ckpeter

The BA engine is currently experiencing some stability issue. I just came back from a trip and plan to look at this for the coming week. For now, if you get the command execution error, just try again later (whenever I restart the backend, the problem usually goes away for a few hours).

You will want Oneworld (BA) if you specifically need coverage for airlines not covered by the QF site, such as JL or RJ, KA, or MX. Although not always reliable, BA is the only Oneworld site that gives you search coverage for all Oneworld airlines. In addition, BA's search results will include mixed cabins, while QF results will always be same cabins (which is more rigid and may not show you flights that you otherwise would want to redeem).

Note that there is no such thing as "Oneworld (CX)", because the CX engine searches only CX and KA flights. Since it is specific only for CX, you would want it only if you are redeeming for CX awards.

gleff

The JL option returns errors ex-australia, assume it's a limitation of the site being searched?

ckpeter

Sorry. The JL engine do not have all the cities mapped internally. I have added all the Oceania area cities and it should work now for ex-Australia searches.

moondog

CA coverage appears to be weak on all fronts... PEK-JFK, for example is wide open when I call BMI/UA, but yields no results.

hobo13

Just now checking this out. Not sure what took me so long! It's very useful -- much better than dealing with BA.com directly.

Any chance you are going to add Delta to the mix? I *hate* dealing with their interface.

ckpeter

Interesting. CA should be well-covered by AC, NH, and CO. Do you have a sample date range that I can check?

Good to hear that you like it. Delta coverage is something that I am looking at, but my priority right now is to polished the existing Star Alliance and Oneworld coverage first.

moondog

Peter:

Try PEK-JFK on 9/10 + 7 days. Availability is decent in both Y and C (didn't check F), according to BD and UA.

SQFAN

Still playing with the tool. No success so far. Will need to cross check with ANA tool.

One comment : Let's say I search for Jan 2011, it would be nice to display the calendar to Jan 2011 for list of flights rather than the current month default.

ckpeter

I did a search and it seems that there are some C availability (search results here / account login required). I am coming down with a cold, so I don't have the voice to call the airlines.

Thanks for the report. It is this kind of little availability abnormality that I want to catalog. If I see enough of it, I will update the tips page with the observation.

Please do read the tips page if you are not having any success. If the flights that you are looking for are sought-after, you may not find any seats. Make sure you try different routings and start from one seat first.

Of course, it is possible that ANX is not properly relaying some information. If you found some discrepancy with your cross-check, please let me know.

P.S. The calendar will default to the month with availability. However, if you search for January but found no result, it will just stay on the current month.

SQFAN

Yeah, did read the tips page. I'll report after further cross check. Indeed, I noticed about the calendar after I reported it here.

Did some more checks for UK - Europe flights. OK and no issues. I might be overly ambitious with 2 seats in other parts of the world.

Cheetah_SA

I can confirm. I have been monitoring availability on PEK/HKG for a specific date for some time now and nothing showed. However, when I called bmi I there were seats.

moondog

I spent ~2 hours on the phone with BD last night trying to get a simple SHA-PEK segment to connect with PEK-EWR. As it turns out, several flights were semi-available, but:

1) awardnexus couldn't see them
2) BMI was unable to get HK status

BMI is going to attempt a manual sell and gave us a 24 hour extension.

ckpeter

Interesting. Do you have a sample date range/cabin, where you see no Air China availability using ANA/AC/CO with ANX, but could find seats by calling BMI?

I have only heard of one individual airline (UA) blocking awards in Starnet, but I have not heard of Starnet having awards that are invisible to all airlines web site, but is otherwise available to airline phone reservation agents.

If you find out more, can you report back? I would like to understand the mechanism behind this availability discrepancy.

moondog

I've been running this same search for a few days now... without much luck. Today, I got a bunch of results, but for JFK-LAX. I saved a screen shot that I can email you if you PM your address. And, I also still have the relevant window open.

ckpeter

You can email me at [email protected]. Don't forget that you can just copy the link address and I can look up the search result that way (screenshot is only needed if you suspend a UI problem on your particular web browser).

Also, please include some details in your note, so I have some context when I look up the results.