Heyas F4H,

I've been doing some researching on this very topic. And here are some bits and pieces that I have put together:

First: The ONLY way to access the mainframe, outside of Deltanet, is through an account with Flightline Data Systems. They do exactly what Compuserve used to do for NWA back in the day, and that is provide what is essentially a VPN. The JAVA and HTML interfaces that Deltanet provdes to the mainframe (eCrew/iCrew) are not really compatible with the relatively simple data mining/scripting that Crew Control, EZOpenboard and the others use.

You cannot sign up through the internet. You must either use of of the programs to sign up with FDS, or call them on the phone.

Second, there are NO programs that interface with Travelnet. From what I gathered, DAL pulled the plug on direct RES (reservations access) some time ago, so there aren't any programs that provide non-rev stuff like Crew Control or JetBook did. Even if you had direct access, there was no way to book jumpseats, so again, there is no way to have an automated setup.

So far, the only programs that are designed to actually data mine the DAL mainframes is WidgetWorks (for general schedule stuff) and Easybid (for PBS). They can both be downloaded from the FDS site and are free...but you need to pay for an account to access the mainframe. These programs appear to be written for dial-up use, but they are fairly functional. WW will access the mainframe, and create a logbook and a pretty schedule, and you can actually get it to email a PDF schedule to someone.

Oh yea, you have to have a PC or a Intel Mac. There is a program for OS X called CrewDog, but it isn't free, and all it seems to provide is a direct line to DBMS through a simplified interface.

But taking a closer look at things, I am confident that some of our fNWA bright computer guys will come up with something.

If you don't want to pay FDS for an account, Bid Assist (bid assistant home page) has been modded to work with the DAL bid packets. The folks at Softmica.com have modded BidBuddy into BidCentral, which also does bid analysis and calendar stuff, and will convert/print the DAL rotations in the old NWA format.

Nu