FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Attaining AS Elite Status with Hainan Airlines?
Old Mar 23, 2019, 6:37 pm
  #20  
VegasGambler
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Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 10,904
Originally Posted by lsquare
Thanks for taking the time to help me understand this. I know Google owns ITA Matrix, but will ITA Matrix show the lowest price like Google Flights? What's the advantage of ITA Matrix over Google Flights considering they're both owned by Google?

If the fare contains both BA and AY operated flights, how will AS determine how much miles I'll accrue? Just take the fare class for the carrier's operating route and match that to AS' chart?

Let's say I earn AS status in August 2019, does that mean I'll enjoy having status for the rest of 2019 and for all of 2020? Then I'll need to reach the requirements again to retain status for 2021?
Matrix is a good power user's tool . It shows a lot more information and allows you to make advanced queries.

Google flights uses matrix as a backend but you can only make very simple queries and it hides a lot of critical information (eg, it doesn't show booking codes). The UI is also significantly better than matrix.

Personally, I find GF great for the map search but it's too simple of a tool to be really useful for a lot of things. Hiding the booking codes was an absolutely terrible decision that cripples the tool. In matrix, you can not only see codes, but filter by them. In cases where GF does show useful information that is not present in matrix (eg, seat details) it doesn't let you filter by that, again, crippling its usefulness. Being able to display only lie-flat flights, for example, would be VERY useful for certain routes. They have the information but don't expose it as a search feature.
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