StevePER

As I mentioned briefly in this thread, I've been working on some software to find the cheapest way to get status credits. The prototype is now up and running - Steve's Status Chaser Calculator (s2c2). So what can you do with it?

• Enter the same origin and destination with a required number of status credits, and it finds the cheapest "status run".
• Enter a different destination and it finds the cheapest way to get between two cities while earning your required status credits.

There are a ton of improvements that I'd like to make, but I think this is a reasonable start. I would welcome suggestions on ways to make it better. The obvious one is to include more fare types than just direct red-e-deals. Does anyone know an easy way to find prices for K class, J class, and indirect red-e-deals without having to do lots of searches on the website?

Anyway, please give it a shot if you're interested and let me know what you think.

Steve

d00t

Hey thats pretty neat Steve!

Does it actually search airfare prices or is it a set amount($) for each route?

I made a php script a few months ago now that grabs flight prices from qantas.com.au over and over until one matching the criteria (date,price,time) is found..then emails me the link...

maybe we can combine a few things?

StevePER

I use a separate script to pull all the red-e-deals pages off the website, extract the prices, and them store them in a config file. The search program reads them from the config file. It's currently limited to one price per route, but it will be easy to extend it.

Sounds promising... does your script perform searches on the website to find the prices? If so we could probably use it to find prices for the other fare classes that I need.

Steve

deeruck

That's really cool. I'm very impressed, and would certainly be making use of that in the future.

One suggestion I have from testing a few origin/destination pairs is that you stop it (or include an option to stop it) from returning the same sector multiple times. Say, when I do a search from CBR-> CBR needing 60SCs, I get
CBR to SYD, costing $84 and earning 10 status credits.
SYD to BNE, costing $65 and earning 10 status credits.
BNE to SYD, costing $69 and earning 10 status credits.
SYD to BNE, costing $65 and earning 10 status credits.
BNE to SYD, costing $69 and earning 10 status credits.
SYD to CBR, costing $81 and earning 10 status credits.

This may be technically correct, but it wouldn't be a trip that i would consider!

Kiwi Flyer

Others might!!

mikalee

What a great tool.

as per the previous post... it does satisfy the goal of a fixed number of SC for the cheapest price. Those that want to do a scenic tour can use this as a starting point at least.

Kiwi Flyer

From a very brief play seems pretty neat.

I dont suppose there is any chance of including NZ and trans-tasman too?

dannyr

I've done similar, but not on a SC run.

SYD-BNE-SYD-GFN

Ok so it's not as bad as the one above, but the QF staff in SYD gave me a double take, as did the security officers.

StevePER

Including it as an option should be possible. I'll look into it...

That should be fairly simple as well, and was already on my long list of plans. I'm thinking I'll probably strip out quite a few of the more remote destinations first (on the grounds that they're never cheap and they just slow down the search). Then I'll add NZ and hopefully indirect routings, K class, etc.

Steve

d00t

The fare and classes was a little tricky to do..so now the script grabs the html from qantas, looks for the colors (red-e-deal,supersaver,flexisaver,business), and interprets each color as a class code. I've set it up purely for BNE/SYD/CBR (my own useage) at the moment, easilly extendable... and even easier so using cgi/perl

Kiwi Flyer

but not forgetting the earning is different over here

Mwenenzi

On the OW forum have a look at Oneworld Explorer Itinerary Validator

Cacluates QF SC's
Similar to StevePER's, but done for a different reason

StevePER

The first update to the Status Chaser Calculator is now available!

Changes in this version:

• Inclusion of New Zealand domestic and trans-Tasman red-e-deals, as requested by Kiwi Flyer.
• Support for multiple currencies.
• Some Australian regional centres have been removed for performance reasons.
• Internal changes that pave the way for supporting different fare types.

Now I'm off to watch the footy (go Eagles!).

Steve

Kiwi Flyer

wow thanks StevePER ^^

ThePope

Bad luck for the footy (not really... do a search for ThePope on bigfooty or dockerland to see who I follow!), but great little ap.

A couple of suggested improvements... could you add a "cheapest SC from anywhere" option. ie not limited to a starting point. Useless for us over here in the West, but for frequent travellers knowing that the cheapest SC run in Aust starts in *** might be useful.

Also, maybe align it to the footy fixtures so you can work out how many points you can earn following your team all over the country!