ITA Matrix

sturll

Someone just asked about this so i thought id put it up here for everyone.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch

It is a piece of online software that searches for the cheapest flight including combination's.

It is not always the cheapest but i would say about 90% of the time it is cheaper than any other site. The difference with the ITA Matrix is that it is not possible to book your tickets through the site - therefore the fees shown are what the airline charges.
It is very clever in that it searches multiple airports, shows the cheapest days to fly, monthly price calendar etc...

How to use:

- Airports must be entered by their code. For example LON would search every airport in London, MAN would be Manchester.If you entering multiple airports separate each one with a semi colon - ; For example: LON;MAN;LBA

- Adjust dates accordingly.

- Sales city; If you are in the UK change to LON (your sales city is the currency)

- More options, choose this for seat availability etc.

Booking the fare you have found

Here is the tricky bit. First of all you will notice that if the flight includes a change it might be with 2 different airlines. It is important to note that unless these airlines are part of the same code share then it would be inadvisable to go ahead and book the ticket. Since if one connection misses you will be stuck and have to pay again. If the airline is part of the same codeshare then you must (in most instances) purchase the entire trip on one ticket.
None of this is vital, but is certainly highly recommended.

Anyway onto the tickets.

1) The easiest way is to get the ticket code - When you go through with the flights show booking details. This will give you a load of jibberish, print it off (there is a print option) take it to a travel agent and let them do the rest. But be sure they will add on commission.

2) Get the booking details and phone the airline, give them the flights you have found including times and fare codes and they will book the flights for you with no mark up.

3) Get the flight details then go directly to the airline website and find the exact flights including times. This will 90% of the time be successful and give you the same price that ITA found.

I hope you find this useful.

Bear on mind that the ITA Matrix can appear to be complicated and not always the cheapest. But it is an excellent place to start and save loads of time looking through all the flight websites.

Incapuppy

I'd never heard of this before, but I shall bookmark it for future reference - thank you for the useful info!

M4RKM

i've been using this for over 2 years now, (i think) however, this year, it seems to be throwing up erroneous prices for my holiday to NYC, and so is kayak and skyscanner... the delta flight is cheapest on delta's website, so i'll just reiterate the point that you need to double check everything