VA and other seat maps not showing on ExpertFlyer (2025)

From the seats.aero newsletter:

In the future, we’ll allow you to create alerts and view even more GDS information, including fare rules, revenue fare buckets, and more. Stay tuned!

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Really great to hear that these features will remain available somewhere if something were to happen to EF.

Mattg said:

Refreshing the page didn’t work for me.

E.g. I can get this flight to show a J seat map, but Y looks like this (both before and after refreshing):

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Using the Seat Alerts app (which I normally do when on the go) doesn’t work either:

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If I search for J, it doesn’t load either using the app, just gets stuck here - but at least J is working on the web version.

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Yeah, Y seat maps are still not working for me on a desktop browser, either.

RealtimeY said:

From the seats.aero newsletter:

Really great to hear that these features will remain available somewhere if something were to happen to EF.

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That's great news. Seats.aero is clearly investing a lot more into its product than ExpertFlyer has over the last few years. It could soon make EF obsolete, if EF's new owners don't do that first!

I received an email indication my US$9.99 one month subscription was being refunded.

Still can't get VA economy or reliable VA business, no MH or CX. No FJ economy either and their J mapping for the A359 is inaccurate.

Seems like seats.aero might also be getting monstered as well by airlines, according to Matt Graham-

Air Canada sends “cease and desist” letter to Seats.aero​

Around a week ago, Air Canada’s lawyers also sent a letter to Seats.aero requesting they “cease and desist” scraping award availability information from the Air Canada website. This happened around the same time that ExpertFlyer stopped supporting award availability information for most Star Alliance carriers. We suspect it may not be a coincidence.

Seats.aero is a useful tool as it makes it easier for people to find reward availability. The company claims that it is not breaking any laws because it is simply accessing publicly available information. It does not intend to comply with Air Canada’s request and says it is prepared to defend its position in court, if needed.

ozstamps said:

Seems like seats.aero might also be getting monstered as well by airlines, according to Matt Graham-

Air Canada sends “cease and desist” letter to Seats.aero​

Around a week ago, Air Canada’s lawyers also sent a letter to Seats.aero requesting they “cease and desist” scraping award availability information from the Air Canada website. This happened around the same time that ExpertFlyer stopped supporting award availability information for most Star Alliance carriers. We suspect it may not be a coincidence.

Seats.aero is a useful tool as it makes it easier for people to find reward availability. The company claims that it is not breaking any laws because it is simply accessing publicly available information. It does not intend to comply with Air Canada’s request and says it is prepared to defend its position in court, if needed.

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Again? I thought that was old news?

Was news to me until today, based on Matt's email, and it is not posted ANYWHERE on this thread and seemed very relevant to this thread.

Lucky you. to be well ahead of the curve.

ozstamps said:

Was news to me until today, based on Matt's email, and it is not posted ANYWHERE on this thread and seemed very relevant to this thread.

Lucky you. to be well ahead of the curve.

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Yeah, over a year old: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ded.83894/gov.uscourts.ded.83894.1.0_1.pdf

ozstamps said:

Was news to me until today, based on Matt's email, and it is not posted ANYWHERE on this thread and seemed very relevant to this thread.

Lucky you. to be well ahead of the curve.

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Whoa, hold your horses there @ozstamps.

First of all, despite being short and to the point, I was asking a genuine question. Air Canada filed a lawsuit against Seats.aero back in October last year and whilst I have not personally heard whether it was resolved, there is no obvious mention of it on Seats.aero's website today (whereas there was a banner splashed over their website at the time as you can see here). As such, I was asking whether Air Canada was filing yet another lawsuit against Seats.aero?

Second, I don't know about this email from Matt to which you are referring (prior edition of the AFF Gazette perhaps?), however as you can see, the situation between Seats.aero and Air Canada was discussed back in October last year in this thread, which is why it hasn't been previously posted in this specific thread (which started over a year later and is discussing seat maps rather than award availability).

Cheers!

ozstamps said:

Seems like seats.aero might also be getting monstered as well by airlines, according to Matt Graham-

Air Canada sends “cease and desist” letter to Seats.aero​

Around a week ago, Air Canada’s lawyers also sent a letter to Seats.aero requesting they “cease and desist” scraping award availability information from the Air Canada website. This happened around the same time that ExpertFlyer stopped supporting award availability information for most Star Alliance carriers. We suspect it may not be a coincidence.

Seats.aero is a useful tool as it makes it easier for people to find reward availability. The company claims that it is not breaking any laws because it is simply accessing publicly available information. It does not intend to comply with Air Canada’s request and says it is prepared to defend its position in court, if needed.

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This excerpt is from an article I wrote last year. You haven’t provided a link to the original article, so for the benefit of others, here it is:

This article was not featured in yesterday’s Gazette, if that’s the email you’re referring to.

levelnine said:

seats.aero rendering EF more redundant by the day.

https://seats.aero/seatmap

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Came here to complain about EF’s seat map not working for same-day QF flights since at least late last year, only to discover SE (which I also sub to) has been able to check them for months!

I never use fly forward with QF unless I’m relatively confident I won’t be allocated a middle seat on the new flight. They turned it on first thing this morning for my SYD to MEL leg this evening. An earlier flight would have been preferable, but without a seat map I could only go on fare bucket data, which looked too heavy on most of the mid/late arvo flights to risk it.

Anyway, armed with this knowledge, I’ve finally cancelled my EF sub. As of today, now ~$150 per year better off (and hopefully arriving earlier on a flight or two in the near future…).

Boeyn said:

Came here to complain about EF’s seat map not working for same-day QF flights since at least late last year, only to discover SE (which I also sub to) has been able to check them for months!

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The free EF has been working for me for QF flights same day. It usually stops about an 1hr before departure.

I've had no issues with their seat maps... here is this morning's 6am QF401 SYD-MEL

Boeyn said:

Came here to complain about EF’s seat map not working for same-day QF flights since at least late last year, only to discover SE (which I also sub to) has been able to check them for months!

I never use fly forward with QF unless I’m relatively confident I won’t be allocated a middle seat on the new flight. They turned it on first thing this morning for my SYD to MEL leg this evening. An earlier flight would have been preferable, but without a seat map I could only go on fare bucket data, which looked too heavy on most of the mid/late arvo flights to risk it.

Anyway, armed with this knowledge, I’ve finally cancelled my EF sub. As of today, now ~$150 per year better off (and hopefully arriving earlier on a flight or two in the near future…).

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I have had no issues with Qantas sats maps or queries this year.

SYD said:

The free EF has been working for me for QF flights same day. It usually stops about an 1hr before departure.

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So strange. I reckon I tried it on at least 20 same-day flights since November without success, and most of them were several hours before departure. Were you using the desktop or mobile site?

EDIT: Actually, maybe it doesn’t work when fly forward is turned on? I’ve only used it to check same-day flights in that situation.

Boeyn said:

So strange. I reckon I tried it on at least 20 same-day flights since November without success, and most of them were several hours before departure. Were you using the desktop or mobile site?

EDIT: Actually, maybe it doesn’t work when fly forward is turned on? I’ve only used it to check same-day flights in that situation.

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Mobile app. Pretty sure it worked for me on fly forward also.

kevrosmith said:

I’m in the hasn’t worked for a while bucket. I just assumed they lost access once check in opened.

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That’s weird. I’ve been able to check the seatmap while sitting in the lounge.