Originally Posted by
zkzkz
The feature has only been broken since 2018. The right countries to look at was found well before that using the feature. UK-based passengers looking for deals are now basically stuck with the same two or three countries they found deals from in the past assuming they'll be the same ones in the future. Sure someone might stumble on another one one day from luck but maybe not if it's not an obvious country. The only reason we know the two or three countries in question are because people were able to search at the time.
Sorry, this is wrong. Even with the current restriction on origins, you can still run one single ITA search today to see which of numerous countries look like they have the cheapest fares. In one single search, you can still test a dozen or more countries at once to find likely candidates.
So the restriction has not made ITA useless for this, nor does it mean that finding "new countries" involves luck. All it means is that you need to have to use just a little bit of knowledge and creativity. It helps to start with understanding what the current restriction on ITA searches actually is.
And it's not like there's an infinite number of other European countries, or that those who find new low fares are subject to some vow of
omerta - the discovery of a "new country" would be quickly shared on websites like FT. Indeed, airlines should be much more worried about losing revenue because of information sharing on FT than they could rationally be about what ITA might reveal.
Originally Posted by
zkzkz
Sure it was mostly just a bit of tin-hattery. The only way it would be realistic is if there was a major web site like Kayak or something offering this search and probably other options like split-fares or some such and the airlines who are major customers of ITA put together a list of features that offended them and it got caught up in that. They're not concerned with determined FT'ers they *are* concerned with surfacing things to regular flyers who didn't even know it was an thing.
For goodness' sake, ex-EU is written about in the travel pages of the mainstream UK press, the vast majority of readers will never have heard of ITA and never will. I can see why airlines might fear an erosion of revenue from ex-EU itineraries, but I can't see why airlines would be so terrified of ITA that they would apply pressure on ITA to conceal something.
Especially as it's something that can still be found on ITA - see above.