Oct 30, 2013, 3:36 pm
Last edit by: Ocn Vw 1K
UA Insider's reply in posts 247 and 254 of this thread:
Hi everyone,
We recognize the importance and value to you of accessible and transparent information about United flights. It’s a meaningful part of your travel planning, and we are committed to providing useful information that is both accurate and preserves the integrity of United’s data and systems.
While we are committed to data transparency, Expert Flyer has been accessing united.com in an unauthorized fashion to retrieve UA availability. In addition, these activities have consumed significant united.com bandwidth that could otherwise be used by regular consumers. As a result, we had to take this action to protect the security and integrity of United’s systems.
Thank you for your understanding as to why we had to take this action. We continue to look at ways in which we can provide you with timely and useful information (some of which you will see in new releases of our own digital channels) as well as with partners that have authorized access to our data.
Aaron Goldberg
Sr. Manager - Customer Experience Planning
United Airlines
We recognize the importance and value to you of accessible and transparent information about United flights. It’s a meaningful part of your travel planning, and we are committed to providing useful information that is both accurate and preserves the integrity of United’s data and systems.
While we are committed to data transparency, Expert Flyer has been accessing united.com in an unauthorized fashion to retrieve UA availability. In addition, these activities have consumed significant united.com bandwidth that could otherwise be used by regular consumers. As a result, we had to take this action to protect the security and integrity of United’s systems.
Thank you for your understanding as to why we had to take this action. We continue to look at ways in which we can provide you with timely and useful information (some of which you will see in new releases of our own digital channels) as well as with partners that have authorized access to our data.
Aaron Goldberg
Sr. Manager - Customer Experience Planning
United Airlines
UA Blocking Expert Flyer and KVS Access to R and Elite Award Searches.
Nov 9, 2013, 11:33 am
#601
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SGF
Programs: AS, AA, UA, AGR S (former 75K, GLD, 1K, and S+, now an elite peon)
Posts: 23,195
Agree. Hugely valuable still for things like seeing fare class availability for SDC, and AFAIK, they obtain that data from a legitimate GDS, so there's no danger of that disappearing.
It might be possible, but I'm finding it hard to believe UA would have taken this long to do something about it if they truly were consuming a third of UA's bandwidth/search transactions. That kind of load doesn't go unnoticed for years--it's addressed in weeks.
While only EF and United know for sure, I think that there has always been credibility to that claim. EF has openly stated that alerts check for new inventory at relatively infrequent intervals far from departure, and more frequent intervals close in. I wouldn't be surprised if EF was doing several hundred queries against UA's servers each minute at peak times.
Nov 9, 2013, 11:49 am
#602
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 4,645
Just curious - are these complaints about refunds and BBB threats from people who paid for an annual subscription? If so, I understand. But, for anyone who was paying monthly, I'd hope you could just let it go.
Nov 9, 2013, 11:59 am
#603
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 288
My experience was the opposite of yours. I emailed ExpertFlyer, requesting a cancellation and a pro rata refund of the balance of my membership fee because of the inability to provide UA upgrade and award information, and they emailed me back the same day agreeing to do so. I received my refund six days later.
Agree. Hugely valuable still for things like seeing fare class availability for SDC, and AFAIK, they obtain that data from a legitimate GDS, so there's no danger of that disappearing.
It might be possible, but I'm finding it hard to believe UA would have taken this long to do something about it if they truly were consuming a third of UA's bandwidth/search transactions. That kind of load doesn't go unnoticed for years--it's addressed in weeks.
It might be possible, but I'm finding it hard to believe UA would have taken this long to do something about it if they truly were consuming a third of UA's bandwidth/search transactions. That kind of load doesn't go unnoticed for years--it's addressed in weeks.
Nov 9, 2013, 4:08 pm
#605
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.997MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,859
Nov 9, 2013, 4:17 pm
#606
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: SEA
Programs: UA 1K 1.9MM; AS; GP D; HH D
Posts: 132
Nov 9, 2013, 4:19 pm
#607
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: BOS, PVG
Programs: United 1K and 1MM, Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 10,000
Nov 10, 2013, 10:24 am
#608
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: MFR
Programs: UA 1K 1.9MM, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,885
Nov 10, 2013, 11:26 am
#611
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,478
If EF was scraping, this was probably inevitable, regardless of any "bandwidth" issues (which I suspect are a post-hoc justification by UA). Most profit-making companies won't stand for others profiting from the unauthorized use of their proprietary data. I had always assumed EF had a license. Since they were apparently not paying for their data, this makes me much less sympathetic towards EF.
Still I appreciate that others may have a different assessment of its ongoing value.
btw, EF did ultimately issue me a refund, so kudos to them for that.
Nov 10, 2013, 11:27 am
#612
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: BOS, PVG
Programs: United 1K and 1MM, Marriott Ambassador
Posts: 10,000
Nov 10, 2013, 8:37 pm
#614
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Floating around
Programs: UA 1K (1MM), DL Gold (1MM), Marriott LTT
Posts: 10,346
-RM
Nov 11, 2013, 12:04 am
#615
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,478
What EF also offered with R space was the ability to check multiple flights over multiple days. Can't do that on united.com