I am afraid there is no alternative source for OZ seat maps ...

As a complete newbie, I'm reluctant to question this, but currently I'm not getting the Z or U inventories unless I specify at least a second airline. Am I up an (Australian) gum tree? (Seems fairly clear to me - the same itin leaves out Z and U classes with just QF but they are there if I add CX as a second airline.)

Are you sure that you are using the [Sabre: ITN] Method, when searching for QF Z/U availability? And if so, could you provide a sample From/To/Date?

I use it to check flights on 2 June. SYD-JFK (QF107).

Seems to work OK:

[KVS Availability Tool 2.7.4/Platinum - Sabre: ITN/US-AXC1]

So is the worldspan seatmap toast? Its been almost 5 days and no fix. I really don't like launching another web browser and than having to price out a ticket to get the seatmap

Not at all -- it just needs to be fixed (by whoever 'broke' it in the first place). I miss it too, but, unfortunately, there is not much I can do at this point to speed-up that process ...

In the meantime, I am also working on making the Galileo seat maps to work on a '1-click' basis, so you will no longer need to manually go through a dummy booking process ...

Apollo seems to have started listing flights on a random basis. Until recently it seemed to list (1) nonstop or direct flights with any seat availability (2) connecting flights with availability and then (3) nonstop/ direct flights with no availability.

In the last few days I've noticed that it has started burrying nonstop flights with availability between connecting flights so that unless you know there is a flight there you might not know to look for it.

Yes, I ask to sort by # of connex
Example is LHR-HKG 27 Mar

ITN has always listed flights with zero availability in the Economy cabin last. If you are dealing with an unfamiliar route, it may advisable to look at the [Amadeus Timetable] first ...

[KVS Availability Tool 2.7.4/Platinum - Apollo: ITN/US-BMB]

Veering slightly OT, but given this combo of dates / routing, VS is in the money. While CX (direct), LH, KL have big problems with seats down the back. QF, NZ meanwhile seem to have healthy non-premium loads, but, wow, what a disappointment for the cabins which pay the fuel bill...

Very unreliable indicator. Booked from UK market inventory, there are at least 4 discounted Upper Class seats available on that VS200.

(And this is one reason why tools like KVS and EF, while often very useful, often fall down for UK customers just when you need them most, ie when you're chasing the last seat or two.)

The other thing to watch for when considering "in the money" is yield. There's a lot of pressure on 27 March and a day or so either side because people are arriving for the Sevens, which starts on Friday 30 March. So even if VS has sold all its Upper Class this far in advance, what yield did it get for those seats? How many have gone to package operators at deeply discounted net rates? Are the airlines that still have premium capacity going to hold out for higher yields later?

I have no idea what the answers are, but these are all the bread and butter of that arcane art called yield management.

It's also a bit too far in advance to be judging the performance of various players on that route, particularly in premium classes. Business travelers are not likely to have booked trips for the end of March already, so it would be very unusual indeed if VS's listed numbers were accurate.

[Sabre: Fares/ZUJ] Method Issues
 

You may experience difficulties obtaining fares for certain city pairs.

I am already looking into this matter...

it's been working fine for me all day, and still is. ^

Thanks for the info -- it appears that only certain city pairs are affected ...

Important note regarding the [Sabre: Fares/ZUJ] & [Sabre: Fares/DotRes] Methods
 

A "No fares found"/"We cannot process your request" error message can result when requesting fares for "All Airlines (YY)". Should that occur, try entering a specific airline preference.

If you are requesting international fares on UA and are receiving the said message, please note that this is a system issue with the Sabre GDS and/or UA.

Not showing all flights
 

I'm looking for availability on US on the 0725 flt fr Buf to PHL and on to LAX via PHX with various combos. US shows the strings, but KVS isn't pulling it. Any ideas?
Eileen

What are the dates? I just checked 01 Mar 2007, and it shows that US 725 goes from PIT to LAS ...

Thank You!
 

By now I have corrected my mistake. I was referring to the departure time, not flt #. I understand that coach is sold out, but not first. I just wondered why US would pull a routing just because there were some flights with limited seating. They're still offering flt 1997 that leaves BUF at 0645 to CLT on Feb 17th. I'm just trying to learn how to read. US says one thing, Orbitz another and KVS something else again. I understand seeing seats "available" on a seat map means nothing. But I thought Orbitz was supposed to be pretty accurate. Thanks for working with me.
I know, I've got no chance on the President's week vacation exodus from the north, but it's fun to dream.
Eileen

Pls see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...60#post7211960

I am pleased to report that the upcoming version of the Tool will feature an update notification mechanism:

Once every 10 days, the Tool will automatically check to see if there is a newer version available for download, and, if so, an appropriate message will be displayed.

Does the tool work for V upgrade availability on DL?

Otherwise I'm forced to pay for expertflyer for that and KVS for award availability.

I am afraid not: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...62#post3983062

Great, thank you. ^

Hey! That's a great idea. Thanks for doing this.^ ^ ^

Probably this is asked before, only I couldn't find it.

Is it possible to look for award availibility for a period of time? Now it's possible for some route per day, but when I'm very flexible (holidays) I have to do this many times.

I know it's possible to go one day back with ctrl+pgdn and forward with ctrl+pgup, but I should like the possibility to give some timeframe.

And another one: it should be nice if it was possible to do the search automatically (on the background, every day or so), and give a message when award tickets occured...

But I know, this is probably too complicated to do, but maybe... ;)

I am afraid that this is one of the few things that I really can't do at the moment (not because it's too complicated, but because it will probably 'kill' the Tool) ...

Therefore, using Filters (to weed-out the irrelevant results) in combination with Ctrl+PgUp/PgDown is the best I can offer at the moment.

I am having problems finding Delta award availability. It seems like all the searches come back with a bunch of NW/KLM flights even though my originating city is ATL (DL hub). I'm wondering what this tool is giving me over the NWA JP site, it seems to return the same info. I think I wasted $30 contributing.

Given the fact that the data comes from NW, a NW/KL 'bias' is certainly possible. However, looking at a sample city pair, it seems to to work OK:

[KVS Availability Tool 2.8.0/Platinum - ITA: Awards/SkyTeam/JP-NWA]

I'm specifically looking for ATL-CDG availability (where you have tons of possibilities) and MUC-ATL (same here). (on 4/6/07 and 4/15/07 respectively.)

It doesn't even show the direct DL flights, which are available at the sky choice rates.

Maybe it works great domestically, but my point is I didn't realize it was going to give me the same info I can get outside the tool on the NWA JP site. I have no other use for the tool as I have to use expert flyer to search for V/X/Z/G inventory on DL.

First of all, DL flights, which only have "Sky Choice" availability would never show-up using the [Awards/SkyTeam] method, because YA/CA classes are only applicable to NW, KL, and CO flights. BTW, if anyone knows which booking classes correspond to "Sky Choice" awards on DL, pls let me know, so that I can updated the DL chart.

If you are certain that there is standard availability on DL for the dates/city pairs in question, then it must, indeed, be the 'bias' issue, which is, unfortunately beyond my control ...

I'm pretty sure that DL books Skychoice award tickets in the same buckets as skysaver awards. Basically the Skychoice award is available if there is a revenue seat available - and by paying double the miles it opens up inventory for you in those applicable buckets. That's the way I understand it at least.

Ah, OK -- thanks for the info.

How consistent is the info from KVS?

I tried AMS-YYZ on Feb. 18,2007
On Sabre:
KL691 J9 C9 Z9 S9 B9 M9 K9 H9 L9 Q9 T9 V2
so there are C9 (open miles business award) and S9 (open miles economy award). No D, no W.

So I expected on ITA Awards/Skyteam:
KL691 YS- YA+ CS- CA+

But surprisingly it says:
KL 691 YS- YA+ CS+ CA+

Howcome?

Added:
the same info for 1-6 seats on ITA, but when 7 or more seats are requested it gives
YS- YA+ CS- CA+

It is as consistent as KL wants it to be :) ...

Looks like KL is not always showing award availability via Sabre: I tried it a few minutes ago and it was also not showing D. However, when I tried again, D 'magically' appeared:

[KVS Availability Tool 2.8.0/Platinum - Sabre: ITN/US-AXC1]
This means that the actual availability was D6.

Version 2.8: What's New
 

I am pleased to announce the release of Version 2.8.

What's New in Version 2.8.0

• New Seat Map Options
  • Apollo and Galileo seat maps can now be requested in just a click, and without a need to go through a 'dummy booking' process! Both text-based (recommended for advanced users), and graphical seat map versions are now available.
  
  
• New Flight/Operational Info Manager
  • Provides quick and easy access to operational flight info, historical performance data, and flight tracking.
  
  
• Automatic Update Notification
  • Once every 10 days, the Tool will automatically check to see if there is a newer version available for download, and, if so, an appropriate message will be displayed. This process takes only a second or two to complete, and should not cause any noticeable delays.

[Download Version 2.8.0 Now].

Sabre searches seem erratic - e.g. C availability on NZ on certain flights / days cycles between 0 and 3 and back again (and again) on successive searches only a few seconds apart. The 3 was correct, at least by availability checking on AirNZ website itself.

Wow! Lots of pretty nifty enhancements. ^ Thanks, KVS.

Thanks for the report. This appears to be similar to the issue in post #1231 above -- could be a problem with a link between Sabre and NZ's back-end systems ...

SeatMaps not working
 

Installed new version; Now, whenever clicking on:
ANY of the Apollo:ITN Graphical seat map links
ANY of the Apollo:ITN Text seat map links

receive an INSTANT error (I mean this error comes up faster than you can blink): Unable to initialize the Seat Map engine. Please try a different Seat Map Method. "ERROR: The requested URL could not be retrieved."