PamT

Thanks for the update on ITA. I am getting the server error as well and came right here for any outtage issues and Boom! you all are already on it. Love this collective hive.

skunker

It hasn't worked for me all day. At work using IE on a PC and at home on a Mac using Chrome. Been at least 12 hours for me. It just searches and searches and then give the internal error.

serfty

Just gave it a whirl now and it worked ...

Mowee

Yeah it worked this morning for me, though it seems slow and I hate getting why not try google flights.....cuz ya can't search the same way. LOL

aktchi

Whenever I encountered this in the past, I used to blame it on ITA having stale data, and mostly bought whatever AA.com was offering.

Imagine my surprise when I ran into another disagreement between ITA and AA.com on a multicity trip much ike yours (mildly comples, with codeshares etc), but decided to call AA reservations this time. I fed them the entire itinerary flight by flight and the price the phone agent quoted matched ITA's cent for cent.

So it is AA.com that can't handle multicity fare constructions as well. Try calling AA reservations. As an EXP you won't owe any booking fees anyway, but even if someone had to pay $30 in order to save $150, that is still a good bargain.

Tips from experience: First, while most reps know Heathrow and Narita, for less common destinations I specify the airport code too. Second, unlike FT crowd, normal people think in terms of destination and departure time rather than the flight number. Phone reps, understandably, are adapted to that style and your communication will go more smoothly if you too follow it. Finally, with just about every flight coming in 8 flavors these days, specify which codeshare you want. So my typical request: "From Heahrow I want the x:yz PM flight to Hyderabad, India, airport code Hotel Yankee Delta, and I would like the AA codeshare please".

Geeky FT speculation: It is reasonable to assume that AA reps and as well as AA.com use the same software (ITA) and data. So most likely AA.com is dumbed down, probably in terms of how much time it spends in finding the best fare. That may not matter in case of simple roundtrips, but does when there are many segments and other considerations like codeshares.

Let us know how it went. Good luck.

st1575

If you are still looking for this Q fare for those dates, I can get it to show up on Priceline with exact price and fare basis using this tool:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...serscript.html

Although installing the script requires a bit of technical knowledge and doesn't always work, it makes booking itineraries found on ITA relatively easy.

JY1024

Let's move this over to the Travel Tools forum, where there is an active help thread with expert advice on how to book fares found on the ITA website. Thanks. /JY1024, TravelBuzz co-moderator

Calchas

AA.com uses the QPX pricing engine from ITA Software (at least, AA is plastered on https://www.itasoftware.com/). This is the same engine that sits under the Matrix.

I would not assume that AA reservations use the same pricing engine as the AA.com website, but maybe they do. The other thing is, if you give them a list of flights and ask for them to be priced, that is solving the problem in the opposite direction to "find the flights that give the lowest price", so sometimes the answer that is found may differ to the AA.com website. In any case remember that you are solving a computationally difficult problem when you start including lots of different cities.

[As I write this I am waiting for a dedicated 64 core machine to solve a simpler problem than some of the stuff the Matrix does ... but it is still going to take a few minutes to minimize my problem. I suppose that's why ITA haven't employed me ]

Watch out for difference availabilities arising from different points of sale. ITA will assume you are buying in the originating city unless you say otherwise. The phone centre will use the local city availability. I know that BA can sell from a different point of sale but not sure about AA. AA.com may well use NYC if you claim to be based in the USA or it may it use the origin point.

TWA884

This question got lost after transfer from the TravelBuzz forum and thread consolidation, so I'm bumping it.

TWA884, Moderator

zznoname

Thank you for your good tips.

dboston

This fare has been coming up on ITASoftware all day today and I have totally failed at booking it anywhere -- can't get the airlines' sites to see it, or all the usual booking sites, or even Egencia agents. The JFK-AUH-DEL cheap fare is pretty easy to find but the BOS part seems to throw it all off. Any advice on how to possibly book this? Thanks! (my attempt to get upstairs on an A380..)



Itinerary details
Itinerary
Boston (BOS) to Delhi (DEL) — Tue, Dec 8
Long layoverOvernight flight

Boston (BOS) to New York (JFK) — Tue, Dec 8
American Airlines Inc. 1413
Dep: 10:25 am
Arr: 11:37 am
1h 12m
Boeing 737
First (P)
Layover in JFK
3h 23m

New York (JFK) to Abu Dhabi (AUH) — Tue, Dec 8
Jet Airways 6524
Dep: 3:00 pm
Arr: 12:30 pm
12h 30m
Airbus A380
Business (I)
Meal
OPERATED BY ETIHAD AIRWAYS
Layover in AUH
Wed, Dec 9
3h 5m

Abu Dhabi (AUH) to Delhi (DEL) — Wed, Dec 9
Jet Airways 6521
Dep: 3:35 pm
Arr: 8:25 pm
3h 20m
Boeing 777
Business (I)
Meal
OPERATED BY ETIHAD ON JET AIRWAYS CONFIGURED AIRCRAFT
Delhi (DEL) to Boston (BOS) — Sat, Dec 19
Long layover

Delhi (DEL) to Abu Dhabi (AUH) — Sat, Dec 19
Jet Airways 582
Dep: 4:30 am
Arr: 7:00 am
4h 0m
Boeing 737
Business (I)
Breakfast
Layover in AUH
3h 20m

Abu Dhabi (AUH) to New York (JFK) — Sat, Dec 19
Jet Airways 6403
Dep: 10:20 am
Arr: 4:05 pm
14h 45m
Boeing 777
Business (I)
Meal
OPERATED BY ETIHAD ON JET AIRWAYS CONFIGURED AIRCRAFT
Layover in JFK
3h 55m

New York (JFK) to Boston (BOS) — Sat, Dec 19
American Airlines Inc. 235
Dep: 8:00 pm
Arr: 9:23 pm
1h 23m
Boeing 737
First (P)
Mileage
16,902 total miles
Airport Information
Boston Logan International (BOS)
Delhi Indira Gandhi International (DEL)
New York John F Kennedy International (JFK)
Abu Dhabi International (AUH)
Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees)
$3,124.33
Total cost for 1 passenger
$3,124.33
How to buy this ticket
Tickets cannot be purchased directly from ITA Software.
Provide this information to a travel agent to help them match the fares found.
Make sure to provide the exact booking and fare codes shown.
Fare for 1 adult
Fare 1: Carrier 9W I2UCSP7 BOS to DEL (rules)
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code P, I
Covers BOS-JFK (First), JFK-AUH (Business), AUH-DEL (Business)
$1,023.00
Fare 2: Carrier 9W I2UCSP7 DEL to BOS (rules)
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code I, P
Covers DEL-AUH (Business), AUH-JFK (Business), JFK-BOS (First)
$1,058.00
Indian User Development Fee (IN)
$20.70
9W YQ surcharge (YQ)
$900.00
US International Departure Tax (US)
$17.70
9W YR surcharge (YR)
$5.00
US September 11th Security Fee (AY)
$11.20
US Passenger Facility Charge (XF)
$13.50
USDA APHIS Fee (XA)
$5.00
US Immigration Fee (XY)
$7.00
US Customs Fee (YC)
$5.50
US International Arrival Tax (US)
$17.70
Indian Passenger Service Fee (WO)
$3.65
Indian Development Fee (YM)
$10.50
Indian User Development Fee (IN)
$25.08
9W YR surcharge (YR)
$0.80
Subtotal per passenger
$3,124.33
Number of passengers
x1
Subtotal For 1 adult
$3,124.33
This ticket is non-refundable.
Changes to this ticket will incur a penalty fee.
Fare Construction (can be useful to travel agents)
BOS AA X/NYC 9W X/AUH 9W DEL 1023.00I2UCSP7 9W X/AUH 9W X/NYC AA BOS Q25.00 Q10.00 1023.00I2UCSP7 NUC 2081.00 END ROE 1.00 XT 5.50YC 7.00XY 5.00XA 35.40US 11.20AY 45.78IN 3.65WO 10.50YM 900.00YQ 5.80YR 13.50XF BOS4.50 JFK4.50 JFK4.50
Total Airfare & Taxes
$3,124.33

serfty

I was able to bring it up on Orbtz using the script here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...serscript.html

Installing the script requires a bit of technical knowledge and Google make ITA a bit of a moving target, it makes booking somewhat easier.

aktchi

Very nice. I am struggling with how to make that script work and have posted an SOS question that thread. I would appreciate it if you could look and respond.

dboston

Thanks! Right before I tried to run this program, I found a way to get Egencia to ticket it: I reserved the JFK-AUH-DEL-AUH-JFK online and then called and asked them to see what happened if they added the AA BOS-JFK flights to it. Amazingly they were able to come up with that fare! Hopefully no delays on the A380 on the JFK-AUH route

go_around

Is anyone else noticing a much higher rate of errors on ITA recently? "Unknown Internal Error" is the most common I'm getting. Not doing anything out of the ordinary.

P.S. It's most commonly appearing after search results have loaded, when trying to view details of individual flights. However the error is sometimes appearing before search results load. Experiencing (ironically) more problems with Chrome than Safari.