Your list of dislikes with how other mobile sites are implemented is shared by us, which why we set it up this way. It is also very hard these days to tell exactly what is a "mobile device" browser and what is a regular browser which would add complication to such a change. We thank you for your feedback, but we feel the current approach is the best for all users.

How about getting a domain name for the mobile edition that is shorter than "m.expertflyer.com" then? Maybe I just have fat fingers but it takes me a lot longer to type stuff in on my Blackberry and I sure prefer shorter names.

Well we have expertflyer.mobi which is a little shorter, either way you can just bookmark it and not have to type it again.

Is there a reason you seem to be so averse to simply bookmarking the domain name and moving on? Why would you would want to physically type in a domain name, whether shorter or not, to a site that is apparently important to you and which it sounds like you visit frequently?

Regards

I love expertflyer.com! The only thing that would make it better for me is if there was a way to set a fare notification/alert - just like with a fare bucket or seat notification/alert. If I wanted to travel between ABC-XYZ on certain dates, rather than daily checking the fares myself, it would be awesome to receive an alert that a new fare basis was added or a preexisting one had changed prices.

To be honest, Kayak or some other tool is probably better. For one, fares obviously don't include taxes and fees. Second, just because a fare is changed doesn't mean it's available.

That's an interesting suggestion, however if you are just looking to be notified when there is a low fare price change, Kayak, Yapta, Bing, Farecompare and others have solutions for that already. Even if we did have a published fare tariff alert, it wouldn't necessarily indicate a real world price change as that is dependent on the inventory of a particular flight.

Either way, think about it and if you have any further ideas about what you think might be valuable, please send us an email and we'll take a look.

Actually, that's what I was going to suggest before I read your reply: a fare tarrif alert.

However, at least for domestic itineraries, Travelocity's Fare Watcher is a functional tarrif alert.

I prefer the EF way. I hate when sites figure they are smarter than me and don't do what I ask.

I'd hate a pop-up, but a link sitting quietly at the bottom or someplace would be fine. It could even always be there, whether it thinks you're on a mobile device or not.

Yes, these are all very annoying.

IME, bookmark or not, the browsers (mobile or not) generally match what I type against history (as well as bookmarks) and offer a short-cut to a site I visited before. So, if I type 'expe' I generally see shortcuts for both 'm.expertflyer.com' and 'expertflyer.com'.

Sometimes it's not a matter of a low-price alert, but just that a fare has been published or changed. For instance, I run into situations where I'd like to book an I fare as far out as possible but when I check 330 days out there isn't one. I'd like to know when it gets published.

Alternatively, do any of those sites let you create an alert for a lower business class fare?

First of all, I love the program and have for years. My only issue is the times I have to go elsewhere to get the information I need - nothing would be better than a program as good as EF that had all the info I need.

Thus my question. I also have to use AwardNexus since they have information about award tickets on airlines you can't access. AwardNexus is obviously an independent website. So I realize this it a thread in the 400's and this may have been addressed (and if so, sorry), but if they can do it why can't you? Obviously, someone has access to Lufthansa, BA, etc.

Hi stevens397, first, thank you for your support over the years, we're glad ExpertFlyer has been helpful to you.

To answer your question, the reason why we have the information and services that we do, is because we pay for and access the airline reservation systems directly (the GDSs), whereas AwardNexus gets data from directly browsing to various airline websites (QF/BA/ANA/etc).

As a result, the data/feature set is different. AwardNexus is a nice front end to the airline websites and makes searching those sites easier, however it can only show the exact same data as those websites. ExpertFlyer, on the other hand, can show data that isn't available anywhere else, not even on airline websites, because of our GDS access. For example, we show upgrade inventory for AA & DL, information that the airline websites don't even show. Also, for all of our supported Award/Upgrade airlines we show the actual inventory values available (0,1,2,3, etc) whereas most airline websites just show a yes/no response for the quantity searched for. It also allows us to provide advanced services like Flight & Seat Alerts, graphical Seat Maps for over 115 airlines, advanced availability and fare searches, etc. It also allows us to have a very scalable and fast architecture that supports our growing user base. If you've noticed, a +/- 3 day Award/Upgrade search for multiple classes takes about the same amount of time as a search for one class on one day.

To answer your next question, we cannot do the same kind of screen scraping of airline websites. Partially for technical (speed/stability) reasons, but mainly for legal ones.

I hope that answers your question, feel free to also email us with any questions you might have.

The above exchange regarding award availability makes me curious about the underlying reasons why you can offer this information for some airlines but not others -- do some airlines supply this to some GDSs but not all, or do some airlines not supply this at all, etc.

Appreciate your detailed and serious response but am, of course, not surprised - you are a class organization.

But I question your answer to my unasked question (tho you're right - it WAS my next question!). Are you implying that AwardNexus is doing something illegal - since you say you cannot do the same for legal reasons. Is it not possible for users, like me, to be able to check off other airlines not in your GDS system, knowing the search would take longer and that the information might not be as complete, but would be very valuable to me, nonetheless?
Is it something that you have decided not to do rather than something you can't do? I've made it clear that whatever your answer, you have me. But to some extent, I'm not sure I really understand that part of your answer.

For various reasons, including all of the above, depending on the airline.

Thank you.

No, not at all. We're just saying that EF, as a corporate entity with various established relationships and contracts with others in the industry, is bound by things we can and cannot do, regardless of what's possible technologically.

We understand that it would be nice to have other airlines in EF besides what is currently available, however as I mentioned in the last paragraph, just because we may want to do something doesn't mean we can. Feel free to PM me if you wish to discuss further.

Appreciate your answer and I can also appreciate that you want this ability even more than people like me want you to have it! I look forward to EF being able to expand this ability - it will be the icing on the cake.