KE award now bookable on DL.com
Oct 15, 2012, 8:50 am
#16
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Oct 15, 2012, 8:55 am
#17
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EF is just screen-scraping the ANA site. I suppose they decided that once it was clear they were doing some screen-scraping (UA award/upgrade space), they would branch out and do some more of it. There's nowhere to get all of SkyTeam inventory in one spot. The best tool is the FlyingBlue engine, but it has some bugs and not all SkyTeam members are there.
Oct 15, 2012, 9:26 am
#18
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Nice addition. At first glance it appears blackout dates are still enforced. Maybe with some tinkering they will show up, but I won't keep my hopes up
Anyone else think that by removing YQ from being collected it signaled they would be included online? I forget if VA YQ stopped being collected before or after the online search ability....granted KE YQ was/wasn't/was collected and it's been an off and then on again relationship. I'm probably digging too deep as it is!
Anyone else think that by removing YQ from being collected it signaled they would be included online? I forget if VA YQ stopped being collected before or after the online search ability....granted KE YQ was/wasn't/was collected and it's been an off and then on again relationship. I'm probably digging too deep as it is!
Oct 15, 2012, 9:36 am
#19
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EF is just screen-scraping the ANA site. I suppose they decided that once it was clear they were doing some screen-scraping (UA award/upgrade space), they would branch out and do some more of it. There's nowhere to get all of SkyTeam inventory in one spot. The best tool is the FlyingBlue engine, but it has some bugs and not all SkyTeam members are there.
Oct 15, 2012, 10:08 am
#21
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Oct 15, 2012, 1:13 pm
#25
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Oct 15, 2012, 1:18 pm
#26
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And then when UA took away expert mode on united.bomb, EF suddenly lost their access to UA award/upgrade inventory. When the new opt-in expert mode came back, EF had the inventory again. It seems that once the cat was out of the bag and anyone with two brain cells to rub together could tell they were using screen scraping to get some of their data, they decided to step up and scrape some more. In examining the results, it appears that it's actually the UA site that they're pulling from for *A inventory. (There's also a warning about phantom LH F inventory, which is a known issue with the UA site.) Is it possible that they paid UA for access to the data? Yes. However, ExpertFlyer Voice has refused to answer questions about the source of this data here on FT, which suggests that they're just scraping. I do think it's a much nicer interface than KVS, and most things are still being pulled from paid GDS services, but I am not a fan of screen scraping and wish that they'd at least acknowledge that they're doing it.
Oct 15, 2012, 1:34 pm
#27
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While this new feature is good, the blackout dates problem still remains: DL uses KE's blackout dates of any region as systemwide blackout dates.
Oct 15, 2012, 1:43 pm
#28
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 198
The problem is the hit/miss implementation of KE. KE X seats showing up for Biz award searches and other KE flights wholly missing or showing unavailable where there is known availability. Also, not all routes are even able to be checked currently. It's a step in the right direction though.
Oct 15, 2012, 2:06 pm
#29
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How is it a problem? It's how they operate and have stated they will do so.
The problem is the hit/miss implementation of KE. KE X seats showing up for Biz award searches and other KE flights wholly missing or showing unavailable where there is known availability. Also, not all routes are even able to be checked currently. It's a step in the right direction though.
The problem is the hit/miss implementation of KE. KE X seats showing up for Biz award searches and other KE flights wholly missing or showing unavailable where there is known availability. Also, not all routes are even able to be checked currently. It's a step in the right direction though.
DL.com says "Blackout dates may apply and are defined by individual carriers.", which is a lie. DL's blackout dates for KE award are NOT defined by KE, but are manipulated by DL.