If this is your first time reading my Travel Tech Thursday Tip I want to welcome you to this post. I travel over 100,000 miles a year, and along the way I have discovered some really useful tech tips that I believe can help your travel experience. Todays travel technology tip is ExpertFlyer.com .
As a frequent flyer there are two important things for me. First, I want to fly in first class for the price of economy. Second, I want to be able to use my airline miles for free seats, or as they call it, award travel when we go on vacation or see our family on the west coast.
If you have ever tried to upgrade or use your miles, you know that airlines do not make it easy. If you have ever called an airline agent, you know that they are not really motivated to seek upgrades or award seating. That is why when you want to upgrade or get award seats, knowledge is power. When you call the airlines you should already know which flights have upgrade or award seat availability. Expertflyer.com gives you that ability. So when you call you can direct the agents to the flights you are requesting.
Here is an example. My friend Steve was trying to take his family (two adults and two teens) to Italy in the summer season. The summer season is the busiest season for travel to Europe, and it is impossible to get 1 award seat, let alone get 4. His wife Rhonda had called a couple of times and they could not get tickets, so I offered to help them. Through use of Expertflyer I was able to get them 4 tickets in the summer flying to Italy non-stop on the same flight for only 40,000 airmiles per person. The agent I dealt with kept saying, “Wow! This is a miracle! I have never seen award seating be available during the summer, and to get 4 on the same flight is just nearly impossible.”
I do have some other air miles ninja black arts that I use but I think Expertflyer.com is one of the most accurate and simple tools to use. There is $99 a year fee for use, but if you are able to upgrade or even to use your air miles for award seats that is worth it.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Let me know when you can get me 4 free tickets with no miles and no money, then we’ll talk bargain.
Diane,
Just got a first class RT ticket from Syracuse to LAX for $44 all in. Just keep reading and I might share my Jedi mind tricks.
Thanks Chico for the review! We also offer a less expensive $4.99/mo plan for those who may not use EF as often as yourself.
Thanks Chris for the reminder.