Jul 17, 2014, 1:23 pm

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

Last edit by: hillrider

This thread is for ExpertFlyer Information and Updates only (as per its title) and many subscribe to it for this purpose. For other issues, please see the ExpertFlyer.com Help Desk thread.

If you have any questions about using ExpertFlyer or wish to report any issues, please email them at [email protected].

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Jul 10, 2014, 4:09 am

#916

hillrider

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 1999

Posts: 12,097

Quote:

Originally Posted by Globaliser

Could this please be looked at?

[Edited to add:]

I'm actually have exactly the same problem with BA-coded flights operated by CJ (BA CityFlyer).

Hint: they probably need to be able to replicate the problem, and to do so they need to know your inputs: airline/flight #s, city pairs, date, cabin, etc.

Jul 10, 2014, 6:01 am

#917

pandaperth

Join Date: Mar 2008

Location: used to be PER, now it's nowhere/eveywhere

Programs: QFF NB, AA GLD

Posts: 3,467

I have a question on the timetable search

How far into the future are timetables displayed?

I've been looking at PHL-DOH in April 2015

For April 12th the timetables show
For April 13th nothing shows

In contrast, on the Flight Availability Search - April 13th shows

Jul 10, 2014, 6:29 am

#918

Globaliser

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: London

Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.

Posts: 38,644

Quote:

Originally Posted by hillrider

Hint: they probably need to be able to replicate the problem, and to do so they need to know your inputs: airline/flight #s, city pairs, date, cabin, etc.

When I get exactly the same result over a dozen times on different flights and dates, I think it's reasonably safe to assume that it's more likely to be a systemic problem than one that is linked to specific flights or dates, and that there will be no difficulty in replicating the problem with one single search.

FWIW, here's a set to try if you wish: 18 August 2014, JNB-DUR, on:-
BA6205
BA6201
BA6203
BA6211
BA6219
BA6229
BA6221

Or the same flights on 18 September 2014.

Jul 10, 2014, 2:54 pm

#919

ExpertFlyer Voice

Left Expert Flyer 4/23

Original Poster

Join Date: Jan 2005

Posts: 2,741

Quote:

Originally Posted by Globaliser

Thank you for letting us know about these new features.

I'm having trouble with a specific set of circumstances for equipment change alerts. When trying to set up an alert for a BA-coded domestic flight within South Africa, operated by MN (Comair), the website returns error messages whether I specify the BA code or the MN code.

When using the BA flight number, it says:-And when using the MN flight number (ie MN's prime flight number which is not used for selling), it says:The error message for the BA flight number was unexpected, because the BA flight number actually works fine for seat maps and seat alerts.

Could this please be looked at?

[Edited to add:]

I'm actually have exactly the same problem with BA-coded flights operated by CJ (BA CityFlyer).

You're welcome. Whatever issue there was with the seat maps seems to have passed because we can't replicate the problem at this time. Please check again and if you continue to have issues please email us at [email protected] This thread is not monitored or meant for support issues, they should be reported via email which we check frequently so we can replicate any issues as you see them. Thanks!

Last edited by ExpertFlyer Voice; Jul 10, 2014 at 3:03 pm

Jul 10, 2014, 3:02 pm

#920

ExpertFlyer Voice

Left Expert Flyer 4/23

Original Poster

Join Date: Jan 2005

Posts: 2,741

Quote:

Originally Posted by pandaperth

Timetable information is currently available about 9 months into the future. Our current Timetable vendor updates the data weekly and currently has data thru April 12. We will update our help file to clarify that.

Flight Availability data is not the same as Timetable data and isn't available for the same time window. We are looking at different options to get more Timetable data, but that would still not be as far in advance as Flight Availability data.

Jul 10, 2014, 6:25 pm

#921

pandaperth

Join Date: Mar 2008

Location: used to be PER, now it's nowhere/eveywhere

Programs: QFF NB, AA GLD

Posts: 3,467

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExpertFlyer Voice

Thnak you
All understood

Jul 11, 2014, 2:18 am

#922

Globaliser

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: London

Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.

Posts: 38,644

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExpertFlyer Voice

Whatever issue there was with the seat maps seems to have passed because we can't replicate the problem at this time.

Thank you - whatever the issue was, it does seem to have been fixed because it's all working fine now for both MN-operated and CJ-operated flights. Thanks again!

Jul 17, 2014, 3:59 am

#923

lewinr

Join Date: Apr 2001

Posts: 1,223

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExpertFlyer Voice

We are excited to announce that today we are launching several new features in ExpertFlyer.com:

Flight Timetables
Aircraft Equipment Change Alerts (Premium Subscribers Only)
Interline Agreement Information
Visa, Health & Passport Information

Flight Timetables:

Shows flights timetable information, both for direct flights and connections, for different airlines between a pair of cities on a specific day or range of days
Can also search for all flights to or from a specific airport on a given day (*Beta feature, may be slower then the other searches.)
Ability to search only for non-stop/direct flights or include connecting flights
Advanced filtering options by airports, airlines, and type of flight

Aircraft Equipment Change Alerts:

Monitor for changes to the aircraft equipment code returned for the Seat Map of a flight
No more surprise seat reassignments, ExpertFlyer will periodically check for an equipment change and notify you if a change is made
Part of the 30 Active alerts allowed at one time in the Premium service.

Interline Agreement Information & Visa, Health & Passport Information:

Additions to the Travel Information tool
Interline Agreement search shows the airline codes that have an Interline Agreement with the specified airline
Visa, Health & Passport Information shows Visa/Entry requirements for travel based on your citizenship and departure country, as well as other country specific information for your destination

We hope you find these new features useful in your travel planning. If you have any questions about using these features or wish to report any issues, please email us at [email protected]

Thank you for this update.
The text indicates that only Aircraft Equipment Change Alerts is restricted to Premium Subscribers Only.
But I am unable to find the Flight Timetables using my free subscription account.
Can you confirm that it should be available to non-premium subscribers? If yes, where can I find it?

Thanks

Jul 17, 2014, 5:01 am

#924

pandaperth

Join Date: Mar 2008

Location: used to be PER, now it's nowhere/eveywhere

Programs: QFF NB, AA GLD

Posts: 3,467

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExpertFlyer Voice

We are excited to announce that today we are launching several new features in ExpertFlyer.com:
...
Flight Timetables:

Shows flights timetable information, both for direct flights and connections, for different airlines between a pair of cities on a specific day or range of days
Can also search for all flights to or from a specific airport on a given day (*Beta feature, may be slower then the other searches.)
Ability to search only for non-stop/direct flights or include connecting flights
Advanced filtering options by airports, airlines, and type of flight

How is the advanced filtering done?
There are no fields on the screen to enter the filtering criteria
Edited to add: And the answer is: The filters are on the results screen. Silly me, never noticed that before now

ps You have yet to update the help page, as you said you would in post #923

Last edited by pandaperth; Jul 17, 2014 at 6:41 am Reason: Penny finally dropped!

Jul 17, 2014, 9:39 am

#925

ExpertFlyer Voice

Left Expert Flyer 4/23

Original Poster

Join Date: Jan 2005

Posts: 2,741

Quote:

Originally Posted by lewinr

The Free account is only for Seat Alerts. Flight Timetables are available to the Basic and Premium accounts and Aircraft Equipment Change Alerts are Premium only:

http://www.expertflyer.com/free-program
http://www.expertflyer.com/frequent-flyer-programs

You can upgrade your Free account to a Basic subscription by clicking Upgrade after logging in.

Jul 17, 2014, 10:49 am

#926

Cruban

Join Date: Oct 2011

Location: YOW

Programs: AC Irrelevant, IHG Platinum, Marriot Gold, Hertz Gold, Avis First

Posts: 273

New to EF - using the Award & Upgrade Search to look for availability on YOW-DME, connecting in IAD and BRU on SN in June 2015 but nothing comes up.

However, if I search the legs separately it shows the flights and the corresponding availability...
Am I missing something?
Thanks.

Jul 17, 2014, 11:23 am

#927

Cruban

Join Date: Oct 2011

Location: YOW

Programs: AC Irrelevant, IHG Platinum, Marriot Gold, Hertz Gold, Avis First

Posts: 273

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cruban

Question answered.
Just realized that the problem is YOW-IAD is on UA and EF is not showing UA flights.

Jul 17, 2014, 1:24 pm

#928

hillrider

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 1999

Posts: 12,097

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cruban

Am I missing something?

Aug 31, 2014, 9:34 pm

#929

ExpertFlyer Voice

Left Expert Flyer 4/23

Original Poster

Join Date: Jan 2005

Posts: 2,741

Delta Visibility Changes

As of today, Delta has requested that we no longer offer to you any information on ExpertFlyer pertaining to Delta. Since our inception almost 10 years ago we have accessed Delta information through a GDS where they publish information for the benefit of various travel providers. We have always done this with the full knowledge and tacit approval of Delta. However, there now appears to be a change of thinking at Delta where this is no longer the case. As a result, we will no longer display Delta information in any of our Tools, including Flight Availability, Upgrades, Seat Maps, Fare Information, Flights Status, Flight Details, and Flight Timetables. All Alerts of all types for Delta will be set to Expired as to not count against your active alert limit.

To be clear, this action is not unique to ExpertFlyer. Delta has recently been removing their data from many websites, both booking and non-booking, in an attempt to force as many travelers as possible to only use delta.com and their apps for Delta information. In our many conversations with Delta it was made clear to us that their new policy is that any service or website that is not explicitly authorized to show Delta data will be forced to stop, especially any that screen scrape data from Delta.com or any Delta partner or agency website.

Our many attempts to forge a new agreement for the display of this information on ExpertFlyer with Delta have been rejected. We believe, and have explained to them, that ExpertFlyer brought value to Delta's best customers and by extension to Delta itself. We hope in the future Delta will come to see the net value that ExpertFlyer gives to them as you have already discovered. Should you wish to express your thoughts on this matter to Delta, you can reach customer support here:

http://www.delta.com/contactus/pages...aint/index.jsp

You may also send a copy of any feedback you send to ExpertFlyer at [email protected] and we can pass it along to our contacts at Delta.

On a positive note, we will be announcing the addition of a major new airline for Awards & Upgrade searching and alerting in the very near future. We will make the announcement at the time new airline award data has been added.

As always, thank you for your continued support.
-The ExpertFlyer.com Team

Aug 31, 2014, 11:51 pm

#930

SusanDK

Join Date: Jun 2004

Posts: 3,774

Really sorry to hear this and I will be sending a complaint to Delta. I've used EF mostly for Delta and found it invaluable, saving me a lot of time to find the flights and potential upgrades I want so that I can call Delta with an itinerary ready to be booked -- saving both them and me a tremendous amount of time.

Not even being able to show flight availability and seat maps is just crazy.

How will this affect code shares? If I flight is coded AF or KL, but on DL metal, will it come up in a flight availability search?