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)
Jan 14, 2023, 6:30 pm
#721
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Toronto
Posts: 152
Just wanted to add my thanks and appreciation to canadiancow for his invaluable cowtool !
Reminds of of the 'old-days' of using the ANA site to source those flights that never appeared on Aeroplan.
But better !
And right now it's being used to find the ellusive F reward on LH
Thanks again !
Reminds of of the 'old-days' of using the ANA site to source those flights that never appeared on Aeroplan.
But better !
And right now it's being used to find the ellusive F reward on LH
Thanks again !
Jan 15, 2023, 12:22 pm
#722
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 54
This tool is an absolute God send. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Huge fan of your work.
Quick question, I was playing around trying to book two people on one-way flights to Europe in business class. I have already successfully found and booked using this tool to save me some serious points and hours. However, in our search efforts, my wife pointed out that on United award search found a flight on Sept 9 from IAD-VIE (Really IAD-FRA on LX then Austrian Air to VIE) in business for about 77k miles. However, running the cowtool tool this flight never showed up in business either as IAD-FRA or IAD-VIE. Therefore, I am curious if you think this phantom award space? Or an issue with different partner award agreements? I was able to get to the booking screen on United, but your tool has been fantastic in filtering out phantom space, so just curious if you or others had any insights.
In the end, we ended up trusting Cowtool more than United and just booked Swiss Air for 60k Aeroplan miles each on a nonstop from JFK-GVA versus the 77k option with United Miles. So thanks again for sharing the tool, and just wanted to share a success story of how your tool is making dream trips happen for us.
Quick question, I was playing around trying to book two people on one-way flights to Europe in business class. I have already successfully found and booked using this tool to save me some serious points and hours. However, in our search efforts, my wife pointed out that on United award search found a flight on Sept 9 from IAD-VIE (Really IAD-FRA on LX then Austrian Air to VIE) in business for about 77k miles. However, running the cowtool tool this flight never showed up in business either as IAD-FRA or IAD-VIE. Therefore, I am curious if you think this phantom award space? Or an issue with different partner award agreements? I was able to get to the booking screen on United, but your tool has been fantastic in filtering out phantom space, so just curious if you or others had any insights.
In the end, we ended up trusting Cowtool more than United and just booked Swiss Air for 60k Aeroplan miles each on a nonstop from JFK-GVA versus the 77k option with United Miles. So thanks again for sharing the tool, and just wanted to share a success story of how your tool is making dream trips happen for us.
Jan 15, 2023, 1:39 pm
#723
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: 44,315
IAD-FRA would not be LX 😉
If it was operated by UA, then UA definitely has space on their own flights that AC does not have access to.
Otherwise... 🤷♀️
If it was operated by UA, then UA definitely has space on their own flights that AC does not have access to.
Otherwise... 🤷♀️
Jan 15, 2023, 3:10 pm
#724
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 54
. But fair enough, one of life's many mysteries. Anyways, thanks for the tool and the constant support you to us fellow travelers on points and miles.
Jan 15, 2023, 3:25 pm
#725
Join Date: Oct 2022
Programs: Aeroplan SE; Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador
Posts: 1,550
Cowtool is my go to tool during IRROPs (unfortunately it now seems to happen in more than 75% of my AC trips) to find alternative flights, especially with some creative routing and mixed cabin solutions.
Another use for the award tool is to cancel confirmed eups and request comp upgrade using Lat FPs. Although now it appears to me that it may not be a good idea to eup in advance.
Another use for the award tool is to cancel confirmed eups and request comp upgrade using Lat FPs. Although now it appears to me that it may not be a good idea to eup in advance.
Jan 15, 2023, 3:36 pm
#726
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: 44,315
Cowtool is my go to tool during IRROPs (unfortunately it now seems to happen in more than 75% of my AC trips) to find alternative flights, especially with some creative routing and mixed cabin solutions.
Another use for the award tool is to cancel confirmed eups and request comp upgrade using Lat FPs. Although now it appears to me that it may not be a good idea to eup in advance.
Another use for the award tool is to cancel confirmed eups and request comp upgrade using Lat FPs. Although now it appears to me that it may not be a good idea to eup in advance.
In IRROPS you're not subject to reward space. I'd use Google Flights.
And... Upgrades? Flight passes? Huh?
Jan 15, 2023, 4:28 pm
#727
Join Date: Oct 2022
Programs: Aeroplan SE; Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador
Posts: 1,550
90%+ of my flights are domestic with AC, so what the award tool shows is close enough to the available AC tickets for my purpose (I actually specifically exclude UA in transborder flight). Also, I would want to avoid being stuck in Y for extended period of time. With some filters set up, cowtool can give me instantly a great view of my options of creative routings and mixed cabin options.
Google flight might be able to do the same, but it is more difficult for me to read all flight details on the same page and was not able to display all mixed cabin options.
For example, yesterday I missed a morning YYZ to YVR flight in upgraded J. I was automatically rebooked by the system to an early evening flight. After consulting with the cowtool, I was able to let the concierge to first rebook me into a PY flight to YYC followed by a short J flight to YVR, which would allow me to arrive at YVR at least 2 hours earlier while keeping me primarily in premium cabins. Later, when I was sitting in YYZ lounge, I was able to use cowtool to find some J space in earlier direct flight opening up and instantly asked the lounge agent to grab the J seat for me, ended up 5 hours before the original rebooking would allow me.
For Flight Pass booking, I followed others' suggestion to always eup in advance and see if J seats are available 2 calendar days before the flight. I use cowtool to check (1) if the original flight still has Y space for me to downgrade to; (2) if the original flight has J space open; and (3) if either (1) or (2) is no, what other flights have J space and how many.
Another way for me to use the cowtool is when my travel plan (almost always inevitably) changes before my confirmed euped flight, I can quickly find other alternative flights with R space. It sometimes requires some connections via the prairies and not usually displayed in the AC website, or although available in Google flights, no R space information is provided there. So in this sense it is also very handy to me.
Probably my use of cowtool is not very orthodox, but hey if it helps it helps. Thanks a lot for making this available to us!
Jan 15, 2023, 5:13 pm
#728
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: 44,315
90%+ of my flights are domestic with AC, so what the award tool shows is close enough to the available AC tickets for my purpose (I actually specifically exclude UA in transborder flight). Also, I would want to avoid being stuck in Y for extended period of time. With some filters set up, cowtool can give me instantly a great view of my options of creative routings and mixed cabin options.
...
For example, yesterday I missed a morning YYZ to YVR flight in upgraded J. I was automatically rebooked by the system to an early evening flight. After consulting with the cowtool, I was able to let the concierge to first rebook me into a PY flight to YYC followed by a short J flight to YVR, which would allow me to arrive at YVR at least 2 hours earlier while keeping me primarily in premium cabins. Later, when I was sitting in YYZ lounge, I was able to use cowtool to find some J space in earlier direct flight opening up and instantly asked the lounge agent to grab the J seat for me, ended up 5 hours before the original rebooking would allow me.
...
For example, yesterday I missed a morning YYZ to YVR flight in upgraded J. I was automatically rebooked by the system to an early evening flight. After consulting with the cowtool, I was able to let the concierge to first rebook me into a PY flight to YYC followed by a short J flight to YVR, which would allow me to arrive at YVR at least 2 hours earlier while keeping me primarily in premium cabins. Later, when I was sitting in YYZ lounge, I was able to use cowtool to find some J space in earlier direct flight opening up and instantly asked the lounge agent to grab the J seat for me, ended up 5 hours before the original rebooking would allow me.
For Flight Pass booking, I followed others' suggestion to always eup in advance and see if J seats are available 2 calendar days before the flight. I use cowtool to check (1) if the original flight still has Y space for me to downgrade to; (2) if the original flight has J space open; and (3) if either (1) or (2) is no, what other flights have J space and how many.
You'd be better off just using AC.com to see if you can buy a seat in Y or J.
You'd also be much better off with EF.
Jan 15, 2023, 5:17 pm
#729
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: YOW
Programs: AC SE, FOTSG Platinum
Posts: 5,725
Very useful to me. This shows after a tool has been invented, people will find all sort of creative ways to use it.
90%+ of my flights are domestic with AC, so what the award tool shows is close enough to the available AC tickets for my purpose (I actually specifically exclude UA in transborder flight).
90%+ of my flights are domestic with AC, so what the award tool shows is close enough to the available AC tickets for my purpose (I actually specifically exclude UA in transborder flight).
Jan 15, 2023, 5:29 pm
#730
Join Date: Oct 2022
Programs: Aeroplan SE; Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador
Posts: 1,550
There are plenty of seats available both for sale for cash (they wont overbook with points), and not for sale but available to agents, that you cannot book with points. You might have been able to get J the whole way without using this.
As I said, it won't tell you if there's Y space. It will tell you if there's space they're willing to sell for points.
You'd be better off just using AC.com to see if you can buy a seat in Y or J.
You'd also be much better off with EF.
As I said, it won't tell you if there's Y space. It will tell you if there's space they're willing to sell for points.
You'd be better off just using AC.com to see if you can buy a seat in Y or J.
You'd also be much better off with EF.
For Y, I totally agree with you the cowtool may not be useful in predicting it. AC does sometimes show availability in Y for ridiculous price (probably in Y bucket?). Anyway, I feel it might not be a good strategy to get eups in advance.
The thing I love cowtool the best is the result display. Simple and concise, with all information I need and nothing else.
Jan 17, 2023, 6:43 pm
#731
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: 44,315
I might actually have to stop allowing new alerts to be set until I can make some changes to speed up alert processing.
No, that's not an invitation to get all your alerts in right now. If we exceed the timeout before I can make the changes, I will just delete alerts.
But it is an invitation for you to delete alerts you don't care about any more
No, that's not an invitation to get all your alerts in right now. If we exceed the timeout before I can make the changes, I will just delete alerts.
But it is an invitation for you to delete alerts you don't care about any more
Jan 19, 2023, 10:28 am
#732
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: 44,315
Read this whole post before jumping to any conclusions
Registration has been re-enabled primarily to allow everyone to use a new feature of the PNR viewer cowtool (and any other features of any other cowtools that need an account in the future).
However, when my current script finishes running, only accounts that existed prior to re-enabling registration will have access to this cowtool.
The rules for access have not changed, it's just an easier process for me, because I don't need to make the accounts any more. I still need a PM with your email if you meet the access requirements (see the wiki), but your account needs to already exist. For those few PMs I haven't dealt with yet as of writing this post, I will still make the accounts for you.
If you find yourself suddenly without access that you had before, please let me know (via PM, with your email address), as it's an oversight.
Edit: Ugh if I'd known how long it would take to add every user to a new Cognito group, I would have done that before re-enabling registration. Sigh.
Registration has been re-enabled primarily to allow everyone to use a new feature of the PNR viewer cowtool (and any other features of any other cowtools that need an account in the future).
However, when my current script finishes running, only accounts that existed prior to re-enabling registration will have access to this cowtool.
The rules for access have not changed, it's just an easier process for me, because I don't need to make the accounts any more. I still need a PM with your email if you meet the access requirements (see the wiki), but your account needs to already exist. For those few PMs I haven't dealt with yet as of writing this post, I will still make the accounts for you.
If you find yourself suddenly without access that you had before, please let me know (via PM, with your email address), as it's an oversight.
Edit: Ugh if I'd known how long it would take to add every user to a new Cognito group, I would have done that before re-enabling registration. Sigh.
Last edited by canadiancow; Jan 19, 2023 at 11:57 am
Jan 20, 2023, 10:17 am
#733
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Toronto, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan E75K, Marriott Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 68
Does anyone know if NZ has phantom availability? I've been looking for an AKL-BNE direct flight on Jan 8, 2024 (though the scenario is the same for other days in 2024). Cowtool shows me decent availability (7 Y seats), but am not able to replicate this on the AC website. On cowtool, the availability shows up sometimes and doesn't other times.
Jan 22, 2023, 8:51 pm
#734
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan SE AND 1MM, HHonors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Platinum , L'Accor Platinum
Posts: 9,580
I have tried for the first time in a few months- no results come up.
The form has been upgraded - so a few questions with the upgraded form.
(I had no issues with the previous version of the form in finding results).
I am trying YOW to GVA. For one particular date- no range.
Not sure what stopover locations or stop duration means. I tried no stopover location/no stopover duration - no results. I tried GVA as a "stopover location" - and I entered random numbers for the numbers for stopover duration (do those numbers represent hours or do they represent days)
I want to find the award for YOW to GVA- I do not care for the airlines nor for the routing, nor for the airplanes. Just want J class space.
So not sure why I getting no results after numerous search attempts.
The form has been upgraded - so a few questions with the upgraded form.
(I had no issues with the previous version of the form in finding results).
I am trying YOW to GVA. For one particular date- no range.
Not sure what stopover locations or stop duration means. I tried no stopover location/no stopover duration - no results. I tried GVA as a "stopover location" - and I entered random numbers for the numbers for stopover duration (do those numbers represent hours or do they represent days)
I want to find the award for YOW to GVA- I do not care for the airlines nor for the routing, nor for the airplanes. Just want J class space.
So not sure why I getting no results after numerous search attempts.
Jan 22, 2023, 8:54 pm
#735
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: 44,315
If you don't want a stopover, then leave those blank. This shows available space.