Good question. ITA can do an "all day" search because they have the entire flight schedule and an availability database in their system. Any booking website that uses ITA can subsequently do that search.

ExpertFlyer uses the GDSs for its data and they both require a time of day in the search (or they will default to 6am) and can only return a limited amount of flights per search. We use the GDSs because their availability data isn't cached and gives us access to a wider variety of data, however that means we have to work within the constraints of their system, one of which is requiring a time of day. We default the time of day to 12am because that will ensure that you see the first departure of the day searched.

Thanks for the explanation. Let's say I say 6AM. Then which time block is actually used - 4AM-8AM, 6AM-7AM, etc? Thanks.

It's not defined by a block of time. In your example, the GDS will return flights that depart starting at 6am and return all possible flights from that time forward until it reaches the maximum amount of flights it can return per search or that are available.

Early renewal?
 

Is it possible to renew early, before one's automatic renewal date? (For those of us on AA who are scrambling to meet credit card bonus thresholds before the change in the lifetime status program on Dec 1).

I'm sorry, I wish we could help however our billing system wasn't designed to process early renewals.

OK, too bad, thanks.

More than two connecting cities
 

w questions:

1) Is there any (easy) way of adding the third connecting city to the search options?

2) What about getting more results for a search query with connections given? The system does not seem to show all possible connections even within the maximum transfer time of 8 hours (this is what if I am not mistaken the default maximum in EF for connections).

ExpertFlyer: Buy the fares I find on ExpertFlyer.com?
 

I'm an amateur here. I just got a trial account on ExpertFlyer. I am searching for fares and found some fares that look like super deals. I'd like to book those fares but I don't know where to begin. I'd rather stay away from a travel agent and their commissions.

How do I convert the ExperFlyer fare "gibberish" to a ticket I can buy online?

Hi MileMuncher777, welcome to ExpertFlyer!

To start look at our New to ExpertFlyer page: http://www.expertflyer.com/new-to-expertflyer

Specifically, read the EduGuide which explains the relationship between the published fare tariffs and actual availability of those fares: http://www.expertflyer.com/edu-guide.pdf

1) No, the GDS only allow us to specify up to 2 connecting cities.

2) The GDS will only return up to a maximum amount of flights per search, regardless of the parameters of the search. However, in the case of connections, if you select one of the "At least x Connections" options it will use a GDS that will return more flights then the primary one so that should help a bit.

ExpertFlyer now has Free Accounts
 

We're excited to announce that ExpertFlyer released a significant update today. For the first time we now have a Free account level in addition to our Basic and Premium paid subscriptions.

Many of you enjoy the advanced features that ExpertFlyer has to offer, however we wanted to extend the power of ExpertFlyer to those that may not need all of those advanced features. As such, we took the feature that we feel has the widest general appeal, Seat Alerts, and made it available and easy to use in a Free version of ExpertFlyer.

Here are the details on the Free account and what this means to our paid subscriptions. Please note, what we called "Pending" alerts are now called "Active" alerts, to better reflect that they are actively searching for availability.

Free Account:

• With the Free account, you can only create Seat Alerts
• 1 Active Seat Alert at a time is included with the Free account
• This 1 included free alert can use the Any Window Seat, Any Aisle Seat, or Any Seat alert options. The Any Exit Row Seat, Any Two Seats Together, or Specific Seat alert options require a paid Seat Alert which is $.99
• Additional Active Seat Alerts can be purchased for $.99 each and include all alert options.
• If you sign up for a Free Account to start, you can at any time click the Upgrade button that you'll see after you log-in to start a 5-Day trial of our Premium service, or to reactivate your Basic or Premium subscription if you already had your 5-day trial.

Basic Subscription:

• In addition all existing features that Basic subscribers have enjoyed, Basic subscribers can now create Seat Alerts as well.
• 4 Active Seat Alerts are included free of charge with a Basic subscription and include all alert options.
• Additional Active Seat Alerts beyond the included 4 can be purchased for $.99 each.

Premium Subscription:

• Premium Subscriptions still include up to 30 combined Active Flight and Seat Alerts.
• Flight Alerts are still a Premium subscription only feature
• Additional Active Seat Alerts can be purchased for $.99 each if you already have 30 active alerts
• We will soon add the ability to purchase additional Flight Alerts as well if you already have 30 active alerts.

Note that if your Basic or Premium subscription isn't renewed at the end of your subscription term, the account will become a Free account and any Active Seat Alerts that weren't paid for will go into a "Paused" state. To un-Pause a Seat Alert, you can either renew your Basic/Premium paid subscription, or use the 1 included free Seat Alert.

This also means that all existing accounts that were "inactive" until today, where the paid subscription (or 5-day trial) lapsed and had not been renewed, are now Free accounts. You are welcome to log-in and create your free Seat Alert, and you can upgrade the account back to a Basic or Premium subscription at any time.

Please feel free to post any questions and please email us at [email protected] with any feedback or bugs you may find. Thank you for your support!

I'm having trouble using ExpertFlyer mobile on my iPhone ever since I updated to iOS 5. I log in with my email address and password which takes me to the main menu, but when I select anything there (like Flight Availability or Saved Queries), I am dumped back out to the username password screen.

I've tried removing all my cache/cookies, saved website data, and saved usernames/passwords. Nothing seems to help. Not sure if anyone else is experiencing similar behavior. I can still log in just fine on the main website with my desktop, so I know it's not my account.

Upgrading to iOS5 seems to turn off cookies for some people. Turn cookies back on and it will work.

Ahh, that was it! Might be nice to add that info to the unauthenticated page.

Wow, way to delude the value of my purchase. I would have never needed to spend a dime on EF if you had offered this version to me two months ago, yet I have a year long premium subscription. Why should I have to pay $.99 cents more for more alerts as premium?