https://i.imgur.com/lBOzvcM.png

New logo leaked. Got concerned a new website/version of ExpertFlyer is imminent. Fear quickly confirmed by https://beta.expertflyer.com/

With the sale to Red Ventures in mind, will current functionality of the website be enhanced away? Will the interface be dumbed down so complex search queries become impossible? Will the new website be much slower? Will subscription prices rise?

Did you see this post and sign up to be a beta tester? https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31946967-post1065.html

I hadn't seen that post and wasn't aware of the beta. Are people still being added to the beta program?

I fervently hope that EF doesn't prioritize a "modern" looking web interface and risk worsening the functionality and usability. See, as a cautionary note, how much Hilton people detest Hilton's new web interface: Serious problems with new Hilton website including points.

It's a work in progress so there is an opportunity to give us feedback to shape the final product. Instead of being negative before you see what it is you should sign up for the beta.

Sorry if I came across as negative; since I haven't seen the beta I have no idea about it and am not assuming anything. I hope it is even more functional than the current interface.

Please understand this is not negativity, but legitimate concerns from frequent flyers who have been more than once victimized by website "enhancements," i.e., useful functionality that simply gets taken away with no alternative in place. Hence it makes sense that signs of an upcoming "new" website will be greeted with skepticism instead of optimism, as we've been betrayed too many times. This is not unique for ExpertFlyer, airline website redesign elicit similar responses, and other "Travel Tools" websites wouldn't be exempt either.

I'm not beta testing any product without compensation; I'll just trust that the new website won't dumb things down and that the useful functionality of ExpertFlyer - and I consider all current functionality of ExpertFlyer to be useful - won't disappear. I'll welcome a website redesign if all existing functionality remains available, and I'd be thrilled with a redesign that keeps all current functionality and adds a ton of new stuff on top. Don't let us down.

Well, we're not an airline, and if you recall the whole reason EF exists is because airline websites didn't serve your needs in the first place, so we gain nothing by emulating them. I can assure you that as a founder of EF being intimately involved in this process, I am ensuring that there will be no loss of functionality, only enhancements.

The key to making it sure we get it right the first time is feedback, so if you don't think that having a say in what the next version of EF will look like is worth your time, then I'm sorry to hear that. Just today in the beta we introduced a couple of long awaited and very useful features that will only be available in the new site, so you will need to use the beta in order to have access to them before their general release. Either way, thanks for your feedback.

Do we have a thread to discuss the 'beta' here or anywhere else I sent my first piece of feedback already, i really hope the availability screen will be completely redesigned,

No as the beta is invitation only and not public, so at this point the discussion is also between you and us directly to allow for honest feedback, and also since the beta isn't set in stone yet and likely will change. Just please keep sending feedback to us directly as you use it, thanks.

Any planned updates for the mobile app by any chance?

— A happy EF user

Hi, yes we are planning on updates in the future, but the website, including the current mobile website, will be updated first later this year.

Customercare@ email issue resolved
 

If anyone emailed [email protected] or used the Contact Us form for support anytime between last Thursday afternoon (Eastern time) and today your email was not delivered, please resend it. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

1 Year Free of EF + New Beta
 

Hi everyone, we have two announcements today from the ExpertFlyer team:

First, we have partnered with American Express to offer 1 free year of ExpertFlyer Premium as a statement credit when you sign up for a new Amex Hilton Surpass or Aspire card via an exclusive TPG partnership. This is offered as a one-time, up to $100 statement credit, for a Premium Yearly subscription. You can find the details and the sign up link for this offer here: https://thepointsguy.com/news/hilton...erflyer-offer/ (You must use the offer link on the TPG page to get the statement credit.)

Second, to coincide with this offer we are also making available publicly the beta of the new version of ExpertFlyer that we have been working on.

To use the beta:

• You must have an account on ExpertFlyer, you cannot sign up on the beta site yet.
• To use any features other than Seat Alerts you must have a Premium ExpertFlyer subscription
• You may login to the beta here: https://beta.expertflyer.com
• You login with the same email/password (or Facebook) that you use on the regular ExpertFlyer site
• When you login for the first time, all your preferences, alerts, and saved searches will be transferred from the old version of ExpertFlyer to the new beta site. From this point on, any additional changes you make to one site won't be transferred to the other.
• Any billing/subscription management must still take place on the current site, the beta is just the searching and alerting functionality of EF for now.

Improvements & Changes in the beta
Aside from all the existing EF functionality, we have added a few new features to the new EF:

• Married segment alerts: from both the Flight Availability and Award & Upgrade results any itineraries with connections will now allow you to create alerts for all the segments combined. (We know you’ve been patiently waiting for this one and we thank you.)
• Route Alerts: at the top of the Flight Availability or Award Upgrade results pages you’ll see a banner that prompts you to create an alert for all flights. It allows you to create an alert for a specific day/airline/class but for any non-stop/direct flight, not just one specific flight.
• SMS Alerts: You can now enter in a mobile phone number on the My Account page to get true SMS alerts.
• Seat Alerts as a separate search: Seat Alerts are now created via their own page that checks to see if the seat type you want (ie Any Window) is already available on the flight. If it isn’t, then you are given the opportunity to create a Seat Alert. Soon we will remove the requirement to know your flight number (the user will be shown a list of flights for date/airline/route). We will also be adding back in the ability to create a Seat Alert from the Seat Map results.
• In Flight Availability and Award searching numeric inventory values of 2 or less are now in red to stand out better.
• The default view in Flight Availability is by cabin, however you can click on the “switch to class view” link in the results table header to switch to the class code view. The preference will be remembered.
• A new mobile experience: Unlike the current EF the mobile version will have the same UI as the desktop version. It also uses the same URL, no more /mobile for the mobile version.
• A lot of general UI improvements

You may have also noticed our new logo and color scheme which we have updated the current site with to match the beta.

What we need you to test:
(Click the Give us Feedback button to report any issues)

• Make sure that all your preferences/alerts/searches were transferred over from the current EF when you first login. See the 3 icons on the upper right of the desktop version.
• The new features to ensure they work as expected, specifically the alerts. Creating Availability Alerts for inventory that already exists is an easy way to test that feature.
• My Alerts & Saved Searches pages - make sure that both old and new alerts and saved searches show correctly without any errors
• Search options - make sure that the options and combination of options of the various searches work as they should and produce the expected results. The results should match current ExpertFlyer exactly.
• Search results - you’ll notice that we changed the layout of some of the search results, especially FA and Awards. Please run these searches, especially with multiple days, and let us know if there are any issues.
• Test on a mobile device as well as the desktop.
• If you are not based in the USA please test SMS alerts to make sure they work for you.
• If you come across a reason why you would use the current EF over the beta, tell us.

Important - Please email any feedback or bugs to [email protected] so our engineers and designers can see it. It's the best way to make sure your voice is heard with our team, which is now larger than the original EF team.

From this point forward we will be doing rolling updates of the beta as we fix bugs and add functionality. If you encounter a bug or issue, please report it using the Feedback button. We appreciate your help and patience while we build a great new experience for you.

Thank you,
The ExpertFlyer.com Team

Edited to add: Please post any feedback/discussion of the beta on this new thread to keep this one on topic: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trav...ck-thread.html Thank you!

AA Upgrade Class Changes
 

Due to American now having different A and C class inventory for paid fares vs upgrades, we have worked with AA to be able to show you both versions on EF

• As of now, the default Flight Availability and Award & Upgrade search will show the "upgrade" version of A/C
• We are going to make a change so the Flight Availability search shows the paid version of A/C by default, however for now the workaround to see it is to change the POS to non-USA or to use the Don't Show Interline Connections options which uses a different system and will show the paid inventory A/C classes. When we make the default change we'll post here again, likely sometime in November as it will take a bit of programing.
• Flight Alerts for A or C will always be for the upgrade inventory version as those classes are marked as Award/Upgrade classes internally.

Does anyone know if existing Amex Hilton cardholders also get the statement credit, despite the T&C suggesting that this only applies to the first year of card membership?