Technical data sheet no. TDS-01 — watch engine, complete trip
TripArgus watches the world's travel inventory — fares, five-star rooms, award seats, deals, schedule changes, and your cancellation deadlines — then tells you the moment your trip becomes bookable within budget. It books through the highest-value channel, and it keeps saving you money after you've paid.
↺ RECOVER FEEDS THE PROFILE. THE LOOP RUNS AS LONG AS THE TRIP DOES.
Twelve watch classes. State your intent once: budget, party, flexibility. The relevant watches run until the world complies.
Price on origin → destination, date window, cabin, party.
FIRES: Price ≤ threshold, ≤ Nth percentile, or sudden drop.
Any destination matching budget and vibe.
FIRES: A new destination enters budget.
Parsed deal and news sources, matched to your profile.
FIRES: Profile-matched deal clears the quality bar.
Fares 60–70% below the route percentile.
FIRES: Detection — playbook warning attached.
Distressed inventory ≤ 14 days out.
FIRES: Package or hotel flash lands under budget.
Award space and transfer bonuses.
FIRES: Space in your cabin ≥ party size, or partial.
Seats and fare buckets on specific flights.
FIRES: Sold-out flight reopens; cheap bucket returns.
Upgrade inventory on flights you already booked.
FIRES: R / PZ class opens.
Five-star room and rate on property + dates.
FIRES: A room opens, or the rate crosses your ceiling.
The price of your booked free-cancel hotel.
FIRES: Same room, cheaper → cancel and rebook.
Hotel + flights to its location, as one unit.
FIRES: Both sides align on dates and trip budget.
Your booked PNRs.
FIRES: Change detected → refund rights unlocked.
Polling cadence is a function of time-to-decision and volatility, never a constant. Rated duty cycles below.
| SITUATION | CADENCE | RATIONALE |
|---|---|---|
| Route watch, T-90 and beyond | 1×/day | Prices move slowly far out. |
| Route watch, T-7 … T-30 | hourly | The volatile zone. |
| Hotel snipe, inside the free-cancel window | every 5–15 min | Rooms free up here; the booking window is minutes. |
| Premium-cabin awards, T-14 … T-0 | every 15 min | Airlines dump unsold premium seats close-in. |
| Last-minute mode | every 15–30 min | Speed is the whole point. |
| Hotel rebook, after you book | 1×/day to deadline | Free money, cheap to check. |
▮ = SNIPE DUTY. NOTE: SAME ROUTE + DATES POLLED ONCE, ALERTS FAN OUT TO EVERY OBSERVER.
Divider plate · ahead: sheet 04
Nobody works for the traveler after the payment clears. TripArgus does.
Most hotel bookings are free-cancel. We re-shop yours daily until the deadline; same room cheaper means a one-tap guided rebook. This alone funds the subscription.
Airlines with price-drop credits get watched. When your fare drops, we alert and walk the filing.
A significant change unlocks a free change or a full refund — even on basic economy. We detect it before you would.
EU261, UK261, DOT auto-refund rules, baggage. Guided self-filing with pre-filled letters from facts we already ingested.
We know which card paid. Trip-delay and baggage insurance eligibility, detected and checklisted.
Points bookings usually cancel freely. When the award price drops, redeposit and rebook.
Every saving is written to a ledger with evidence: alert price against the 30-day median, old total against new total, cash actually received. Hypotheticals are never counted. The number must survive an audit.