Using ChangeDetection.com in lieu of ExpertFlyer for seat alerts

[ukinny2000]

I don't have a subscription to EF, so I have been looking at using changedetection website to provide me with seat alerts.

For example, I am currently monitoring for flights between HNL and ROR in June using this URL to detect changes :

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/flight-search/book-a-flight/results/awd?f=HNL&t=ROR&d=2016-06-22&tt=1&st=bestmatches&at=1&rm=1&cbm=-1&cbm2=-1&sc=4&px=1&taxng=1&idx=1

Whenever a business class saver seat opens up, the changedetection website should see that the contents of the search changes, and then alert me. Of course, there will likely be false positives if flight numbers or times change, but I am thinking this might be a useful sub for EF.

If it works, we could create a list of URLs that can be used for other airlines. For example, here is a sample for Etihad for flights between JFK and AUH for next year that could be monitored:

https://booking.etihad.com/SSW2010/EYEY/webqtrip.html?alternativeLandingPage=true&lang=en&origin=JFK&destination=AUH&journeySpan=RT&departureDate=2016-03-25&returnDate=2016-03-31&cabinClass=FIRST&numAdults=1&numChildren=0&numInfants=0&promoCode=&callbacktype=formbookflight&isAward=TRUE&searchHotels=false&searchCars=false&cid=

Thoughts?

 

[trvl4fs]

Thoughts?

My first thought was "I wish I studied computer science instead of political science." Very cool if this works.

 

[sriki]

I like the idea and also toyed with it a bit. The false positives and subtle URL redirection changes that broke them made this unreliable for some things. But, I think there is some value in it. For fairly static URLs, I decided to write my own scrapping apps and have them run on a schedule.

@ukinny2000 what has been you experience with the change detetction website? The app I wrote a while back was just for IHG (want to expand to other chains at some point).

 

[sungchiahao]

Don't you need to signin to the frequentflyer account to perform award searches?

 

[ukinny2000]

That's the point of the above two links - they don't require you to have signed in. I am trying to find a OneWorld version that doesn't require sign-in either

 

[ukinny2000]

I like the idea and also toyed with it a bit. The false positives and subtle URL redirection changes that broke them made this unreliable for some things. But, I think there is some value in it. For fairly static URLs, I decided to write my own scrapping apps and have them run on a schedule.

@ukinny2000 what has been you experience with the change detetction website? The app I wrote a while back was just for IHG (want to expand to other chains at some point).

I have found changedetection pretty good - they do only send one email a day (you can change frequency), so there is some latency, but if you can live with it it's not a bad service

 

[SOC 787]

Don't you need to signin to the frequentflyer account to perform award searches?

the 2 specific examples in the OP (UA & EY) dont even require an acct to search award space. tho login in may show better results for members. which is why its always recommended.

not sure how EF goes about it or if they use another DB to store & query their results.

 

[Billiken]

ExpertFlyer is not real time...............

Had two UA award (Saver J) alerts set on EF.
Noticed the flights both had availability early in the morning.
Didn't get the EF email until over six hours later....

YMMV

 

[APrime]

I played around with the same for Etihad and I just ran into too many false positives. They were fans of changing tiny little things and the fact that you have to watch for points flights below a certain threshold (GuestSeat vs OpenSeat) and those stupid Jet Airways flights trying to trick you into the wrong flight... sneaky.

Like sriki, I ended up making my own scraper for Etihad, though I've had difficulty making them for more AJAX-y sites like BA. This would definitely be more useful for those kinds of sites

 

[sriki]

My work schedule is not allowing me to spend as much time as I would like to work on building my own award checker for multiple airlines/hotels. I wish I could collaborate on some sort of opensource/freeware type project towards this.

 

[Mountainmanduy]

Same.

My first thought was "I wish I studied computer science instead of political science." Very cool if this works.

 

[APrime]

I feel your pain, I wrote my scraper in Python and fitted into a Django app I've been working on, with the intention that I'd be able to just add additional scrapers and search across multiple airlines/hotels. It works for Etihad, but it's turning out to be harder than I'd thought to do automation (since award regions get complicated, flights and segments get complicated, etc.).