Originally Posted by
amislove
Originally Posted by
camachinist
Has anyone who is/with a corporate/full-service travel agency with native GDS/CRS access confirmed that availability is extent/gone from that source as well? My recollection (prior to booking awards on the internet) is that a travel agent could make award bookings so they'd have to be able to see information and book into available inventory. Mine did this a number of times back in the 90's. Corrections/clarifications are appreciated.
I mention this because of the discussion in this thread and the travel tools forum about EF scraping UA data versus having CRS/GDS access.
I have Sabre access, and I've never been able to see any non-revenue classes on UA (or even CO, back in the day) flights. For example,
Code:
1*C«
20SEP THU ORD/CDT LHR/‡6
1UA 958 F3 A3 J9 C7 D7 Z6 P5 ORDLHR 350P 555A‡1 DCA /E
Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 L9 K9 G0 N0 *A
2UA 928 F3 A3 J9 C9 D9 Z9 P9 ORDLHR 617P 825A‡1 DCA /E
Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 L9 K8 G0 N0 *A
3UA 938 F2 A0 J4 C2 D1 Z0 P0 ORDLHR 907P 1115A‡1 DCA /E
Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T6 L2 K0 G0 N0 *A
(of course, it's possible others [e.g., EF] may have access to more extended availability, but I think unlikely)
I have Apollo access and don't believe I could ever see award space and upgrade space, even when it was UA's native system. IIRC I was able to see TWA award space on PARS back in the day. OTOH I do remember full service travel agents calling airlines to book awards and for other requests that they could not handle themselves.