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KVS versus Expert Flyer Comparision Chart (2)

Just took a quick look at this useful comparison. Thanks very much for pulling all of this info together!

Thanks again for putting this together.

Please update the chart to include the following Award/Upgrade Booking classes that are also supported in the KVS Tool (Platinum & Diamond):

• OS Upgrades
• AR Awards & Upgrades
• EK Awards
• KE Awards
• MH Awards
• MU Awards

We also just added KLM: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16487634-post471.html

We live in a world of constant change, and it's hard to keep up with. Latest understanding of what's available through each tool - sorry, it's really hard to keep on top of this.

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Just curious as to whether these charts are still accurate as a comparison tool?
I want to purchase a service so I'm trying to sort out which tool offers the most as far as award searches for all 3 alliances.

The KVS Tool continues to provide incomparably wider Award Availability support with 100% coverage across Star Alliance, OneWorld and SkyTeam (except KE Y/C).

For the most up-to-date information, please consult the detailed table at http://Help.KVSTool.com/#Classes, the summary chart at http://Levels.KVSTool.com/#Features and the corresponding pages on the other service's website.

No, not at all. Not only have there been changes in both of these tools, but in the year since the chart was made, there have been a whole new crop of alliance award search tools, many of them free. Here is a good list to start: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/18254612-post2.html

Of note is:
- www.Awardnexus.com which covers all 3 alliances and has a free version for FT members. The paid version has automatic award checking and alerting
- www.awardtravelr.com which covers all 3 alliances and is totally free

With any of these options you are getting the data that is screen scraped from various airline websites. The difference is if you pay for it or not and if you have to download a Windows program or use a website. ExpertFlyer is the exception in that it uses a GDS to get its data, which makes it different in its coverage and services offered.

I regret not, it was something that I created for my own purposes last year but my travel has tailed off so I no longer have the requirement.

All of the tools are very good, in their own ways; your best option might be to commence a short subscription with both KVS and ExpertFlyer and see which you find most convenient.

Maybe this can be uploaded and kept on an online/ Google Spreadsheet and KVS & EF can both update it, while some Moderators / Frequent+ Heavy Users can monitor it.

By chance I'm at the OKCon conference on open data, so it's appropriate that it is shared! The link is here - it's not been updated since May 2011 - if anyone wants the original Excel files, drop me a PM. I don't think either provider should be expected to update it though, nor would they want to.

There was some... pushback behind the scenes from one of these providers and it's a challenge to track their ever-changing capabilities, but the exercise might still be useful. I travel a good deal less these days so no longer subscribe to either provider, and rely on flightstats.com for broad inventory availability.

Nice. I'd love to hear more about how it went and maybe connect on that subject offline sometime.

This thread looked like it might come the closest to what I need without starting a new thread so I'll post here and hopefully I'll get lucky with some good responses


so here is what I want to do:

I want to do a One World Explorer award for three people preferably in Business (yeah yeah I know it will be hard to do). I realize that this is a difficult task. I'm not even sure where I want to go other than get close to maximizing the 16 segments as possible while hitting Asia, South Pacific, Europe and maybe South America if I can squeeze it in a mileage threshold.

these would not be one trip, It would be 3 or four trips departing from the states over the course of a year. (order not a big deal and all RT) I.e., N/A to Asia and the south pacific, N/A - Europe, N/A - S/A.

I'm flexible where I go so that should help.

so here is my question:

I want to use some sort of application that will help me find these fare buckets, one that will hopefully send me alerts to when the buckets open, and give me the biggest possible routing to choose from.. for example lets say LAX - SYD

I'd like LAX - SYD but also for it to look, LAX-NRT-SYD, LAX-HKG-SYD, LAX-KUL-SYD ETC..

I've never used a booking tool like this and have no idea where to start. I was surprised to see so many options on the first page.

Of course I'm willing to pay for this but for some like award nexus, it appears you pay by the search which I really don't want to have to do.

I'm doing this now although my plan isn't to book anything till the spring. I want to subscribe to something now to play with it, getting the learning curve out of the way so that when the time comes I'm familiar with the booking tool

one last thing, I'm willing to reposition domestically and purchase short haul Y flights internationally to make this work.

second last thing, after reading some of the prior pages, I'm looking for a site such as KVS, EF, Awardnexus to help me do my own legwork and want assistance in picking the best site for this type of award; I'm not looking for someone else to do this for me.

thanks for your ideas