Expert Flyer has been sold

[serfty]

I received the below email.

Unggghhh ...

I have always appreciated E/F's simple low bandwidth no frills web design with straitforward forms and compact results display along with few ads.

Sadly I can see that changing significantly as the new owners increase efforts to recoup the cost of their purchase and monetize further.

---

To Our Friends and Customers,

Almost 14 years ago, a group of frequent flyers came together to solve a problem in air travel. We knew that access to in-depth information about flights would help to make the trip planning process easier and enhance the overall travel experience. This information had been locked away for decades behind travel agent terminals and airline reservation agents, but we knew it existed and that making it available would take some of the pain out of air travel. So, we launched ExpertFlyer and unlocked this data to help travelers fly better. Fourteen years and millions of searches and alerts later, we have succeeded in bringing comfort and value to frequent flyers around the world and we want to do more for our customers.

Today, we are announcing the next step in our journey. We are happy to announce that ExpertFlyer has been acquired by Red Ventures. With its experience in data science and analytics, we’ve found Red Ventures to be an innovative company whose expertise and resources will allow us to take ExpertFlyer to the next level. We are looking forward to all we will be able to accomplish together in furthering our joint mission to help consumers travel better.

To celebrate ExpertFlyer’s new chapter, and as a small token of appreciation to our loyal customers, effective immediately, we are increasing the number of active alerts for our Premium subscribers from 30 to 200. We hope this will allow our subscribers to find our service even more valuable today, while we work on the ExpertFlyer of tomorrow. We plan on continuing to run the ExpertFlyer service as it is currently, while expanding and growing it in ways we could not have before on our own, all without a price increase.

We want to thank everyone who has supported us during this journey. We couldn’t have made it this far without you and we are excited to have you join us for the next 14 years of ExpertFlyer.

Thank you,
The ExpertFlyer.com Team

 

[OATEK]

Sad to see EF being "enhanced", although nothing stays the same forever. Agree it has been good value, and I have used it to great effect hunting out flights with award seats, and checking seat occupancy/availability.

 

[cjd600]

Given the new owners also own The Points Guy I can sense a flood of Chase credit card ads coming!

 

[GoldCanyon340]

A 666% increase in alerts. Coincidence?

Hadn't seen the email until I read this thread and checked my inbox. Hmmmmmmm.

 

[kermatu]

I saw the email this morning and also immediately feared the worst.

 

[dajop]

I received the below email.

Unggghhh ...

I have always appreciated E/F's simple low bandwidth no frills web design with straitforward forms and results display along with few ads.

Yes 100% agree. A throwback to the time before the internet was “dumbed down”, where the information on a screen was maximised rather than minimised. Days when you could look at list of all the options (whether it be flights, hotels or whatever) without endless scrolling.

 

[kevrosmith]

I'm really hoping it doesn't have too much of a negative impact on features and functionality of the service. My fear, however, is that things will be enhanced, and I'll have to find a new way to work around things. I'll just have to remind myself not to get stressed about things I can't control...

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Yes 100% agree. A throwback to the time before the internet was “dumbed down”, where the information on a screen was maximised rather than minimised. Days when you could look at list of all the options (whether it be flights, hotels or whatever) without endless scrolling.

Mostly like ITA Matrix and Google Flights. Both essentially the same engine on the backend but Matrix displays more information and is more like a native view whereas GF is the tablet, dumbed down version. Give me Matrix any day.

 

[DC3]

sA

I saw the email this morning and also immediately feared the worst.[/Q

Yes, same here

 

[Daver6]

Such a waste with computers having graphical user interfaces these days. Just do everything via the command line. It's all you really need

 

[serfty]

Such a waste with computers having graphical user interfaces these days. Just do everything via the command line. It's all you really need

It not the GUI that is the problem, it is the seemingly endless scrolling required to access basic content that is enforced by many web site designers these days.

 

[Berlin]

These “enhancements” are never good for the user so I also fear the very worst, especially given who has purchased the site. Though, it could be worse, at least it’s not Tripadvisor or Expedia or someone like that

Given the new owners also own The Points Guy I can sense a flood of Chase credit card ads coming!

Yep, plenty of promotion for credit cards that no one can get “OUS” (Off topic: One of my former, US-based but globally acting, companies had neatly ‘segmented’ the globe into ‘US’ and ‘OUS’ (out of US) and I still laugh when I think of my US colleagues who could see absolutely nothing wrong with this ).

 

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

Folks, we appreciate your concern but there is no reason to jump to conclusions about how ExpertFlyer is going to change, frankly we don't even know yet. However what I can tell you, and the reason we sent out that email in the first place, is to assure our customers that the EF that exists today will still be around. We may add additional features, but we have no plans to "dumb down" the core Pro experience. This is a good thing, we now have the resources of a large company behind us to create a better EF that we could have before. If you have any questions, please email us directly instead of engaging in speculation here. Thank you.

 

[cjd600]

Folks, we appreciate your concern but there is no reason to jump to conclusions about how ExpertFlyer is going to change, frankly we don't even know yet. However what I can tell you, and the reason we sent out that email in the first place, is to assure our customers that the EF that exists today will still be around. We may add additional features, but we have no plans to "dumb down" the core Pro experience. This is a good thing, we now have the resources of a large company behind us to create a better EF that we couldn't have before. If you have any questions, please email us directly instead of engaging in speculation here. Thank you.

Sounds like an excellent enhancement then

 

[serfty]

This is a good thing, we now have the resources of a large company behind us to create a better EF that we couldn't have before.

Thankyou for your post; better is fine, but please keep in mind:

I have always appreciated E/F's simple low bandwidth no frills web design with straitforward forms and compact results displays along with few ads.

 

[kermatu]

Thankyou for your post; better is fine, but please keep in mind:

Indeed. I'm doing some EF'ing right now and having 15+ options appearing on a single, easily read page with no scrolling is an absolute delight.

 

[Berlin]

Most internet users have just been burnt far too many times. Lets hope this will be the one rare exception

 

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

I have always appreciated E/F's simple low bandwidth no frills web design with straitforward forms and compact results display along with few ads.

As do we, that's why we've kept it that way for a very long time.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

It not the GUI that is the problem, it is the seemingly endless scrolling required to access basic content that is enforced by many web site designers these days.

This is a pet hate of mine too.

I much prefer pages that you navigate from to other pages to gain all that you need at various times., rather than the common practice of trying have everything on one long page. It can also slow loading down too depending on what pics/graphics they use.

 

[hossein_au]

...we now have the resources of a large company behind us to create a better EF that we couldn't have before...

I am not having a go; I have always appreciated the EF's power and simplicity of the UI. But all "enhancements" start out by sentences like the one quoted