Thanks for confirming this - I wanted to make sure it isnt something I am doing. Quick question regarding the ITA fares - should these fares almost always be available directly through the airlines or is there a need to go through a travel agent? I have started doing something similar - look up the cheapest cpms on FC and then do month long ITA searches to see if there's actually any availability.
Originally Posted by
paytonc
As I remember it, that's always been FareCompare's sore point (look in the archives here; you'll see dozens of posts bemoaning "FC shows this fare but I can't find it"). They have always shown the lowest fare filed, even long after it's sold out -- that's why FTers use ITA, to see when such fares have availability. However, I always started with FareCompare to get a handle on what to search for -- which markets and which months.
flyingbrick is probably right: the $ is in click-throughs that sell tickets. There's no revenue in just providing reference information. ITA gets revenue from selling its software, ExpertFlyer and others sell subscriptions.