lhr baby

Here are the results of using a VPN.

Cleared all cookies, restarted browser and set VPN to Belgium as per location of @unusualtravelblog above

First tried BookwithMatrix linking to Priceline and Flightnetwork. Same result (PL = $4000, FN = "Oops gone wrong").

Then went to kayak.nl. Struggled to force it to find a return ticket. Tried round trip and mult-leg via ADD and HKG and couldn't pull up an Ethiopian fare. Was running out of time as did this in my lunch break, so as a last-ditch attempt I thought I'd try a one way search only. Hey presto, found a fare of €618 one way. Clicked on links and it was bookable via both eDreams and Expedia in J class.

I'm sure with more playing around I could get the round trip to work but I ran out of time. Seems VPN to Belgium is a viable option.

alp67

Bookwithmatrix is not giving me the low price either, but kayak.com / kayak.de does.
I didn't get Oct 2 to price out that low, but the 4th of Oct is showing on the kayak.com site
click here

alp67

Can price outbound as oneway but not inbound. ITA doesn't come up with an inbound oneway fare. IMHO not possible to form two oneways.

lhr baby

Well that is useful for everyone to know but my post was not suggesting that finding two one ways is the best solution. I was indicating that a fare that does not exist for many users may be found by using a VPN to Belgium. The one-way fare isn't found without the VPN either so VPN does make a difference. As I stated I expect given enough time it would be possible to find the return fare on Kayak.nl. My problem was that I could not get Kayak.nl to find any Ethiopian round trip fares in the time I had. It didn't even find them at $4000. If I forced ADD as a multi-leg stop it was still reverting to routes with Ethiad or Qantas. If @unusualtravelblog can tell us what he put into the Kayak.nl search engine to pull up the Ethiopian round trip fare, then I am fairly confident VPN to Belgium will work.

alp67

Ok, got it.
You guys may give VPN Switzerland a try, too. Interestingly if I set up VPN to UK I can still pull up this fare, whereas you indicated, others couldn't beeing based in the UK.
HERE is an example for the .nl kayak site.

lhr baby

So I don't want to start to go off topic but just for fun and completeness, here is what happens to Kayak.nl from UK without the VPN. If I just type kayak.nl into a browser the site loads (in Dutch) in a couple of seconds and I can search for the one-way Ethiopian fare I found at lunchtime but it doesn't find it. If, however, I click on your link, it spends 2-3 mnutes trying to load the page and then eventually I get a screen that has the message (in English) "Oops. We apologize for the unexpected turbulence." In other words, it appears to be the VPN and not the .nl website that makes this work.

alp67

I experience the same without VPN, you need to retry a couple of times. All of a sudden it will load! The fare is still there, just checked. You may wanna try this as well:

1. copy the following including first slash:/flights/CAI-ADD/2018-11-27-h/ADD-CNS/2018-11-28-h/CNS-ADD/2018-12-10-h/ADD-CAI/2018-12-11-h/business?sort=bestflight_a&attempt=1&force=true
2. paste it after https://www.kayak.nl in the address line, do not overwrite
3. BE PATIENT! It might take a minute or two

That should give you the preset of flights, which you may adjust to your prefered dates. Note, not every date combination is returning this fare, some work, others don't! But this preset is, as of now, returning Euro 1'054 with FlySmarter and 1'062 with schipholtickets.com.

lhr baby

Well done. Gold star goes to @alp67. I confirm this works without VPN.

Still doesn't work for me with the direct kayak.nl link even after multiple refreshes. It seems to time out before the page loads. However, by pasting @alp67's text Kayak.nl finds two offers from a site called Schipholtickets and one called FlySmarter.

I recommend trying FlySmarter as you can adjust the dates on that site directly without having to edit the pasted Kayak url text. It may also be possible to go to that site directly and enter a multi-leg trip. If anyone wants to try that it may help to note that FlySmarter also showed four legs with ADD as the intermediate stop between CAI and CNS.

alp67

Glad, you finally were able to load it.
btw, momondo shows the fare as well, same OTAs you'll be forwarded to.
momondo.com
momondo.nl
momondo.de

unusualtravelblog

Nice... Still strange that GF shows many dates while I can't seem to find any other date for this price than 27-28 NOV till 11-12 DEC.

lhr baby

I think you've missed the boat unfortunately. The fare appears to be dead.

tomasso2002

So who managed to book and get ticketed also? I bought my ticket for February 2019 so long time ahead. Who is the first person to get the deal tested or to be downgraded at the gate?