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)
Oct 17, 2021, 5:10 pm
#166
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 4
Anyone else experiencing weird bug on the cowtool?
The query takes a while (even for single day searches, ex. 2021-12-14) to a common destination (ex. YYZ-YVR) and either returns an error (error 429) or finishes the search but has no results (Logs just shows "Done searching" vs listing all the dates is completed like usual). Obviously doesn't make sense showing no flights since searching on the AC site on the same day has many available.
The query takes a while (even for single day searches, ex. 2021-12-14) to a common destination (ex. YYZ-YVR) and either returns an error (error 429) or finishes the search but has no results (Logs just shows "Done searching" vs listing all the dates is completed like usual). Obviously doesn't make sense showing no flights since searching on the AC site on the same day has many available.
Oct 17, 2021, 5:14 pm
#167
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: 44,342
Anyone else experiencing weird bug on the cowtool?
The query takes a while (even for single day searches, ex. 2021-12-14) to a common destination (ex. YYZ-YVR) and either returns an error (error 429) or finishes the search but has no results (Logs just shows "Done searching" vs listing all the dates is completed like usual). Obviously doesn't make sense showing no flights since searching on the AC site on the same day has many available.
The query takes a while (even for single day searches, ex. 2021-12-14) to a common destination (ex. YYZ-YVR) and either returns an error (error 429) or finishes the search but has no results (Logs just shows "Done searching" vs listing all the dates is completed like usual). Obviously doesn't make sense showing no flights since searching on the AC site on the same day has many available.
Their whole system has been down all day.
Oct 17, 2021, 5:27 pm
#168
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,399
Oct 17, 2021, 5:36 pm
#169
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: PHX
Programs: AAexp, AC75k, HertzPC, NationalEE, Accor/MariottP, Hilton/HyattG
Posts: 3,614
I owe CC a meal and a few drinks for this. Excellent tool.
Oct 23, 2021, 12:03 am
#170
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: AA EXP.
Posts: 1,325
anyone have any luck ? ive been getting no data for the past few days.
Oct 23, 2021, 8:25 am
#171
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,399
Nov 6, 2021, 4:26 pm
#172
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: 44,342
For all you people who **shudder** book Y, I've added a feature.
Nov 7, 2021, 1:23 am
#173
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,784
That's me, forever stuck in Y now with 4 in the family 
Nov 10, 2021, 3:49 pm
#174
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 68
I was searching award availability on Hyatt's website and then I thought of you: wouldn't it be possible to create a CowTool for Hyatt? Searching only one day at a time is a pain.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Nov 10, 2021, 4:26 pm
#175
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: 44,342
Sure, I'll attempt to build it for $5000. But you're paying for my time, so if I can't, there aren't any refunds.
Nov 20, 2021, 1:12 pm
#176
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 108
Thank you for your wonderful contribution. I have never seen such a powerful search engine before and I love using it for all my Star Alliance flight searches and it includes Etihad as an added bonus. It is also very flexible with separate tabs for duration, aircraft etc.,
My only suggestion for future changes would be to tweak the "mixed cabin" tab, which is showing 100% even for the connections with available business class on both legs.
I am thinking it should show "0%" if it is not a mixed cabin (Air Canada site leaves it blank) but I could be wrong.
Etihad Example
Great work again!
P
My only suggestion for future changes would be to tweak the "mixed cabin" tab, which is showing 100% even for the connections with available business class on both legs.
I am thinking it should show "0%" if it is not a mixed cabin (Air Canada site leaves it blank) but I could be wrong.
Etihad Example
Great work again!
P
Nov 20, 2021, 4:02 pm
#177
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: 16,775
My only suggestion for future changes would be to tweak the "mixed cabin" tab, which is showing 100% even for the connections with available business class on both legs.
I am thinking it should show "0%" if it is not a mixed cabin (Air Canada site leaves it blank) but I could be wrong.
I am thinking it should show "0%" if it is not a mixed cabin (Air Canada site leaves it blank) but I could be wrong.
Nov 20, 2021, 4:10 pm
#178
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: 44,342
Well I mean I kinda agree. I think an all J itinerary on a J search is 0% mixed.
But I'm trying to mimic what AC shows.
I could remove it entirely if it's 100%, but then it's also a sortable column.
But I'm trying to mimic what AC shows.
I could remove it entirely if it's 100%, but then it's also a sortable column.
Dec 6, 2021, 4:00 pm
#179
Join Date: Mar 2021
Posts: 26
TYO and NRT
Searching for flights PER to TYO in October. The Search Tool shows non-stop PER-NRT when I use NRT as the desitination, and only shows PER-SYD-HND when I use TYO as the destination. I thought TYO is supposed to cover both NRT and HND. Is there something not working correctly?
Dec 6, 2021, 4:03 pm
#180
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: 44,342
Searching for flights PER to TYO in October. The Search Tool shows non-stop PER-NRT when I use NRT as the desitination, and only shows PER-SYD-HND when I use TYO as the destination. I thought TYO is supposed to cover both NRT and HND. Is there something not working correctly?
I'm seeing both when I use TYO. It's possible that the result set is too large on some dates, so it doesn't return everything with TYO. But you could try specifying NRT,HND instead. I wonder if that would result in duplicates...