Support for multiple GDS systems
 

AMEX agents used to have the ability to look up multiple GDS systems. Maybe this service needs an enhancement along those lines. Sabre while being the largest does not provide 100% coverage. On top of it there are private records and info not availble on GDS but as a first step getting access to all GDS data would be good. (Maybe a new super-premium service?).

What's the deal with this "TRILLIUM" business?
 

From an itinerary as displayed on ExpertFlyer:

TRILLIUM/ADDRESS ALREADY CLEANSED M4/PAD - NORMALIZED / TRILLIUM


What does TRILLIUM mean? Anybody know, especially AA insiders?

Here to Help
 

Hi folks!

As my handle implies, I am a representative from ExpertFlyer.com.

First, I am only here to help answer questions and address issues that seem to be a common concern on this thread. Individual questions about the service are best answered by sending them to the customer care email address from the Contact Us link off the home page. For the most part, I will just being "looking" at what gets posted here on FT.

Second, I would like to thank those of you who have taken an interest in the service and we welcome all comments and discussion.

Third, to the moderators of this forum, I am only trying to help address the issues raised in this thread/forum where there is confusion or a clear misunderstanding of the service. If you feel at any time I have "crossed the line" into promotion, feel free to delete my posts.

Let me address a few things that have been raised so far:

Who are we?

We are a partnership of people who have a life long interest in flying, one way or another, who saw a need and set out almost a year ago to try take advantage of the vast amount of information that exists for the flying public but is not always easy to obtain or understand. We are a privately held corporation in the Stae of New York. And yes, as you already have derived, our mailing address is UPS Store drop box. But we make no apologoies for this as our business is legit but without the need for a traditional "brick and mortar" establishment. After all, isn''t the entire Jet Blue res agent service strung out in homes all across America?

We have contracted dierctly with several GDS systems. Our aim is to be transparent in terms of the information flow. What you ask for is what you get. We don't truncate, add to, or skew the data coming from the GDS based on your query.

We will continually try to improve the service within the constrainst of the available information from the GDS's, time and resources.

Finally, we are business veterans. We understand customer service, integrity, and recoginize that we need to be a responsive (as best we can) to those who support us. We won't please every one all the time but we will try our best to do so.

PNR's

Much discussion has taken place in this thread about the inconsistent retrieval of PNRs. Simply put, we pull PNRs from just one GDS at present. PNRs are created and stored within one GDS when a reservation is made and are not shared across multiple GDS's. To complicate matters, not all PNRs created within a GDS are available for "public" viewing and many are only viewed by the agency or entity who originate them. Quite frankly, we do not understand the mechanics of when or how a PNR is made public or private. This is why some of you have no trouble retieveing your PNRs and some do. In the future we will be accessing PNRs from more than one GDS.

Hiiden Award Codes

In the Flight Availability dialog screen, there is a box called Class. Leave it blank and you get all the revenue fares returned. If you want to see a specific hidden fare code availability, like X, you must put that specific code in the box and you will get availability for just that one fare code.

Not all, in fact many, airlines do not make there hidden fare code availability accessable through any of GDS's. US and CX are two that come to mind. However, AA is viewable. We will try to catalog which ones do or don't and post them on our site in the FAQ section and/or User Manual.

That's it for now. Thank you all and I look forward to talking to you again.

Welcome, ExpertFlyer Voice! It feels good to this FTer to have somenoe who is involved with EF here... at least lurking regularly, and at best, helping sort out common concerns or quesitons. Some of us will also be able to direct others, as we learn to use the system ourselves.

It will be great to be able to read PNRs from other GDSs, and to expand the number of airlines we can check for award or upgrade seats on. But so far, I have to admit I have used EF to find several flights worth of seats for I-class fares, upgrades using VIPs, and finding the "impossible" to bring some Aussie friends over the big pond in J on AA miles. (If the AAgents knew how I got the information that saved them so much search time, they'd probably want to thank you too... unless they made a nasty comment in my PNR! :D)

Speaking of which, the Fare Class tables are a good start, but the fare classes vary so much I had to guess for that 'roo line's J cabin award seats. So we'll be happy when "U" get that sorted out as well... Those of us in the EF user community are looking forward to all the developments you mention, and I at least feel it's a great match to have the data available from EF and the personal input and experiences from FT. ^

(No, not shilling - I like to give feedback, both positive and negative, when they are due.) :)

Welcom ExpertFlyer Voice...

Love your service...keep the enhancements coming!

Thought about making a pnr available
 

I also cannot see my PNR (booked by my corporate travel office). I can pull up my itin. on virtuallythere.com, but I have to put in a password first. Could that be the problem? Is there a way to add the password to expertflyer.com?

I am so excited--salivating in fact--at the possibility of seeing my pnr. I am hoping that this works out.
-J S

Are you sure its a "password"? From virtuallythere.com:

"Looking for your itinerary? Just enter your reservation code and last name into the form to the left and we'll pull it up."

With my limited knowledge of it in the context of addresses... Trillium is a data quality software tool that determines the validity and accuracy of an address as compared to the United States Postal Service database.

Works similar to: (try entering an address incorrectly)
http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

Helps companies keep their customer and vendor address data clean and in compliance with USPS' standards. Companies then qualify for discounted shipping since it's less likely to be "returned to sender".

Read the full version here:
http://www.trilliumsoft.com

The password is on the next screen
 

Yes. When I put in my pnr and last name, it takes me to a second screen that says:

"Please enter your e-mail address or the password provided by your travel arranger:"

Does anyone else have this issue? For those of you unable to pull up their PNR in experflyer.com, can you pull up the itin in virtually there?

-J S

I have the same problem. ExpertFlyer pulls up a trip I booked through AA, but not my corporate PNRs available on Virtually There. My travel office has had a standard "password" for everyone's PNRs for several years, so maybe there would be some way we could type that in to get the PNRs displayed. But since Virtually There is owned by Sabre, they may not want to allow this.

Too bad about the TA-booked travel, that accounts for 45 of the 50 trips I take a year.

Do that one thing the the $9.99 a month will fly out of my pocket so fast I may get a paper cut :D

I just had the reverse happen. I was able to pull up 3 PNRs in expert flyer and none of the same ones on virtuallythere. It just said it could not find it after I put in the record locator and name from the home screen. Two were made with the AA EXP desk and one directly on AA.com.

Should have been more specific
 

Reservations made directly with AA or AA.com never come up in virtuallythere.com. I was talking about people who have been unable to pull up resevations made by their corporate travel department. For those people, are you able to pull up the res in virtuallythere? Do you need a password (or email)?
-J S

Is there no way ALL the availability (including c,r, D1, D2 etc etc) could display?

Its too bad you can't do a complex query...IE show me the first date after 2/1 when there is X class avalible for a AKL to LAX flight (or connection). Or, have it auto check every X hours and notify you...now THAT would be great!