These things are always *much* harder than they look, for all kinds of reasons I am sure.

Thankfully, this was fixed in mere minutes last night. The "forbidden" symptom was a brief (~8 minute) stage as the server restarted. And this is fixed, so the "forbidden" error (most likely) won't be seen the next time the server has to be restarted.

What does "L" in the same context mean

L stands for "list" as in waitlist.

See http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/...ravel/galileo/ -- "Letters where the inventory data belongs: ... L: No seats are available, but passenger may ask to be added to the waitlist."

[Edited to fix typos.]

[This message has been edited by bedelman (edited 07-15-2003).]

I noticed that when using bedelman's site, I always get the invalid date error. Is this going to, or has it been, fixed? I know I can just enter the date in the correct format when on the German site (3108 for August 31st), but just curious.

By the way bedelman, I think I recall you writing in a thread that you were thinking about adding additional features to your tool. Namely, I think you mentioned writing a code so that the program automatically pinged Galileo at set intervals to check for specific inventory on a given flight (ie check for 2 Z inventory on the hard to get AA flight LAX-LHR), and then send an email to the person letting them know the inventory opened up.

I wanted to say that I would greatly appreciate this ability, and will support the development if possible/needed. Are others interested in this capability? And how easy do you think this capability would be to add to your site, bedelman?

Weird that you're getting an invalid date error. Certainly the system works fine for me and literally hundreds of other people every day.

You're selecting a month and date from the drop-downs either at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/...ravel/galileo/ or at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/...ileo/frame.asp , right?

It shouldn't even be possible to enter an invalid date (except, perhaps, for one in the past).

I have been thinking about adding such a capability. I have two basic concerns:

1) That it would take a long time to write this program, and I'm busy. I appreciate "support" but would not be comfortable accepting money for this project given my sense of the FT community plus the fact that we're using data posted to the web by aeroplan. (To be sure, I think I'd be within my rights to accept money; I just don't care to.) So it's really a question of whether I can spare the time, or whether someone else has the skills & inclination.

2) As mentioned in another thread (by anothre FT'er!), I'm concerned that writing this script could hasten the demise of the feature we're using at Aeroplan to get the data at issue. Especially with the etour (Japanese) site inaccessible, it's particularly important to avoid getting aeroplan's Galileo interface shut down. But the large load that could be generated by this tool (many tools checking the site many times per day) makes me worry the tool would have precisely the reverse effect.

I would be careful with the frequent pings. It might cause so much traffic that the host of the site might block your access. What you are considering would be handy but I hope we don't get greedy and loose what we have. Thanks for your contribution.

I was on the phone with delta one night and I had your site up while I was trying to book 5 seats on a day with very little discount availability. The agents kept coming up with higher fares (I had vouchers so had to book on the phone). Finally I saw one of the agents taking the seats out of the bucket I wanted in front of my eyes. Bingo I knew she was the only one trying to get me the right fare.

It was magical, something I would have never dreamed possible 10 years ago.

I think those are great points. I hadn't considered the pinging issue. You're both right, we certainly wouldn't want to lose this valuable resource.