G_G

It seems that ITA's proposition for best available fare are getting worse :

for example i've asked for a MIA NAS RT and the proposition for the first leg is by LIM ??? :

Miami, FL to Nassau, Bahamas: 6536 miles 36 hrs 56 min
American Airlines American Airlines Flight AA2111 on a Boeing 757 (jet) in coach class
(dinner, movie)
Departs Miami, FL (MIA) Fri, Jan 12 11:25p 5 hrs 29 min
Arrives Lima, Peru (LIM) Sat, Jan 13 4:54a
1 adult in booking code Y, covered by fare (B1) below
Layover in Lima 19 hrs 26 min
Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines Flight DL274 on a Boeing 767 (jet) in coach class
(breakfast, movie)
Departs Lima, Peru (LIM) Sun, Jan 14 12:20a 6 hrs 45 min
Arrives Atlanta, GA (ATL) 7:05a
1 adult in booking code Y, covered by fare (C1) below
Layover in Atlanta 3 hrs 5 min
Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines Flight DL425 on a MD-80 (jet) in coach class
Departs Atlanta, GA (ATL) Sun, Jan 14 10:10a 2 hrs 11 min
Arrives Nassau, Bahamas (NAS) 12:21p

crhptic

I wouldn't call this a problem with ITA. In fact, this is what I like about ITA - it finds these weird options no other search engine finds.

However, it might not be what YOU are looking for. In that case you can modify it by selecting "nonstops only" or whatever other parameters work for you - I'm assuming you wanted MIA-NAS nonstop, right?

stivstiv

So how much was it to fly MIA-LIM-NAS anyway? Perhaps you're on to something

monitor

And many times you can easily re-create this sort of trip on Orbitz and actually buy it there.

ITA Hacker

We sometimes produce strange (and unexpected) answers if you limit the departure time to a range when no reasonable flight options are available. This often results in a "do what I mean, not what I say" sort of reaction, but computers are really pretty dumb.

If you got a weird result like this from a mostly unrestricted search, we'd like to hear about it (through the comments link or you can PM me).

SkyTeam777

Im pulling up great fares on ITA, but they are not available on any web site like Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Opodo, airline web sites, etc. Does this mean that they dont exist? how can I find them...have there ever been problems like this before?

crhptic

Yes, there have. In general, anything ITA pulls up which is valid should be bookable on Orbitz (assuming it doesn't have something Orbitz can't book, like a non-U.S. departure). If it's on ITA but not Orbitz, it's usually a glitch.

DeltaFlyingProf

The main exception is the journey control, which I believe ITA does not implement. It affects situations in which going from AAA to BBB via CCC, though AAA-CCC and CCC-BBB are both available in class X, AAA-BBB is not available in class X. In such case, you will not be able to obtain the same price.

crhptic

But in general, Orbitz does implement journey control, which supports my original statement.

ITA Hacker

We definitely do implement journey control for all airlines that use it. That functionality is available through our website as well as for all of our customers. Different customers do not generally get availability from different sources (except when airline logic dictates it).

As a matter of fact, generally the matrix site will get availability system upgrades (and other features/improvements too) while we're still testing them and before our customers see them.

Please don't spread disinformation about the capabilities of our site.

crhptic

I can't argue with that, although I will agree with the prior poster that sometimes matrix shows things which Orbitz won't (and they're in fact unbookable, so it's good that Orbitz won't show them, but frustrating that matrix does).

I had such an instance just last week involving United flights between DC and Denver. Unfortunately I did not think to PM you at that time so you probably can't replicate it now. But if I have another one I will let you know.

DeltaFlyingProf

Sorry if I spread misinformation, it is certainly not my goal and apologize, but I had at the beggining of the time when DL started implementing journey control a few cases which did not work. Glad to hear it is fixed now.

ITA Hacker

The rate of these problems would be much higher if we didn't implement journey controls. Practically every major carrier (both US and international)has some form of this in place now. Some of them only use it to make things more available on the through flights than on the connections ("O&D availability" without "journey control"), and most of the rest also use it to make things less available (by adding "journey control").

Please do submit the discrepencies you see through the matrix web site if you can, by clicking on the "comments" link at the top of the results page. This will automatically show us the exact results you were looking at (and the exact query you did to get there) without any effort on your part to copy&paste, type in results etc. Of course sending me a PM will also work, but it's more effort on our side (and yours!).

crhptic

Good to know, thanks.

mtparadis

Like you, I'd say about 50% of the DL itineraries I've priced out on ITA since they implemented journey control were unavailable on DL.com, Orbitz, etc. However, when I brought this up in an earlier thread I got the same response. Either way, there is definitely something strange going on.