ExpertFlyer is my first stop for award searches, so it was pretty exciting when they announced an agreement with American Airlines and US Airways to improve the award data available to ExpertFlyer users. Then, sometime in late 2014, the US Airways feed broke – suddenly US award inventory wasn’t working in searches, with a note that the airline and ExpertFlyer teams were working together to resolve the situation. ExpertFlyer US Airways award searches have returned, better than they were before.
Unlike past issues with ExpertFlyer and airlines like United and Delta trying to cut off access to the service, US Airways intended to supply ExpertFlyer users with data and this was a genuine technical issue. As of today, it appears to have been resolved, with enhancements!
ExpertFlyer Enhanced US Airways Award Search
As part of US Airways’ merger with American Airlines, they had started to align fare buckets. The new ExpertFlyer search for US Airways space accounts for these changes – the pre- and post-February 1 award fare buckets are now broken out. In addition the Y/B economy instant upgrade fare classes are now searchable.
I’m fairly surprised that US Airways and ExpertFlyer spent time resolving this, since the US Airways Dividend Miles program is scheduled to merge into the American Airlines AAdvantage program in a couple of months, at which point USDM will cease to exist. I think this bodes well for the ExpertFlyer relationship with AA going forward.
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