ExperFlyer beta program - April 2025

[kevrosmith]

Well, this is interesting. Invitation sent out to join a beta program to "get early access to new features and help influence the future of EF".

Perhaps they have finally decided to invest more into the site. I just hope it's not for the worse.

I won't post the link to join in case it's a unique link, but it led to a Google Docs form which asked a couple questions including how you currently use EF and how often you fly.

 

[serfty]

I joined this in (maybe) late 2019 ... then COVID ... didn't really like the new UI. (Then again, I'm happy with frames).

I note on FT, @FrequentFlyerVoice has resumed activity.

 

[Captain Halliday]

Interesting. I’ve been invited too.

They’re after a commitment of 1-2 hours per month to provide feedback.

A 12 month free subscription and you’ve got a deal.

 

[RealtimeY]

Given that everyone seems to be thinking that EF is on the way out - with no full replacement - I'm more than happy to share my thoughts if it'll help stop that happening.

 

[themaiz]

I received one of those last Friday and I replied on Monday. Not sure that it took, and I filled in the form again yesterday (which would be after closing). I'm always happy to provide feedback, but especially on goto tools like EF. Hope the going-out rumour is just that and nothing more.

Given that everyone seems to be thinking that EF is on the way out

got my attention. I wasn't aware of the background discussion - is potentially going away a thing? Still reeling after loss of AppInTheAir...

 

[JohnM]

I received the invitation, but won’t participate as I’m not flying enough to be useful.

 

[themaiz]

I received the invitation, but won’t participate as I’m not flying enough to be useful.

@JohnM Do you mean you were accepted but will decline, or you got the invitation and didn't respond?

 

[Daver6]

I received the invitation, but won’t participate as I’m not flying enough to be useful.

So that explains why you're useless?

 

[JohnM]

@JohnM Do you mean you were accepted but will decline, or you got the invitation and didn't respond?

The latter.

 

[JohnM]

So that explains why you're useless?

Finished ‘work’ early today, did we?

 

[DC3]

I’ve subscribed to EF each year since 2012, but have let it drop this year. Some seat maps weren’t displaying over the past year, some seat alerts were not coming through and enquiries were not being answered. It seems to have gone downhill.

Edit: Hopefully, the site can be improved

 

[dylarr]

Was granted access to the beta this evening and have been playing around with it for about an hour or so.

I joined this in (maybe) late 2019 ... then COVID ... didn't really like the new UI. (Then again, I'm happy with frames).

Interestingly all of the work on the 2019/2020 era beta has been discarded. The new beta is completely different to the previous beta.

Everything has been rewritten to use React, Next.js, and Tailwind CSS. However, from a UI/UX perspective, it looks and feels very similar to the current site. Essentially, they’ve ditched all server-rendered pages and built something near identical using modern frameworks, so it's not a drastic change to the UX like the previous beta was. I'm still able to quickly tab around the search forms and enter data quickly without having to wait for dropdowns to populate, just like the current version which is very nice.

One of the biggest changes I've noticed is how it works on mobile. Most or all of the functionality on the desktop site appears to have been made responsive, as opposed to serving up a watered down version for mobile with limited functionality like they currently do which is good.

Page loads and queries are snappy.

Still to really put it through its paces as far as alerts and data quality is concerned. But it all looks interesting.

 

[themaiz]

My invitation arrived after I went to bed (just as well, or I would have stayed up). So far it seems to be snappy and working OK. I've found a few things that could be dev state (only MM/DD/YY date, only USD....) and it still doesn't seem to know where I am - default flight search started from US "today", not AEST which is what my computer should know. Pretty snappy and not a lot different to production version. I'm testing with Brave Browser and I thought some things weren't working, but then they did.

Seat mapping for a couple of upcoming trips seems to be accurate.

Yet to test on phone.

So far so good.

 

[kevrosmith]

Was also been approved for testing. Overall, as noted by dylarr, the look is very similar. Feel is similar though I'm very much a keyboard driven user, so a few keystrokes, tabs and actions are missing for me. Need to go to my mouse in a couple of actions that I used to be able to drive through the keyboard.

Seat maps have a bit more space-padding around each individual seat, so it spreads things out. If you use Outlook, a bit like how they introduced "relaxed" spacing and most people put it back to "Compact" spacing to get more showing on the screen.

Have started providing feedback as I come across items.

 

[RealtimeY]

This is a good and pretty safe update overall. Happy to see that they seem to have kept all the current features. The greatest benefit is for those who were using the old mobile UI. In fact, it's a PWA now so can be added to your home screen to run like an app of sorts.

 

[DejaBrew]

Just accessed the beta as well. Yet to put it through its paces, but agree with others that on the face of it, it's a noticeable difference, yet otherwise very familiar.