Have I mentioned how much I love Expert Flyer (EF)? Probably not recently enough. EF is a service that allows users to view airline ticket/fare inventory. Yea, that sounds boring. But the EXCITING part is that such information allows you to greatly improve your flight experience.
Case in point: I’m preparing for a trip where the direct flight home did not have any seats available for upgrade. So if I wanted to avoid 11 hours in coach, I would have to take a connecting flight which adds 5 hours to the journey. Then in comes EF to save the day! Since there were plenty of seats available on the flights in questions, I chose not to book my flight right away. I put in a seat alert, which automatically monitors inventory and notifies you when seats become available. This morning I awoke to notifications that upgradable seats had become available on the direct flight. Sweet!
In this case Expert Flyer saved me travel time and got me on a nicer plane (777 vs 767). What got me started with them, though, was a $400 savings. I used a free trial of EF when I was looking to book an international ticket, and was only able to find very expensive tickets. I decided that rather than book the expensive ticket (which would remain the same expensive price), I would wait to see if some cheaper seats opened-up. I put in a seat request on the lower fair classes, and sure enough…a seat opened. So I was able to save $400 on that flight. They charge $100/yr for the service, but in my case it paid for itself!
Expert Flyer is a great service, and if you fly a lot you owe it to yourself to give it a shot.