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.

Your welcome, we're glad we were able to help. Enjoy your trip!

Enhanced Mobile Site and Fare Enhancements
 

Tonight we have released two new sets of enhancements:

ExpertFlyer Mobile Site:

• We have reworked the mobile site to be much more touch device friendly with an enhanced UI. Now when you browse to the mobile site (m.expertflyer.com) on any iPhone, iPod, Andriod, PalmOS, Windows Phone 7, or recent BlackBerry device, the newer version of the mobile site will automatically appear (see below for screen shots).
• You can now resubmit alerts from the mobile site.

Fare Information:

• The Fare Information search now has a Passenger Type option which allows you to see, in addition to regular Adult fares, these additional types of fares:
  • Senior
  • Military
  • Government (different than Military fares)
  • Student
  • Youth
• For Fare Information searches that include Surcharges (fuel or otherwise, when applicable) in the price of the fare, there is now a View Fares Without Surcharges option at the top of the results page that will allow you to see the base fare without any Surcharges applied. Like before, any Fare Information result that does not include surcharges where applicable will note that in bold at the top of the page.

As always, if you have any questions or issues, you can email us at [email protected] If you are having an issue with the use of the new mobile site, please click the Contact Us link from your mobile device.

Enhanced Mobile Site: Flight Availability:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...-fa-mobile.png

Enhanced Mobile Site: Fare Information:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...bile-fares.png

As always, thanks for the updates ^



p.s., don't forget to charge your battery :p

Much easier to operate this interface with my fat fingers ^ (except maybe the AT&T part ;-p)

Wish all cabins could be displayed simultaneously on the seatmaps, but at least you have added the links to view the other cabins from the seatmap display without having to go Back.

Thanks!

Cool! I look forward to trying it.

Now, if only Apple had a way to code the web form to turn off autocorrect, then you could do so on appropriate fields, and avoid the nonsense of autocorrecting airport and airline codes. Last time it did this, I ended up in some Catch-22 where the airline that EF thought I meant based on the autocorrect didn't fly the route, and I couldn't resubmit.