Austin flight booking help?
 

Hey folks,

I'm trying to book A trip to Austin in Nov.

I've found a fare on ITA matrix I like (attached)

YZF-YYC-IAH-AUS on the outbound
AUS-IAH-YYC-YZF on the inbound

All of it booking into T for ~1kpp ai

I can't seem to get this to ticket properly though. Hipmunk shows me a routing through IAH and DEN at around the right price (but doesn't show me booking class), expedia wants to charge me $1300pp ai booking into U and routing through IAH and DEN, and AC.com (so much for their "lowest fare"!) wants to charge me $1500pp ai booking into T and W.

So how do I book this fare on ITA (1k per person into T)? Can I call up AC and spoonfeed them the flight numbers and get the price? What am I missing here? TIA

http://i.imgur.com/HSnqnEK.jpg

Just speculating, but not sure that the 55 minute connection in IAH on the return is legal.

Travel agent?

Does Matrix break it down into multiple fares? Or is it just one fare for the whole trip?

UA.com shows something slightly similar (except it's $1,200 with optional stops in YYC/DEN/SFO/IAH/ORD). Don't bother with AC.com. It would never show. It's much too complicated for AC.com.

AC.com can't book it nor can an AC agent. There are limited code shares with UA through IAH. This is a holdover from the pmCO days. I had a similar problem trying to book YYZ-IAH-TUS. UA had better flights on the outbound and AC through LAX was better on the return. However in North America you can book two one ways for the same price as the return. Try pricing a one way with AC outbound and a one way with UA on the return.

Matrix gives the fare as an AC fare for YZF to AUS, but a UA fare for AUS to YYC and AC for YYC to YZF. You should be able to book the outbound leg on AC.com or with an AC agent. For the inbound, try entering it as a multi-stop AUS-YYC and YYC-YZF on Hipmunk / Expedia etc to see if you can duplicate it there.

Wait a second.. I know those dates! Have a great time at the race.

Also, it's worth looking into flying into SAT rather than AUS unless you're avoiding renting a car for the week.

If you are booking a T fare (and not Flex) then just book through Hipmunk/Priceline as it won't matter that you can't see the fares (or am I missing why you need to confirm a T fare vs lowest price?) :confused:

So thanks for all the help folks!

You guys indirectly pointed me in the right direction. By searching for cheap one way flights I stumbled on a cheap return flight on the 21st (instead of the 19th I was originally looking at). Turns out by extending the return the 2 days I was able to book it for $1444 ai for two people. I'm very happy with that as flying out of yzf is expensive as ....! Thanks again folks! :)

Yep! I've been wanting to go to a race for a long time and this'll be my first one. I'm thrilled! :D

55 min. is a legal connection in IAH.

ac.com can't or won't price the outbound connection via IAH as OP has found it only shows DEN options.

The outbound is a very straightforward through AC fare YZF-AUS as all connections are within 4 hours and so OW fare (T10Q3TP fare basis) applies.

The inbound is actually two fare basis as the connection in YYC is well over 4 hours so the GDS is pricing it as one OW UA fare basis TA21FN AUS-YYC and a separate AC OW fare (T7I2TPB fare basis) for the YYC-YZF segment.

FWIW a TA with GDS access can ticket this as ITA shows so I'd echo the earlier comment to seek one out. Good luck!

I wonder if AC will start a YYZ-AUS route. I did it yesterday on UA and there were lots of people that did the route through IAH with me.

I know these dates too! Using Aeropesos for my trip, but not much available going right to AUS, so flying into IAH instead and renting a car from there. Seemed the easiest

How are hotels looking for that race week? The YUL race is so expensive to go to.

Almost every hotel that weekend has upped their prices and are $300+ for the most part.

Needless to say, my girlfriend and I are going another route for accommodations that week......

One trick I found was the Extended Stay, ans some LaQuinta hotels give you a decent weekly rate that works out to a daily rate of between $70 and $100 per day, depending on the property.

By arriving a couple days earlier I got a LaQuinta property for $59 /night with a week's stay.

If you need a hand finding a spot, I may be able to assist.

Also have a second booking at a Hilton for $127 /night that I may not land up using

One last thing with accomodations in Austin....

Vintage Villas in Austin has a Groupon on the go during F1 race time, and they have availablity.

Only thing is that it nees to be purchased today June 6 by 2300 MST