After having read here that "it is almost impossible" I'm thinking about doing an db based *A RTW fare online comparison tool.

Here are the features I plan to implement:

- real time currency conversion to US$
- listing by price
- listing by country name
- online form for FT members to update database if they get aware of any local prices changes so that update work can be shared
- Web address where you can book the RTW tix for the shown price for every country

I think such a tool would be easy to maintain and stay up to date.

Some questions before I start:

- has this done before and would be redundand ?
- is it worth the work (is the prices difference more than a few dollars) ?
- to reduce the workload implementing and maintaining:

which rtw fare is of most interest (20k, 29k or 39k) ?
only FC fares or J and Y as well ?
which countries have to be included - have to check the availability of real-time exchange rates ?

Any input is very much appreciated.

Stephan

Not impossible, but it might be costly.

You are aware of Dorian's RTW Comparison Chart I presume?

http://www.informationlab.com/rtw.htm

[This message has been edited by BlondeBomber (edited 06-16-2001).]

If you make it opensource and put out an initial version it is worth it and has not really been attempted in this way before (mostly tables/spreadsheet not db).

I would guess that most FTers use 20K and 29K. F and J are more popular than Y on these boards. Asia and Europe get used a lot for cheaper fares though the differential is definitely dropping. There is still a differential between NA and some of the other destinations.