ExpertFlyer.com: powerful tool for frequent flyers!

If you’re a frequent traveler, you really ought to check out ExpertFlyer.com  The site offers a tremendous amount of information for over 400 airlines, enabling you to:

• Determine what flight to take
• Which fare to pay
• Where to sit on the plane
• Determine what frequent flyer Award seats and Upgrades are available
• Set up email alerts for when Award seats become available for flights you’re interested in
• How to maximize your frequent flyer miles
• How to best use elite upgrades
• How to get the best fares

The site is quite powerful. Let’s say you are interested in flying from O’Hare to Las Vegas/McCarran. You plug in your search parameters including the airlines you’re interested in (the following screen shots are large and the resolution is relatively poor – click on them for a close-up, super legible view; sorry for any inconvenience!)—

and the search returns not only which flights are available, but how many seats are available for each fare class (the number after each fare class is the number of seats available; e.g., for AA2013, there are 7 seats available for fare class F)—

Whenever you conduct a query on the site, you can save it* for future use; just call up the query and adjust your dates or other parameters as required.

If you’re interested in Award travel, you can search flights to see how many Award seats are available for 21 airlines.  The U.S.-based airlines which are supported are Alaska Airlines, Delta, Frontier, Northwest and United.  A typical search:

Your results will show the number of Award seats which are available for these Classes (the following screen shot is just an excerpt from the full search results)–

You can also create email alerts so you’re notified when Award seats are released for the flights you’re interested in – handy for Award seats for which there’s a lot of demand.

The site doesn’t actually sell tickets – but it’s a solid resource for the road warrior. Armed with the fare information from the site, you can book tickets with the airline itself or through a travel agent.

If I have a complaint, it’s that the site’s capabilities are so extensive, it takes a while to get accustomed to it.  Also, if you’re not familiar with fare classifications, you’ll need to do a little studying (the site provides a complete guide.)  *Finally – be aware that the site isn’t free. The Basic Service costs $4.99 per month, and the Premium Service (which among other things enables you to save queries) is $9.99 a month or $99.99 per year.  A FREE 5 day trial is available if you want to try it out.  (Canceling the trial is simple, BTW.)

ExpertFlyer offers a free PDF “Owners Manual” that they refer to as their “EduGuide” — CLICK HERE to take a look at it.  Just perusing it will give you a sense of just how much the site offers.

Perhaps the best way to get a sense of what ExpertFlyer is all about is to take a look at their guided tour; click on the following image to take it—

Finally, I have no connection with ExpertFlyer; if you’re on the road a lot, check them out.