UA: BWI-SEA...$229 ai
Mar 26, 2013, 11:34 am
#16
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Arlington, VA
Programs: UA 1K, AA PLT, SPG PLT
Posts: 1,612
WAS gives ITA more to do, while BWI instructs a narrower focus. As I understand it, the program "times out" after only 60 seconds of searching, so specifying exact airports can give better results. That better fare might be just about to show up, searching WAS-SEA, when the 60 sec mark is hit.
See some of the entries at https://support.google.com/faqs/faq/...n&rd=2#2736491 for more data. ITA is owned/operated by google.
See some of the entries at https://support.google.com/faqs/faq/...n&rd=2#2736491 for more data. ITA is owned/operated by google.
When Fares are filed, they can be applied to WAS or BWI. WAS is inclusive of IAD and DCA, period. BWI fares are only filed for BWI. Within the fare rules of the WAS-based city-pair fares, you might see exclusions on DCA or IAD or more inherent exclusions based on routing rules (for instance WAS-LAX-SAN to ensure IAD is only used on a UA fare with the above).
Thus, to get the best results from ITA (now that Matrix1 is gone) - just use the BWI airport code for searches if only a BWI fare exists for a cheap price. If there are multiple cheap fares, then restrict based on what you'd prefer - but for more cases than not in these MR-based deals, you'll only find flights either from BWI (most of the time) or from both IAD and DCA (such as the PDX fare that was filed earlier this year).
Happy searching!
-jeremy
