Does anybody know what CRS the service uses as its primary. Sabre? Or Galielo? Apollo etc... We all know availability may be different depending on your primary CRS.

Actually, made both my SIN Do and my Florence Do reservations about the same week, scrambling to beat the AA Copay deadline (aaah, Dec. 1st....). What you wisely suggest with trying other dates, times, flights, routes, etc. is EXACTLY what I did for both itineraries. I didn't know about ExpertFlyer.com back then....just playing around w/ flight schedules to see diff. routings, talking to several AA Res. reps on the phone, etc. AA Res. was able to find "upgrades CONFIRMED" flights/dates for me for SIN. But, after said playing around, not so for FCO. The AA Reps. I've talked to since then have said that it's likely that they'll release more seats for miles upgrades, and that I have a good chance---after they give all the EXP's theirs .

I'll just keep hoping....and I'll make sure I've got a couple of Ambiens left if that coach overnight doesn't change and I'll buy a nice small bottle of fine wine in Florence if the return doesn't either .

The "pop up" of the fare basis designators is how I discovered R availability on those flights.....nice thing to keep in mind.

[In fact, in the PNR for my SIN Do, I can trace quite a conversation across several notes by agents regarding why I wasn't charged the co-pay for my upgrades, as they learned that upgrade copays were waived when u/g was requested and waitlisted before 12/1 that cleared after 12/1....followed by all the possible fees they could charge since they handled it---fed. ex fee, paper ticket fee, res. agent (vs. free on aa.com) fee, etc]

My first impressions have been :

a) Couldn't find an active AA PNR
b) Couldn't find allowable routing for a given fare, expedia was better
c) All fields have to be manually input: no logical suggestions
d) *** deleted ***
e) Quirks have to be manually input - ITA is far, far better


1) Seeing in a glance loads for all flights in a route ^
2) Looks nice, simple, fast and professional ^
3) Fare info is nice but then it's available at travelocity
4) *** added *** Excellent customer service - answers in a short period of time ^


Perhaps other have had better luck, but so far I'm far from impressed. The sheer fact that I can't fully rely on its info is bad news, be it PNR or routing rules - making it a paid service then I'd expect something more robust.

Or perhaps I'm used to free and reliable services - who knows.

I'd suggest it, nevertheless, for a beginner as it's a good start. I'll keep giving it a try but if it continues this way I'll just give up, within the trial period...

Unless I am missing something, I can't see routing rules in the fare rules. It is the one thing that would ensure I will stay in the "Premium Services" subscription.

Everything else seems to work fine so basic covers that nicely. I can see the fare rules that expertflyer does include for free on Travelocity so right now don't see the need to continue as Premium Service as I would make less than 250 queries per month I think.

I have emailed expertflyer asking them to consider putting routing rules in. If other subscribers do the same, maybe we will have a tool that meets most of our basic needs as frequent flyers.

Despite some limitations, still a useful tool, just needs this one tweek for my voracious appetite! ^

Nope, that doesn't do it (at least for me). I know if I pull mine up on virtuallythere, I have to give the email address the agent used to secure my PNR. Wondering if that's an enhancement that expertflier can support to give us access to our "private" PNRs?

I'm trying to check availabliliy for a VIP upg from coach to biz class on AA 48 on Feb 27...When I check the availabillity, C is not one of the classes listed - it shows J7, D3, I2, then the coach classes. Since the upg has not cleared, why is there no "C0" showing? Am I looking for the wrong class? It doesn't seem to show C as one of the listed fare buckets on any of the flights.

I signed up thinking it would be a cool tool to look at my own records, etc. But after test driving it, it has proven largely useless.

I have the same problem that DFWDave references. Out of the 4 itins I have for January, I can only view the one I booked in AA.com, a leisure trip. I cannot view any of my business trips wich are booked through AMEX Travel Services (barf) and my company's Sabre Gethere.com portal. Now, if this thing coould view partner award inventory on CX, BA, JL, that woudl be a different story. S.O.S as the free tool. For $10 it isn't worth it.

You're already ahead of me. My PNR for a paid flight was booked through AA.com, it's active, only AA agents have made changes to it and still I can't find it in the new tool...

That is an incorrect statement. You have to give express permisssion for your credit to be checked, a credit app is the vehicle by which this is accomplished. If this did actually occur, you have recourse under the credit reporting laws.

I disagree. How many times have we seen people say, "If I could pay for smile67's tool, I gladly would." Well, here's everything that the old availability tool gives you, PLUS, for lots of folks (including me, 100% so far), access to your PNRs, fare info, etc., all in one place. IMHO, the only thing really missing is the routing information. Great tool! ^

Cheers,
lbbzman

Ok, I am almost a troll now

But I did find a cool tool when you check flight info. For AA flights, It gives you the Airplane registration and AA fleet #. Might be useful to let you know of your going to be blessed with a flight on a TWA80 and you can beat the rush for seats 3A or B.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flight Comments: A/CN9403W EQPS80 4WL
SKD

C is a special class, so you have to request it. if you don't request a specific class, you'll get a listing of all standard classes. if you want C (or X, R, etc), you have to request it specifically, and you'll get just that. just like the availability tool...

i don't get this -- i think it's a browser thing as much as anything. but, there is a link at the top of all screens that says "refine query parameters" -- that will always take you back to the query input screen with the values for your last query filled in.

i get value from this in a few ways:

1. travelocity and expedia limit the length of their fare listings. pull up BOS-LAS on all carriers on either one, and try to find out who publishes the lowest first-class fare.

2. PNR access is working fine for me so far, but i do all of my bookings through aa.com, so i'm in better shape there then many people.

3. flight status info with comments. try getting this from aa.com:
A/CN969AN EQP737 3DB
CGO LDG
LX CANCEL SMF -RNO -RMKS ACCT RNO CLSD/SNOW
PSGRS PROVIDED WITH GRND TRANSPORT ON 9JAN PENDING RNO WX AND ROAD CONDITIONS.

4. general neat/professional environment, and everything in once place. ability to store common queries, and recall them instantly from a pulldown.

Folks, that is straight out of Sabre! Pretty cool. Hope it lasts!

I'm somewhat coming to this conclusion too. The only real added benefit to me of this I'm seeing is the ability to read comments in the PNR -- which might be worth the price in and of itself if it's not cut off just as an entertainment/curiosity factor.

After checking & playing some more, I can't see partially flown trips either & can't view trips booked by a travel agent - both of which I can do on aa.com. No upcoming UA/NW/BA trips are viewable. No UA award buckets are viewable.

Mixed feelings. I'll keep it for a bit more to see how things go. I'm happy to pay for something that provides some value, but that's not the case in a big or meaningful way to me yet.