ExpertFlyer Review: Is It Worth It? (2024)

If you have ever tried booking an award ticket using miles, or have tried to find space in a premium cabin on a specific airline on dates that work for you, you’ll know how it can become a rather complex exercise in both perseverance and patience. There is one tool, though, that can make this a much easier task.

What Is ExpertFlyer?

ExpertFlyer is a nifty tool that can help you take your travel planning to the next level. It consolidates a lot of information from multiple airlines and mileage programs and becomes your one-stop-shop to assembling your flight itineraries without the hassle of dealing with individual websites and search engines.

How To Use ExpertFlyer

ExpertFlyer was created to be an advanced user tool with a lot of functionality—if you know how to use it. Just like any tool, it’s going to take some time to get used to it before you can get the most out of it.

Searching for award seats on airlines is probably the most common use for ExpertFlyer, but there are a few other uses for this service. You can see seat maps for your flights, see all the airlines that service a specific route and even search for multiple days at once, saving you time while constructing your dream vacation.

If there isn’t any availability on your preferred airline, date and route, you can even use ExpertFlyer to set up notifications for you, alerting you when your preferred seat becomes available.

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How To Search for Award and Upgrade Availability on ExpertFlyer

Arguably the most valuable feature of this tool is the ability to search for award-ticket space and upgrade availability on specific routes, for specific dates and on the airlines we want to travel.

The first step to utilizing the tool to its full potential is to know which airlines fly the route you’re searching for. If you don’t already know this information, you can use the Flight Timetables to see which airlines fly your preferred route.

Once you know the airlines, you can search each segment one by one to find if those routes have any availability on the desired dates. Enter departing and arriving airport information, your preferred dates and times, what airlines and class of service you want to look into as shown below and click search.

You will be presented with a results page showing all the open seats selected in the previous step. For that date, on this Seattle (SEA) to Papeete (PPT) route on Air Tahiti Nui, there are two business-class seats, nine premium economy seats and nine economy ones, as shown below.

The next step after seeing these results is either going to our preferred airline website or calling the specific airline where we have miles in order to book this ticket. In the above example, Air Tahiti Nui is bookable with Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines (phone only), so there are multiple avenues to book this award space.

This tool proves invaluable when searching complex or multi-city itineraries because one leg of the journey might not have availability while the rest of the trip does.

For flyers who normally search for specific airlines and routes but are open to flying on a flexible schedule, there is a setting in the search that allows a query for up to three days before and after a set date. That way, you will obtain results for the availability you are searching over the span of a full week, increasing the chances of finding open seats.

Finding a Seat Map for Your Flight

While it may not seem like a big deal to know what the seat layout is for your flight ahead of time, knowing what the interior of the plane looks like can help you choose the best seat and get the most comfort out of your trip.

Airlines operate the same routes with different aircraft which in turn may have different seat layouts. Knowing which flights have which seat configuration may help you figure out what’s the most convenient for you.

For example, Emirates flies two different planes on this route—Dubai (DXB) to Zurich (ZHR). One of them shows a 1-2-1 configuration in business class while the other one is 2-3-2. If you’re flying alone, you might get stuck in the middle seat of the plane. Knowing the layout of the seats ahead of time allows you to either choose a different route or plan ahead to pick the best seats for your journey.

How To Set Alerts for Award Bookings

Airlines don’t always release space for award seats on every flight, and even if they do, sometimes it can be seemingly at the most random of times. Just because you checked today and don’t see any availability doesn’t mean that at this time tomorrow something won’t open up. Some airlines are well known to release inventory at the last minute if they haven’t sold the seats to cash buyers.

Setting up an alert for award space is as easy as choosing your airline, route and class of service. ExpertFlyer’s Premium service comes with a maximum of 200 active saved searches at any given time. If at any point your search retrieves no results, you can set up an alert directly from there by clicking on the exclamation mark displayed on the right hand side.

Once you do, there will be a pop up to set your alert up. Enter a name, the fare class code you want to be notified about and the seat quantity and click verify and create.

Once the alert is set, ExpertFlyer constantly checks and monitors the airline’s availability and if a seat pops up, you will need to act fast. You’ll get an email letting you know a seat opened up, but remember that you might not be the only person looking for that coveted seat.

How Much Does ExpertFlyer Cost?

There are three tiers to this tool, and as with most things in life, the more you pay, the more you get.

• Free: With the free service, you will be able to do one thing and one thing only: create an alert to find out if a better seat than the one you already have has opened up on your flight.
• Pro Basic: A Pro Basic subscription allows you to use a lot more features, including up to individual searches, access to seat maps, airline schedule and on-time flight statistics, among other capabilities. It costs $4.99 a month, but users are capped at 250 searches per month.
• Pro Premium: The Pro Premium subscription will set you back either $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. It includes unlimited searches and all other capabilities like alerts for flight availability, aircraft and schedule changes, performing flexible date searches and even saving searches you regularly run. Given the cost, the Premium service offers a free trial for the first five days to make sure you’re getting value out of your subscription before committing long term.

Here’s the full list of features available on both the Basic and Premium subscriptions:

Alternatives to ExpertFlyer

Short of elbow grease, going to all the individual airline websites and trying to put all the puzzle pieces together, there aren’t very many alternatives.

Point.me, a paid award search service, might be another option for award searches and upgrade space but it lacks other functionalities like real-time flight and airline information, seat maps and flight alerts. Prices range from $5 for a single trip Starter Pass to $260 a year for their Premium Plan.

Award Logic allows for the same unlimited award searches, including flexible date ranges, and also lets you set up alerts for specific routes and dates. Pricing starts at $199 a year, $19.99 a month or even $4.99 a day for a single day pass.

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Is ExpertFlyer Worth It?

While you certainly don’t need to be an expert flyer to take advantage of this program, it tends to make sense for those flyers on the more frequent side of the spectrum, as that is the target audience for this tool.

For the cost of about three lattes a month, you have access to a chest full of tools to find exactly the flights you’re looking for, on the right dates, in the specific airline you’ve been yearning to fly, perhaps even in the most exclusive premium cabins on the market. This makes ExpertFlyer a valuable addition to your frequent flyer toolkit.