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Old May 18, 2015, 2:32 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: canadiancow
FT members trying to earn a spot in the top 20:
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Clan Lindsay
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Earn Your Wings - Fourth Edition

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Old Apr 24, 2015, 4:47 pm
  #181  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: YVR
Programs: AC 100K SE (*G), Marriott P, SPG G, Hilton D
Posts: 611
Originally Posted by canadiancow
Not 14,000 routes, 14,000 tickets. That's maybe 2000 total itineraries. And I'm not sure it's reasonable to assume they'd share enough for this to work. Obviously I'd cache results. Most likely is I'd take the top 1000 itineraries on a wings/day basis, then see if any are significantly cheaper than the rest.

But I'm worried that spending $500 would only save me $200
Why don't you narrow it down to 100-200 itineraries that are optimal for time/wings? Then running a bunch of threads to send sample itineraries through a web based tool like EF, ITA, or Google Flights? Screen scrape the results to get the price? At least this is free.

With Google Flights you could put all the segments into a single request string like:
sel=YYJYVR0AC8054-YVRYEG0AC234,YEGYXE0AC8486-YXEYWG0AC8294,YWGYQR0AC8349-YQRYVR0AC8573;a=AC;eo=e

Then just scrape up the price from the returned page and Google Flights is quite fast too.

I'd be willing to code something up for you if you let me tag along with you on your final itinerary
Last edited by philelite; Apr 24, 2015 at 4:58 pm
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Old Apr 24, 2015, 4:59 pm
  #182  
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Originally Posted by SparseFlyer
For #1, I am sure you have access to a supercomputer somewhere? Or at least a cluster you could ninja for a few hours over night?
Cow, i'm not sure if you do have access to a cluster, but since your script is running locally, if you need access to "the cloud" I can hook you up with Azure. I just checked. ^
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Old Apr 24, 2015, 5:40 pm
  #183  
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Originally Posted by philelite
Why don't you narrow it down to 100-200 itineraries that are optimal for time/wings? Then running a bunch of threads to send sample itineraries through a web based tool like EF, ITA, or Google Flights? Screen scrape the results to get the price? At least this is free.

With Google Flights you could put all the segments into a single request string like:
sel=YYJYVR0AC8054-YVRYEG0AC234,YEGYXE0AC8486-YXEYWG0AC8294,YWGYQR0AC8349-YQRYVR0AC8573;a=AC;eo=e
That's possible, if it's limited to the top few hundred. It won't be an exhaustive search, but still reasonable.

It also lets you book online, if you're happy with the fare classes

Actually, even if I wanted to upgrade some to Flex, I'd probably book online and then call in. Way easier to do that than feed the whole thing over the phone

Originally Posted by superangrypenguin
Cow, i'm not sure if you do have access to a cluster, but since your script is running locally, if you need access to "the cloud" I can hook you up with Azure. I just checked. ^
As discussed, unless I can quickly price every itinerary, more power isn't really useful, but I appreciate the offer.
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Old Apr 24, 2015, 6:23 pm
  #184  
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Oh another thing about pricing. How would you price this (which I flew last year)?

SFO-YYZ-YWG-YQR-YWG-YXE-YWG-YYZ-YQB-YUL-YHZ-YUL-YQB-YUL-YHZ-YUL-YQB-YUL-YWG-YXE-YWG-YQR-YVR-YEG-YWG-YEG-YXE-YEG-YYZ-YQB-YUL-YQB-YOW-YUL-YHZ-YQY-YHZ-YOW-YQB-YYZ-YWG-YQR-YVR-YEG-YXE-YEG-YYC-YEG-YXE-YEG-YWG-YXE-YWG-YQR-YWG-YXE-YWG-YYZ-BOS-YHZ-YYZ-LAX

Where do you break the itinerary for the optimal price? It's not quite as easy as just passing it all into a service.

I have a pretty good idea of how I would write code to split it up, but it certainly isn't "obvious", and I haven't tested it.
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Old Apr 24, 2015, 7:22 pm
  #185  
 
Join Date: May 2013
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Does badge sequence matter in calculating the Globetrotter badges?
I was finalizing my itinerary and I just thought of one thing - does the sequence in which you get the destination badges affect how your Globetrotter badges get calculated? For example, the Cross Channel badges require 2 of 3 of either LHR, CDG, or BRU. Let's say I get two LHR badges first, then a month later I get 2 CDG badges, and finally two weeks later I get 2 BRU badges. Does this mean that I only get 2 Cross Channel badges because the LHR-CDG combos have been used up and cannot be recalculated to be LHR-BRU, LHR-CDG, and CDG-BRU?

I'd like to know the answer so I can re-route if necessary.
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Old Apr 24, 2015, 7:25 pm
  #186  
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Originally Posted by YYT82
I was finalizing my itinerary and I just thought of one thing - does the sequence in which you get the destination badges affect how your Globetrotter badges get calculated? For example, the Cross Channel badges require 2 of 3 of either LHR, CDG, or BRU. Let's say I get two LHR badges first, then a month later I get 2 CDG badges, and finally two weeks later I get 2 BRU badges. Does this mean that I only get 2 Cross Channel badges because the LHR-CDG combos have been used up and cannot be recalculated to be LHR-BRU, LHR-CDG, and CDG-BRU?

I'd like to know the answer so I can re-route if necessary.
No, it's recalculated. If you get 2 of each city, you'll get 3 badges.
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Old Apr 24, 2015, 8:12 pm
  #187  
 
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Originally Posted by canadiancow
No, it's recalculated. If you get 2 of each city, you'll get 3 badges.
Thanks. See you on the other side. My routing is more restrictive as I need to fly between YYT and YYC/YEG, so I can only modify them so much without violating my target time to be at home or at work. Throw in the FBO flights then I have a challenge ahead. Won't make 100K wings since flights for two rotations were already booked before the contest began. Hopefully what I planned will be enough.
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Old Apr 24, 2015, 11:50 pm
  #188  
 
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Originally Posted by canadiancow
Oh another thing about pricing. How would you price this (which I flew last year)?

SFO-YYZ-YWG-YQR-YWG-YXE-YWG-YYZ-YQB-YUL-YHZ-YUL-YQB-YUL-YHZ-YUL-YQB-YUL-YWG-YXE-YWG-YQR-YVR-YEG-YWG-YEG-YXE-YEG-YYZ-YQB-YUL-YQB-YOW-YUL-YHZ-YQY-YHZ-YOW-YQB-YYZ-YWG-YQR-YVR-YEG-YXE-YEG-YYC-YEG-YXE-YEG-YWG-YXE-YWG-YQR-YWG-YXE-YWG-YYZ-BOS-YHZ-YYZ-LAX

Where do you break the itinerary for the optimal price? It's not quite as easy as just passing it all into a service.

I have a pretty good idea of how I would write code to split it up, but it certainly isn't "obvious", and I haven't tested it.
Isn't dynamic programming an obvious answer? Greedily compute the cheapest set of tickets ending at each point.
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Old Apr 25, 2015, 12:59 am
  #189  
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Originally Posted by cperciva
Isn't dynamic programming an obvious answer? Greedily compute the cheapest set of tickets ending at each point.
If you can only price a few hundred tickets, you'd waste it all on one itinerary.
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Old Apr 25, 2015, 9:44 am
  #190  
 
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The set of possibilities does not seem that big (ie it's finite and fits on my screen).

I am sure there is a very easy solution that we have overlooked.

Nevertheless, I like how this thread has turned into a full blow tech support thread LOL
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Old Apr 26, 2015, 9:51 am
  #191  
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
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Posts: 2,803
Originally Posted by SparseFlyer
The set of possibilities does not seem that big (ie it's finite and fits on my screen).

I am sure there is a very easy solution that we have overlooked.

Nevertheless, I like how this thread has turned into a full blow tech support thread LOL
Agreed. Whatever you guys do, don't forget to enjoy the flights as much as you can. There are windows remember...

glta!
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Old Apr 26, 2015, 10:07 am
  #192  
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
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Posts: 2,803
Fanning the flames
So I threw this into my algo for EYW1 (which admittedly was overkill for that contest) but I did fly some UA and USAir to reposition. If you only consider AC flights, you could be missing these opportunities to redeye a transcontinental and add the other cost. Theatre badge kinda looks like a candidate for this?

Now, the problem becomes slightly bigger, but still manageable in local memory without adding pricing into the mix. Still just NP-Hard.

If a creative enough scrape was developed, such a tool could actually be useful for competing airlines; and something tells me they may already do this to each other. If this can happen, then I suspect public info is being "stolen" constantly.
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Old Apr 26, 2015, 11:06 am
  #193  
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Do you guys take time off work to fly these itineraries?
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Old Apr 26, 2015, 11:12 am
  #194  
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Originally Posted by yyznomad
Do you guys take time off work to fly these itineraries?
It depends. Some on here have said that they do, some tack on a few days to an existing work trip. I think the answer to this is "it depends"
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Old Apr 26, 2015, 11:20 am
  #195  
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Goddamn I hate when they do these! I almost never book anything directly on AC.com cuz my flying is through our travel agent, and my leisure flying is often not AC or booked on an OTA. Sure enough, I just booked a flight to BOG about a week ago on AC.com...not gonna get any damn credit for it!

Wait...it says book, but it doesn't say where, so does that not matter?
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