Any new features or just an updated interface?
FROM FT
Hi everyone, we are also making available publicly the beta of the new version of ExpertFlyer that we have been working on.
To use the beta:
You must have an account on ExpertFlyer, you cannot sign up on the beta site yet.
To use any features other than Seat Alerts you must have a Premium ExpertFlyer subscription
You may login to the beta here:
https://beta.expertflyer.comYou login with the same email/password (or Facebook) that you use on the regular ExpertFlyer site
When you login for the first time, all your preferences, alerts, and saved searches will be transferred from the old version of ExpertFlyer to the new beta site. From this point on, any additional changes you make to one site won't be transferred to the other.
Any billing/subscription management must still take place on the current site, the beta is just the searching and alerting functionality of EF for now.
Improvements & Changes in the beta
Aside from all the existing EF functionality, we have added a few new features to the new EF:
Married segment alerts: from both the Flight Availability and Award & Upgrade results any itineraries with connections will now allow you to create alerts for all the segments combined. (We know you’ve been patiently waiting for this one and we thank you.)
Route Alerts: at the top of the Flight Availability or Award Upgrade results pages you’ll see a banner that prompts you to create an alert for all flights. It allows you to create an alert for a specific day/airline/class but for any non-stop/direct flight, not just one specific flight.
SMS Alerts: You can now enter in a mobile phone number on the My Account page to get true SMS alerts.
Seat Alerts as a separate search: Seat Alerts are now created via their own page that checks to see if the seat type you want (ie Any Window) is already available on the flight. If it isn’t, then you are given the opportunity to create a Seat Alert. Soon we will remove the requirement to know your flight number (the user will be shown a list of flights for date/airline/route). We will also be adding back in the ability to create a Seat Alert from the Seat Map results.
In Flight Availability and Award searching numeric inventory values of 2 or less are now in red to stand out better.
The default view in Flight Availability is by cabin, however you can click on the “switch to class view” link in the results table header to switch to the class code view. The preference will be remembered.
A new mobile experience: Unlike the current EF the mobile version will have the same UI as the desktop version. It also uses the same URL, no more /mobile for the mobile version.
A lot of general UI improvements
You may have also noticed our new logo and color scheme which we have updated the current site with to match the beta.
What we need you to test:
(Click the Give us Feedback button to report any issues)
Make sure that all your preferences/alerts/searches were transferred over from the current EF when you first login. See the 3 icons on the upper right of the desktop version.
The new features to ensure they work as expected, specifically the alerts. Creating Availability Alerts for inventory that already exists is an easy way to test that feature.
My Alerts & Saved Searches pages - make sure that both old and new alerts and saved searches show correctly without any errors
Search options - make sure that the options and combination of options of the various searches work as they should and produce the expected results. The results should match current ExpertFlyer exactly.
Search results - you’ll notice that we changed the layout of some of the search results, especially FA and Awards. Please run these searches, especially with multiple days, and let us know if there are any issues.
Test on a mobile device as well as the desktop.
If you are not based in the USA please test SMS alerts to make sure they work for you.
If you come across a reason why you would use the current EF over the beta, tell us.
A few things to keep in mind:
The current site and the beta use the same data, if you see a difference in data between the two that is a bug, please report it to beta@expertflyer.com with an example search so we can replicate it.
If you have feedback, please email it to beta@expertflyer.com so our engineers and designers can see it, they don't read FlyerTalk but do see the feedback emailed to that address, that's how you'll be able to have an impact, thanks.
The beta isn't final, we are still adding features, big and small, and changes can still be made. Please be constructive in your feedback, thanks.
From this point forward we will be doing rolling updates of the beta as we fix bugs and add functionality. If you encounter a bug or issue, please report it using the Feedback button. We appreciate your help and patience while we build a great new experience for you.
Thank you,
The ExpertFlyer.com Team
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