peterrudy

I have premium memberships with 3 award search programs so far (SeatSpy, expertflyer and KVS). AwardNexus was too slow to get anywhere with search results and I was not happy with their point system instead of unlimited like other programs. I was also looking at AwardLogic and there has been only one review from a blogger so far and I am not sure if they have any seat alert system.

I have extensively used SeatSpy which has the best user interface and the ability to view the search results for the entire year along with the best seat alert notification system for any duration. I love that you can schedule a notification for the entire year for some difficult to find business/First awards from several city pairs. I wish they add more than a handful of currently supported airlines ASAP.

ExpertFlyer has reasonably fast search interface but shows results only + 3 days and you can only create one single alert per search without the ability to select + few days . I wish they try to change the search system to include at least a month and change the alert system to make it as easy as SeatSpy. If United, AA and Delta can show the calendar view for award search results, why can't the paid award search programs do the same?

KVS tool has access to most airlines, but provides a very basic interface and requires you to provide all your account information before you can do power search with any alliance airlines (e.g., ANA for Star-alliance; JAL for Oneworld; Delta for Skyteam etc.,). Even after I provided all the account details somehow the system did not remember the credentials when I closed the program and reopened again next day. ANA force opens a webpage log-in with captcha images every single time; Several award searches also took forever to populate the results and I had to use the task manager to kill the program several times. I don't understand why they charge $75 for a program and then make us input all the airline program user name/password information for a power search.
Overall, it is very disappointing to see the oldest programs in the market with a good customer base are doing very little to upgrade the user interface to match a new program like SeatSpy.

h2oflyboy

Which search platform would you purchase, if you were doing so today? EF or KVS. If you have any other suggestions, I am open to those as well

HadesNL

The recent KVS thread for comparison:
KVS Availability Tool

IMH

And for completeness, in case anyone wants/needs to catch up, there are nearly 8,000 posts in the earlier KVS thread that was shut down in 2014:
KVS Availability Tool

planes&trains

Another vote for EF. Once you get a hang of it and it resolves even two queries for you, you already have your money's worth. Heck, I am obsessed about where I sit and a couple of seat availability alerts make it worthwhile for someone like me. Rest is bonus.