Thanks for the reply, KVS. I'm really keen to get this working (esp as I've paid for Diamond for two months!) but I don't have anything like that sort of smooth experience so far. My internet connection is 8Mbps ADSL and I can easily stream BBC iPlayer HD streams, as well as quickly browse websites.

I tried some testing - here were my timings:

Checking for EDI-EWR *A award availability in May:
SNT: Awards/StarAlliance - initial search 1m50s; clicked 1 day forward - 1m24s
ITA: Awards/AC-StarAlliance - initial search 0m44s; clicked 1 day forward - 0m34s.
ANA website (timing from clicking the 'flight search' button once logged in) - initial search 0m10s; one day forward 0m18s

Any suggestions on how to improve matters would be much appreciated! :)

Something funky is going on. Same search:
SNT:Awards/StarAlliance(connections unchecked) - initial search 9s; clicked one day forward 9s
SNT:Awards/StarAlliance(connections checked) - initial search 11s; clicked 1 day forward 12s
ITA:Awards/AC-StarAlliance - initial search 14s; clicked 1 day forwards 12s

Possibly a consequence of accessing from Europe?

WOW - that's some difference! I've tried it on new installation on two different machines or two different internet connections and get broadly similar (slow) times on both setups. I wonder if you're right re. Europe? It certainly makes it pretty unusable vs web-based ANA tool or Aeroplan!

Any thoughts, KVS?

PS - connections box was unchecked for my timings.

Do you have a proxy server enabled in MSIE Connection Settings by any chance? Any personal firewall/anti-virus software that could interfere?

By design, the KVS Tool cannot possibly be slower (and is typically faster) than a regular web browser on the same machine.

Thanks for taking the time to put those together -- they certainly look much more typical!

Those timings are more appropriate for a modem dialup connection in rural Africa :), so something is definitely wrong on your end ...

Nope all I'm running is Microsoft Security Essentials. No MSIE proxy server settings.

I ran the internet connections test and it all looked fine:
That's all well and good but certainly not what I'm experiencing! :(

So is that all you can advise? I've now tested on two machines on two different UK internet connections (Sky and Virgin Media). The stats for the one I'm on as as follows:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1575100653.png

I've tried again today and the times are a bit better (around 20-30 sec), but I still can't work out what the benefit is of KVS over the free ANA tool that takes around 8 sec - especially since they're just using the same underlying data. Please tell me if I'm missing something obvious!

PS - some further data points -
Sabre:Availability/FS - 0m16s initial, 0m11s next day
Sabre:Fares/TVN - 0m8s
Amadeus:Timetable - 0m1s

Whereas by comparison the Award checks are still taking around 30s and involved lots of 'waiting for response' and 'transferring data'.

Hmmmm. Just tried again, still getting about 12s to go to the next date thru KVS on SNT. However, using the ANA site directly is 4-5s using IE9!

That slight difference is normal -- the [Next]/[Previous] Date functions in the KVS Tool are different than those on the ANA website (e.g. you can also change origin/destination in conjunction with the date change in the KVS Tool and they are also available for all other Methods/Engines).

The above timings look much more 'normal'. If the issue only affects the [Awards/StarAlliance] Method, then there is definitely something going on on either your system's and/or your ISP's end ...

I'm sorry I don't quite understand the logic there - if I'm getting more 'normal' timings on the other methods then surely that helps confirm that it's NOT a problem with my ISP?! As I say I can access the ANA website directly on similar timings to jasonvr so that also would seem to go against it being something on my system. I see a lot of 'connecting' and 'waiting' when running *A Awards queries (either method) - what servers is it having to speak to? What does it speak to that is different for the two *A Awards queries compared to the other searches that I described above that you say have more 'normal' timings?

I think just blaming my connection, when I've already explained I've used it on >1 system and >1 internet connection and can connect quickly using other methods doesn't really stack up. Please don't get me wrong, I would LOVE for the system to work properly for me :), but it isn't :(

Can't really explain the slowness, but as far as your server questions. For each search it is talking to the respective engine. For the SNT query it is sending http requests to the ANA server and interpreting the returned results. Same for the AC method. Other queries use other engines elsewhere on the the net. However, I'm not sure all are using http queries or if they have other methods.

Have you tried the CO method? Might be worth a shot. In fact, I often find actually using the CO website is quite efficient for searching for awards, but it does not cover every airline.

Thanks, jasonvr. I hadn't tried the CO method as was reading it as more for upgrades than Award tickets (and wasn't sure how availability mapped across to the BD programme) - it looks like around 8-10s or so. Quite different seeing the availability for all different fare codes, guess I just look for I class availability for business. Thanks for the suggestion.

On the ANA front I just find it funny that the ANA website is quick when KVS isn't - I would have thought with it interrogating the same site as I'm browsing it would be faster than it is.

I would like one too, if there are any :)

That's precisely the point -- when it comes to the [Awards/StarAlliance] Method, the KVS Tool is a [specialized] web browser, so it cannot possibly be slower than another browser (such as MSIE) on the same machine/connection, unless there is something there is something interfering with it. Furthermore, being a text-based browser it should be (and typically is) faster.

OK, but is it purely just connecting direct to the ANA website? If so is there something in your coding that is slower that the latest FF/Chrome/IE browsers?? There seems to be a lot of 'connecting' and 'waiting' involved in the process judging by the progress bar at the bottom that just doesn't happen when using my webbrowser.

I've just tried again with three attempts on each method and it is routintely taking betwen 4-5 seconds for a search on the ANA website (either fresh or changing day) and is taking 20-25 seconds to do the same search in KVS. If the only thing it is doing is going directly from my computer to the ANA website then I can't understand how it takes longer :(