This is pretty much what I need. I've never tried ITA, so I'm going to look at that, but your comments are what's stopping me from purchasing EF. But I think I'm not necessarily EF's target demographic anyway.

I'm not a frequent flyer. I take huge trips to Asia once a year and need access to the lowest fares regardless of specific dates or airport departure.

The Award & Upgrade search on ExpertFlyer is airline specific, not alliance specific. The only source for alliance award searches are the various airline websites that happen to offer alliance wide award searches (ie: AF,QF,ANA,BA,JAL,M&M).

If you only want the lowest fare, period, then maybe some of the free web sites might be a better fit for you, as you can do those sorts of searches and even get alerts.

I use EF to search for the lowest I fare from 2-3 cities to 5-6 destinations, using the "show all dates" box to see what's out there and which dates they are valid for.

Nearly every free site requires I put in a departure city. Skyscanner.com is the only site I can find that lets you keep departure open, and I know they're not showing me the cheapest fares.

I'm looking for the cheapest fare for a two month period of time to two specific cities in Asia. Departure airport is almost irrelevant. I can't seem to find a tool that can give me that info.

Downtime - Maintenance
 

Maintenance completed, thank you for your patience.

I thought there was one that had a Flyer Talk mode (add "/flyertalk" or something to the URL) that allowed this. I can't recall for sure, since it didn't meet my needs (I want a business class ticket if it's cheap and can adjust where I am going from or to and when to get it, and it seemed fixated on cheap coach tickets).

That was likely the FareCompare FlyerTalk site I linked to above. It had its own URL that included the word "flyertalk.html."

Any idea how to set an award alert for MAD-SVQ in econ? When I run searches, there are no results - is this because Air Nostrum operates it?

Thanks for any advice you can share.

Those flights are marketed under Iberia, in which ExpertFlyer only shows Business award inventory.

I'm searching for some AF awards, and EF is coming back with inventory listings beyond 330 days which is odd. The AF Flying Blue site only goes though mid-July 2013, same with DL. I'm getting results and inventory back into mid- August :confused:

AF publishes flight schedules and availability 360 days in advance.

DL publishes 331 days in advance, (July 17 as of today), which is exactly how far into the future both the Flight Availability and Upgrade search for DL will show.

I checked EF before I purchased air tickets, and I couldn't find any business upgrades (AA) on particular dates.

I had to book the tickets anyway, so I did.
I called AA and asked if business upgrades were available or not just in case.
Somehow upgrades (C) were available on both ways even EF showed no availability.
This happened twice in a row.

Are you sure you used the Awards & Upgrades tool and not the Flight Availability tool on EF? This is the only way you will see C inventory. Also, EF has direct access to AA's inventory and my experience with all classes of awards and upgrades has always been spot on between EF and AA.

Another possibility, although remote, is that you are getting AA's so-called expanded inventory which they sometimes make available to EXPs. EF does not have access to this expanded inventory if it is available for a particular flight.

I suggest you email them with the specifics of routes, flights and dates if you think this is an ongoing problem.

Yes, I'm using the Awards & Upgrades tool. The Flight Availability tool doesn't show AA C class because C is for business upgrade class.

I guess I got the expanded inventory then ^

Yes it sounds like EXP expanded inventory. Also make sure you are searching for AA upgrade inventory segment by segment, if you have connecting flights, as that is the correct way to search for non-EXP expanded AA upgrades.