How accurate is Expert Flyer

[Strongarm]

We have an upcoming J flight from Brisbane to Perth and have booked the A330 service. (VA474 30th May 20:15)

EF is showing the old 27 seat configuration, yet VA said today the aircraft is the newer 24 seat configuration.

I checked EF again and it's still showing the old config.

How accurate is EF???

 

[RooFlyer]

Supplementary question: What is the source of EF's seat maps? Are they plugged into the airlines' systems and the information is therefore 'hot' and if so, how frequently are the EF maps updated?

If there is an equipment change say, 24, 12 or 6 hours prior to departure, how soon will the changes be reflected on EF?

 

[NM]

Moving this to the EF forum, where its most likely to seen by Experflyer Voice.

 

[shifty]

A mate of mine works for QF in Perth. A few months ago we tested it with QF internal info and compared a bunch of random flights and it was dead accurate for availability.

The data is accessed through GDS systems that airlines use. EF is hooked into Galileo and Sabre I think.

Not sure on your actual question where the entire plane has changed though.

 

[serfty]

The seat maps are a pictorial representation of what VA return via SABRE in response to a Query from Expert Flyer.

I have found the maps to be very accurate.

When we changed seats on check-in yesterday this was immediately reflected in the Business class seat map for our MEL-PER 332 flight.

 

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

We have an upcoming J flight from Brisbane to Perth and have booked the A330 service. (VA474 30th May 20:15)

EF is showing the old 27 seat configuration, yet VA said today the aircraft is the newer 24 seat configuration.

I checked EF again and it's still showing the old config.

How accurate is EF???

Supplementary question: What is the source of EF's seat maps? Are they plugged into the airlines' systems and the information is therefore 'hot' and if so, how frequently are the EF maps updated?

If there is an equipment change say, 24, 12 or 6 hours prior to departure, how soon will the changes be reflected on EF?

As noted by others, the information is real time and accurate. When VA updates the seat map in the reservation systems, it will be reflected in ExpertFlyer. We see the exact same thing that all travel agents around the world do.

 

[RooFlyer]

As noted by others, the information is real time and accurate. When VA updates the seat map in the reservation systems, it will be reflected in ExpertFlyer. We see the exact same thing that all travel agents around the world do.

Thanks EFV. Can I just press a bit on the equipment substitution question, please, just as its piqued my interest.

EF sees exactly what the airlines dynamically put out to the wider world, which is as I thought. However, when a flight has an equipment substitution (eg the dreaded A380 downgrade), in EF's experience how and when do the airlines map that into their seating maps and therefore it becomes available to EF and therefore us?

As you no doubt know, when there is an equipment downgrade, it becomes a bit of a scramble to keep and/or recover favoured seats. How soon do the airlines release the new maps to the outside world, once they decide to change the plane, be it 24, 12 or 2 hrs prior to departure, for instance?

 

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

Thanks EFV. Can I just press a bit on the equipment substitution question, please, just as its piqued my interest.

EF sees exactly what the airlines dynamically put out to the wider world, which is as I thought. However, when a flight has an equipment substitution (eg the dreaded A380 downgrade), in EF's experience how and when do the airlines map that into their seating maps and therefore it becomes available to EF and therefore us?

As you no doubt know, when there is an equipment downgrade, it becomes a bit of a scramble to keep and/or recover favoured seats. How soon do the airlines release the new maps to the outside world, once they decide to change the plane, be it 24, 12 or 2 hrs prior to departure, for instance?

We don't find out there is a change until the seat map changes (either its equipment code or layout), so we would have no way of knowing how long it takes them to update the seat map after the decision to substitute is made.

 

[RooFlyer]

OK, thanks. Appreciate the responses.

 

[straitman]

Rather than starting a new thread I will ask this here. (..and PM EF Rep)

I have just tried to make a booking for next week that requires 'S' class. Qantas says there is no available but EF shows S9.

Who is correct and why :?:

Trip is MEL-CNS QF702 on Tue (27th) or Wed (28th) EF shows S9 each day.
Return is CNS-MEL QF703 on Fri (30th) or Sat (31st) EF shows S8 and S0.

Thoughts please brains trust.

(I'm trying to use my free flight from when they shut up shop.)

 

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

Rather than starting a new thread I will ask this here. (..and PM EF Rep)

I have just tried to make a booking for next week that requires 'S' class. Qantas says there is no available but EF shows S9.

Who is correct and why :?:

Trip is MEL-CNS QF702 on Tue (27th) or Wed (28th) EF shows S9 each day.
Return is CNS-MEL QF703 on Fri (30th) or Sat (31st) EF shows S8 and S0.

Thoughts please brains trust.

(I'm trying to use my free flight from when they shut up shop.)

The fare class availability is accurate, we checked against 3 different GDSs and there is S class availability on those flights. However that doesn't mean that there is a valid fare for those flights/dates or that your vouchers are valid for those flights/dates. You should call back and ask the agent why you can't use the vounchers even though there is S class availability on those flights.

 

[NM]

Could this be a case of geographic differences in class availability? So S class is available for sale form outside Australia, but Qantas is choosing to limit the availability for sale in the Australian market?

 

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

Could this be a case of geographic differences in class availability? So S class is available for sale form outside Australia, but Qantas is choosing to limit the availability for sale in the Australian market?

That is also possible, however we haven't seen many POS availability issues with QF before. You could try calling a non-Australia QF call center.

 

[Quickstatus]

The "available" seats in EF are actually available? not just unallocated?

 

[serfty]

The "available" seats in EF are actually available? not just unallocated?

With 'notional seating' what you see on an E/F seat map as blocked seating for QF Domestic is an approximation based on the raw status of the ff number entered into the profile.

Note however, that with QF that generally, a seat showing as unallocated (blocked or not) is accurate; conversely, the blue block indicates an allocated seat in reality (this can vary one the flight goes under 'airport control').