EF changes in features and data over time

Recently on FlyerTalk a forum for frequent flyers and business travelers (many of whom are ExpertFlyer subscribers) there was some discussion about the features of ExpertFlyer and information that we do or don’t have.  We want to set the record straight on some issues, and instead of posting a long reply on FlyerTalk, we’re posting it here.

As people have pointed out, the loss of the PNR's and X/R upgrade inventory at 100 hrs was an AA business decision and nothing that we technically did or can do to bring it back that is within our control.  Yes, we are in communication with AA and other airlines about a myriad of issues, that doesn't mean however that they will always give us everything we want, in any kind of a timely manner, just because we ask. After all, we're talking about multi-billion dollar corporations who's biggest concern at the moment is trying to stay profitable and out of bankruptcy.  Unfortunately, these issues are not on the top of their to-do list and understandably so, even if we don't agree with it.

Over the last 3+ years, ExpertFlyer has evolved both as a company and a service.  We've all been learning together along the way and when we realize a mistake, we try to correct it.  However, the airline/travel industry is also learning about ExpertFlyer and its subscribers and how it affects their business, sometime this can lead to good things, sometimes bad, but either way we roll with the punches and move on. This means that there may be things that we've had in the past that we don't have now. This also means that there will be things in the future that we gain access too that we haven't had in the past.  Either way, you are always encouraged to evaluate ExpertFlyer, and its membership options, on what we are today.  If loosing a certain function or piece of information leads you to cancel your membership, we're sorry to see you go but we understand. That being said if you continue your membership because you are hopeful that a certain feature or piece of information might return, please realize it may not.  We don't promise that we can implement this feature or get that piece of information until we officially announce it.  We can only promise to try our best to do so.

As for the reasoning behind the split of fare and award/upgrade availability into two different functions, this was done for several reasons.  The first of which is that new ExpertFlyer users simply could not understand how to use the tool to get hidden award/upgrade information.  When you think about it, the concept of hidden vs. non-hidden availability is a throwback to the capacity constraints of the 30 year old mainframes that the airline reservation systems are built on.  Why should we assume that someone in 2008 would be willing or want to understand why this is and then learn how to properly formulate a query to get different data in different situations?  It just wasn't intuitive, and frankly, the adage of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) has merit for a reason. So we decided to make it simple.  However, we were mindful of how users who have been around for a while would react to the change, which is why we tested the change with a set of beta users who used the new Award & Upgrade tool before its release.  They gave us some invaluable insight that allowed us to make improvements to the feature to allow for a minimal change to the existing user experience.  For example, on the Award & Upgrade search form there are 3 "Other Fare Class" boxes that let you put in non award/upgrade classes to see along side with the award/upgrade classes just as before.  Another example is that with the Flight Availability search, if you specify a single airline that happens to be one of the ones we have award or upgrade data for (like AA) a link will appear at the top of the results page that says "Search for Awards & Upgrades for ..." that will send you to the Award & Upgrade search page with all of the search criteria pre-filled except for the classes, exactly as when before one would do an initial Flight Availability search with no classes specified, then did a Refine Query to then specify the hidden classes.  Same amount of steps, same result.

The second reason being that, to put it bluntly, it was an absolute nightmare to maintain the competing technical requirements of retrieving hidden vs. non-hidden data for various airline/class combinations and have it all work in a uniform way.  Because of how the GDS's work, we have to query them in different ways to get different sets of data, however as a by-product this caused confusion with the results. The permutations of airline, hidden vs. non-hidden classes, and the multiple access methods we have to get any given piece of data were unsustainable.  For example, searching for F class for an AA flight by specifying or not specifying the class would produce different lists of flights as the system treats specified classes as hidden and used different methods to obtain the data.  People did not understand this as they were using the class fields as filters, expecting to see the same flights, when that wasn't their intended purpose.  This disconnect caused frustration and confusion, we understood why it was happening, but unless you have direct experience programming against a GDS it would seem that the error is on our side when in fact we're just showing the data we're given. Creating the Award/Upgrade tool solved that problem as well.  Also this will allow us to refine both the regular availability and award/upgrade availability in a way that we couldn't do before as one data source may have better award/upgrade information while another better regular availability information.  Now that they are separate tools we can pick and choose the best source for the type of data needed.

Also, as to the comments of inconsistencies in the results, we should make it clear that the returned results didn't actually change from the old way to the new way. The same search would yield the same exact classes returned for the given flights shown.  The difference now is that when a non-hidden class is specified along with hidden classes in the search, we use the "normal" method to get the non-hidden class data (as this is way more efficient when retrieving multiple non-hidden classes) will return more flights.  Why is this you ask? Because the method to retrieve hidden classes has an issue, on the GDS itself, where if there are too many flights with 0's for the class you are search for, after the first 2 or 3, the rest of the flights for the day won't be shown.  This is why the technique of changing the time of day forward will sometimes show more flights if availability in the class is scarce.  There is nothing we can do to change it as it is a fundamental issue with the GDS host itself.  This is also why on a multiple hidden class search, you'll see the first 2-3 flights returned having most or all of the classes searched for listed whereas the later flights will only have 1 or 2.  Since each hidden class is a separate search on our end, and different flights will be returned for the different searches, this is how the data looks when stitched together.  But this isn't anything new; it's just more noticeable now.

For the record, we've had many compliments on the new Award & Upgrade search tool. It seems to be a success and we're already seeing greater user satisfaction from its use. Yes change can take some getting used to, but it also leads to good things that wouldn't have otherwise been possible (we're working on a few of those right now).  However, constructive criticism is always welcome. The best feedback is when our users give us specific examples of what steps you are taking to accomplish a task on ExpertFlyer and how you think it is faulty and could be improved.  We can’t always incorporate everyone’s suggestion, but we will always listen to them.

Of course, ExpertFlyer is the successful service it is today due in no small part to the feedback and suggestions of our users, so keep them coming.  As always, you can contact us with feedback, suggestions, or otherwise from our About Us page.

Comments

[david]

Thanks for the explanation, but honestly the "fix" that has been implemented for hiddden and regular classes of service just slows the core groups of users down.

This check the box is hell to work with.

Maybe we need an expert version.

[Will]

"Because the method to retrieve hidden classes has an issue, on the GDS itself, where if there are too many flights with 0's for the class you are search for, after the first 2 or 3, the rest of the flights for the day won't be shown. This is why the technique of changing the time of day forward will sometimes show more flights if availability in the class is scarce. There is nothing we can do to change it as it is a fundamental issue with the GDS host itself. This is also why on a multiple hidden class search, you'll see the first 2-3 flights returned having most or all of the classes searched for listed whereas the later flights will only have 1 or 2. Since each hidden class is a separate search on our end, and different flights will be returned for the different searches, this is how the data looks when stitched together. But this isn't anything new; it's just more noticeable now."

Thanks for this explanation because I find this issue to be the most frustrating problem I encounter with EF and trying to find award inventory. Although you say there is "nothing you can do to change it," I think I may have an idea. I'll leave it up to you guys to determine if its workable:

Why not query the GDS host multiple times in the background, rolling forward the time in order to make sure you are displaying the full dataset for any given day and/or hidden fare class? You could then stitch this data together to display it neatly on one results page.

Not sure how complicated that is to do, and understand that that may mean it takes 3-5 times as long for results to show, but the queries are really fast when run one at a time right now. Come to think of it, this may be what sites like Expedia, and even the AA site, do in order to show the availability they do--and that's why you sometimes have to wait so long for the results.

[SquareDanceGuy]

When looking for an award, the only question is "which flight across the ocean has two award, either on AA or an AA partner, in a given range of dates".

AA.com answers that question very quickly and easily ... but only for AA metal. To answer the question for partners, I have to call AA by phone.

Is there any way to give ExpertFlyer the capability so accurately answer that key question?

[Chris]

David - We also have a feature where once one of the check boxes has focus on the page, you can type in a letter of a class code (T,U,Z,etc) and the page will check those boxes for you. You then just have to press enter, much like the old form. Or, you can press Tab to move between the different boxes and press Space to select the ones you want. No mouse required.

Will - Yes we've thought of the "query the GDS multiple times in the background, rolling forward the time" solution however the thing that makes that really, really had is a) when do you know when you've got all the flights and b) what if a flight won't display because it just doesn't have the class assigned to it. We would need the schedule for that airline/day/route to compare to in real time to make sure we got "all" the flights. Plus it may be simple enough for 1 searched day, but if the user uses our Flexable searching feature we could be talking up to 14 days. So now it's 14 days x up to 9 classes per day = 126 queries, now multiply that by 3-5 again and you see it's not a small number. And if we did that, we'd probably have to raise our prices as since we have to pay for each query, we'd loose money on the subscription fee. AA.com can do it because they use a different GDS then their own (Sabre) and the one we're using that can do those types of complicated searches, one that we are looking at using but is very expensive

SquareDanceGuy - Assuming your talking about a single city pair, the same thing applies as to AA.com's use of a different GDS for their award search tool that is more advanced. Partner searching is another matter as that information isn't in any GDS to search against which is why you have to call up AA on the phone.

[wlciii]

Figured you had thought of the "roll forward time" feature and figured you would tell me it's too hard to implement...but, (maybe it's the consultant in me) I feel like I could simplify all of the issues you have:

A) what if you compared it to the schedule you can easily pull by doing a simple non-hidden fare class search for that day...its just one extra query which most users are probably already doing anyway (at least I am) to see if the flights listed in the awards search returned all the flights, or if they should look again with a different time period set

B) If you already have the "schedule" from above and a flight doesn't show, assume it has 0 inventory in the hidden class being searched for

C) Just to clarify, I have the premium subscription and only get to search +-3 days (total of 7 days displayed) so who gets the +-6.5 days to make it 14 days total? Sarcasm aside, couldn't you just disable the flexible day (or limit it to +-1) if a user goes with the 'show me all flights' option. This would be similar to the way you currently block connecting airports when you select a specific inventory and airline combination. You could use the same strategy for fare classes--"only select 2 from the below:" (why would I want to show F, A, J, and Y anyway as those aren't hidden classes?)

With all of that I think you might be able to get back in the 5-10 query range, and use your current GDS.

Finally, speaking of pricing, it may not be the end of the world if you charged extra for this award/upgrade info. In fact, since this info really isn't available anywhere else (besides calling AA and putting up with their agents) I am almost sure you could have this be an added fee. Sure people may not "subscribe" every month but when I'm looking for that elusive award I would probably pay per use or be willing to upgrade to super premium for the month. Just my 2 cents...

By the way, please only take this as constructive criticism and not a complaint, because, as I mentioned in the FT thread, I find your service invaluable as is. But, I would love to see you guys do even better.

[Chris]

Well wlciii, not everything is as simple as it sounds.

A) waiting for one query in order to do others makes everything take longer. the proper way to do it is to get a database of schedule information (at additional cost).

B) you can't make that assumption. not all flights have all classes assigned to them. If we assume and show something is 0 when the flight doesn't even have the class, people will think it can, at a later time, be >0 when that won't be so. A perfect example is AA A vs C class. 2 class domestic flights won't have C class assigned to them ever. Showing C0 on those flights is misleading.

C) it's 14 days if you specify a departing and return date with a flex of +/- 3 for both. (7x2=14).

The bottom line is that somethings are worth doing and some aren't. We rather spend our resources on things that will be a bigger general improvement to the site rather then trying to figure a way to fix a heart attack with a bandaid. In this case, the real solution is to get a better data source that doesn't have this problem to being with, they do exist, that's how we're working on solving the problem.

[wlciii]

Cool. I'm sold.