Nov 20, 2013, 7:48 am
Last edit by: Pat89339
Do not call the airlines under any conditions! This is the fastest way to kill the trick and bring unwanted attention to your itinerary! And do not post precious deals in this thread, this is by far the fastest way to kill the trick!
************************************************** ******
This is NOT the right place to ask: "Can you help me with a low fare for AAA-BBB?" This is not the beg-it thread, but the trick-it thread.
This thread deals with unique combinations of routes and booking tricks in order to lower prices on airline fares. Prices that would astound the general public are often achieved by the posters in this thread.
Many people, including airline representatives, monitor this thread. For that reason, it is unorganized, very content heavy, often lacking details, and written in shorthand. It takes patience and effort in order to understand the conversation and be able to participate as an active member.
We encourage you to read the entirety of this thread if you would like to get started and to experiment as soon as you understand the gist of Trick It. Lots of time spent reading, practicing, and learning is the only way to be able to reproduce our tricks and discover new ones yourself. There are many, many people who ask for advice here, so productive members are only able to help those who have shown a concerted effort and progress over a long period of time (months).
If you have no idea what this thread is about, a good place to start are various blogs' posts on the subject. At the very least, read the Rules for posting in this thread. They're also listed in the very first post, below.
Older portions of the thread have been separated into archive thread by year. They are listed below
2008 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2009 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2010 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2011 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2012 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2013 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2014 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
************************************************** ******
This is NOT the right place to ask: "Can you help me with a low fare for AAA-BBB?" This is not the beg-it thread, but the trick-it thread.
This thread deals with unique combinations of routes and booking tricks in order to lower prices on airline fares. Prices that would astound the general public are often achieved by the posters in this thread.
Many people, including airline representatives, monitor this thread. For that reason, it is unorganized, very content heavy, often lacking details, and written in shorthand. It takes patience and effort in order to understand the conversation and be able to participate as an active member.
We encourage you to read the entirety of this thread if you would like to get started and to experiment as soon as you understand the gist of Trick It. Lots of time spent reading, practicing, and learning is the only way to be able to reproduce our tricks and discover new ones yourself. There are many, many people who ask for advice here, so productive members are only able to help those who have shown a concerted effort and progress over a long period of time (months).
If you have no idea what this thread is about, a good place to start are various blogs' posts on the subject. At the very least, read the Rules for posting in this thread. They're also listed in the very first post, below.
Older portions of the thread have been separated into archive thread by year. They are listed below
2008 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2009 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2010 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2011 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2012 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2013 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2014 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
Trick it / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
Mar 23, 2023, 2:30 pm
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Terp Country
Programs: All the regulars for an American. Retired now so peon on all of them
Posts: 654
I think you were just pointing to the page that lists the rules, which includes abbreviations, and you weren't reprimanding me for breaking any of them. Is that right?
Mar 23, 2023, 5:40 pm
Moderator: Mileage Run, United Airlines; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
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Pat89339, Moderator
Mileage Run Forums
Mar 23, 2023, 6:20 pm
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$ 0.00 Base Fare is back
KL OSL AMS JFK $0.10
KL JFK AMS OSL $0.00
How obscene.
Its like like a *** Michelin Restaurant offering free 3 course full memu dinners, provided that you buy a bottle of Perrier
for € 1000.
Think about it.
Ofcourse in our case we return the Perrier for a refund of slightly below € 1,000.
Now just drop the KL YQ
Carnival CIty can be substituted on outbound for higher base fare thus creating a huge open jaw.
KL JFK AMS OSL $0.00
How obscene.
Its like like a *** Michelin Restaurant offering free 3 course full memu dinners, provided that you buy a bottle of Perrier
for € 1000.
Think about it.
Ofcourse in our case we return the Perrier for a refund of slightly below € 1,000.
Now just drop the KL YQ
Carnival CIty can be substituted on outbound for higher base fare thus creating a huge open jaw.
Last edited by WingedWorldExplorer; Mar 24, 2023 at 8:29 am
Mar 25, 2023, 4:31 am
Join Date: Mar 2023
Location: PAR
Posts: 9
Need some explanations of ITA matrix
1. I have found a 3X in kimchi country on ITA matrix. When I try to book it, the FD does not work. I understand that my 3x is not bookable. But can someone explain why a 3x found in ITA is not bookable? It will avoid me searching such a case.
2. When I make searches on ITA, it gives me no result when I type several outbound airports. But if I type only one outbound airport from my list, it gives me a result. I am quite lost. I use the new version of ITA
Thank you for you help
2. When I make searches on ITA, it gives me no result when I type several outbound airports. But if I type only one outbound airport from my list, it gives me a result. I am quite lost. I use the new version of ITA
Thank you for you help
Mar 25, 2023, 7:20 am
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 412
There is a nice presentation on finding flight connections and fares that is 20 years old, but it shows how easily one can reach very high complexity: http://www.ai.mit.edu/courses/6.034f.../airtravel.pdf.
- Do you mean that you have not been able to find any OTA with your desired price? How many have you tried? There is a browser extension called ITA Matrix Powertools which interfaces with ITA matrix and with many OTAs. Additionally, some of these OTAs have versions in several countries. In a difficult case, you may have to click and check, one by one. It is possible that none of the hundreds of listed OTAs will give you the price you are looking for, due to the parsers, timeouts, etc. that they use. Sometimes, the price is very volatile, and you may suddenly see the result after 30-60 seconds.
- This means that there are too many combinations, and perhaps the timeout or even strategy for a single search is different. Imagine using substantial computing resources when pasting a lot of airports to be combined, within a given time range (narrowing to a selected day may help). Yes, it can be frustrating in some cases; even a simple search for QR fares may not work if you want to combine a few airports (it easily times out), but with a single airport, it works.
Mar 25, 2023, 8:00 am
Join Date: Mar 2023
Location: PAR
Posts: 9
man4business
1. I only tried with bookmymatrix and the suggested OTA
riceline and onetravel. ITA Matrix Powertools does not work in my computer. I do not know why. Most of the time, I am booking from French OTAs as it is in Euros. I notice that some people made copy and paste from their result from skyscanner.no. I understand that there are sometimes some glitches with currencies, but I believe that I am not enough smart to find such glitches. I read a lot of topic of this forum, but except an old NZ currency glitch, I did not find other ideas.
2. that make sense. It means that I am using incorrectly the nearby feature for finding a 3X.
1. I only tried with bookmymatrix and the suggested OTA
riceline and onetravel. ITA Matrix Powertools does not work in my computer. I do not know why. Most of the time, I am booking from French OTAs as it is in Euros. I notice that some people made copy and paste from their result from skyscanner.no. I understand that there are sometimes some glitches with currencies, but I believe that I am not enough smart to find such glitches. I read a lot of topic of this forum, but except an old NZ currency glitch, I did not find other ideas.2. that make sense. It means that I am using incorrectly the nearby feature for finding a 3X.
Mar 25, 2023, 10:26 am
Join Date: Dec 2021
Location: Northeast
Posts: 240
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35066813-post1053.html
Onetravel from Bookwithmatrix often doesn't work as well.
Mar 25, 2023, 10:42 am
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 412
ashf 1. checking various OTAs has nothing to do with currency glitch as well as it is irrelevant which currency you display. If ITA Matrix Powertools does not work then you have a problem: you can install it etierh as a web browser extension (e.g. most popular chrome) but also as a script via another extension Tampermonkey. If you do not see your ITA result quickly in kayak, momondo, or skyscanner, then you have to check also various countries. Then, the other groups of OTAs (all are seen within the working properly powertools). There are really many, and surpriosingly, only one and in a specific country could work. 2. finding 3X (or anything else) means that you discovered a proper airline and country (usually departure country). The optimization comes later, you can totally separately look for one way lowest fare for a given airline within a given country etc. Then, to apply the cheapest to your main fare.
Mar 25, 2023, 10:47 am
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Priceline direct link doesn't work now. See below:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35066813-post1053.html
Onetravel from Bookwithmatrix often doesn't work as well.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35066813-post1053.html
Onetravel from Bookwithmatrix often doesn't work as well.
$ 248.23 RT
Forget ONETRAVEL it never works or it gives much higher prices.
Last edited by WingedWorldExplorer; Mar 25, 2023 at 11:41 am
Mar 25, 2023, 10:52 am
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Good News about AF
Once you have found out how to drop AF YQ, then the world is open to you.
1. AF posts BF between nearly ALL its destinations worldwide and also across several continents.
2. Trick works on ALL of them.
3. Trickworks in ANY direction.
1. AF posts BF between nearly ALL its destinations worldwide and also across several continents.
2. Trick works on ALL of them.
3. Trickworks in ANY direction.
Mar 25, 2023, 11:06 am
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PL
Also got it to work directly for Canary Islands and even without Deeplink
Try different browser if you have problems.
Also, from time to time Matrix lists a X airport which PL does not recognize.
Try different browser if you have problems.
Also, from time to time Matrix lists a X airport which PL does not recognize.
Last edited by WingedWorldExplorer; Mar 25, 2023 at 11:15 am
Mar 25, 2023, 11:38 am
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Instead of booking AF C2-C4 with the trick, one of the OTAs will actually book it on DL operated flights. For us in NYC metro area that means we can just exit at JFK on return portion and go home.
Mar 25, 2023, 12:12 pm
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 412
The same trick, the same airline, works in opposite direction: C2 (various continental) - JFK, $256.55 (ITA). But my point is that in such a case one can clearly see how oppresively high tax is imposed in many countries. Nowadays it is not enough to find the lowest BF.
Mar 25, 2023, 1:21 pm
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: New York Metropolitan Area 45 km from JFK
Programs: UA,AA,AS,BA
Posts: 4,607
The same trick, the same airline, works in opposite direction: C2 (various continental) - JFK, $256.55 (ITA). But my point is that in such a case one can clearly see how oppresively high tax is imposed in many countries. Nowadays it is not enough to find the lowest BF.
I agree 100 %.
Also want to express my admiration about the way you so competently, patiently and in great detail help various, hopefully serious, newcomers getting started..