How to Use ExpertFlyer Like a Pro

Over the years, ExpertFlyer has proven to be a powerful tool in many ways.

Whether you’re researching upcoming trips, booking award travel, or running into flight delays and cancellations while on the road, ExpertFlyer always comes in handy and can save you countless hours in a hobby that can often get quite time-consuming.

Considering the relative dearth of information on flight loads, award space, fare codes, etc. outside of paid services like this, it’s quite astounding just how far-reaching ExpertFlyer’s capabilities really are. 

While the service is not quite as powerful as it once was (thanks to some changes around award availability with select airlines in late 2023), it still has a lot of utility.

Let’s take a look at all the things you can accomplish with this wonderful service.

ExpertFlyer Pricing & Features

ExpertFlyer has two paid subscription levels, and there’s also a free five-day trial that you can use to play around with all the features and see if you want to commit for a full year.

A subscription to ExpertFlyer’s Premium service costs $99.99 (USD) for the year, while a Basic subscription costs $4.99 (USD) per month, but has limited functionality.

As we’ll discuss throughout this guide, ExpertFlyer can be a very powerful tool for the frequent flyer, and many members of the Prince of Travel team and community have found great value in the Premium subscription on an ongoing basis.

Whether or not you find great value in the service depends on how much you engage with its features.

ExpertFlyer’s suite of features are divided into eight key sections, accessible via the sidebar on the left, which we’ll walk through one by one.

Awards & Upgrades: Searching for Award Availability

One of ExpertFlyer’s most notable features is no doubt its ability to conduct searches for airline award seats using the Awards & Upgrades function. With this feature, you can search for award seat availability with select airlines, which can help you find a specific airline product that you can book with points.

Unfortunately, in late 2023, ExpertFlyer lost access to award data for a number of Star Alliance airlines, which means that the award and upgrade search function has become considerably more limited than it once was.

However, you can still use this feature to search for award availability on airlines like Emirates, Turkish Airlines, Air France, KLM,…