What? Taken from their website: "ExpertFlyer.com is an online service of Expert Travel Services, LLC. We are a privately held corporation registered in the State of New York. We have contracted directly with two GDS services to access airline information. " GDS = Global Distribution System = A network operated by a company that enables automated transactions between vendors and booking agents in order to provide travel related services to the end consumers. The major GDS systems are Amadeus, Sabre, Apollo, Galileo, Worldspan, Abacus and Infini (Source: Wikipedia)
Why? Taken from their website: "ExpertFlyer.com is designed to offer information about air travel to anyone who wants or needs access to the vast array of air travel information in an easy to use form that is otherwise not readily available."
How?I've listed several scenarios to demonstrate how Expertflyer can be used:
Redemption booking
I’d like to make a redemption booking but do not know when seats are available. Rather than calling up the airline call centre or doing mock bookings on an airline website, Expertflyer will be able to tell you if there is availability on the date you require. If an airline has a separate inventory for upgrades, there are also searches for those inventories. You can also set reminders, where Expertflyer will send you an email when availability is identified.
Flight (inventory) availability
I’d like to travel over a busy holiday period and need to know which dates offers the better chance of a (cheap) flight. Or I’m looking to book a specific inventory to accrue frequent flyer points; Expertflyer will be able to show you whether there is availability or specific inventory available. Again reminders can be set up.
Seat map
I’d like to find out which seat are occupied or simply blocked out by the airlines. Expertflyer will show you and allow you to set reminders so that an email will be sent when availability is identified. This function is also available for the free Expertflyer mobile app.
Price of tickets between two points for sale from any particular port
I’d like to find out the prices of tickets between two points, when it is sold from city X instead of city Y. Expertflyer will show you the prices, excluding taxes and fuel surcharges.
@Hugo, perhaps leave comments aside if they are not helpful / you have nothing constructuve to add to a discussion?
qfflyer: I use expertflyer, mainly to check fare buckets available (including redemption buckets) and to check seatmaps and loads (as well as aircraft type). It is very reliable (as they get info straight from GDS, which is weher airlines update their inventory etc) and easy to use. One of the perks is that you can set up a seat alert to send you a notification isf a particular seat opens up in a particular class (helpful for award bookings for instance, you can specify a number of days and classes to get the alert on).
You can sign up for free and use limited functionality to check it out (seatmap search mainly), give it a try, self explanatory really (especially if you are a bit in to airline lingo etc).
Thank you @TheRealBabushka and @KG! A great help from both of you as I was unsure on how frequent flyers were using it. Good attributes to the AusBT community you two!
The Old Man is nearing WP1 and I wanted to learn how to work it before I begin the (inevitably) long task of teaching him how to use i!
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on
ExpertFlyer – What is it and how do people use it?
qfflyer
qfflyer
Member since 26 May 2012
Total posts 131
ExpertFlyer – What is it and how do people use it?
Hugo
Hugo
Member since 12 Jun 2013
Total posts 216
If you need to ask, you don't need it.
josephjohn8484
josephjohn8484
Member since 17 Jan 2013
Total posts 61
its for experts only.
TheRealBabushka
TheRealBabushka
Member since 21 Apr 2012
Total posts 2,058
qfflyer, good question.
What? Taken from their website: "ExpertFlyer.com is an online service of Expert Travel Services, LLC. We are a privately held corporation registered in the State of New York. We have contracted directly with two GDS services to access airline information. " GDS = Global Distribution System = A network operated by a company that enables automated transactions between vendors and booking agents in order to provide travel related services to the end consumers. The major GDS systems are Amadeus, Sabre, Apollo, Galileo, Worldspan, Abacus and Infini (Source: Wikipedia)
Why? Taken from their website: "ExpertFlyer.com is designed to offer information about air travel to anyone who wants or needs access to the vast array of air travel information in an easy to use form that is otherwise not readily available."
How?I've listed several scenarios to demonstrate how Expertflyer can be used:
I’d like to make a redemption booking but do not know when seats are available. Rather than calling up the airline call centre or doing mock bookings on an airline website, Expertflyer will be able to tell you if there is availability on the date you require. If an airline has a separate inventory for upgrades, there are also searches for those inventories. You can also set reminders, where Expertflyer will send you an email when availability is identified.
I’d like to travel over a busy holiday period and need to know which dates offers the better chance of a (cheap) flight. Or I’m looking to book a specific inventory to accrue frequent flyer points; Expertflyer will be able to show you whether there is availability or specific inventory available. Again reminders can be set up.
I’d like to find out which seat are occupied or simply blocked out by the airlines. Expertflyer will show you and allow you to set reminders so that an email will be sent when availability is identified. This function is also available for the free Expertflyer mobile app.
I’d like to find out the prices of tickets between two points, when it is sold from city X instead of city Y. Expertflyer will show you the prices, excluding taxes and fuel surcharges.
Hope this helps!
KG
KG
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 10 May 2011
Total posts 249
@Hugo, perhaps leave comments aside if they are not helpful / you have nothing constructuve to add to a discussion?
qfflyer: I use expertflyer, mainly to check fare buckets available (including redemption buckets) and to check seatmaps and loads (as well as aircraft type). It is very reliable (as they get info straight from GDS, which is weher airlines update their inventory etc) and easy to use. One of the perks is that you can set up a seat alert to send you a notification isf a particular seat opens up in a particular class (helpful for award bookings for instance, you can specify a number of days and classes to get the alert on).
You can sign up for free and use limited functionality to check it out (seatmap search mainly), give it a try, self explanatory really (especially if you are a bit in to airline lingo etc).
qfflyer
qfflyer
Member since 26 May 2012
Total posts 131
Thank you @TheRealBabushka and @KG! A great help from both of you as I was unsure on how frequent flyers were using it. Good attributes to the AusBT community you two!
The Old Man is nearing WP1 and I wanted to learn how to work it before I begin the (inevitably) long task of teaching him how to use i!