Award.Flights - New OW Award Availability Chrome App

[decs]

Just saw this today on frugal travel guy.

Award Flights | Find all the awards!

Supposedly uses your FF logins for the various OW FF programs to run searches up to 30 days at a time for multi-destinations. Sounds like ITA but specifically for awards. Sounds too good to be true as OW really needs better award search capabilities.

I'm optimistic... haven't tried it out yet but will report back once I have!

Update: Here's a summary of the tool's features:
[h=3]Search for awards on multiple carriers[/h]AwardFinder makes it easy to search for awards on multiple carriers. Currently supported carriers:

• BA (oneworld)
• NH (Star Alliance)
• JL (CX, BA, AA, AF, QF)
• EY
• SQ
• AC (Star Alliance)
• QF

[h=3]Search multiple cabins[/h]AwardFinder allows you to search for awards on multiple cabins at the same time
[h=3]Save and load previous searches[/h]Makes monitoring awards you’re looking for easier
[h=3]Date range search[/h]Search up to 30 days
[h=3]Multi-origin/destination search[/h]Search to or from multiple cities.

 

[anat0l]

Looks interesting enough. I'd give it a shot. Don't think there are any security issues that I can see on the surface. Basically I guess the program works by automating something that you would normally take many clicks and refreshes to do.

 

[decs]

Initial thoughts are quite good! BA searching can be slow as the tool searches each day separately, however the format of the results is excellent, including the option to filter out mixed-class awards ("Restrictive") to only those classes you want. For example, those pesky long-haul Y segments in QF J award results.

 

[decs]

Looks interesting enough. I'd give it a shot. Don't think there are any security issues that I can see on the surface. Basically I guess the program works by automating something that you would normally take many clicks and refreshes to do.

Good to hear you believe the security issues aren't a concern. That did cross my mind for a second.

Indeed, it's no different to the results from manual searching, but reduces the manual effort required which is always good.

 

[anat0l]

Good to hear you believe the security issues aren't a concern. That did cross my mind for a second.

Note that this is just an at-surface guess. Don't take my word for it.

If anyone wants to weigh in on this issue, please do.

 

[blahter]

Note that this is just an at-surface guess. Don't take my word for it.

If anyone wants to weigh in on this issue, please do.

Just wanted to let you know that I'm the author of the app. Your account information is stored locally within a sandboxed storage container within Chrome. You have the option of syncing it to whatever it is Google uses to synchronize data across machines if you want - it will be linked to the Google account you're using. In that case it will be on Google's servers. I personally have dummy accounts that I use for this and any other service that wants me to log in with my account info.

 

[Danger]

How is this different from Award Nexus?

 

[Princess Fiona]

How is this different from Award Nexus?

Apart from the site having access to your FF account numbers I'm thinking it isn't.

 

[Isochronous]

Is there any security risk in letting KVS have your account details?

 

[anat0l]

Apart from the site having access to your FF account numbers I'm thinking it isn't.

If I'm supposed to understand the idea correctly, this isn't another website. It's a Chrome app, and your settings are meant to be stored client-side.

As I guess what it is, it is simply a "robot", i.e. all those searches you would normally do manually, this app just automates that process.

One interesting side effect is that some sites have a "protection" against robots and so on; e.g. LifeMiles, where after you search for a long continuous period of time, it starts asking you CAPTCHAs. I wonder if the app "handles" that.

I haven't been able to try this yet. I need to install Google Chrome first.

I haven't tried AwardNexus either. But on the surface of it all, I guess there isn't much difference, although AwardNexus runs in any browser, not just Chrome. Most of us have a Flyertalk or Milepoint account, so even "paying" for AwardNexus is not a big deal. Finally, I suppose AwardNexus can search without needing your FF numbers (because it isn't simulating you doing the searches to find the same inventory).

 

[decs]

One interesting side effect is that some sites have a "protection" against robots and so on; e.g. LifeMiles, where after you search for a long continuous period of time, it starts asking you CAPTCHAs. I wonder if the app "handles" that.

I haven't been able to try this yet. I need to install Google Chrome first.

I can confirm that the app indeed does prompt you to "solve" the reCAPTCHAs thrown by BA for one example. It then proceeds to finish the search.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Is there something I'm missing here ?
Why does the App need your FF data to search for Awards ?

 

[Abdul_A350]

Is there something I'm missing here ?
Why does the App need your FF data to search for Awards ?

I would prefer to pay for AwardNexus than use this system.

Perhaps they want to avoid responsibility for putting load on search engines.

 

[anat0l]

Is there something I'm missing here ?
Why does the App need your FF data to search for Awards ?

I think you don't understand how this app actually works.

As I understand it, the app is essentially automating a process which you would do yourself. The app does the exact same things you would do to search for availability, except with no further clicking on your part and filtering the results into a neat matrix.

This is why it needs your log in details, because it is doing exactly what you would be doing yourself, i.e. as part of searching for space, you need to provide your details.

I don't know how AwardNexus works (maybe they have agreements, general operating accounts or direct inventory interrogation - after all, ExpertFlyer and KVS can also get at award inventory) to search for availability, but clearly they have a more sophisticated setup than the app here.

I think Wandering Armean has a similar award search facility that this app provides, in that it also needs your account details to basically automate a manual process.

There was a rather popular award search engine that was a hit here; I think it was called Awardtravlr? The main advantage of that one is that it provided deep searches for connecting itineraries, albeit it could work a bit slow. It was shut down eventually; I can't remember the exact reason.

 

[Abdul_A350]

As I understand it, the app is essentially automating a process which you would do yourself.

That might be a violation of terms, which is why I am concerned. Suddenly your account looks like it is doing something unusual.

 

[Princess Fiona]

I think you don't understand how this app actually works.

As I understand it, the app is essentially automating a process which you would do yourself. The app does the exact same things you would do to search for availability, except with no further clicking on your part and filtering the results into a neat matrix.

This is why it needs your log in details, because it is doing exactly what you would be doing yourself, i.e. as part of searching for space, you need to provide your details.

I don't know how AwardNexus works (maybe they have agreements, general operating accounts or direct inventory interrogation - after all, ExpertFlyer and KVS can also get at award inventory) to search for availability, but clearly they have a more sophisticated setup than the app here.

I think Wandering Armean has a similar award search facility that this app provides, in that it also needs your account details to basically automate a manual process.

There was a rather popular award search engine that was a hit here; I think it was called Awardtravlr? The main advantage of that one is that it provided deep searches for connecting itineraries, albeit it could work a bit slow. It was shut down eventually; I can't remember the exact reason.

Thanks for the explanation. As I'd probably never do that process myself Expert Flyer and Award Nexus work better for me. In particular I like the ability to set up alerts for awards that I'm looking for.
KVS is equally as good unless you are a Mac user like me.

 

[woodborer]

Why does the App need your FF data to search for Awards ?

Award avaialbility can and does vary depending on your status level.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Award avaialbility can and does vary depending on your status level.

Close in on any alliance I don't think so ??

 

[anat0l]

That might be a violation of terms, which is why I am concerned. Suddenly your account looks like it is doing something unusual.

Potentially true. Although you would not be a "normal" user, there is nothing inherently wrong with searching award availability over and over again. As I said, some websites - like BA - even have built in "guards" that attempt to screen out robots (i.e. scrapers, or ones that just exist to annoy and use up server load). Having searched in LifeMiles a huge number of times, it hasn't been unusual for me to get the CAPTCHA prompts after a lot of restarting searches.

The violation of terms I think mainly arises from times when your searching / accessing the airline's server is so excessive that you are actually trying to impede its operation, e.g. a bit like a DoS attack.

Award avaialbility can and does vary depending on your status level.

Some of the award search tools (apart from the host airline) can account for this, though for most working with the availability for base members is good enough, especially when redeeming with other FF currencies. That effect, however, does need to be kept in mind for an app like this.

 

[medhead]

Close in on any alliance I don't think so ??

Award availability does vary by status for Qantas.