Calchas

I know that BA, AF and LH distinguish (in probable violation of EC 1008/2008) on cities within the EC.

BA gets around it by saying "if you ask the Gold line we can show you availability from any EC state"*, and indeed I have got availability that was not available in AMS but was available in LON on that basis on a few occasions; but obviously most people do not know to ask for availability in a specific sales cities.

If indeed no one else bothers with geographical price discrimination, that is interesting to know. ^

Edit: * On the plus side it turns out they are also willing to violate the oneworld RTW fare rule that prevents you from buying a cheap RTW fare originating in CAI/JNB/etc from your local sales office priced in the foreign currency at the foreign dirt cheap rate, so it's not all bad!

i59bravo

I'm looking at flying from Canada to LAS on UA metal, in order to avoid AC Rouge. Does anyone have any good tips on excluding UA codeshares on AC Rouge flights from ITA Matrix search results?

hillrider

I can think of two ways to do it:

but this eliminates all codeshares (which may be OK for your purposes). The second way is to find out if UA has grouped all the AC Rouge flights in a block of flight numbers, and if so, specify only the non-AC Rouge flight numbers.

For example, if you find out that the AC Rouge codeshares are in the UA6000-6499 range, you would use(the + is for "one or more" to allow for connections)

i59bravo

This should do it - thank you!

Joost0308

Dear all,
I was hoping to get a little bit of help from you guys. I’ve been a silent reader of this forum for a while and have really benefitted from many of the posts that have been discussed here.

OK – so here’s the deal (and I know this is not uncommon). I regularly use ITA Matrix (as many of you) to look for flights. I think it’s a wonderful, handy tool which gives me a great indication for cheap flights when choosing my next holiday destination. Indication only, because I never (ever!) seem to manage to find the fares displayed by ITA Matrix. I have tried Expedia, Hipmunk, the airlines, Kayak, Orbitz and anything in between and I simply don’t manage. It’s not that I can’t find the flights or itinerary, but the price is just never the same (sometimes the difference is small, but very often the prices for bookable fares are 300-400 euros more expensive). Please note I only fly internationally as my base is AMS/BRU.

Now I am looking for my next Christmas break, and once again I find a great fare and the cheapest “bookable” option (same flights) comes out 200 euros more expensive. So, I thought I’d post here and see if I’m doing something wrong or if it’s just “bad luck”?

So, I am looking for a cheap-ish flight to South East Asia (anywhere it won’t be rain season, really) and ran into the following flight:
Outbound: Sat 19 dec 2015: BRU-KUL (via Doha, Qatar Airways flights 196 and 844)
Inbound: Sun 3 Jan 2016: KUL-AMS (via Doha, Qatar Airways flights 853 and 275)

ITA shows this for a price of 556 Euro (incredibly low, I know...). Qatar Airways website shows this itinerary as 2500 Euro.

Any idea on what I might be doing wrong?

cestmoi123

Checked that route, cheapest I see on ITA is Lufthansa via FRA for €916. Qatar Airways is €1005.

Checking Kayak, I see Lufthansa for $869, Qatar for $893, both via Expedia. They appear to be bookable.

Joost0308

Thanks for the quick reply. Very strange as I just re-ran a search on ITA Matrix and it still displays at 556 EUR on Qatar. I really don't get it.

nux

Have you ticked the "Only show flights and prices with available seats" option?

Joost0308

Yep, I think that's also the standard setting.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact I'm doing BRU-KUL-AMS?
Really odd as other people seem to get completely different search results.

nux

Is the issue just with QR? I have found ITA Matrix does not correctly find QR availability, and shows much lower fares.

See also: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qatar...ta-matrix.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23703820-post385.html

Joost0308

Well, the next option i find (for instance) is a flight BRU-SIN-BRU with Finnair for 658 Euro.

Sat Dec 19 2015 BRU-HEL (812) and HEL-SIN (81)
Sun Jan 3 2016 SIN-HEL (82) and HEL-BRU (811, Jan 4)

Can't find that one either, the listed prices are not even remotely close to what's bookable out there.

nux

I can see that on ITA Matrix and when compared against actual fare bucket availability it is not possible to book. Seems ITA Matrix has an issue.

Joost0308

Thanks, that's what I figured. I guess I'll just go back to using Expedia and Skyscanner .

lgts

I always start ITA but double check with skyscanner or any OTA as soon as I have narrowed down the results. I've had price differences many times (for some reason it was usually TK).

cheltzel

Is it just me or is matrix effectively down. Even the simplest search yields an "Internal server error" where all you can do is start over again.