F lyerTalk members who subscribe to the services of ExpertFlyer.com were not exactly happy about being informed that they could no longer view the upgrade classes of RU and OU on Delta Air Lines as of Friday, October 18, 2013; but that drought is finally over — mostly, anyway.
ExpertFlyer In, AwardWallet Still Out With Delta Air Lines
“We’re happy to announce that as of today the previously missing DL data has been restored to ExpertFlyer. The only exception is DL Upgrade class inventory that requires GDS access, which Delta is still not allowing us to use”, FlyerTalk member ExpertFlyer Voice — who is an official company representative of ExpertFlyer.com — posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2016. “However regular fare class inventory/availability/alerting and all the other searches (including Seat Maps/Alerts) are available again for DL. Please note, DL flights will only show when DL is the only airline specified in the Flight Availability search.”
FlyerTalk members have generally reacted positively to the news — but they still lament not having the ability to view seat inventory for the purpose of upgrades to seats in the premium class cabin, which to some FlyerTalk members renders ExpertFlyer basically “useless”.
Meanwhile, AwardWallet was forced by Delta Air Lines to stop supporting the SkyMiles frequent flier loyalty program back in September of 2012 — and almost four years later, there is no sign that that will change anytime soon.
A petition was launched on Monday, September 10, 2012 to “reverse the lockout” of AwardWallet service…
AwardWallet.com is an invaluable tool for us frequent travelers to track of our travels, miles, points, etc. It supports hundreds of airlines, hotel chains, rental car agencies, and other travel-related programs. Today (Monday Sep 10, 2012), Delta forced awardwallet to stop allowing us to track our Delta travel. We AwardWallet users specifically chose to use AwardWallet to track our travel. Why would Delta disallow this? If Delta wants to keep its loyal Medallion members, it will reverse this decision.
…but only 2,243 supporters signed the petition, with signature number 2,000 occurring only three months ago.
Summary
Although I have met the Chris Lopinto — who is the president and co-founder of ExpertFlyer.com — I personally never subscribed to the service…
…or any other similar service, for that matter — and that includes AwardWallet.
There are many people who swear by ExpertFlyer in order to get the most out of their experience traveling as passengers aboard airplanes — as well as AwardWallet to track progress with frequent travel loyalty programs — but those services for customers are apparently not in the best interests of Delta Air Lines.
Should the ability to track the SkyMiles frequent flier loyalty program with AwardWallet — as well as the ability to view seat inventory in order to plan for upgrades with ExpertFlyer — be reinstated for customers of Delta Air Lines?
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
