Originally Posted by
HoKo
So can someone please fill me in on what GTC credentials are and how to get them? I'm trying to do some availability searches
GTC is getthere.com, an online travel agent who several large organisations use.
One of these organisations foolishly let an internal document on to the internet.
Originally Posted by
A_Lee
In case any non-KVS customers are wondering, just by piecing together what's been posted here, if one does a google search for:
fau "getthere"
The first link returned is as follows:
http://www.fau.edu/controller/travel...ence_Guide.pdf
In there you will see the university's instructions for how to sign up. Does not at all look like something designed for general use. KVS, unless you were given specific permission from FAU to use this, and give it out to your customers, this is not at all cool.
Perhaps it's time someone sends some emails to FAU, marathon travel, and Sabre, to see what the real deal is, because obviously KVS wants to keep it all a big secret.
The KVS company then suggested you use this document to get an account with getthere.com
This page included a username and password that could be used to get a getthere.com account. That password has since been changed for obvious reasons.
There are other ways to get the credentials - if you work for a specific corporation or university that pay for getthere.com usage.
It was then confirmed by a getthere.com representitive that this method was against the getthere.com policies and must not be used with KVS and similar tools.
Originally Posted by
eyancy
The creation of an account to be used for “screen scrapping” or other methods of automated data collection using the GetThere booking tool is strictly forbidden. Any entity that has created an account for this purpose should stop doing so immediately.
Eric Yancy,
Information Security Officer, GetThere
However the method still exists.
Basically if you want flight availablity via
KVS Availability Tool, you have to (fraudulently or not) get a getthere.com account, and then, in direct contravention of the getthere policies, use KVS to scrape the webpages.
If you weren't aware, the reason that the old method of availability did not work was because flightstats.com, who had offered availability for free, and perhaps being fed up with KVS using their sevices, and costing them money, without any return from the adverts on that site, removed the service.
I'm not sure if this is all in breach of criminal law, rather than just civil, but I wouldn't want to be a KVS user and find out.
In the mean time, if you want access to availability, fares, and other data, you should send your money to a company that pays for legitimate access to this data. There are several tools in existence that does this, but as each search tends to cost a few cents, these tools aren't free.
You may be under the impression the money you pay each month for KVS goes towards providing the data. It doesn't. You may be under the impression you are buying a tool which will give you flight availability. You aren't. You are donating to the upkeep of a "web browser", with no guarantees on the return. That's all.