Expert Flyer a couple of questions

[Mal Ware]

Hi I am currently using the trial version and it looks good.

But...

If you find a seat you like or there is a seat alert set up, how does this help you if they are blocked, do you phone ahead and request it?

And with the fares, what do most people do, do they find a great fare and then phone the airline to book or search for same fare on the airline website?


Also, how is it used to determine if you can get an upgrade and how do you then get said upgrade?
Thanks.

 

[serfty]

Hi I am currently using the trial version and it looks good.

But...

If you find a seat you like or there is a seat alert set up, how does this help you if they are blocked, do you phone ahead and request it?

And with the fares, what do most people do, do they find a great fare and then phone the airline to book or search for same fare on the airline website?


Also, how is it used to determine if you can get an upgrade and how do you then get said upgrade?
Thanks.

Last first: See this thread ( and link to understanding Expertflyer): http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ility-loadings-upgrade-probability-25311.html

To search for fares these days I use this: http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/

You can seat a seat alert to not fire if a seat is "blocked" even if unallocated.

 

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

Last first: See this thread ( and link to understanding Expertflyer): http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ility-loadings-upgrade-probability-25311.html

To search for fares these days I use this: http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/

You can seat a seat alert to not fire if a seat is "blocked" even if unallocated.

Thank you serfty, also please note that Flight Availability is part of our Basic & Premium subscription services. If you signed up for the Free service, then click the Upgrade button after you login to try a 5-day free trial of the Premium service.

 

[Mal Ware]

Rather than read through a 53 page thread, can someone please just tell me how you actually book the fares that you find on Expertflyer please?

 

[Moopere]

Rather than read through a 53 page thread, can someone please just tell me how you actually book the fares that you find on Expertflyer please?

I still remember this being an issue when I was new to EF as well. Its a pretty steep learning curve for sure.

The quick and dirty answer is to obtain the 'fare basis' from EF and ring a travel agent.

If you don't want to do that (and incur the fee's involved) then it really comes down to sniffing out the fare you found on EF with the airline concerned at their own web page. Its not easy to do this and is doubly frustrating as early in my flying 'hobby' I didn't understand much of the lingo.

I find a combination of EF + matrix.itasoftware.com helps me narrow in on the fares I want. You _can_ search against fare basis using matrix.itasoftware's own peculiar search language - I'll show you how to do that if it sounds interesting.

 

[Mal Ware]

I still remember this being an issue when I was new to EF as well. Its a pretty steep learning curve for sure.

The quick and dirty answer is to obtain the 'fare basis' from EF and ring a travel agent.

If you don't want to do that (and incur the fee's involved) then it really comes down to sniffing out the fare you found on EF with the airline concerned at their own web page. Its not easy to do this and is doubly frustrating as early in my flying 'hobby' I didn't understand much of the lingo.

I find a combination of EF + matrix.itasoftware.com helps me narrow in on the fares I want. You _can_ search against fare basis using matrix.itasoftware's own peculiar search language - I'll show you how to do that if it sounds interesting.

Thanks for your reply, I will have a look at it.

 

[Moopere]

In Expertflyer, find the fare of interest to you. I've done a dummy search for PER-MEL



Choose the fare basis of interest. I'll choose QF MFLEX for the sake of this illustration.

Go to matrix.itasoftware.com, enter PER and MEL as your departure and destination cities. Then use the routing codes to assist you to find the previously discovered fare basis:



fill in the fields as appropriate for your particular search. Hit search and you should get something like this:



Whereby you can choose the day of interest and will then receive further information on the flights applicable to your chosen fare basis.

Messing around with scenario's is probably the best way to get a handle on how all this stuff works. Good luck.


If you get a database error then something is wrong in the query. Ensure that syntax in the routing fields is correct. If you simply get no results, as opposed to an actual error, then its probable that there are no available flights for your chosen fare basis.

The existence of a fare basis code doesn't mean that tickets are actually available, they may be sold out, or simply not for sale for any number of reasons.

 

[Mal Ware]

Once again, thanks for taking the time to explain it Moopere, i will look at it the next couple of days when I am at work and see if i can get it to happen for me.

 

[MelUser]

I can only say that the $10/month is worth every penny. I have it down to a fine art to predict upgrade likelihoods and do far better than on the horses!

 

[straitman]

Remember that as an AFF Gold member you get a 15% discount on the annual EF subscription.

 

[JimS]

Thanks Moopere for the simple explanation, I had been playing around with EF for a couple of days not really knowing what I was doing or how I could use it.

 

[Danger]

I have the USD4.99 a month subscription but currently have the need to receive an alert when a particular fare bucket shows availability (it's currently 0).

If I upgrade to the premium service on a per month basis, rather than annual, can I revert to the basic (USD4.99) service in a few days time?

 

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

I have the USD4.99 a month subscription but currently have the need to receive an alert when a particular fare bucket shows availability (it's currently 0).

If I upgrade to the premium service on a per month basis, rather than annual, can I revert to the basic (USD4.99) service in a few days time?

If you have a Premium subscription you can change the renewal type to Basic on the My Account page, then at the next renewal you will be again renewed with a Basic subscription. However no, you can't downgrade the account type mid-subscription.

 

[Danger]

If you have a Premium subscription you can change the renewal type to Basic on the My Account page, then at the next renewal you will be again renewed with a Basic subscription. However no, you can't downgrade the account type mid-subscription.

Great. Sounds good. Thanks for the lightning response.

 

[Kangol]

In Expertflyer, find the fare of interest to you. I've done a dummy search for PER-MEL

Choose the fare basis of interest. I'll choose QF MFLEX for the sake of this illustration.

Thanks Moopere, I'm still thinking if it's worth me getting EF..
Is there any way of finding out the fare basis without having EF?
eg I want to search for MEL-LHR or MEL-SYD-LHR on QF F (particularly P class), besides using EF is the only way of finding out the fare basis ringing up QF and asking?

 

[Moopere]

Matrix.ita will also give you the fare basis of flights. The problem is that matrix will sometimes lag a tiny bit behind reality whereas I've found EF to be much more current (to the second almost). I find the pairing of EF + Matrix.ita gets most of my planning done and finds good pricing with the best seating and allows one to make some judgement calls on upgrade possibilities.

Just be aware that if looking for the absolute cheapest tickets Matrix (and others) won't find the super discounted economy fares as mostly these don't appear to get published to the GDS. I usually find fares and routes I'm happy with on EF/Matrix, then toddle off to the airlines own web site for booking. If I then find an even cheaper fare on the same flight number then wheeee! So long as I'm still happy with the fare conditions.

 

[dalereardon]

Hi,

A query on EF. I have just joined and trying to set up an award search for Cathay Pacific flight. However Cathay Pacific is not in the drop down list of airlines.

What am I doing wrong?

In case it is obvious I am vision impaired and using screen reader software so maybe I am missing some button on the screen.

Thanks,
Dale.

 

[Danger]

Cathay is not one of the airlines EF has access to for the purposes of award searches so you can't set up an alert for a CX award.

 

[dalereardon]

Bummer - just wasted my month fee then. They should specify that on the website.

I do have a BA Avios account but is there anyway to force it to search on particular airlines. BA has seats available for my route but I don't want them as they charge fuel surcharge through AA so want to find Cathay availability.

The Qantas site doesn't seem to show Cathay as some Cathay flights that have shown up on BA aren't showing on QF.

AwardNexus does Cathay properly so might have to buy some points:-<

Dale.

 

[Rallo]

Have you exhausted your initial points on Nexus , there is a free refill of 100 points when your account dips below 10 points