Your understanding is correct -- looking forward to welcoming you on-board as a new KVS Tool member soon ;)

The list of exclusives outdated and inaccurate as we've added many award airlines to EF.

In addition, not only does ExpertFlyer have more AA data and the same UA data, but we allow you to use all of it in more flexible ways:

- AA awards show actual class values (Z1, C4, U5, etc), not just a + or - based on the number of passengers you enter for the search.
- 14 days of results are available with one search
- A Mobile version, with all EF features, is available now.
- Flight Alerts allows you to be notified when award/upgrade (or any other) class not currently available becomes available.

Either way, you are welcome to try us for 5-days, free of charge. Just sign up and start searching immediately. KVS doesn't appear to offer a free trial on his website, but if you ask for one I'm sure he'll accommodate you. Try us both out (and AwardNexus.com as well) and see for yourself what is the best solution or combination of solutions for your needs. That's really the best way.

Are either KVS or EF capable of quickly identifying fares/trips that offer free or low-priced stopovers? Preferably for international, non-award travel.

I'm trying to figure out whether there is a "creative" booking alternative to simply buying a RTW ticket.

Not sure if those services offer what you are looking for. But unless you are doing extensive stopovers, I have booked RTW flights for myself and several others and piecing together various flights and tickets has almost always been cheaper than an off-the-shelf RTW ticket.

Yeah, I'm pretty new to this stuff but quickly figured out that RTW ex-USA is not at all cost-effective.

Certainly, I'd want to use EF or KVS for other travel plans too, but right now my focus is on a potential honeymoon next year involving two one week-ish stopovers around ATH and BKK, while potentially adding one or two other cities for three weeks total of travel. Is either service demonstrably better at helping me plan this type of trip (and if so, why)?

With Expertflyer the Fare Information section response page to a query has the ability to pull up both the fare rules, which would tell you if stopover are allowed for your route, and a fare routing section which tells you the permissible routings between the end points.

They have a 5 day free trial so just try it and see if it meets your needs.

The KVS Tool will certainly enable you do all of the above (plus much more).

Indeed, as long as you read the fare rules for every fare in question for the stopover details. It isn't like fares with free or inexpensive stopovers are highlighted specially in either tool. It certainly is not a trivial task to identify such fares.

Swiss: Different results on each product
 

Folks I am full paid up user of both products. Love em both. Wish KVS would be web based, wish EF had more airlines. C'est la vie.

Anyway I am looking at availability on Swiss (LX) and getting very different results on each. Just one example:

7/29/2011: JFK-ZRH. EF shows 2 seats on both LX15 and LX17 in F (O class). KVS shows FS-
7/30/2001: ZRH-BKK. EF shows 2 seats on LX180. KVS shows FS-

Pretty much all the time I see O class on EF, I see FS- for same number of seats on KVS.

Anyone know who's right?

If you're looking at the ANA data, both, as the ANA data is what inventory LX is willing to give to *A partners, whereas ExpertFlyer shows the LX award data from the Miles & More redemption point of view, which usually has more inventory available.

LX has 2 Availability 'sets': One for its own M&M FFP members (which you can see via the [Awards/M&M] Method in the KVS Tool) and another one for *A redemptions (which you can see via the [Awards/StarAlliance] Method). Only the KVS Tool can show you both:

[KVS Availability Tool 6.0.3/Diamond - SNT: Awards/StarAlliance/JP-ANA-SP1]
[KVS Availability Tool 6.0.3/Diamond - Amadeus: Awards/M&M/All]

thanks for the clarification. didn't realize lx did this. sux! but good to know...

Hope this is an appropriate place to ask the question and I've searched but not found an answer.

I've used both programmes in the past and seem to wander between the two. What I'd like to be able to do is set up an alert to tell me when F seats become available on BA for each of several sectors of a trip to Oz ie lhr>sin/sin>syd/syd>sin/sin>lhr. My travel dates are very flexible and I can build a trip around the seats.

I'm currently using KVS and I have to go through each sector for say a two month period - every day - and each time I see an F seat I put that seat in a spreadsheet. I use the filter to ensure I just get BA metal. I then do the same for the next sector and so on. Clearly just having a series of alerts would be a great time saving help to me and possibly give me an edge to pounce!

Is it possible to do this on either KVS or EF please?

If I understand what you mean by "seat" I think you mean the vacancy of a particular seat, or seats, like "1A" on a particular flight. Expertflyer does this for Premium subs. It's called a Seat Alert. You pick the specific flights you want in the Seat Map section and then click Create Seat Alert. This then allows you to click on the occupied seat(s) you want to set an alert for. When EF finds a vacancy it will email you a notification.

If by "seat" you mean the availability to purchase an F seat on BA, this is called a Fare Alert, again for Premium subs. On the left side panel click on Create Flight Alert. Fill in the information and give it a name.

In both cases EF will keep looking for what you requested all the way up till departure time.

Many thanks for your reply.

Apologies for not being clear. No not looking for a specific seat just any two available redemption tickets in F opening up.

Just trying this now ..... I have to create an alert for each day for each sector? This would mean creating say 120 alerts for each month ie 30 days times 4 sectors? This would make it easier to simply page through KVS manually.