So, I've been on the road traveling almost every week or every other week for the past several months and haven't spent as much time on FT as I would have liked to.

It's been brought to my attention (and I already knew this, but I just need someone to kickstart me) that the Mileage Run Tools thread is somewhat out of date. There are many links that are not working & many links that should be there that aren't there.

Some examples include the availability tools, a link to FareCompare (there's a specific FT-dedicated link, IIRC), and things that are just plain outdated.

I've got no travel scheduled til 10/23 so I'm going to have a little bit more freetime over the next two weeks & I'm thinking of updating the MR Tools thread.

But I'm going to ask for some help from all of you out there who read this forum.

Just a couple of questions that will help enhance the user experience here - and I'd like to hear responses from the "old-timers" as well as the "newbies" here on FlyerTalk:

1) Which tools are outdated? (I do plan on going through the links, but want your feedback as well)

2) Which tools don't have a good enough description - is there a better way of describing them - if so, please share your thoughts.

3) Are there any tools/links that I'm missing (i.e. farecompare link, etc)

4) Is the formatting good enough? I'm not an HTML kind of guy - I'm perfectly fine adding URL links to the names of the links, but that's about it - other than that, I'm a total HTML moron & I'm planning on clicking edit, copying & pasting the entire posts in a word document, editing them there, and then creating a new thread (or just reinserting in the same thread - haven't decided yet)

5) If there are any other comments/questions/suggestions that you may have that will enhance that thread - which given the number of views, seems to be a fairly useful sticky, I'd welcome them.

Thanks in advance & safe travels!

bhatnasx
Mileage Run Moderator

First of all, thanks for all your effort in providing many useful links.

2 items I noticed:

1) Travelocity Farelisting dropped many staralliance carriers incl. UA, LH, LX.
I'd be very keen to learn about an alternative for this one, (save KVS & Expertflier)

2) Flaow's ITN links seem to be out of date too.

Thanks for the reply - I'll update FlyAOW, but leave it as reference. I'll see what I can find out about TL Fare Listing as well...

Just my $0.02... Would it be easier and more effective to accomplish this in the Wiki section? There is a lot more formatting available and rather than a long thread that requires the original poster to sift through and update the top post, the wiki topic can be amended and added to directly by everyone. I think having someone moderate and monitor that would be a lot easier and effective in the long run, but not a lot of FTers make it over to the Wiki section, so it'll all depend on MRers getting on board with the idea and contributing.

peace,
~Ben~

PS> The following is listed in the top post in the tools thread, but it should really be removed. When I go to that site, I get nothing but popups and google ads - absolutely nothing useful. "Flight Picks A website that allows you to search for itineraries based on either price, availability, or schedule. It shows some, but not all of the fare. (Thanks Super Larry!) "

PPS> I think that http://www.seatcounter.com/ deserves its place among the availability tools. It's very straightforward and easy to use.

2) Flaow's ITN links seem to be out of date too.
I've set up a "replacement" over here:
http://availability.publicbackup.com/

http://www.infosys.de/nurabfrage/

Commandos have to start with "1"
fe 115novframia@dl = 15. Nov Fra to Mia on DL

http://www.infosys.de/nurabfrage/

Commandos have to start with "1"
fe 115novframia@dl = 15. Nov Fra to Mia on DL
Great link... Translated to English (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infosys.de%2Fnurabfra ge%2F&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools)

PPS> I think that http://www.seatcounter.com/ deserves its place among the availability tools. It's very straightforward and easy to use.
In response to a few requests, SeatCounter (http://www.seatcounter.com) now includes the equipment type.

http://www.infosys.de/nurabfrage/

Commandos have to start with "1"
fe 115novframia@dl = 15. Nov Fra to Mia on DL

Are there other commands that can be used on this interface for fares and rules?

Reminds me of the old Easysabre days...

bhatnasx, thanks so much for updating -- that is a great contribution and I know it will be widely appreciated.

I think the FareCompare/FT link you were referencing is this one:
http://www.farecompare.com/search/flyertalk?departure=lax

And thanks to those of you who posted the updated availability links -- I've been wanting those! ^

OK, here goes... one that I've been using a lot to figure out which airlines fly a certain route: http://timetables.oag.com/XXX

where XXX is the IATA code for the airport on one end of the route.

Want to know which nonstop or connecting flights takes you from BRU to NYC? Just enter http://timetables.oag.com/BRU/ and look it up... Works for MOST airports. No fare information though; only schedule information.

So how does one query for a specific time of day. Querying 101NovLAXMIA@AA does not bring up the red-eye flights, but only brings up the am and early pm departures.http://www.infosys.de/nurabfrage/

Commandos have to start with "1"
fe 115novframia@dl = 15. Nov Fra to Mia on DL

So how does one query for a specific time of day. Querying 101NovLAXMIA@AA does not bring up the red-eye flights, but only brings up the am and early pm departures.

try
101NovLAXMIA#AA

should give better results:

6AA 234 F7 A7 P1 Y7 B7 H7 K7 LAXMIA 2240 0625#1 757 S/F 0 DCA /E
M7 L7 W7 V6 G4 S0 N0 Q0 O0
7AA 276 F7 A0 P0 Y7 B7 H7 K7 LAXMIA 2355 0735#1 757 S/F 0 DCA /E
M7 L7 W4 V2 G0 S0 N0 Q0 O0

if you want an indirect connection, split it up - each leg as direct connection.

Hello everyone..
I'm new to the site but not to miles and low priced flights. I'm based in New York and can leave from any of the three airports (not Philadelhia or Westchester) on Fridays (afternoon and evenings) and return on Sundays (anytime). I had some luck with flights to SCL ($482 return from JFK, all included) and the US Southwest($179 return to PHX, all included), and will reach 54K for this year. AA offers a bonus of 10K miles if you reach 75K. If someone could help me reach it on a budget that would be wonderful.
The problem is that I can't travel in November and have a flight on the weekend of 12/15. I found a return to FRA through Chicago on 12/8 for 10.5K ($419 ttc), but wanted to see if there was anything else to Alaska or wherever to get the remaining 10-11K miles for Christmas or New Year's, or the first weekends of December.
Can someone suggest an mileage run for those dates on One World members?

Thanks in advance..I will try to post the best sale listings on this site too!




QUOTE=bhatnasx]So, I've been on the road traveling almost every week or every other week for the past several months and haven't spent as much time on FT as I would have liked to.

It's been brought to my attention (and I already knew this, but I just need someone to kickstart me) that the Mileage Run Tools thread is somewhat out of date. There are many links that are not working & many links that should be there that aren't there.

Some examples include the availability tools, a link to FareCompare (there's a specific FT-dedicated link, IIRC), and things that are just plain outdated.

I've got no travel scheduled til 10/23 so I'm going to have a little bit more freetime over the next two weeks & I'm thinking of updating the MR Tools thread.

But I'm going to ask for some help from all of you out there who read this forum.

Just a couple of questions that will help enhance the user experience here - and I'd like to hear responses from the "old-timers" as well as the "newbies" here on FlyerTalk:

1) Which tools are outdated? (I do plan on going through the links, but want your feedback as well)

2) Which tools don't have a good enough description - is there a better way of describing them - if so, please share your thoughts.

3) Are there any tools/links that I'm missing (i.e. farecompare link, etc)

4) Is the formatting good enough? I'm not an HTML kind of guy - I'm perfectly fine adding URL links to the names of the links, but that's about it - other than that, I'm a total HTML moron & I'm planning on clicking edit, copying & pasting the entire posts in a word document, editing them there, and then creating a new thread (or just reinserting in the same thread - haven't decided yet)

5) If there are any other comments/questions/suggestions that you may have that will enhance that thread - which given the number of views, seems to be a fairly useful sticky, I'd welcome them.

Thanks in advance & safe travels!

bhatnasx
Mileage Run Moderator[/QUOTE]

filippo1,

Welcome to FlyerTalk. You might have better luck if you edit out your post here and take the text and create a new thread in the Mileage Run form to ask for help. Also, please make sure you read the stickies at the top of the forum to understand what a mileage run is and how to book one. FlyerTalkers love it when other FlyerTalkers help themselves out a bit, so do a little reading and a little legwork on your own and then start a new thread with your results. It doesn't matter if you can't get anywhere, but showing that you tried and understand the concept will go a long way. :)

Would it be possible for any update to the thread to differentiate which "tools" work better for which airlines?

Because it seems like different techniques work better with different airlines / airline group (or at least that's how the seminars on mileage runs seem to be organized - StarAlliance vs. Skyteam vs OneWorld)

This would be extraordinarily helpful!

Thanks!

I'm looking for a tool that for example I could pull up the lowest fares out of BOS that don't require advance purchase, not just all the lowest fares, etc. Thanks.

I'm looking for a tool that for example I could pull up the lowest fares out of BOS that don't require advance purchase, not just all the lowest fares, etc. Thanks.

KVS will do the basics, you soon learn the common year round Fare Basis.

The issue with what you are asking is that you need to retrieve all the fare rules for each flight, then sort/search based on the rules.

An offline database might do this, but would not be current, real time would hammer the system to death with so many people running it each day.

Learn your Fare Basis codes!

i've had pretty good luck on availability using www.tandt.com. You have to sign in and set the options to display everything, but then it pretty clearly shows availability

i've had pretty good luck on availability using www.tandt.com. You have to sign in and set the options to display everything, but then it pretty clearly shows availability

Standard ITN tool which many sites offer. Didn't show the consolidator fare I booked for next March. Not to mention Travel and Transport will be adding a $22.00 per ticket handling charge on all tickets.

I really like the above noted command line Sabre tool. I miss command line in general and often prefer it to GUI interfaces. Does anyone know if that above tool has other undocumented commands such as pulling up fares? E.g. I'm not sure what the Sabre command would be to pull up a fare? Thanks.

is there a tool besides kvs that will allow you to find fare rules for fares that arent available for booking?

is there a tool besides kvs that will allow you to find fare rules for fares that arent available for booking?

ExpertFlyer.com (http://www.expertflyer.com)

ExpertFlyer.com (http://www.expertflyer.com)They're not any good anymore - at least until they get their old GDS back... :td:

I really like the above noted command line Sabre tool. I miss command line in general and often prefer it to GUI interfaces. Does anyone know if that above tool has other undocumented commands such as pulling up fares? E.g. I'm not sure what the Sabre command would be to pull up a fare? Thanks.eAAsy Sabre was awesome....those were the good old days!! :)

It seems like most of the old CWT/FlyAow remnants have disappeared. The only one still working that I know of is the one I mirrored at my site:

http://availability.publicbackup.com/

Hi,

Actually we launched a new tool and cleaned up the old ones that were not operating anymore. The new tool is available at: http://flyaow.com/classbell.htm

The new multi-city tool for open jaw and/or circle trips/etc. is available at: http://flyaow.com/classbellmulti.htm

A directory of all the available tools is at: http://flyaow.com/class.htm
There are some airline specific ones there that still work as well such as Air New Zealand, Aloha, etc. We also have links to other availability tools out there.

The ITN tools I imagine will not last long as the backend is changing and being phased out. But for now they are operational again.

Cheers!

Awesome tool, for checking seat availability. Hate to go to the websites I use for booking just find out no seats.

D

Hi,

Actually we launched a new tool and cleaned up the old ones that were not operating anymore. The new tool is available at: http://flyaow.com/classbell.htm

The new multi-city tool for open jaw and/or circle trips/etc. is available at: http://flyaow.com/classbellmulti.htm

A directory of all the available tools is at: http://flyaow.com/class.htm
There are some airline specific ones there that still work as well such as Air New Zealand, Aloha, etc. We also have links to other availability tools out there.

The ITN tools I imagine will not last long as the backend is changing and being phased out. But for now they are operational again.

Cheers!

Unfortunately these seem to exclude BA from the search. Any clues why ?

Various tools have access to different GDS inventory in terms of which airlines are covered.

If you want to check BA inventory generally the Etour Japanese tool available at http://flyaow.com/class.htm works.

Good luck!

I am using http://www.awardwallet.com to keep track of all my programs. Since i travel alot it makes my life much easier.

-AV

http://www.infosys.de/nurabfrage/


Great link... Translated to English (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infosys.de%2Fnurabfra ge%2F&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools)

As ernestnywang points out in the AA forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=8590787&postcount=20), The Infosys German Tool does not seem to funtion anymore. Does anyone know why?

I tried googling the domain for links and it looks like the company closed the loophole and is now charging correctly for Sabre Access. Perhaps someone with better German skills can take a look around and see what they find?

It does appear that the tool is down. Can't seem to find a good replacement on their domain. Did turn up a bunch of other front-ends to that same tool, but they all have been disabled as the back-end form they all submit to is gone.

The Japanese language tool is still working though. You can access it from the link at http://flyaow.com/class.htm

Cheers!

I think the FareCompare/FT link you were referencing is this one:
http://www.farecompare.com/search/fl...?departure=lax

This tool is amazing. I'm having a hard time actually finding the fares though. Is there any way to use the results to find the actual availability of the fares, or is it a matter of entering a number of dates and hoping the fare comes up? Any guidance on how to use this effectively would be greatly appreciated.

Is it really dead? :( I cannot believe that they just pulled the plug on this simple and easy to use tool...I've tried seatcounter but it is so much slower and less flexible.

I guess it might be time to pay for access and use the KVS tool. However, is it as fast as the infosys tool was?

Is it really dead? :( I cannot believe that they just pulled the plug on this simple and easy to use tool...I've tried seatcounter but it is so much slower and less flexible.

I guess it might be time to pay for access and use the KVS tool. However, is it as fast as the infosys tool was?

I just PM'd you a guest account to try out ExpertFlyer.com. We just added a bunch of airlines for award/upgrade inventory support (full list here: http://www.expertflyer.com/popup/classes.jsp) so hopefully we can help you out.

And yes, we're just as fast. :)

Thanks very much. I appreciate your gesture.

The problem is that I am mostly interested in NZ award availability being based in Australia. It looks as if you can't display NZ I/X award availability, is this correct? The other airline I'm interested in is LH awards but that was also not possible with the infosys tool unfortunately. That's why I am looking to try the KVS tool as it appears to have more award classes available for the airlines I am mostly flying on.

Thanks very much. I appreciate your gesture.

The problem is that I am mostly interested in NZ award availability being based in Australia. It looks as if you can't display NZ I/X award availability, is this correct? The other airline I'm interested in is LH awards but that was also not possible with the infosys tool unfortunately. That's why I am looking to try the KVS tool as it appears to have more award classes available for the airlines I am mostly flying on.

When using seatcounter, enter the carrier (NZ) twice.

Takes a while, but you get some useful I/X results.

For example, http://www.seatcounter.com/?k=6f47c4ec2f6488174bd8204ff1e62c89

Thanks very much. I appreciate your gesture.

The problem is that I am mostly interested in NZ award availability being based in Australia. It looks as if you can't display NZ I/X award availability, is this correct?

Actually, no. We now display NZ Award inventory:

NZ 6
AKL 11/13/07 7:15 PM
LAX 11/13/07 10:25 AM 772
74% / 16m I0 X9

NZ 2
AKL 11/13/07 11:00 PM
LAX 11/13/07 1:55 PM 744
52% / 24m I2 X9

Since they are hidden classes, be sure to specify NZ as the airline and the I and X classes in the search.

In addition, ExpertFlyer displays the U and E Premium Economy buckets that Seatcounter doesn't display:

NZ 6
AKL 11/13/07 7:15 PM
LAX 11/13/07 10:25 AM 772
74% / 16m C0 D0 Z0 J0 U4 E4 O0 Y7 B7 M7 H7 Q7 V7 W7 T7 L7 S7 G7 K7 P0


Enjoy :)

The other airline I'm interested in is LH awards but that was also not possible with the infosys tool unfortunately. That's why I am looking to try the KVS tool as it appears to have more award classes available for the airlines I am mostly flying on.Thanks for noticing :). KVS Tool currently supports award availability on all Star Alliance carriers, except for LX: (AC/UA/US/LH/OS/SK/TP/LO/JK/BD/SQ/NZ/NH/OZ/TG/SA/JP/OU/KF).

It also shows award availability on most SkyTeam members:
(NW/SU/AM/AF/CO/DL/KL).

And, coming very soon, it will give you access to awards availability on most OneWorld airlines:
(QF/BA/AA/AY/IB/MA).

Since this is the Mileage Run Tools Update thread, we have another update for you:

We have added a new feature to ExpertFlyer specifically to help with mileage run planning. This new addition is a way to force the GDS to return results that only have either 1 or 2 connections in the results even if there are NS/direct options available. Since the GDS would have always shown these NS/direct segments first and usually at the exclusion of connections, this is a way to give you more options for things like mileage runners who need to get from A->B anyway but N/S or direct. Combined with the "Don't show Interline" option and optionally the specification of 1 or 2 connecting airports, you can force showing only the flights for a specific airline with multiple connections. Of course, options will only be shown that the airlines allow and that don't violate MCTs.

Enjoy this new feature and we hope it helps with your planning as we approach the end of the year.

Thanks for your support,
-EFV

Is someone able to help me with figuring out how to do an MR? This is my first one and my Dad wants to join me.

I understand the concept, I think I've got the right flight/route. What I'm not sure of is whether the route I've priced/put together will actually work and is available. I'm sure I read about a tool that will help me figure this out, but I can't remember what it was called and I'm apparently searching on the wrong term.

I'm also struggling with reading the rules, I don't know what all the codes mean.

Any suggestions?

Does anyone know if you can use this tool to actually book tickets?

The site says "Exclusively for business card members, this site allows you to save money and time!
Book flights, rental cars and hotel room all in one efficient transaction" and I am an AMEX business card holder [albeit a Canadian one.] Otherwise, the site seems pretty legit.

Thanks!

Bump :)

Does anyone know if you can use this tool to actually book tickets?

The site says "Exclusively for business card members, this site allows you to save money and time!
Book flights, rental cars and hotel room all in one efficient transaction" and I am an AMEX business card holder [albeit a Canadian one.] Otherwise, the site seems pretty legit.

Thanks!

First, I want to apologize to everyone for sucking & not updating the tools...I've been on the road literally every week since April & 3 weeks out of the month since Jan 2006...

Second, yes, you can book through teh Amex ITN site - I've done it before (and paid with a Visa card) even if you're not an cardholder. They do charge a booking fee of about 20 bucks I think (or at least they used to)

First, I want to apologize to everyone for sucking & not updating the tools...I've been on the road literally every week since April & 3 weeks out of the month since Jan 2006...

Second, yes, you can book through teh Amex ITN site - I've done it before (and paid with a Visa card) even if you're not an cardholder. They do charge a booking fee of about 20 bucks I think (or at least they used to)

thank you so much! that is amazing - even with the fee, they almost always are cheaper than expedia or travelocity/ [this is when I am looking at fares ex UK or Asia] I think they use a more generous exchange rate for GBP/AED/PKR/THB/SGD to USD/CAD

Cheers,

thank you so much! that is amazing - even with the fee, they almost always are cheaper than expedia or travelocity/ [this is when I am looking at fares ex UK or Asia] I think they use a more generous exchange rate for GBP/AED/PKR/THB/SGD to USD/CAD

Cheers,Btw, I don't see any link to the AmEx/ITN site...can you post it? TIA!

http://flyaow.com/classamex.htm

cheers,

I just PM'd you a guest account to try out ExpertFlyer.com. We just added a bunch of airlines for award/upgrade inventory support (full list here: http://www.expertflyer.com/popup/classes.jsp) so hopefully we can help you out.

And yes, we're just as fast. :)

Thanks for sharing the Airline Award/Upgrade Classes from experflyer.com with FTer's. Being a somewhat "newbie" I am constantly looking for ways to educate myself. I want to be an "expert"!

Been playing with the tools for which thanks to all. I can see seat availability for each class bucket ;)

The problem is booking the bucket I want - every booking engine I link to just returns cheepest economy (the ones that get you 50% or 25% or even NO mileage points). I can see that 100% points classes are available but does anyone know of a booking engine that lets me select them even if cheaper flights are available.

Specific search at the moment is AF BHX-LAX and return, but the facility to select class would be immensely useful for anyone who's chosen airline online system (like AF's) will only offer the cheepest fare.

Thanks for noticing :). KVS Tool currently supports award availability on all Star Alliance carriers, except for LX: (AC/UA/US/LH/OS/SK/TP/LO/JK/BD/SQ/NZ/NH/OZ/TG/SA/JP/OU/KF).

It also shows award availability on most SkyTeam members:
(NW/SU/AM/AF/CO/DL/KL).

And, coming very soon, it will give you access to awards availability on most OneWorld airlines:
(QF/BA/AA/AY/IB/MA).

Are the upgrade buckets included? (eg. UA NC & NF)

Are the upgrade buckets included? (eg. UA NC & NF)Yes for UA: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3982968#post3982968