Originally Posted by
luist
Thanks. I'd found an itinerary that seemed to work on Matrix, but powertools was giving me nothing so was trying to reproduce in GF. Probably a case of what you mentioned in that the price matrix was showing was not avaialble.
Actually, that’s the reverse of what I was saying, which is that ITA Matrix is more reliable than GF for pricing and availability, even if it can and does get both wrong at times. If you find an itinerary that you like on Matrix, the next step would be to verify that there is availability in the relevant fare buckets in ExpertFlyer, taking note of what fare buckets other airlines need to be booked into. If so, it is likely that you’ll be able to ticket the itinerary directly with LX, LH or OS.
As for booking online, although I did not experiment exhaustively, PowerTools seems largely unproductive with these itineraries. Amex Travel excepted, it would appear that there is no good way of booking online, unless one of the segments is on United, in which case it may be possible via their website. Either phone LX, or go through a bricks-and-mortar travel agent.
Anyone else have trouble booking these through Amex Travel? Found a couple of itineraries that would work but both are showing a message saying "your flights are no longer available" or similar...
I don’t have any experience with Amex Travel, but others seem to have been successful upthread in booking these itineraries through them. Have you verified with EF that there is in fact fare-bucket availability, taking POS and married segments into account, for every flight in the itinerary?