catharsis

The fare features free stopovers (!) and can be routed via dub (or possibly other outbound cities in Europe with onward connections to US?) I have created a construction with DUB stopovers in both directions for a total of 1200 TP for EUR 1,700.

Add a CW fare to CAI in the first place and you've got over 1500 TP for under GBP 2.5K

rossmacd

Can you share your routing and dates? I tried the simple routing on Matrix but it did not find the prices.

deboyzoned

For 1397 GBP ... you can get 1120 TP ... https://www.google.co.uk/flights/#se...A155;sc=b;eo=e

dolfinco

A quick question on these. When i put a general search into matrix with no advanced routing, it doesnt find them. If i then add LHR LAX in and vice versa, it returns a £1213 fare.

So my question is that when im looking for fares to SFO, SAN, LAX or LAS just now, i generally just put a general search in and not finding anything sexy. Is Google a better search or do you really need to know the routing in order to maximise the performance of the search engine ?

deboyzoned

I did a multi-city search .. CAI-PHL, PHL-HNL and back. All come up in Business / First (US Domestic)

copenhagenBA

I just booked a long weekend to Dubai in a few weeks time.. 890 GBP from Stockholm on QR J. Qatar always delivering !

MarkedMan

Can't totally interpret this, but you will need to play with routings to maximise "non-standard performance", if you want to call it that, like maxing TPs. It is possible, but not typical, that a specified routing would give you a good price while a vanilla one would not. Don't see that too often. Usually you'd put in a vanilla return, say DUB-SFO-DUB, if the price looks good you'll start throwing in waypoints to maximise TPs (which something like Google Flights doesn't take into account of course).

If you're not seeing much that is good value, it probably isn't there.

catharsis

This is usually but not always true

If the FARE exists (i.e. there is a good price available EVER) then it is whether you can find availability within the fare.

in the case of this particular fare (restricted to i-class, but with free stopovers) it's quite possible that the connections required to find this with a generic search do not exist, but that if you have access to EF or are VERY patient one can build a working itinerary.

In my case I built CAI-LHR return with the setting /f bc=i in Matrix.

The I identified available flights for that leg... to be hardcoded by flight number into the final matrix search later.

next I searched separately for DUB-East Coast return in I class.

then I looked for Transcon availability in i class

then west coast - Hawaii

and so on ...

combining all of these together may give a low priced fare on a day or days when an "unconstrained" matrix search will not find the best price on any 'common' combination of routes between two locations.

rossmacd

Struggling to get Matrix to spit a decent routing out for CAI-HNL. Most of the time the LHR-CAI-LHR legs are in Y.

TravelUp (via Skyscanner) is giving all J routes, but not able to force an 'optimum' routing.

Frustrating

catharsis

https://www.google.co.uk/flights/#se...A155;sc=b;eo=e

This isn't optimum for TP obviously but confirms that I is available both ways on those dates for example.

Seems like you almost have to be leaving CAI on a Sunday to make this work, but as I mentioned since a stopover is allowed that should make it possible to make this a 2-weekend deal with a stopover in DUB, MAD or wherever in the interim (and a nested return Dub-LHR to get you back to work for the intervening week.)

Wozza2404

Still a bit pricey for me to cancel a redemption and book cash; waiting for a c£650 super sale!

deboyzoned

Whats your desired routing and dates? I am also looking at CAI-HNL. AA Website seems to price up ok.

dolfinco

I probably didnt explain myself very well so will give it a go with pictures.

When i put a straightforward search in like below:



It returns this price:



When i then go back and put in LHR LAX going out and LAX LHR coming back like this:



It then gives me the cheaper price.




So what i dont understand is that when i put in the original enquiry which is looking to get me from one destination to another irrespective of the stops in between, why does it return a price and route £800 more expensive then the cheaper route.

And following on from that, when im doing other searches and finding prices of £2500 from OSL to SYD or £1700 from DUB to SFO/LAX how do I know there isnt a cheaper price by somehow finding a different route.

Surely, the matrix should always return the cheapest option irrespective of the various possible routes ?

deboyzoned

Matrix is a mystery.

deboyzoned

If you change your dates 17/09 - 24/09 and route LHR, PHL, PHX ... its 1402 GBP and All Business and First Domestic. Also gives an extra 280 TP for the additional 200 GBP.