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)
Feb 26, 2022, 4:44 pm
#271
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: USA
Programs: AC SE100K, F9 100k, NK Gold, UA *S, Hyatt Glob, Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 5,191
Having done a couple searches in the last 24hr, on desktop & mobile I have some minor suggestions:
- should the prior search results as soon as a new search is clicked. I often think 'oh, it's done', only to see my prior query results still there.
- if the search-in-process button was duplicated at the bottom where search results will populate, it might help show that it is working and didn't just return no result. an elapsed time counter might show it is not stuck, and save someone from re-clicking the go button.
-How about listing "xyz additional results WERE found but ignored due to above filters". several times I saw no results, so I executed the search 1 or more times before realizing I had something now inplausible like 1 segment maximum from the immediate prior search.
-I'm sure I am just using it wrong, but cut & paste of a flight or two from result output doesn't seem to format nicely on wordpad or notepad. I like to use either to help piece together 'keeper' options, as I try to consider which multi segment trip to book.
// Glad the abusers got kicked off via signup system. all the accounts must now be using Cow's resources sparingly.
- should the prior search results as soon as a new search is clicked. I often think 'oh, it's done', only to see my prior query results still there.
- if the search-in-process button was duplicated at the bottom where search results will populate, it might help show that it is working and didn't just return no result. an elapsed time counter might show it is not stuck, and save someone from re-clicking the go button.
-How about listing "xyz additional results WERE found but ignored due to above filters". several times I saw no results, so I executed the search 1 or more times before realizing I had something now inplausible like 1 segment maximum from the immediate prior search.
-I'm sure I am just using it wrong, but cut & paste of a flight or two from result output doesn't seem to format nicely on wordpad or notepad. I like to use either to help piece together 'keeper' options, as I try to consider which multi segment trip to book.
// Glad the abusers got kicked off via signup system. all the accounts must now be using Cow's resources sparingly.
Last edited by expert7700; Feb 26, 2022 at 6:08 pm
Feb 26, 2022, 7:59 pm
#272
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: 44,314
How do people feel about this for showing the cabin differences between PY/J/F lowest and flexible?
In the first result, J Lowest has SFO-YYZ in Y, but J Flexibile has SFO-YYZ in J.
I don't love the UX, but I'm not really sure how to do it better.
In the first result, J Lowest has SFO-YYZ in Y, but J Flexibile has SFO-YYZ in J.
I don't love the UX, but I'm not really sure how to do it better.
Feb 26, 2022, 9:04 pm
#273
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: 44,314
- if the search-in-process button was duplicated at the bottom where search results will populate, it might help show that it is working and didn't just return no result. an elapsed time counter might show it is not stuck, and save someone from re-clicking the go button.
It wasn't an issue before because filters reset when you did a new search.
Edit: This is done.
You demoed this to be on Zoom, so I understand the problem, and I think I'll just create a little button in every row that copies raw text from a couple columns so you can paste it in your planning document.
Last edited by canadiancow; Feb 27, 2022 at 12:31 am
Feb 27, 2022, 8:53 pm
#274
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: 44,314
I think there's more information I can show here, but I might just eventually let you hover over the route to see more detailed stop information (like the times). But for now, at least it will be obvious there's a stop.
Feb 28, 2022, 3:08 am
#275
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: USA
Programs: AC SE100K, F9 100k, NK Gold, UA *S, Hyatt Glob, Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 5,191
It made the 4hr PIT-YOW much more believable now that it shows a direct flight PIT-EWR-YOW.
A different 1 way ticket/route I found has 2 direct flights with the same now un-hidden stopover city via 2 different carriers.
aaa-BBB-ccc-BBB-ddd
Now I can compare who does the smoother landing/takeoff
//Bonus points if anyone can guess the route besides @Adam Smith or @canadiancow
Feb 28, 2022, 5:13 pm
#277
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,784
Got this error NOW and tool doesn't work. AWS errors?
CredentialsError: Missing credentials in config, if using AWS_CONFIG_FILE, set AWS_SDK_LOAD_CONFIG=1
CredentialsError: Missing credentials in config, if using AWS_CONFIG_FILE, set AWS_SDK_LOAD_CONFIG=1
Feb 28, 2022, 5:23 pm
#278
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: 44,314
Mar 3, 2022, 8:16 pm
#280
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: USA
Programs: AC SE100K, F9 100k, NK Gold, UA *S, Hyatt Glob, Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 5,191
What about a remove all filters button? Maybe near 'Displaying xx filtered results of yy total' ? If I do a second unrelated search, the filters that we asked to be remembered sometimes are no longer relevant.
Or if it returns a small # it may be good to unfilter. he current manual process requires reviewing all 15 lines
The medium gray (example) vs black text for filters is so subtle it is easy to miss. Plus, the origin/departure filters default to black text, even at default settings.
Or if it returns a small # it may be good to unfilter. he current manual process requires reviewing all 15 lines
The medium gray (example) vs black text for filters is so subtle it is easy to miss. Plus, the origin/departure filters default to black text, even at default settings.
Mar 3, 2022, 10:14 pm
#281
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: 44,314
Put it in the wiki 
Mar 10, 2022, 9:22 pm
#282
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: 44,314
By popular demand, there's now an "R space" filter. It will hide anything that says "No".
Edit 1:
Also, I'm taking "Default/example font of time filter is black. Everything else is a (still very dark) gray," off the bugs list. @expert770 I believe that was your addition?
It may be a "default", but it's an active filter, so black is correct.
Re-edit 3: I've changed the default to "--:--". The behavior is the same, but it should be more obvious, and the link won't include it now unless you change it.
Edit 2:
I've also add a checkbox to block airport changes (eg YYZ-LGA, JFK-FRA)
Edit 4:
There's now a button to reset the filters
Edit 1:
Also, I'm taking "Default/example font of time filter is black. Everything else is a (still very dark) gray," off the bugs list. @expert770 I believe that was your addition?
It may be a "default", but it's an active filter, so black is correct.
Re-edit 3: I've changed the default to "--:--". The behavior is the same, but it should be more obvious, and the link won't include it now unless you change it.
Edit 2:
I've also add a checkbox to block airport changes (eg YYZ-LGA, JFK-FRA)
Edit 4:
There's now a button to reset the filters
Last edited by canadiancow; Mar 10, 2022 at 10:17 pm
Mar 13, 2022, 3:41 pm
#283
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: 44,314
It's moving to https://acrewardsearcher.cowtool.com/
cowtool.com is going to be the one stop shop for all my tools going forward.
cowtool.com is going to be the one stop shop for all my tools going forward.
Mar 13, 2022, 3:54 pm
#284
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: YYZ (&YTA/YOW/YVR)
Programs: AC SE (thanks to canadiancow)
Posts: 34
I still think it should be called "the cowlendar."
Mar 13, 2022, 7:43 pm
#285
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: YYG
Programs: Aeroplan 50K, Club Accor Gold
Posts: 441
Thank you, canadiancow so much for the cowtool; it's made exploring options a lot simpler!