TIP: How to specify the fare basis code on ITA
 

In a recent thread, I showed how you can specify the booking code in ITA.

Here's another unpublished feature of the ITA software. This one allows you to specify the fare basis code.

I'm no expert on fare basis codes, but I suspect this will be useful to some FTers.

The extensions to the itasoftware routing language are accessed by postpending commands after a '/'. There's a wide set of commands available, but there's no description of them available on the ITA web site. Unfortunately, each command applies only to one part of the trip, so they must usually be entered in each box.

CONSTRAINING FARE BASIS CODES:

Command is: "f CC.AAA+BBB.FFFFF" or "f CC.AAA+BBB.FFFFF|..."
where CC is carrier code, AAA and BBB are fare origin
and destination city, FFFFF is fare basis code

Ex: fare only with NW BOS-LAX YUP fares:
from: BOS::/ f nw.bos+lax.yup
to : LAX::/ f nw.bos+lax.yup

Ex: fare with either YUP or F fares on any airline and between any
points:
from: BOS::/ f ..yup|..f
to : LAX::/ f ..yup|..f

Ex: fare using only "through" fares
from: BOS::/ f .bos+lax.
to : LAX::/ f .bos+lax.

Ex: fare using only NW YUP fares or UA F fares:
from: BOS::/ f nw..yup|ua..f
to : LAX::/ f nw..yup|ua..f


More to come…

That is seriously clever stuff! I love all the features you can access through the ITA language.

This is so good that I'm worried ITA might start charging!

Any chance someone can put together a cumulative set of ITA instructions rather than in separate threads? This info puts ITA miles ahead of other sites.

Can someone put it into simple English for us poor dummies who don't get that stuff above? (sigh). I need to organize an ITA Do...

nor4 - I've tried to link to every ITA thread I've seen in the MR Tools, Part 2 thread. At the very least it's a common place to find stuff.


Sharon,

Basically, ITA's got some amazing functionality that's just coming to light (for me anyways) - you can use it to search for multiple segments on one carrier (i.e. a 4 segment UA flight from IAD-LAX) - you can also use it to search a particular booking class (like what are all the possibilities of S fares on UA from IAD-LAX for a promo that requires you to fly an S fare - like that'd ever happen!) - or you can use it to find flights that are based off a particular fare basis code (which you can find on the Expedia site) - it makes cheap flying & mileage run flying & promo-run flying easier!

new tool (maximum price) at ITASoftware
 

You can now put a maximum price in your search at ITASoftware. It keeps getting better and better.

Bob Cowen
The Internet Travel Guru (TM)
www.InternetTravelTips.com

I've been trying to use this on a multi-leg flight with DL but have been unable to get it to work. Here's what I put into the multi-segment search for 4 DL flights EWR-ATL-MCO-ATL-SEA all in one day:

Segment 1

ewr::/ f dl.ewr+mco.mhqk
mco::/ f dl.ewr+mco.mhqk

Segment 2

MCO::/ f dl.mco+sea.mhqk
SEA::/ f dl.mco+sea.mhqk

Could someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I did wind up calling DL but it's a big ole pain in the ... to go through the song and dance without tipping my MR hand.

Thanks again! Going to use this to make sure my DEN YMTWTU promo :)

Fred: does this still work? I entered

from lax ::/ f aa.lax+lhr.SLW7E3U
to lhr ::/ f aa.lax+lhr.SLW7E3U

and also used SLW7 and SLW7E

it found no fares yet I'd just found it before without the fare basis code.

any ideas.

While I can see how these advanced features are useful, I'm sure the lack of proper documentation is often frustrating ;)

Fares are generally filed to CITY codes, not to AIRPORT codes. LHR is an airport code, while LON is the city code. The fare language lets you narrow things down to a specific carrier, market, and fare basis, but you need to know the actual endpoints of the fare (city or airport).

In this case, you want:
From: lax ::/ f aa.lax+lon.SLW7E3U
To: lhr ::/ f aa.lax+lon.SLW7E3U

Which seemed to work okay for me just now.

In any case, the multicity option isn't allowing me to use any more then 2 stopovers ( 7 segments ), when I add a 3rd stop over with even just 1 segment it refuses to "Find" results with a generic "no results can be processed" ... I can copy paste the from/to stuff as one-ways and they all return results. They must be capping max segments. Ah well, need to find a good travel agent I guess...anyone have any recommendations, IM me plz

wow ^ :eek: and thanks - it works great.

does anyone know if it would work for YY fares?

I'm not sure what the problem is, but the following works to search for AA flights from LAX-LHR with booking code S:

from lax::aa /f bc=s
to lhr::aa /f bc=s

Could someone please help? I am not sure how to use this for fares which require more then one segment:

From: KHI ::/ f BA.KHI+YYZ. DFFPKOW
To: YYZ::

This should bring up 3 segments: KHI-BAH on GF, BAH-LHR on BA and LHR-YYZ on BA. However, I keep getting an error. Do I need to put a + somewhere or do I have to enter it as 3 flights?

Thanks!