100,000miler

The site I have always used, Transport and Travel, seems to be permanently down so I am desperately looking for another fare bucket which shows routes and class availability. I know about KVS but it is almost too complicated for my pea brain.

Does anyone know of another good site like T&T?

Thanks in advance.

gomike

expertflyer

bhatnasx

Not really fare buckets, but core availability:

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...lityByRoute.do

ExpertFlyer is great for $100/yr.

SAT Lawyer

http://tools.wanderingaramean.com/To...Inventory.aspx

carsonheim

+1 on this. I use this every time i fly!

juggler451

I've been happy w/ ExpertFlyer.

davetravels

Can anyone give a capsule version as to pros and cons of EF vs KVS? Thanx!

dldkjones

I just ran 2 searches with no results. I must be doing something wrong if it works for others.

sbm12

There are a number of comparisons out there. The biggest difference overall IMO is where the data comes from. KVS is generally screen-scraping publicly available websites and rendering the data in a different view. EF has direct access to various GDS feeds and gets the data that way. Depending on what you bits of functionality you want and what airlines you are interested in each has its advantages.

What are the search parameters you're using. Among other things, AA won't work because they don't publish their data into the underlying data source (FlightStats). Other than that it should pretty much work. But if you're having trouble I can definitely look into it. Feel free to PM me details if you don't want to share them here.

ExpertFlyer Voice

sbm12 pretty much said it all, it depends on what information you want. For example, since you're a DL Platinum Medallion, you may find ExpertFlyer's DL upgrade inventory display (V,G,Z,X) useful, especially since it isn't available via any other website or tool, not even DL.com. (Same for AA upgrades.) You can then use Flight Alerts to let you know when any award/upgrade inventory that we support opens up, also unique to ExpertFlyer.

We also have award availability for AF and, as soon as our GDS fixes one of their bugs, KLM as well. We also have full information for UA. However we don't have awards for CO and US.

Either way, you have to try it all out and see what works for you. ExpertFlyer offers a 5-day no credit card free trial. KVS doesn't publish one on his website, but maybe he will give you one if you ask. Also on ExpertFlyer you can sign up for a month at a time and deactivate/reactivate your account as needed if you don't fly that often, no worries.

Let me know if you have any questions.

KVS

It's a rather large "capsule" , but here it goes:

Some of the advantages of the KVS Tool include:

• Incomparably wider award availability coverage in all 3 global alliances (see http://Help.KVSTool.com/#Classes):
  
  
  • Available exclusively via KVS Tool (Awards):
    *A: LH/CO/US/OS/SK/TP/LO/JK/SQ/NH/OZ/TG/SA/MS/JP/OU/KF
    *O: BA/IB/MA/LA/4M/CX/KA/MX/JL
    *S: DL/KL/RO/VN
    **: UN/DE/MP/VG/YX/FJ/TL/FQ/OT
    
    
  • Available exclusively via KVS Tool (Upgrades):
    *A: LH/US/OS/SK/TP/LO/JK/SQ/NH/OZ/TG/SA/MS/JP/OU/KF
    *O: BA
    
    
  • Also available via KVS Tool (Awards):
    *A: AC/UA/LX/BD/NZ/SN/TK/A3/JJ/CA/FM
    *O: QF/AY
    *S: AF/OK/SU/CZ/KE/UX/KQ
    **: MH/LY/EI/AR/G3/EK/IT/AS/TN/HA/F9
    
    
  • Also available via KVS Tool (Upgrades):
    *A: AC/UA/LX/BD/NZ/SN/A3/CA/FM
    **: LY
    
    
  
  
• Multiple GDS & Point-of-Sale (POS) options for more relevant/accurate Availability and Fare data.
  
  
• 'Always-on' approach: No need to log-in (except for once every 6/12 months when renewing membership); users are never 'logged-out'.
  
  
• Keyboard shortcuts, which enable mouse-free interaction and can really speed things up.
  
  
• PNR Manager
  
  
• Reference Information Lookup:
  • Maximum Permitted Mileage [MPM]
  • Minimum Connection Time [MCT]
  
  
• Flight Operational Info (With Airline Comments)
  
  
• Visa/Immigration/Customs Information (TIMATIC)

dldkjones

[QUOTE What are the search parameters you're using. Among other things, AA won't work because they don't publish their data into the underlying data source (FlightStats). Other than that it should pretty much work. But if you're having trouble I can definitely look into it. Feel free to PM me details if you don't want to share them here.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I was trying for AA before. Just tried and worked for DL and others.

ExpertFlyer Voice

If you insist...

As sbm12 said "KVS is generally screen-scraping publicly available websites". So here's a partial list:

• *A - ANA.co.jp award search tool
• *O - Qantas.com.au
• *S - Delta.com
• Awards-Upgrades/X1 - United.com
• Awards/CX - CathayPacific.com
• Awards/M&M - Miles-and-More.com
• Awards/Delta - Delta.com
• Awards/SQ - Singaporeair.com
• Sabre/FS Method: FlightStats.com Availability Search
• Fares - DotRes - https://ww3.dotres.com/meridia?posid=7Y5A
• Fares - TVN - http://res.travelocity.ca/lognlogin.ctl?tr_module=FARE
• All free.

(And that's when they work, the website operators frequently put restrictions in place to prevent KVS from screen scraping their data.)

Also, if the *A/*O/BA/CX award searching is important, you can do all that with a great UI, for free at http://www.awardnexus.com

Not Exclusive. Not only does ExpertFlyer have a POS option in the Fare Information search, but we have access to 3 different GDSs for Flight Availability, with different POSs. Also, EF allows you to put in any POS in the Fare Information search. With KVS you are limited to the few supported by the OTA websites it screen scrapes from.

Starting up an application or starting up a web browser... unless you have a Mac or Linux, then you can't run KVS natively, as it's a Windows app.

However, and more importantly, we don't require users to sign up for long term subscriptions, you can use EF only for the months you need, and not have to pay when you don't need it.

Virtuallythere.com, ViewTrip.com, CheckMyTrip.com etc. These are sites that pull PNR's right from the GDS's, run for free by the GDSs.

Not for long... and MPM information is already in Fare Routing Rules. Also coming soon to the Fare Routing Rules, Ticketed Point Deduction information.

Again, not exclusive, we recently made an improvement to show full comments on supported airlines. KVS gets it for free here: http://thetravelconcern.travelasp.co...ts/tracker.asp

KVS gets that for free here: http://www.staralliance.com/en/servi...sa-and-health/

All that aside, here's another key difference in terms of real-world usefulness. Since ExpertFlyer connects directly to the GDSs we can do things like directly connect to airline host systems. This does things like allow us to access and show inventory beyond the usual 331 day limit. So by using ExpertFlyer you can see either award/upgrade inventory or regular inventory farther ahead then usual for airlines such as:
AC, AF, AY, AZ, BA, CX, EI, IB, LY, QF, SQ, etc... Just specify the airline as the only airline in the search and we take care of the rest behind the scenes, automatically. Flight Alerts also takes advantage of the increased date range as well.

Then of course there are all the other services that can't be screen scraped, like Seat Alerts, Flight Alerts, the mobile version at mobile.expertflyer.com, as well as the previously mentioned DL and AA upgrade inventory (probably very relevant to you). However we don't expect you to take our word for it, which is why we have a free trial.

mahasamatman

Actually, for Mac or Linux users, it's a big difference, as KVS is Windoze-only (and emulators, regardless of what the authors say, are rarely a good option).

bhatnasx

That was an extremely informative post! ^