Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Travel&Dining > Travel Tools
Reload this Page >

KVS Availability Tool

Community
Wiki Posts
Search
Old Nov 11, 2014, 2:41 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Xyzzy
Where does the KVS tool get its data and is KVS authorized to provide this data in the manner it is presented?

The tool is known to access a variety of web sites, many in a manner that is not authorized. Please see the next section of this Wiki for a list of sites believed to be accessed and their data access policies (where known).

Additionally, under some conditions the tool appears to access sites via a KVS-operated back end. This means that the tool is not just a 'web browser' that runs via a user's machine. No detailed public information is available about how this works or whether any of this back-end access is authorized.

Websites KVS Accesses and their relevant Terms of Use

http://book.aircanada.com/pl/AConlin...verrideServlet
http://book.aircanada.com/pl/AConlin...PreviewServlet
https://book.aircanada.com/pl/AConli...verrideServlet
https://www.aircanada.com
Terms of Use:
http://www.aircanada.com/en/about/legal/notice.html
Use of our web site for any other purpose, including any commercial use or purpose, is expressly prohibited.
Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you agree that, in using or accessing our website, you shall not commit or participate in any of the following acts or actions, each of which is expressly prohibited under this User Agreement:
directly or indirectly, use or access, or encourage, solicit, permit, facilitate, aid, assist or abet, including, but not limited to, the selling, licensing, distribution or provision to any person of any means that permit, the use or access, or agree to provide the use or access, of our website through any manual process or any automatic, electronic or technical device, including but not limited to automated scripts, robots, crawls, screen scrapers, web "bots", deep-links, indexes, spiders, click-spams, macro programs, or any other device, program, software, system, algorithm, methodology or technology, now known or hereinafter discovered, that performs the same or a similar function, in order to, without limitation: "data mine"; "screen scrape"; data process; access, extract, copy, distribute, aggregate or acquire information; generate impressions or clicks; input or store information; search or generate searches; or manipulate or monitor any portion or content of our website;

http://data.flight24.com/flights/
Terms of Use:
http://www.flightradar24.com/terms-and-conditions
Websites information and Services are provided for personal, non-commercial use only. Permission is granted to temporarily download one copy of the materials (information or software) on Flightradar24s web site for personal, non-commercial transitory viewing only. This is the grant of a license, not a transfer of title, and under this license you may not:

Modify or copy the materials;
Use the materials for any commercial purpose, or for any public display (commercial or non-commercial);
Attempt to decompile or reverse engineer any software contained on Flightradar24's web site;
Remove any copyright or other proprietary notations from the materials; or
Transfer the materials to another person or "mirror" the materials on any other server.

This license shall automatically terminate if you violate any of these restrictions and may be terminated by Flightradar24 at any time. Upon terminating your viewing of these materials or upon the termination of this license, you must destroy any downloaded materials in your possession whether in electronic or printed format.

http://data.seatexpert.com/tpi/find.php
Terms of Use:

http://plane.lan.com/cgi-bin/recibo_...bo_eticket.cgi
Terms of Use:
http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_perso...-use/about-us/
You may use the information on our site solely for non-commercial purposes, and any use or modification of the website contents is not permitted.

http://reservations.usairways.com/Default.aspx
Terms of Use:
http://reservations.usairways.com/en-US/aboutus/site_usage_policy.html
Content may be used for non-commercial personal use only, and you agree not to modify, copy, transmit, distribute, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, sell or otherwise transfer any information, software, products or services obtained from the Site without prior written permission from US Airways. You agree not to use any automatic device, manual process, or scraping to monitor or copy the Site or the content contained therein for any purpose without US Airways prior written permission. You agree not to use any device, software or routine to interfere with or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site or any activities conducted on the Site.

https://book.austrian.com/app/fb.fly
Terms of Use:
http://www.austrian.com/Info/LegalRegulations/WebsiteTerms.aspx?sc_lang=en&cc=AT
2. Proprietary rights
All trademark rights, copyrights, database rights and other intellectual property rights to the contents of the Austrian-website, (as well as the organization and layout of the website), together with the underlying software code rest, either with Austrian or with its licensors. You may not, either in whole or in part, copy, modify, distribute or use or reproduce in other form contents of the Austrian-website, or the underlying software code, without the prior written consent of Austrian.

3. Permissible use
All Austrian-website online services (including the booking machine) are provided solely for the purpose of enabling you to check the availability of goods or services relating to your journey (the timetable, for example), make legitimate reservations, use our online check-in or transact other business with suppliers. You may only use the website in accordance with these terms and conditions and for the legally permitted purposes described above. In particular, you indicate your agreement to the following:
...
3.5 You may not reproduce information from the Austrian-website for commercial purposes. This also includes providing prices for Austrian flights on another website or another online server. In particular you may not copy, distribute, in other way use or reproduce discarded content from the Austrian-website with the help of 'robots', other search machine technologies or through other automatic mechanisms.

https://booking.qatarairways.com/qri...Booking.action
Terms of Use:

https://book.tam.com.br/TAM/dyn/air/...ng/retrievePNR
Terms of Use:

https://classic.checkmytrip.com/plne...ievePNR.action
Terms of Use:
(D) not to use any automated system or software to extract data from the Application, Documents or Services for commercial purposes (such as screen scraping);

https://en.aegeanair.com
Terms of Use:

https://eservice.evaair.com
Terms of Use:

https://flymas.mobi/itravel/viewBooking.xhtml
Terms of Use:

https://fly.rj.com/MyBookings/Home/EN/Default.aspx
Terms of Use:

http://skyvector.com/airport/
Terms of Use:

https://m.aeroflot.ru/b/info/pnr/load
Terms of Use:

https://mm.alitalia.com/GB_EN/booking/apvsearch.aspx
Terms of Use:

https://mobile1.emirates.com/myb/review.xhtml
Terms of Use:

https://myb.s7.ru/getMyBooking.action
Terms of Use:

https://mytripandmore.com/Itinerary.aspx
Terms of Use:
https://mytripandmore.com/TermsAndConditions.aspx
Except as expressly permitted by these Terms, you may not:
...
9. use any "robot", "spider" or other automatic device, software, program, algorithm, routine, methodology, or any manual process or functionality:
...to monitor, assemble, analyse, index, copy, transmit, distribute, transfer, or link to any of the pages, data, materials, or content available on the Site,

https://pilotweb.nas.faa.gov/PilotWe...yICAOAction.do
Terms of Use:

https://prefunds.aa.com/refunds/receipt
https://www.aa.com/reservation/findReservationSubmit.do
Terms of Use:
https://www.aa.com/i18n/footer/siteUsage.jsp
Intellectual property notifications
...
D. American Airlines owns or uses by permission all software contained on the Site, including without limitation all HTML code and Active X controls. Copyright and other laws and international treaty provisions protect this software. The law expressly prohibits any modification, redistribution, or reproduction of the software, and such actions could result in severe civil and criminal penalties. American Airlines will seek and support prosecuting violators to the maximum extent possible.
E. You may not copy, display, distribute, download, license, modify, publish, re-post, reproduce, reuse, sell, transmit, use to create a derivative work, or otherwise use the content of the Site for public or commercial purposes. Nothing on the Site shall be construed to confer any grant or license of any intellectual property rights, whether by estoppel, by implication, or otherwise.
...
Limitations on your use:
You agree that you will not Misuse the Site. "Misuse" includes, but is not limited to, using the Site to do any of the following:
...
L. Copy or create derivative works from, display, distribute, license, perform, publish, recreate, reproduce, sell, transfer, or transmit any information, products, services, or software obtained by, from, or through the Site.
M. Monitor or copy any Content by using any manual process, or any robot, spider, or other automatic device, without first obtaining American Airlines' prior written consent.

https://raw.github.com/opentraveldat...i_airlines.csv
Terms of Use:

https://secure.jetairways.com/PlatformID/Identify.aspx
Terms of Use:

https://tickets.airtran.com/SeatAvailability.aspx
Terms of Use:
http://www.southwest.com/html/about-...ons/index.html
Prohibited Activities

You may not copy, display, distribute, download, license, modify, publish, re-post, reproduce, reuse, sell, transmit, use to create a derivative work, or otherwise use the content of this site for public or commercial purposes without our express written permission. Nothing on this site shall be construed to confer any grant or license of any intellectual property rights, whether by estoppel, by implication, or otherwise.

You may not modify, re-render, frame, mirror, truncate, add to, inject, filter or change the order of the information contained on any page of the Southwest Airlines sites, including, without limitation, by any way of reproducing Southwest Airlines or SWABiz web pages or Company information on any other web site without our express written permission.

You may not copy, derive, edit, translate, decompile, reverse engineer, modify, use, or reproduce any code or source relating to our sites, including without limitation, any service or product Southwest offers.

You may not cause to appear any pop-up, pop-under, exit windows, expanding buttons, banners advertisement, or anything else which minimizes, covers, or otherwise inhibits the full display of the Southwest Airlines sites.

You may not use any deep-link, page-scrape, robot, crawl, index, spider, click spam, macro programs, Internet agent, or other automatic device, program, algorithm or methodology which does the same things, to use, access, copy, acquire information, generate impressions or clicks, input information, store information, search, generate searches, or monitor any portion of the Southwest Airlines sites or Company information.
...
You may not disguise the origin of information transmitted to, from, or through the Southwest Airlines sites. You may not circumvent any measures implemented by Southwest Airlines aimed at preventing violations of the Use Agreement. You may not violate the restrictions in any robot exclusion header.

When you use the Southwest Airlines sites or Company information for an authorized purpose, you must include all proprietary notices without changing, hiding or deleting them.

You may not engage in any conduct that is, or that Southwest Airlines deems to be, in violation of this Use Agreement.

https://wftc3.e-travel.com
Terms of Use:

https://wtrweb.worldtracer.aero/WorldTracerWeb/pax.do
Terms of Use:

https://www121.jal.co.jp/JmbWeb/JR/S...MileCalc_en.do
Terms of Use:

https://www4.thy.com/mybookings/ETDisplay.tk
https://www4.thy.com/mybookings/getPnr.tk
Terms of Use:

https://www.airberlin.com/en-DE/cockpit
Terms of Use:

https://www.airfrance.fr/cgi-bin/AF/...chPnrAction.do
Terms of Use:

https://www.alaskaair.com/booking/reservationlookup
Terms of Use:

https://www.bookonline.saudiairlines...verride.action
https://www.bookonline.saudiairlines...verride.action
Terms of Use:

https://www.britishairways.com/trave...g/public/en_gb
Terms of Use:

https://www.checkmytrip.com/CMTSERVLET
Terms of Use:
https://www.checkmytrip.com/cmt/apf/...&SITE=NCMTNCMT
3. Licence restrictions

3.1 Except as expressly set out in this EULA or as permitted by any local law, you agree:
...
(D) not to use any automated system or software to extract data from the Application, Documents or Services for commercial purposes (such as screen scraping);

https://www.delta.com/mytrips/findPnr.action
http://www.delta.com/ism/SeatMapDisplay.action
http://www.delta.com/shared/components/blank.jsp
Terms of Use:

https://www.finnair.com
Terms of Use:

https://www.flysas.com
Terms of Use:

https://www.iberia.com/web/retrievePNR.do
Terms of Use:

https://www.lot.com
Terms of Use:

https://www.lufthansa.com
Terms of Use:
http://www.lufthansa.com/online/port...d=2016866&l=en

2. Proprietary rights
...You may not, either in whole or in part, copy, modify, distribute or use or reproduce in other form contents of the Lufthansa-website, or the underlying software code, without the prior written consent of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
https://www.routehappy.com/
Terms of Use:

https://www.swiss.com
Terms of Use:

https://www.tripforyou.net/t4u/PTopAction.do
Terms of Use:

https://www.tripple.jp
Terms of Use:

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/app...n/default.aspx
Terms of Use:
https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/legal.aspx This website is for the User's personal, noncommercial use only. User agrees not to modify, copy, alter, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from this website without Uniteds prior written permission. User agrees not to use any robot, spider, other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy this website or the content contained therein or for any other unauthorized purpose without Uniteds prior written permission. ... United reserves the right to investigate any illegal and/or unauthorized use of this website, including, but not limited to, unauthorized framing of this website or unauthorized use of any robot, spider or other automated device, and to take appropriate legal action, including, without limitation, civil, criminal and injunctive redress.

https://www.viewtrip.com/GetItin.aspx
Terms of Use:

https://www.virginamerica.com/book/ow/a1/
Terms of Use:

https://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/g...ndBooking.next
Terms of Use:

https://www.virtuallythere.com/new/reservations.html
Terms of Use:

http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/
Terms of Use:

http://worldaerodata.com/wad.cgi
Terms of Use:

http://www.airframes.org/fleet/
Terms of Use:

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_H...oking-now.html
Terms of Use:

http://www.flightradar24.com/
Terms of Use:

http://www.FlightStats.com/go/Flight...ingByFlight.do
http://www.FlightStats.com/go/Flight...tusByFlight.do
Terms of Use:

http://www.flightview.com/TravelTool...eryResults.asp
http://www.flightview.com/TravelTools/viewairport.asp
Terms of Use:

http://www.gcmap.com/airport/
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui
Terms of Use:
http://www.gcmap.com/faq/using
Q: May I use the Great Circle Mapper's maps on my web page?
A: You may use maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper on non-commercial web pages (q.v. commericial use below) so long as you do not profit from them and you include the following credit on pages which include maps:
...
Q: May I use the Great Circle Mapper's maps for commercial sites or publications?
A: Please write to Karl L. Swartz regarding terms for commercial use of the maps.

http://www.iata.org/about/members/Pa...line-list.aspx
Terms of Use:
http://www.iata.org/Pages/terms.aspx
2. Your Conduct

The content on this Site is for your personal use only within the organization or entity to which you are attached as applicable, and it is not intended for commercial exploitation unless expressly agreed in writing by IATA through a duly authorized representative. IATA authorizes you to download or reproduce selected materials at this Site only for your personal, non-commercial use, in the ordinary course of business provided that you retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the original materials on any copies of the materials and that the title or database brand name and IATA name is stated as the source.

You may not otherwise modify, disassemble, create derivative works, distribute, reproduce, publicly display, perform, transmit, re-transmit, sell, rent, sublicense, or otherwise use any materials or content on this Site for commercial or non-commercial exploitation by yourself or the organization or entity to which you are attached or permit third parties to so do. Without limitation, unlimited or wholesale reproduction, copying of the content for commercial or non-commercial purposes and unwarranted modification of data and information within the content is not permitted, and any use of these materials on any other website or networked computer environment for any purpose without IATAs prior written consent is prohibited.
...
4. Intellectual Property Rights

...You must not modify, decompile, or reverse engineer any software IATA discloses to you via this Site, and you must not remove, overprint, or deface any notice of copyright, trademark, logo, legend, or other notice of ownership from any originals or copies of software or information from the website. "IATA Trademarks" means all names, marks, brands, URL names or addresses, logos, designs, trade dress and other designations IATA uses in connection with Products or Services. You are not permitted to incorporate any IATA Trademarks into any other trademarks, service marks, company names, Internet addresses, domain names, or any other similar designations. Any unauthorized use of any materials contained on this website may violate copyright laws, trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity, and communications regulations and statutes.

http://www.itn.net/cgi/get
Terms of Use:

http://www.kenya-airways.com/kqbook.aspx
Terms of Use:

http://www.myairlines.ru
Terms of Use:

http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/do/dyn/checkmytrip
Terms of Use:

http://www.seatexpert.com/multiple_results.php
Terms of Use:

http://www.seatguru.com/ajax/findseatmap.php
Terms of Use:

http://www.seatmaestro.com/airlines-...eckmytrip.html
http://www.seatmaestro.com/themes/de...te_airline.php
Terms of Use:

http://www.seatplans.com/ajax/Airline
http://www.seatplans.com/ajax/airports-and-city
http://www.seatplans.com/find-and-compare/
Terms of Use:
Print Wikipost

KVS Availability Tool

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 5:03 pm
  #3496  
15 Years on Site
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: YYZ, but my heart is in Asia
Programs: AC-SE, CX-DM, DL-G, Hyatt-DM, Hilton-DM, Fairmont-Plt, Marriott-S, Accor-Plt, SPG-G, IHG-Plt
Posts: 4,396
Originally Posted by sbm12
"Provide a service?" Don't you mean sell something that isn't really theirs to people?
Yes, KVS is providing a service, by making it very easy to grab the information from various (free or not) sources. For example, the *A awards, I would rather go with KVS then using the NH website, or ExpertFlyer, or your tool. It's way faster. So yes, this is a service, a valuable one that is worth paying for.
jarusoba is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 5:35 pm
  #3497  
All eyes on you!
15 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: YFC
Programs: AC*SE100K; Marriott Titanium; NEXUS
Posts: 1,523
I don't think this is a KVS issue.

It seems the problem isn't with the YOW - YYZ segment, it is with the YYZ - LAS portion. Since IKK is linked to R availability, you'll notice that R=0 for the 2nd leg, and this is why it won't give you the seat for 40,000. There are significant threads on this very topic lately.

Not sure why the cancelled flight is showing up on KVS or actually still showing up on aircanada.com for that matter.

Last edited by YQMer; Sep 12, 2010 at 5:35 pm Reason: .
YQMer is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 5:47 pm
  #3498  
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
10 Countries Visited20 Countries Visited30 Countries Visited20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.591 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Originally Posted by jarusoba
Originally Posted by sbm12
"Provide a service?" Don't you mean sell something that isn't really theirs to people?
Yes, KVS is providing a service, by making it very easy to grab the information from various (free or not) sources. For example, the *A awards, I would rather go with KVS then using the NH website, or ExpertFlyer, or your tool. It's way faster. So yes, this is a service, a valuable one that is worth paying for.
Considering I have never publicly published anything that searches *A inventory I'd say that not using anything I've done for that is a good idea.

And I do not dispute that the tool eases some of the searches. But when people don't realize that there are other free options I see no reason not to offer that help, especially when this one isn't working.
sbm12 is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 5:54 pm
  #3499  
20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 228
sbm makes perfect sense, also do I understand that kvs evades the comment, and I also paid for kvs, as I think its a very good program, especially if we compare it to some others, and for someone that does a lot of searches, even if just easier, it does the job.

a blackberry app (before an iphone one) would be greatly appreciated (incl. in the price)
yesitshere is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 5:57 pm
  #3500  
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 4,449
What's the fuss about?

Originally Posted by EileenSRN
It is distressing to see a FT Moderator flaming another Flyertalker.
Sounds like to me that the moderator isn't "flaming" someone. Rather, he is merely pointing out that KVS charges for something that is free. Indeed, he is protecting us, the regular consumer FTers out there. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Originally Posted by sbm12
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.591 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)
But when people don't realize that there are other free options I see no reason not to offer that help, especially when this one isn't working.
As a newbie to KVS (I only use the ANA tool), what advantages are there to KVS? I just went to the website, and I noticed that it charges money for 6 months of service. It is $75/year. Is there an advantage to KVS over the ANA tool? If there is value to the $75, then sure, I think it's worth it. But if it just doing the same thing that the ANA tool does, just more easily, I am not sure why anybody would pay them money.

If I understand correctly, this reminds me of how travelocity used to charge $5.00 if you booked an airline ticket with them. Of course, everybody would just search on travelocity, then go directly to the airline website to buy their ticket, saving the $5.00. Is this what KVS is like?
SFflyer123 is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 6:08 pm
  #3501  
20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 228
You are right however: People pay more to have a cellphone with a longer battery life, more ergonomic, easier to use, etc.

I use kvs because its easier to use, and when doing 10's of search per day, it pays to have something easier.
yesitshere is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 6:47 pm
  #3502  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
5M
100 Countries Visited
All eyes on you!
20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Between AUS, EWR, and YTO In a little twisty maze of airline seats, all alike.. but I wanna go home with the armadillo
Programs: CO, NW, & UA forum moderator emeritus. Eurobonus Millionaire
Posts: 38,648
Originally Posted by yesitshere
Whats this Wandering Aramean Availability Tool?

If it works, please let me know what this is.
It's free:

http://tools.wanderingaramean.com/
Xyzzy is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 7:01 pm
  #3503  
20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 264
Originally Posted by SFflyer123
..(I only use the ANA tool)
If searching ANA easier is your main goal, you can also try AwardNexus it searches ANA, among others, and does it with multi-day searching. For free.
lopinc1 is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 7:12 pm
  #3504  
KVS
Original Poster
FlyerTalk Evangelist
All eyes on you!
20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Worldwide
Posts: 12,952
Arrow

Originally Posted by SFflyer123
As a newbie to KVS (I only use the ANA tool), what advantages are there to KVS?
KVS Tool is actually a comprehensive suite of tools for frequent flyers, so Star Alliance award availability is just a small part of what one can do with it.

As to the "advantages", we believe that the actual KVS Tool members would in the best position to address this question, which they have done, both today and on previous occasions:

Originally Posted by jarusoba
But KVS is way easier and simpler to use. The interface is easier because a browser is not needed.
Originally Posted by yesitshere
I use kvs because its easier to use, and when doing 10's of search per day, it pays to have something easier.
A selection of additional user reviews is available at http://www.KVSTool.com/Member-Testimonials.php
KVS is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 8:25 pm
  #3505  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: EWR and SAN
Programs: PWP Direktor of Homeland, CO Plat* 1MM,UA 1K,BD Gold,DL Gold,SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 7,551
Originally Posted by kingbear
Sucks that KVS has to be down the one day that I need it. There definitely should be a way to have a mirror server that has a replica database for the tool to authenticate to.
I did a bit of poking and am very surprised by the lack of resiliency in the KVS setup. For the techies, even the DNS was offline and wasn't resolving.

For the non-techies, that means even if there was a secondary server to auth against, it likely would have failed as the entire kvstool.com domain had no records.

I do question the provider that is being used as any halfway-decent provider tends to have multiple layers of DNS servers that live on different networks so the loss of a single site doesn't offline the entire domain.

KVS, i'd highly suggest you consider your provider and get a more resilient DNS solution. While an outage as today's can be forgiven easily on a free service, for those of us who pay, it really is unacceptable to have such a sustained outage.
fozz is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 8:52 pm
  #3506  
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 4,449
Originally Posted by fozz
for those of us who pay, it really is unacceptable to have such a sustained outage.
Ouch!
SFflyer123 is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 9:13 pm
  #3507  
KVS
Original Poster
FlyerTalk Evangelist
All eyes on you!
20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Worldwide
Posts: 12,952
Arrow

Originally Posted by fozz
For the non-techies, that means even if there was a secondary server to auth against, it likely would have failed as the entire kvstool.com domain had no records.

I do question the provider that is being used as any halfway-decent provider tends to have multiple layers of DNS servers that live on different networks so the loss of a single site doesn't offline the entire domain.
For this very reason, the KVSTool.com domain itself has always been set-up fully autonomously from the web server and has 5 layers of DNS servers attached to it. As a result, the domain itself was not affected by today's outage, which, in turn, enabled uninterrupted e-mail communication.

If it wasn't for a series of inaccurate ETAs from our Web Hosting provider, we would have been able to switch the DNS records to point to an alternative server much earlier.

Nevertheless, once further redundancy procedures have been implemented, the new backup system will likely also use a separate domain for additional resiliency in situations like these.

On a more positive note, now that their network upgrade has [finally] been completed, the KVS Tool website is faster than ever.
KVS is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 9:14 pm
  #3508  
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 4,449
KVS: commercial motive?

Originally Posted by lopinc1
If searching ANA easier is your main goal, you can also try AwardNexus it searches ANA, among others, and does it with multi-day searching. For free.
thanks. does it do the same thing as kvs tool?

Originally Posted by KVS
A selection of additional user reviews is available at http://www.KVSTool.com/Member-Testimonials.php
Thanks, but this seems somewhat promotional, as sbm12, a moderator, has pointed out. Clearly, by your username, you've a vested interest in KVS tool, which is a for-profit website. The testimonials are on the website itself, which of course is biased because you will only put up good testimonials.

I think the spirit of FT is that we use FlyerTalk for ways of enhancing our flying experience, not as a vehicle for self-promotion and marketing our for-profit websites. I think this is what sbm12 has been getting at, and I think this is why he is constantly questioning your motives. I think if your website were free--like the ANA tool--then many people would gladly welcome KVS as a great tool. However, it is the for-profit nature of the website which makes people like sbm12 suspicious of your motives.

I just reviewed some of your recent posts, and almost every one that is not posted in this thread directs people to the KVS tool (one of which was in reseponse to my post for a paid C fare in the LX forum, yet you post this KVS stuff which has nothing to do with my question at all). The very reason I am posting in this thread is that you posted in the LX forum on a question that had nothing to do with KVS, yet somehow KVS was insinuated in there. It almost makes it seem that your presence is not so much to support the spirit of FT, but rather to promote and direct people to your website so that you can make money.

So I support sbm12 100%. ^
SFflyer123 is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 9:23 pm
  #3509  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: EWR and SAN
Programs: PWP Direktor of Homeland, CO Plat* 1MM,UA 1K,BD Gold,DL Gold,SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 7,551
Originally Posted by KVS
For this very reason, the KVSTool.com domain itself has always been set-up fully autonomously from the web server and has 5 layers of DNS servers attached to it. As a result, the domain itself was not affected by today's outage, which, in turn, enabled uninterrupted e-mail communication.

If it wasn't for a series of inaccurate ETAs from our Web Hosting provider, we would have been able to switch the DNS records to point to an alternative server much earlier.

Nevertheless, once further redundancy procedures have been implemented, the new backup system will likely also use a separate domain for additional resiliency in situations like these.

On a more positive note, now that their network upgrade has [finally] been completed, the KVS Tool website is faster than ever.
Just so you know, DNS queries for kvstool.com were also timing out for me from a number of different geographic locations. It appears you also had DNS issues at the same time.
fozz is offline  
Old Sep 12, 2010 | 9:31 pm
  #3510  
KVS
Original Poster
FlyerTalk Evangelist
All eyes on you!
20 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Worldwide
Posts: 12,952
Originally Posted by SFflyer123
(one of which was in reseponse to my post for a paid C fare in the LX forum, yet you post this KVS stuff which has nothing to do with my question at all).
Are you referring to the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/swiss...sfo-zrh-2.html thread?

If so, the original reply was to a post by SFO777, who referenced "ANA, KVS and EF" and raised the issue of LX awards not being available to other *A partners. The reply demonstrated a 'real-life' occurrence of that exact scenario, and was clearly on-topic (unlike some of today's discussions in this thread).

You then, yourself, asked for an explanation of the availability data codes, which was provided. In fact, you even subsequently replied "Thanks".
KVS is offline  


Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.