 

I noticed that to actually see -all- fares one need not to change 'today's date, otherwise the system will only show 'all' fares available for travel only AFTER a specified date (regardless of seasons and other restrictions).

Fare help
 

Using ExpertFlyer to look at fares between RDU and AMS for travel on 3/12 return on 3/15 I see a DL T fare (TLXSL91) that lists $393 round-trip followed by another T (TLWSL91) that lists $443 round-trip.
TLXSL91 DL T Round-Trip 393.00(USD) E 02/10/11
04/12/11
SU / 1M
TLWSL91 DL T Round-Trip 443.00(USD) E 02/10/11
04/12/11
SU / 1M

But when I go to ITA to price it out (flights have T available) I get the following:
Fare (A1): DL RDUAMS TLWSL91 fare (rules) , psgr type ADT $401.50
Fare (A2): DL AMSRDU TLXSL91 fare (rules) , psgr type ADT $396.15

It appears that ExpertFlyer is reading what should be a one-way as a round-trip.

After playing around a little more, if I un-check the validate fares box the fares seem to display correctly:

TLXSL91 DL T Round-Trip 753.00(USD) E 02/10/11
04/12/11
SU / 1M
TLXSL41 DL T Round-Trip 793.00(USD) E 01/14/11
04/12/11
SU / 1M 07
TLWSL91 DL T Round-Trip 803.00(USD) E 02/10/11
04/12/11
SU / 1M

That is not the problem. If you notice, the difference between the two fares for TLXSL91 is $360. That is 2x the one-way fuel surcharge of $180 (as noted in the Surcharges section of the Fare Rules).

It looks like that the rules of when to apply the fuel surcharge are ambiguous enough that without knowing the specific flights, the GDS doesn't know if the surcharge is applicable or not, so it doesn't get applied unless validation is turned off. ITA shows the amounts with the fuel surcharge because you're pricing out a specific itinerary with specific flights. It's a tariff display vs a fare quote for specific flights, two different things.

We've seen this before but it doesn't always happen, most times the fuel surcharges are applied always or never, depending on how the airline files them, which of course is never consistent. Unfortunately the results don't contain information about if a particular surcharge is applied to a particular fare (you have to price out an itinerary to see that), however we always request surcharges be added so the GDS does it where it can.

One trick to see the true base fare before fuel surcharges is to look at the Routing Rules for the fare. That will list just the base fare in the top of the response.

Thanks for the explanation - makes sense but would be nice if it displayed a little more clearly.

Need for Expert Flyer to clarify something
 

I did a fare search with the Expert Flyer for a LAX-MAD flight for November of this year. I was looking for B-fares in the hopes of using UA/LH miles to upgrade at no cost on LH. Here are the resutls:

Fare Basis Airline Booking Class Trip Type Fare Cabin Effective Date Expiration Date Min / Max Stay Adv Purchase Req
BLX0RCE CO B Round-Trip 1070.00(USD) E 10/30/11 12/14/11 -- / 3M 01
BLX0RCE LH B Round-Trip 1070.00(USD) E 10/30/11 12/14/11 -- / 3M 01
BLX0RCE UA B Round-Trip 1070.00(USD) E 10/30/11 12/14/11 -- / 3M 01
BLW0RCE CO B Round-Trip 1120.00(USD) E 10/30/11 12/14/11 -- / 3M 01
BLW0RCE LH B Round-Trip 1120.00(USD) E 10/30/11 12/14/11 -- / 3M 01
BLW0RCE UA B Round-Trip 1120.00(USD) E 10/30/11 12/14/11 -- / 3M 01
B0NCE CO B Round-Trip 2620.00(USD) E -- / 12M
B0NCE LH B Round-Trip 2620.00(USD) E -- / 12M
B0NCE UA B Round-Trip 2620.00(USD) E -- / 12M
B1FFE CO B Round-Trip 3015.00(USD) E -- / 12M
B1FFE LH B Round-Trip 3015.00(USD) E -- / 12M
B1FFE UA B Round-Trip 3015.00(USD) E -- / 12M


I went on united.bomb and only the B1FFE fares are offered at about $400 more than what you see above (hidden fuel charge I assume). Are the BLX0RCE or BLW0RCE fares not available or does one have call and ask about them. I notice this fares have effective and expiration dates. Could they be promotional fares that are net yet released? Or are these fares bogus.

Thanks in advance

Please email the details of the search and the flights/dates you are looking at to [email protected] and we will take a look. The short answer is that if a fare isn't being used, it's because it's not applicable. Make sure you look in the Fare Rules to see what the differences are between the fares.

Is there any chance of introducing a reverse Seat Alert feature?

It'd be very useful to know if a certain bucket is zeroing out.

Thanks.

If you mean reverse Flight Alerts then yes, that is something we are looking to implement in the future.

Great, that'd be very useful.

UA & CO on expertflyer
 

Hi ExpertFlyer Voice, I have some questions. Since UA & CO are merging (still another year to finish), when can we expect to see awards & upgrades availability on CO flights at expertflyer.com? Besides, after the merging is done, i worry awards & upgrades availability on UA will no longer be supported by EF. Please advise.

Thanks for your question, however we cannot comment about what will happen a year from now.

I have just started using Expert Flyer and this post was the only one that showed up with I did a search on HA.

I would like to clarify that this is still current information for HA. I am trying to use AA miles from HNL to SYD. I did notice that what I received using the award/upgrade feature on Expert Flyer and what the HA FF search gives me different information.

So is this information concerning Saver awards, current? Expert Flyer does not show availability for Saver awards?

Thanks.

Since you cross posted in the HA forum, we'll answer your question there, but it sounds like you're confusing Flex and Saver awards.

I hate it when people do that. I did not discover this thread until later. I had forgotten about it.

Yes, I was confusing them and I did not realize that Expert Flyer did not support the Saver awards.

Thanks.

HA Award Update
 

In response to jagoffee's post we did some research and found that HA changed most of their award classes last month. This is what is currently available via ExpertFlyer:

First - Flex Award/Upgrade - P
Coach - SuperSaver Award (Inter-island/Int'l) - U*

*Coach SuperSaver Award availability is only visible for Inter-island and International flights, not for Continental U.S. To/From Hawaii flights in our testing. If you find this not to be the case, please let us know.

Flight Availability Point of Sale
 

We have just released a new feature on ExpertFlyer that allows you to select a UK Point of Sale for the Flight Availability search. If you click the Show Advanced Options button at the top of the search page, then a Point of Sale option box will become visible at the bottom of the search form where you can select from either a USA or UK point of sale.

Also, any Flight Alert that is subsequently created from a Flight Availability search that used the UK Point of Sale will itself be checked using the UK Point of Sale. The Point of Sale is also now an option on the Create New Flight Alert form as well.

Is there any way to look up reward ticket availability for BA, IB, JL or CX? Will this be available anytime soon on expertflyer?

This is VERY interesting. Do you know what carriers currently discriminate on point of sale of US vs GB?

We cannot comment on what features ExpertFlyer may include in the future, however the only known way to search for those Oneworld carriers is to use the award search tool on either the Qantas or BA website.

BA for one. Even if an airline can discriminate on point of sale it doesn't mean they will do so in all situations. We can't say for certain when it would or wouldn't be helpful, but we at least wanted to give our users a simple way of being able to see any possible differences between the availability if they do exist.

Fare information question
 

Looking at fares OKC-BOS, departing 4/22/11 and returning 4/24/11.

Searching Kayak, I get AA with a fare of $396 ($438.80 ai). Looking up fares on EF, the cheapest AA fare is $558. I tried unchecking "validate fare".

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

You should be using matrix.itasoftware.com, where it clearly shows the fare breakdown; this itinerary is built by joining two fares through the connecting point. For example:

Yes, and the other clue that AA is using a joined fare is that for OKC-BOS there is no availability in either Q or O on any flight for the outbound trip. However for OKC-DFW and DFW-BOS separately, there is.

Two questions
 

Hi ExpertFlyer Voice

I have two questions regarding inconsistencies in what I'm seeing in EF and what I see on airline seat maps.

First, on LA801 on April 6 (but I think it is every date as I had the same issue on LA800 on my outbound flight) not every seat shown as available on the EF seat map is available for me to actually select on Lan.com or via their call centre. As an example, seat 12L appears available in EF but I can't actually select it. The same for the middle row aisle seats in rows 15 to 17. My QF (gold) frequent flyer number is entered in expert flyer and is included in my reservation. One possible explanation I have is the perhaps Lan is only offering preferred seats to its own frequent flyers, even though this is a published benefit for OW sapphire. What do you think is going on here?

Second, LA801 is a codeshare with QF322. But EF shows different aircraft (Aircraft: 340 vs Aircraft: 343). I don't know much about the difference between these aircraft, maybe it's just a different configuration, but the issue is that the QF codeshare is showing row 26 to be an exit row, which, having taken this flight multiple times, I know is not true (row 25 is the only exit row). This may not be an EF issue though as I was allocated row 26 on my outbound when I asked for an exit row at AKL, and I was disappointed that it was not one, despite the agent's assurances at check-in.

Thanks very much in advance

Since we don't know what city pair you are flying (LA 801 goes from SCL-AKL-SYD) and we don't know what your QF FF# is so we can't try to send that to LA, we can't replicate what you are looking at. Questions like these should be emailed us at [email protected]

However assuming for the moment AKL-SYD, you can see that 12L is indeed marked as Available by LA:

If you look at the QF version of the seat map, that seat doesn't even show up. It would appear that LA isn't allowing certain seats to be allocated by codeshare partners. Same thing with the middle row aisle seats in rows 15 to 17. Clearly Available on LA but nowhere to be found on QF. When flying codeshares, only the seat map of the airline you're buying the ticket with matters.

There is no difference, it's an A340-300 as LAN only flies that and 763's. Some airlines publish equipment codes generically, some specifically. Some even make up their own.

LA doesn't mark exit rows on their seat maps, however if you look at this: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/LAN...irbus_A340.php It's easy to see why QF could think that row 25 is an exit row. Either way QF thinks 25 is an exit row, and that's why you got it. It looks to be a problem with LA communicating the seat map layout to QF and everyone else sees that mistake, QF agents included. Either way, ExpertFlyer shows exactly the same seat maps the airlines show to everyone else.

Thanks for the reply. My apologies for asking in the wrong place - I will send an email to the address you provided for clarification.

Cheers

No problem, we just want to make sure you get the best support possible.

LA Seat Maps
 

Thanks to your help lazy_flyer, we have updated the processing of LA seat maps so that seats marked as bassinet, handicap accessible, or suitable for minors (codes B,H,M) will now show as Blocked even when the seats are reported as otherwise available. Unlike other airlines, LA doesn't allow any of those seats to be pre-assigned.

Thank you ExpertFlyer
 

I have been looking literally 3 times a day for 2 non-stop BIZ award seats on AF May 1st from SEA-CDG for the past 9 months. We had our tickets but because of limited availability when we first booked we had to connect through Chicago.

This morning I woke up and there was an award seat "alert" from EF saying 2 seats had opened up on the exact day we needed on the non-stop.

Ten minutes later after a call to the airline we were booked.

If it wasn't for the alert this morning...these coveted and rare seats would have been gone before I realized they had opened up.

Thanks EF.