Jul 19, 2021, 9:34 pm
Last edit by: Adam Smith
SADLY, AS OF OCTOBER 5, THIS TOOL HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN INDEFINITELY AND LIKELY PERMANENTLY, AS DESCRIBED IN THIS POST.
Other cowtools remain available at cowtool.com
ACCESS RULES ARE CLEARLY DESCRIBED BELOW. READ THEM. DO NOT POST OR PM ADAM SMITH ABOUT ACCESS, OR YOU WILL BE BANNED FROM EVER GETTING ACCESS TO THE TOOL.
[PSA from forum moderator Adam Smith: since it doesn't seem obvious to everyone, please note that the cowtool was created by cowtool. He has invested hundreds of hours in creating this very useful tool and making it available to the FT community. I, Adam Smith, have had nothing to do with creation of the cowtool. I can do nothing to get you access to the cowtool. Please do not ask me to give you access - I can't and won't, and will suggest that you be blocked from the tool for this waste of time, and lack of appreciation for cowtool's efforts, as described in more detail in this post. Also note that, other than this section and a clearly indicated moderator note below, the author of this wiki, writing in first person, is canadiancow, on behalf of [cowtool].
Please do not PM other Flyertalk users to try and gain access to cowtool, for the same reasons Adam's laid out above. - YOWgary
https://acrewardsearcher.cowtool.com/
Due to abuse, you must now first register (see https://www.cowtool.com, and read the rest of this wiki) and sign in to use it. All access is logged (not what you're searching, but the complexity of the searches, and the number of searches). Abusers will be throttled or terminated. Continued abuse will lead to a more involved registration process, up to and including personal vetting by cowtool.
Access to this cowtool for new users is temporarily disabled due to anticipated ("I'm going to make a big blog post") publicity and actual increases in usage. This is not free for me, and I am concerned what will happen if all the US major blogs pick it up.
If anyone "new" needs an account here, as long as you have 25 posts and your account is at least 3 months old, please register for a cowtool account, and then PM me (please include your email address) and I'll set you up with reward search access.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO INCLUDE ANYTHING IN THE PM OTHER THAN YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. The PM interface shows me your posts and join date. A lot of people have explicitly included that information. It's unnecessary. I also don't need a paragraph of text, whether it's a please to bend the rules, or immense thanks. My life is immensely easier if the subject is "cowtool access" and the message is "[email protected]". I don't read the messages anyway.
However, I will read your posts, so don't spam FT with crap please. If you have a genuine interest in travel, points, and so on, it really isn't hard to make 25 contributive posts to FlyerTalk and be eligible for access. If you do not meet this threshold, I am not making an exception for you. Not because you live in SFO like me, not because you're really excited, and not because of any personal issues. In fact, if you PM me without meeting the requirements, you will be blocked from ever getting access. Moderator note: the rules for access are very clear. Please don't post in this thread, or anywhere else, asking how you can get access, offering to pay for access, or asking for the access rules to be changed. Those posts will be deleted.
I do not process PMs instantly. My goal is at least once per week, so it may take a few days.
Additionally, any Prince of Travel Platinum members may contact canadiancow over POT Discord for access.
Alerts
Basic price alerts were currently in available to all registered users. They have been turned off due to high load, until the system can be re-written to accommodate them.
Full search/availability alerts are in early alpha.
Each account is limited to 4 alerts* for now.
A price alert is set on a specific itinerary that includes AC metal (this may be expanded as we begin to see EK dynamic pricing). The general idea is that you making a booking at price X, set an alert, and then if the price drops, you'll get an email, and can rebook the itinerary at a lower price and cancel the old, more expensive, booking. This really only works well if you're SE or booked a fare with no cancellation fee. All results with AC flights will show a "Price alert" link on the right. Clicking this will add one. You can view all your alerts in the alerts section, where you can delete them, or select two one-way alerts to merge into a round-trip alert, which will determine the current round-trip price and reset the alert level (since round-trip pricing is not the sum of the two one-ways).
If you have at least 2500 FT posts and would like access to the price alert beta, send me a PM including the email you used to sign up for cowtool. There are currently no exceptions on the post count restriction. I am trying to slowly roll this out, and need an easy way to expand access, ideally to people who have contributed to FT a lot.
* Due to the fact that a round-trip alert requires making and then merging two alerts, the technical limit is 5, but I'm advertising it as 4.
Having Trouble? Hold "shift" and click the refresh button.
Feature Requests:
Bugs:
Other cowtools remain available at cowtool.com
https://acrewardsearcher.cowtool.com/
Due to abuse, you must now first register (see https://www.cowtool.com, and read the rest of this wiki) and sign in to use it. All access is logged (not what you're searching, but the complexity of the searches, and the number of searches). Abusers will be throttled or terminated. Continued abuse will lead to a more involved registration process, up to and including personal vetting by cowtool.
Access to this cowtool for new users is temporarily disabled due to anticipated ("I'm going to make a big blog post") publicity and actual increases in usage. This is not free for me, and I am concerned what will happen if all the US major blogs pick it up.
If anyone "new" needs an account here, as long as you have 25 posts and your account is at least 3 months old, please register for a cowtool account, and then PM me (please include your email address) and I'll set you up with reward search access.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO INCLUDE ANYTHING IN THE PM OTHER THAN YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. The PM interface shows me your posts and join date. A lot of people have explicitly included that information. It's unnecessary. I also don't need a paragraph of text, whether it's a please to bend the rules, or immense thanks. My life is immensely easier if the subject is "cowtool access" and the message is "[email protected]". I don't read the messages anyway.
However, I will read your posts, so don't spam FT with crap please. If you have a genuine interest in travel, points, and so on, it really isn't hard to make 25 contributive posts to FlyerTalk and be eligible for access. If you do not meet this threshold, I am not making an exception for you. Not because you live in SFO like me, not because you're really excited, and not because of any personal issues. In fact, if you PM me without meeting the requirements, you will be blocked from ever getting access. Moderator note: the rules for access are very clear. Please don't post in this thread, or anywhere else, asking how you can get access, offering to pay for access, or asking for the access rules to be changed. Those posts will be deleted.
I do not process PMs instantly. My goal is at least once per week, so it may take a few days.
Additionally, any Prince of Travel Platinum members may contact canadiancow over POT Discord for access.
Alerts
Basic price alerts were currently in available to all registered users. They have been turned off due to high load, until the system can be re-written to accommodate them.
Full search/availability alerts are in early alpha.
Each account is limited to 4 alerts* for now.
A price alert is set on a specific itinerary that includes AC metal (this may be expanded as we begin to see EK dynamic pricing). The general idea is that you making a booking at price X, set an alert, and then if the price drops, you'll get an email, and can rebook the itinerary at a lower price and cancel the old, more expensive, booking. This really only works well if you're SE or booked a fare with no cancellation fee. All results with AC flights will show a "Price alert" link on the right. Clicking this will add one. You can view all your alerts in the alerts section, where you can delete them, or select two one-way alerts to merge into a round-trip alert, which will determine the current round-trip price and reset the alert level (since round-trip pricing is not the sum of the two one-ways).
If you have at least 2500 FT posts and would like access to the price alert beta, send me a PM including the email you used to sign up for cowtool. There are currently no exceptions on the post count restriction. I am trying to slowly roll this out, and need an easy way to expand access, ideally to people who have contributed to FT a lot.
* Due to the fact that a round-trip alert requires making and then merging two alerts, the technical limit is 5, but I'm advertising it as 4.
Having Trouble? Hold "shift" and click the refresh button.
Feature Requests:
Allowing alerting by brandFinish and release alerts"Copy into round-trip alert" instead of "merge into" in case you want bothOption to launch AC.com in new tab should be saved to your accountShow more information about stops, such as the timeSave filters to profileHistorical pricesColored background gradiated by %age of mixed cabin. Solid green if 100%, fading to white as percentage drops...Option to enable a priority reward discountLie-flat filter (maybe with lie-flat % filter as well?) - Unsure if this data is easily accessible+/- 1 or 2 days dropdown if entering a single value for date at top, grayed out if entering more than one date or rangeCities/Aircraft/Airlines should allow an OR condition in addition to the default/current AND
Annoying error dialog pops up far too regularly related to JS/Cognito crap
[SHUT DOWN] Unofficial Advanced AC Reward Search Tool (cowtool)
May 29, 2023, 7:42 am
#1141
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 43
<Deleted>
Last edited by IronJuice; Jun 4, 2023 at 3:13 pm
May 29, 2023, 9:27 am
#1142
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
As with so many other things in life, you never realize how much you truly miss them until they're gone (taken away).
May 29, 2023, 11:22 am
#1143
Join Date: Sep 2022
Posts: 10
This is very sad the tool is down. Is there anything else similar that is still up and works ? Paid or not ? Or was everything ruined from AC side ?
May 29, 2023, 11:39 am
#1144
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 43
If there are incentives, people can always find a way to abuse/game the system, that's human nature, we all want to find that "sweet spot" as easy as possible, some do it in an abusive way. There are guardrails in cowtool to prevent abuse, but the same thing cannot be said for others.
I hope AC is not taking the system down for good, unless they add these advanced reward search tool natively and have ways to prevent abuse.
May 29, 2023, 12:32 pm
#1145
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: AC SE MM, BA Gold, SQ Silver, Bonvoy Tit LTG, Hyatt Glob, HH Diamond
Posts: 44,331
May 29, 2023, 12:47 pm
#1147
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 43
<Deleted>
Last edited by IronJuice; Jun 4, 2023 at 3:13 pm
May 29, 2023, 12:52 pm
#1148
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: YOW
Programs: AC SE, FOTSG Platinum
Posts: 5,728
I don't have inside information here, but considering this is a not-for-profit tool the guy built out of many, many hours of his own volunteer effort, maybe he gets to choose how he feels like proceeding and what he feels like discussing.
...particularly with people who were heckling five minutes ago.
May 29, 2023, 12:55 pm
#1149
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
The Champ has risen off the mat.
The parting of the clouds may be in the works.
If he parts them, they will come.
In Cow We Trust.
Too many movies for me this past weekend.
The parting of the clouds may be in the works.
If he parts them, they will come.
In Cow We Trust.
Too many movies for me this past weekend.
May 29, 2023, 1:07 pm
#1150
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 43
I found EF also doesn't show the correct reward seats, and curious if cow has a lead as it does look to me that AC changed something.
May 29, 2023, 1:10 pm
#1151
Moderator, Air Canada; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE MM, FB Plat, WS Plat, BA Silver, DL GM, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 16,774
In order to not keep this thread hovering at the top of the board despite no new information and giving people false hope that there has been a break in the case, I'm going to close it until there are developments one way or the other. As soon as the tool is brought back online or definitely dead for good, it will be re-opened.
Adam Smith
AC Forum Moderator
Adam Smith
AC Forum Moderator
May 29, 2023, 9:58 pm
#1152
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: AC SE MM, BA Gold, SQ Silver, Bonvoy Tit LTG, Hyatt Glob, HH Diamond
Posts: 44,331
Most problems have been fixed. The tool is now online for my beta testers only. No, don't ask, I'm not adding more.
I'd like for them to have normal access to it for at least 24 hours, then I will consider slowly re-enabling access for other people.
Do not message me about getting access.
Beta testers, please message me if you notice anything wrong.
Notes:
1. "R space" is gone
2. "Number of seats" is gone
3. Alerts (both kinds) need a fair bit of work to bring back. And since I wanted to rewrite that whole system anyway, I wouldn't count on them being around for a while. However, only my beta testers had access to these anyway, so this doesn't affect anyone else.
Things I'm actively working on but aren't done yet:
1. Flights with stops don't show up properly
2. "Copy" link is missing
3. "Booking through Aeroplan" filter doesn't work
I'd like for them to have normal access to it for at least 24 hours, then I will consider slowly re-enabling access for other people.
Do not message me about getting access.
Beta testers, please message me if you notice anything wrong.
Notes:
1. "R space" is gone
2. "Number of seats" is gone
3. Alerts (both kinds) need a fair bit of work to bring back. And since I wanted to rewrite that whole system anyway, I wouldn't count on them being around for a while. However, only my beta testers had access to these anyway, so this doesn't affect anyone else.
Things I'm actively working on but aren't done yet:
1. Flights with stops don't show up properly
2. "Copy" link is missing
3. "Booking through Aeroplan" filter doesn't work
Last edited by canadiancow; May 29, 2023 at 10:11 pm
May 29, 2023, 10:01 pm
#1153
Moderator, Air Canada; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE MM, FB Plat, WS Plat, BA Silver, DL GM, Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, Accor Silver
Posts: 16,774
Most problems have been fixed. The tool is now online for my beta testers only. No, don't ask, I'm not adding more.
I'd like for them to have normal access to it for at least 24 hours, then I will consider slowly re-enabling access for other people.
Do not message me about getting access.
I'd like for them to have normal access to it for at least 24 hours, then I will consider slowly re-enabling access for other people.
Do not message me about getting access.
May 30, 2023, 8:16 pm
#1154
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: AC SE MM, BA Gold, SQ Silver, Bonvoy Tit LTG, Hyatt Glob, HH Diamond
Posts: 44,331
First of all, things seem to have been going well. The issues I said I was actively working on are all fixed.
There are still some errors, but in general things are working. I have some plans to reduce those errors.
I'm still not looking to add specific individuals, but I will continue to slowly add more users over the next few days if everything remains calm. Access will be granted by a script, so you don't need to ask for it. It will happen when it happens. You will not be notified, the button will just start working.
One new issue I've discovered is that the mixed cabin percentage is sometimes wrong. I have a solution for that, but it will take some time, and it's relatively low priority for me.
There are still some errors, but in general things are working. I have some plans to reduce those errors.
I'm still not looking to add specific individuals, but I will continue to slowly add more users over the next few days if everything remains calm. Access will be granted by a script, so you don't need to ask for it. It will happen when it happens. You will not be notified, the button will just start working.
One new issue I've discovered is that the mixed cabin percentage is sometimes wrong. I have a solution for that, but it will take some time, and it's relatively low priority for me.
Last edited by canadiancow; May 31, 2023 at 10:53 pm Reason: accidentally edited the wrong post
May 31, 2023, 10:23 pm
#1155
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: AC SE MM, BA Gold, SQ Silver, Bonvoy Tit LTG, Hyatt Glob, HH Diamond
Posts: 44,331
Okay, this thread is going to stay open going forward (barring any new reason to close it).
I've added several hundred more people (mostly random). I'm still not granting new access, so don't bother PMing me until everyone who formerly had access has been restored.
To reiterate, known issues:
1. "R space" is gone (I don't foresee this coming back)
2. "Number of seats" is gone (I don't foresee this coming back)
3. Stopovers are gone. I can look into this once a few other things are fixed.
4. Alerts are gone (these were never widely rolled out; they will come back, hopefully with wider availability)
5. Mixed cabin percentages (and therefore filtering) are wrong in certain circumstances. This will be fixed at some point.
As far as I know, literally nothing else has changed.
Edit: Looking at my logs, it seems about 10 new people did get access. Not quite sure how they got on that list, but I'll let it be. If the next 24 hours goes well, I'll probably reactivate 1000 more people though, so hopefully we're back to normal quickly.
I've added several hundred more people (mostly random). I'm still not granting new access, so don't bother PMing me until everyone who formerly had access has been restored.
To reiterate, known issues:
1. "R space" is gone (I don't foresee this coming back)
2. "Number of seats" is gone (I don't foresee this coming back)
3. Stopovers are gone. I can look into this once a few other things are fixed.
4. Alerts are gone (these were never widely rolled out; they will come back, hopefully with wider availability)
5. Mixed cabin percentages (and therefore filtering) are wrong in certain circumstances. This will be fixed at some point.
As far as I know, literally nothing else has changed.
Edit: Looking at my logs, it seems about 10 new people did get access. Not quite sure how they got on that list, but I'll let it be. If the next 24 hours goes well, I'll probably reactivate 1000 more people though, so hopefully we're back to normal quickly.
Last edited by canadiancow; Jun 1, 2023 at 4:47 am