As you dive deeper into the world of factors and miles, you will rapidly notice that there is extra to upgrades and award redemptions than meets the attention. Generally, bookable companion flights do not seem on-line, and telephone brokers might not have the correct coaching to navigate complicated itineraries and partnerships.
Fortuitously, there are instruments that may make award redemptions simpler. On this information, we’ll present you how you can use ExpertFlyer (owned by TPG’s father or mother firm, Purple Ventures) to search out award house and simplify reserving your dream journey.
We’ll share the fundamentals of ExpertFlyer and supply step-by-step directions on utilizing the device to search out award house and set alerts.
ExpertFlyer fundamentals
ExpertFlyer presently presents three plans, together with one free choice. Every plan has entry to completely different options — here is a fast overview:
- Free: Set an alert to inform you when a extra fascinating seat opens up in your flight. You are restricted to 1 free alert at a time, although you may add extra for 99 cents every.
- Primary ($4.99 monthly or $49.99 per yr): Presents extra options, corresponding to award and improve stock search and flight availability (together with fare buckets). You’ll be able to set 4 seat alerts without delay, however you are restricted to 250 month-to-month queries.
- Premium ($9.99 monthly or $99.99 per yr): Contains extra versatile search choices, limitless queries, 200 seat alerts at a time, plane change alerts and the power to create as much as 200 flight availability alerts.
Yow will discover nearly something you want about airline schedules, seat maps, flight statuses and award availability utilizing ExpertFlyer. These are vital instruments to maintain in your frequent flyer toolbox, particularly if you happen to’re reserving on the final minute and have to lock in a selected flight.
The ExpertFlyer platform presently means that you can seek for this stock on 27 airways. Rigorously overview the checklist to see what stock is accessible to your desired airline — American Airways, for instance, reveals each award and improve house for its flights. Whereas United Airways and Delta Air Strains aren’t listed on ExpertFlyer, you may examine award and improve availability on different U.S. carriers, corresponding to Alaska Airways, Hawaiian Airways and JetBlue. Additional, you may seek for award house on worldwide airways like Air France, Air Canada and Qantas, amongst others.
Discovering award seats and setting award alerts
Let’s dive proper into discovering award house. Earlier than beginning, guarantee you may have a Primary or Premium account, as free accounts can’t run award searches. You’ll be able to join a free five-day Premium trial if you happen to’re a brand new member.
Establishing your ExpertFlyer searches
After logging in to your account, choose the “Awards & Upgrades” device on the left-hand sidebar. You will instantly discover a number of search fields. Fill within the fundamentals, like your departure and arrival airports and departure and return dates. In the event you’re searching for a one-way flight, preserve the return date empty.
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The Premium subscription turns out to be useful right here, because it enables you to search as much as three days earlier than or after your required journey date. This lets you view per week at a time and seek for a number of fare courses. Do that in case your dates are versatile, since you may simply discover extra award house.
When you choose the airline you’d wish to fly, you will see the fare courses that ExpertFlyer can search alongside an outline.
To seek for nonstop flights on ExpertFlyer, choose the “Direct/Non-Cease Solely” choice. You’ll be able to exclude codeshare flights if you happen to’re solely within the particular airline you are looking for. When looking throughout a number of dates, choose the “Present all dates on 1 display” choice to view all outcomes concurrently, making scrolling simpler.
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Studying ExpertFlyer search outcomes
Click on the search button on the backside of the display to see a listing of accessible flights damaged down by date. Every flight choice will present the fare courses you looked for. Some airways — like American — will even present the variety of seats obtainable in that class. Different airways will present “Sure” or “No”; the previous reveals if the flight has not less than the variety of seats you looked for obtainable.
The outcomes web page will even present you connecting choices (if you happen to do not restrict it to nonstop flights) obtainable to your itinerary.
After getting the date, flight quantity and fare class, you may e book your flight on-line. If the flight does not present on the airline’s web site, name the airline and provides the consultant the precise info on the flight(s) you discovered. They can e book it for you.
If the flight you are seeking to e book does not have the fare class you want, you may choose the highest sq. with an exclamation level to set an alert. In the event you set an alert, ExpertFlyer will electronic mail you as quickly as a seat is launched.
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Establishing ExpertFlyer seat alerts
With ExpertFlyer’s seat alert function, you will be notified if particular seats in your flight develop into obtainable after establishing an alert. This may be useful if you happen to’re caught in a center seat or a windowless window seat. As an alternative of manually checking for a greater seat day by day, ExpertFlyer does the legwork for you.
To open a seat map and create an alert, choose the “Seat Map” choice from the left-hand toolbar. Then, enter your flight particulars within the kind on the middle of the display. You will want your origin and vacation spot airports, departure date, airline and flight quantity.
On this case, I solely chosen economic system class as a result of my reservation was booked in economic system. First-class seat alerts aren’t useful right here as a result of even when a first-class seat turns into obtainable, I would not be capable to choose it with out paying for an improve.
I can set a seat alert by clicking “Create Seat Alert” and utilizing the “Choose Particular Seats” function. Then I can select to be alerted when any window, aisle or exit-row seat opens, when any two seats collectively open or when a selected seat turns into obtainable.
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An actual-world instance of utilizing ExpertFlyer to e book an award
Alaska Airways Atmos Rewards is one in every of my favourite loyalty packages, largely due to its discounted companion award charges for short-haul flights.
If you wish to e book a short-haul home flight on American Airways for 4,500 Atmos Rewards factors, you may examine award house for American Airways on ExpertFlyer by heading to the “Awards & Upgrades” web page. As soon as there, enter your search standards and choose “Coach – Saver Award (T)” as the category you are inquisitive about reserving. You may also seek for availability for the three days earlier than and after your specified departure date in case your plans aren’t solidified. Moreover, you may specify nonstop flights solely.
This is a pattern search from Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS) to New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) on American Airways in early June.
There are seven seats obtainable on June 7, indicated by the quantity “7” within the “Seats” column. At this level, you’d need to pay attention to the flight info and e book with Alaska Airways by means of your Atmos Rewards account.
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ExpertFlyer restrictions
Most award seat availability proven on ExpertFlyer might be on the saver stage for all packages, so the flights you discover needs to be bookable utilizing any companion program’s forex. For instance, if you happen to discover award house on a Turkish Airways flight by means of ExpertFlyer, it’s best to be capable to e book it by means of United MileagePlus or Air Canada Aeroplan since all three airways are Star Alliance companions.
The most important draw back to utilizing ExpertFlyer is the airways it lacks. Earlier, we talked about the service might seek for award and improve house for 27 airways. Years in the past, ExpertFlyer supported 87 carriers. This discount of supported airways is disappointing, although ExpertFlyer can nonetheless make your journey life a lot simpler on the airways it helps — particularly if you happen to steadily fly with American Airways.
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ExpertFlyer fast ideas
Now that you know the way to make use of ExpertFlyer, listed below are a couple of fast tips about how you can get probably the most from the device. Maintain the following tips in thoughts, and you will save a ton of time as you utilize ExpertFlyer to search out nice award tickets:
- If obtainable, choose your most well-liked departure time when looking for award flights. ExpertFlyer reveals a restricted variety of outcomes, so on standard routes with a number of every day flights, some frequencies might not seem, even when award house is accessible. Nevertheless, you may solely do that with some supported airways.
- Premium subscribers can use the “Saved Question” function to simply return to a earlier search.
- When switching your search dates, use the “Refine Search” button reasonably than the again button. It will preserve the search fields (like airports and dates) intact.
- Take a look at the “New To ExpertFlyer?” web page for in-depth movies on utilizing the platform’s varied options.
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Backside line
Discovering airline award house, particularly in premium courses, will be an artwork kind (and a difficult one at that). These days, there are various partnerships inside and throughout airline alliances, and a few web sites and telephone brokers are higher at discovering obtainable seats than others. That stated, data is energy on this planet of factors and miles, and that is what ExpertFlyer offers.
Studying how you can set seat alerts by means of ExpertFlyer might help you escape a less-than-ideal seat or discover two seats collectively. Regardless of the current lower in supported airways, ExpertFlyer stays a robust device for vacationers.
