Thank you all for forgiving my green questions....

This time I tried to do some research first: checked the FT archives without any great success; ran a few Google searches; and intuited that the airborne cognoscenti are somehow checking seat availability by class at a site presumably standing for "Internet Travel Network."

But the best I can find is itn.net, which redirects to an AmEx travel page. Am I missing something on that page? Did ITN get absorbed (and "enhanced") by American Express? Is it somewhere else entirely?

Please educate me do that I too can discourse in eerie detail with my faux Plat reservation agents!

www.flyaow.com/classavailability.htm

P.S.
Welcome

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum20/HTML/004734.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum20/HTML/004110.html

itn - (1) its a web site whereby CO flyers can "monitor" the airline to see if their automatic upgrades (i believe it is called EAU) are processed (2) it's an on-line travel agency run by American Express trying to make money. accordingly, even though you may enter your airline of choice, it will still pull up American Airlines and ignore your preferences.

the flyaow site hasn't been working well for me, you can always go to www.itn.net (Amex Travel) and log in under expert mode. follow instructions here

log into your ITN/American Express Travel account
- select "My Account" under the User Options menu on the upper left side of the page
- select "Display Preferences"
- select "an expert" from the "Availability Format" pull-down menu
- click on "save" in the lower right hand corner


Once in expert mode when you pull up a flight it will show you how many seats CO is willing to sell in a particular clas.

For example, an international flight I am wathching shows

Cabin class: J9 D9 Z9 E9 Y1 H1 K0 B0 V0 Q0 T0
J = Full fare business first
D = Discounted business first
Z = upgrades available to BF from a Y class fare
E = all other discount economy upgrades to BF/ and reward travel in BF

Y = full fare economy
H - T = discounted economy (you must book H or K to upgrade for 20,000 miles)

Domestic Example

Cabin class: A8 D7 F0 E0 Y9 H9 K0 B0 V0 Q0 T0

A = Full Fare First class
D = Discounted First Class
F = FC seats available for upgrade
E = Reward availability
Y = Full Fare Economy
Everything else is discounted economy.

BTW,
There used to be a real travel agency called "Internet Travel Network". They were based in suburban Chicago I believe.

I remember in the fall of '95 purchasing my first ticket online and thinking how kewl it was. Between '95 and '00 somewhere Amex took control of the ITN name and website...does anyone have anymore details??

My preference (now) is AA and I tell it so, even giving the approximate departure times, etc., and the first thing that pops up is always Southwest nowhere near matching my preferred departure times. I have to tell it to display 24 hits/page and scroll down to find the AA ones!!!

What have they done to that site??

it doesn't ignore all preferences. it sees preferences and chooses other airlines. i pick CO and NW and i get maybe one CO and/or NW flight. i choose 24 legs and it gives me about 5.

On the plus side, itn doesn't require you to log in every time like it used to - it saves your info, which is nice.

See also "ITN Booking Engine" on the Mileage Run board:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/002590.html