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DealFinder Help
Welcome to DealFinder from American Airlines. DealFinder is a downloadable desktop tool offered by American Airlines which allows you to receive automatic, personalized fare alerts and other information via your computer desktop. Once you download the tool and set your travel preferences, DealFinder will alert you about deals to your favorite destinations. By creating searches for your upcoming trips, DealFinder will show you the current lowest fare and alert you when the price is at or below your target price. DealFinder can also help you stay up to date with news, information and promotions from American Airlines.
The information below will help you install, setup and use DealFinder.
You can always get the latest version of DealFinder by going to the DealFinder page on AA.com. The page can be found on AA.com by selecting the "DealFinder" submenu under "Travel Deals" or just type DealFinder in the search.
Installing DealFinder
DealFinder can be used on both Windows-based or Mac OSX-based systems.
The system requirements for DealFinder are:
- Windows
- Intel® Pentium® III processor (Pentium 4 recommended)
- Microsoft® Windows® XP Home, Professional, or Tablet PC Edition with Service Pack 2 or 3, Windows Server® 2003, Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise (including 64-bit editions) with Service Pack 1, or Windows 7
- 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
- Mac OSX
- Intel Core™ Duo or faster processor
- Mac OS X v10.4.9 or later
- 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
DealFinder also requires Adobe® Air® and Adobe® Flash® Player be installed on your computer. Both are free from Adobe®. If you do not have either of these programs installed, the DealFinder installation process will prompt you to install them. Alternately, you can install either of the programs by going to http://get.adobe.com/air/ for Adobe® Air® or http://get.adobe.com/flash/ for Adobe® Flash® Player before installing DealFinder.
Once you have installed Adobe® Air and Adobe® Flash Player and you meet the minimum system requirements for DealFinder you are ready to install and setup DealFinder for the first time.
The setup process will walk you through the necessary steps.
Step 1: Terms & Conditions and the End User License Agreement
The first thing you must do when setting up DealFinder is to agree to the American Airlines DealFinder Terms and Conditions and the End User License Agreement. You can read either of these two documents by selecting the red "Read" button next to each agreement. Once you have read and agreed to both, simply indicate your agreement by checking both boxes and hitting the "Next" button.
If either of these two documents change in the future, you will be required to accept them again before you can continue using DealFinder.
Step 2: AAdvantage Login
An AAdvantage account is required in order to use DealFinder. In addition to allowing you to store your saved searches and preferences, you also get all the benefits of the AAdvantage program. To learn more about AAdvantage, please go to the AAdvantage section of AA.com.
If you do not have an AAdvantage account, you can enroll in the AAdvantage program right in the DealFinder application. To join, simply click the "Enroll" button to start the process. The enrollment screens will then walk you through the process.
Because the application stores your saved searches and preferences, you must log-in by using your American Airlines AAdvantage information. By storing your searches and preferences, you can setup DealFinder on all of your computers (i.e. work, home, etc.) and when you use the same log-in information, your searches and preferences are maintained across all of your systems.
Step 3: DealFinder Settings
The first DealFinder settings screen contains required fields for proper set up of the DealFinder application. These settings include:
- Country of Residence
- Currency
- Home Airport
- Zip / Postal Code
After you have populated the required fields, simply click the "Next" button on the lower right of the screen to save your settings and be taken to the next screen. To change these settings, see the DealFinder Settings section below.
These settings include:
- Travel Destinations
- Travel Interests
After you have set these preferences, simply click the "Submit" button to save your settings and complete the DealFinder Setup process. To change these settings, see the DealFinder Settings section below.
You are now ready to use DealFinder to get the best available fares on AA.com!
DealFinder works to bring you the very best deals for the flights you want to take - all you have to do is create the searches! By creating saved searches, you choose your destination, your travel dates, the number of passengers and the price you want to pay, and DealFinder does the rest. DealFinder searches to match your target price and when it finds the price, the offer appears on your screen allowing you to book the flight. It's that easy.
You can save up to 10 difference searches. To setup a new search, simply select the "Searches" menu item and select either "Create One Way" or "Create Round Trip" depending on the search you wish to create. If you are already on the "Show Current" screen, you can select one of the red "Create One Way" or "Create Round Trip" buttons.
The next screen asks for all the information that is needed for a saved search.
- Search Name - This is the name you give the search so that you can easily distinguish it from your other saved searches. The name you give the search has a limit of 20 characters, including spaces.
- Origin - This is the location you wish to fly from. You can type the name of the airport and the smart suggestion feature will help you find the exact airport. Alternately, you can select the search icon that looks like a magnifying glass to help you search for an airport.
- Destination - This is the location you wish to fly to. The smart suggestion feature and search work exactly the same.
- Departure Date - This is the day you wish to fly. Use the calendar icon to pull up a calendar allowing you to select your departure date.
- Return Date (for round trip searches) - This is the day you wish to return. Please note that you cannot select a return date until you have selected a departure date.
- Departure Time - This is the time of day you wish to fly.
- Add Return (only when creating a one way search) - This button allows you to add a return flight and acts as if you had started creating a round trip search.
- Return Time (for round trip searches) - This is the time of day you wish to return.
- Passengers - This is the number of passengers you wish to include in your search.
- Maximum Price - This is the maximum price you want to pay per passenger for the search.
Now click the "Submit" button and let DealFinder do all the searching.
To edit a previously saved search, go to the "Show Current" screen by clicking the "Show Current" option under the "Searches" menu. This will show you all of the searches you currently have. To edit a particular saved search, simply select the "Edit" link for the saved search you wish to edit.
You will then be presented with the saved search screen showing the information you submitted for that search. Edit any of the information you wish to change and click the "Submit" button to save the search.
To remove or delete a previously saved search, go to the "Show Current" screen by clicking the "Show Current" option under the "Searches" menu. This will show you all of the searches you currently have. To remove a particular saved search, simply select the "Remove" link for the saved search you wish to remove. You will then be presented with a confirmation pop-up. Select "OK" to confirm the removal of the search or select "Cancel" to stop the removal function and keep the saved search.
To book a saved search, first make sure you are in the "Show Current" screen by clicking the "Show Current" option under the "Searches" menu. This will show you all of the searches you currently have.
To book a particular saved search, simply select the saved search by clicking on it. This will widen the particular saved search showing you all the information you submitted. You can then book the search by clicking the "Book Now" button which will launch AA.com in your default web browser with the information for your saved search. After that, simply complete your booking on AA.com.
DealFinder alerts are informational pop-up screens that alert you when a fare is at or below the target price you selected for a particular saved search. DealFinder runs in the background and continues to search the fares from American Airlines. When a fare is found that matches or is below your saved search, an alert will display.
When the DealFinder alert displays on your screen you have the following choices:
- You can close the alert by clicking the red "X" in the upper right hand corner of the alert.
- You can see details about your saved search by selecting the "Deal Details" link in the lower left hand corner of the alert. This will take you to the details of your saved search in DealFinder.
- You can book the flight at the price in the alert by selecting the "Book Now" button in the alert. This will take you to AA.com where you can complete your booking.
Another great feature of DealFinder is the news section. This feature shows you the latest news and offers direct from American Airlines.
To view news and offers, first select the "News" option from the main DealFinder menu. This will take you to the news screen. Along the left of this window will be the various news and offer feeds from American Airlines.
To see the news and offers in a particular feed, simply select that feed on the left of the screen and all of the applicable items will show in the right half of the screen. Selecting one of these items will display more information, and give you a "More Info" button, which when clicked, will take you to that news or offer item on AA.com.
DealFinder Offers from American Airlines alert you to special fares and offers based on preferences you set when you install the DealFinder application. When an offer matching your preferences is found, you will see a pop-up message with a short description of the fare or offer. You can then click on the "View Full Message" button, which will take you to the message in DealFinder.
The settings you selected for DealFinder when you first installed the program are always available in the "Settings" menu option in the main DealFinder menu. On the setting screen, you can change any of your settings including:
- Country of Residence
- Currency
- Home Airport
- Zip / Postal Code
- Travel Destinations
- Travel Interests
There are also three additional settings you can change:
- Enable Alerts - By keeping this selected, the alerts for both your saved searches and offers will display. If you turn this setting off, you will no longer receive these alerts.
- Timeout - If you leave alerts enabled, you can select the amount of time the alert will display on your screen. Simply move the timeout slider to the right or left to select a different timeout.
- Launch On Startup - By keeping this selection enabled, you allow DealFinder to run in the background to find matches to your saved searches from American Airlines. If you disable this selection, DealFinder will not automatically run when you start your computer. Instead, you will need to manually launch DealFinder each time you want it to run.
Occasionally, DealFinder will be updated for the addition of new features and to fix minor issues. If a new update is available, you will be alerted, and you will be required to accept the Terms and Conditions to install the latest version.
