ExpertFlyer Blog

Additional Airline Award & Seat Map Availability

We’re happy to announce that additional/expanded airline Award & Seat Map availability has just been added to ExpertFlyer for the following airlines:

Award Availability:

Aeroflot (SkyTeam):
Business - Award (O)
Economy - Award (X) 

Korean Air (SkyTeam):
First – Award (A)

Air Europa Lineas Aereas (SkyTeam):
Business - Classic Award (P)
Business - Flex Award (I)
Economy - Classic Award (A)
Economy - Flex Award (B)

Alitalia (SkyTeam):
Business - Award (Z)
Economy - Award (U)

Malaysia Airlines:
Coach – Award (T)

Gol Transportes Aereos:
Business - Award (I)
Economy - Award (X)

Hawaiian Airlines:
First - Flex Award/Upgrade (P)
Economy - Award (T)
Economy - Flex Award (Q)

Kingfisher:
Business - Award (Z)
Economy - Award (R)

Live Seat Maps (Can now be used with Seat Alerts as well):
Aeroflot
Korean Air
Air Europa Lineas Aereas

Enjoy and safe travels!

Six Tips for Holiday Air Travel

Traveling by air these days is rarely fun. Traveling during the holidays can be an outright hassle. But, why not take some tips from the road warriors who travel all the time and have mastered the art of air travel with minimal pain. Here are six holiday travel tips that will make this holiday season's travel woes a little less complicated and much more enjoyable.

Seat Alerts - Be alerted when the seat you want becomes available

Today ExpertFlyer is proud to announce the release of our newest tool in our toolbox - Seat Alerts.  A complimentary feature to our existing Flight Alerts and Seat Maps features, Seat Alerts allows you to be notified if a currently occupied seat on your flight that you wish you were sitting in becomes available.

Some common situations where a Seat Alert could save the day:

• Families wanting to sit together but lacking enough free seats near each other.
• The specific seat you want/like isn't currently available. Very useful in business or first cabins on long haul flights (sleeper seats that face certain ways, etc)
• If you're stuck in a middle seat and want an aisle and/or window seat. Just click the Any Window or Any Aisle buttons.
• All seats are reserved but you have a ticket because the flight is oversold, if a seat opens up, you want to get it ASAP.
• You're flying in coach but want to sit in an exit row seat (for the extra legroom), but none are currently available. You can set a Seat Alert to be notified if an exit row seat becomes available

To create a Seat Alert, just view the Seat Map for your flight as usual, then click on the Create Seat Alert button next to it.  For example:

 
In this example, there are no window seats available so we can click on the "Any Window Seat" option and Seat Alerts will check for any open window seat. Also we have clicked on 3 other seats we want to be alerted about.  Just click Save and Seat Alerts takes care of the rest. Seat Alerts are supported on the 85 airlines we currently support Seat Maps for.

We also have an option that allows you to tell Seat Alerts if a seat designated as Premium Only can satisfy the alert.  Since not everyone can reserve a seat designated for flyers with elite frequent flyer status, Seat Alerts can be told to ignore them.

Just like our existing Flight Alerts service (which checks for available award/upgrade inventory), Seat Alerts helps to take some of the pain out of the travel planning process. Enjoy!

 

US Air Rebrands and Changes Dividend Miles

The US Air frequent flyer program will now be called "GoAwards", however changes to the program may prevent its members from doing that any time soon.  The biggest change is the introduction of two additional tiers of awards. Now flyers have “Off-peak,” “Low, “Medium,” and “High” to chose from, when available.

However, according to the US Air website, the window of opportunity for Off-peak seats is sevearly limited, as will probably be for "Low" as well, which might result in more miles needed to fly then before.  You can compare the old award chart to the new one to see how the changes affect you.

The new changes go into effect January 6, 2010

Frequent Flyer Program Update Roundup

There have been many recent changes to some of the most popular airline loyalty programs.  Here's the rundown:

American Airlines - If you haven't heard yet, AA will be making some long awaited changes to the redemption of upgrade awards.  The highlight being that now even tickets booked in the lowest O, Q (discount coach) and I (discount business) classes are eligible for upgrades.  The downside is that the US/Canada and Hawaii co-pays just went up to $75 and $175 respectively.  Now if American would allow the use of additional miles to pay the co-pays with, that would be really something.  Get all the details here.

United Airlines - In order to stay competitive with its peers, United just announced new perks for their Mileage Plus program elite members including Unlimited Domestic Upgrades starting in the second quarter of 2010 (first announced on FlyerTalk). However this change isn't necessarily good for all United elites. Mark Ashley of Upgrade: Better Travel recently said it best:

If you’re an entry-level elite (Premier) you’re not going to upgrade much. Previously, a Premier Executive or 1K would have to request an upgrade and offer up some certificates, but now those elites will automatically jump ahead of the Premiers. If you live in a city with a lot of United elites (Chicago, San Francisco, DC, Denver, for starters…) and you’re “just” a Premier, say adios to hot nuts.

Jet Blue - The TrueBlue frequent flyer program is about to get a relaunch on November 9th. The announcement highlights new features that will put JetBlue on par with most major programs including no blackout dates, points that don't expire, and the ability to earn more bonus points the more you fly.

Not to be out done, Virgin America just announced free WiFi on all flights between November 10, 2009 and January 15, 2010, courtesy of Google. It's a smart move on Google's part and we hope the beginning of a trend towards free/sponsored WiFi year round.

Speaking of free vs free, Joe Brancatelli wrote a thought provoking article about The Truth About Airline Bag Fees. He explores a valid question: while fee income is rising for airlines, are they doing more harm then good to their bottom lines by turning off otherwise loyal customers?  The bean counters can't count everything it seems.