nickab

There's another thread on FT here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ta-matrix.html
And hopefully we'll hear from someone on the ITA team on this feedback thread: https://productforums.google.com/d/t...c4c/discussion

TrixieTang

Matrix seems to have a feature that's maybe not up and running yet? The departure and arrival menus give you and option for airports within different radiuses (radii?) of a city. Can't seem to make it work on my end. It still wants specific airports even if input more than one.

Has anyone gotten that drop down to work before?

c_9

Many times, works just fine. (you mean the "Nearby" link, which brings up a yellow panel, right?) if its not working for you try another browser - you may have anti-scripting software or something similar blocking the correct behaviour.

If that's not it, please type out the precise steps you follow (each click) to help us help you!

TrixieTang

Works in Chrome!

But weirdly, it doesn't include even close to all airports. Searching from Baton Rouge, LA doesn't show me BTR, MSY or any other airport in Louisiana. The map tells me the closest airport is IAH. Looks like I really will have to manually input airports!

Can't win 'em all.

c_9

You have to change the search distance. MSY and BTR show up just fine at 75+ km, but I don't know why BTR requires such a distant search. Funny bug!

TrixieTang

Indeed. What I'm doing is a lower radius search by region. Seems to work fine that way.

I'm so American that it annoys me when I'm not often offered instant gratification. I find myself essentially saying- Damnit, machines do my bidding.

ITA Hacker

Could you help me reproduce the problem you're seeing?

When I type in "Baton Rouge" the first option it shows me is BTR. MSY shows up at 75 miles (or 150 km) or greater.

Deltahater

It has been said here before, but ITA's usability has decreased substantially for us.

TrixieTang

Type in Baton Rouge to find nearby airports at a larger radius, like 1000 miles. 1000 mile radius doesn't give you any airports in Louisiana.

I know it sounds crazy, but I'm trying to find the lowest price from any American airport regardless of location.

ITA Hacker

The "nearby" box only shows the largest airports within the radius. I do still get MSY even with 1000 miles though, it's a large airport in Louisiana.

Unfortunately, our system is not designed to do such a broad query. In fact, the more airports you ask for, the less effort is expended on each one. This means that asking for more airports decreases the likelihood that we'll find the best deal from any particular airport.

My experience is that for international trips, the best pricing is found from major gateway airports. Often the price from small airports is exactly the same, sometimes a bit more, but never a lot less. This also in line with how international fares are usually filed. Have others here had different experiences?

docbert

Are you sure they are actually violating the fare rules? >4 hour for a "connection" can be fine under a number of circumstances, such as :
* No flights are available within 4 hours, and that's the next available flight (especially happens overnight)
* It's being priced in as a stopover
* The flights on either side are a different fare, being booked end-on-end.

There's probably more, but those are the obvious ones.

TheBOSman

It has decreased substantially even for simpler things, never mind FDs. I can barely get it to work sometimes just for mildly advanced routings on non-FD itineraries. It took me quite a while to get it to do what I wanted for the BOS-SIN fare I posted. Hopefully the price slips down on that one.

pfbloom

Agreed that ITA is an increasingly unreliable tool. Complex itineraries sometimes fail to process at all, and ones that do take much longer to resolve. Even simple month-long calendar searches have been producing error message sometimes.

Seems to me that ITA has been purposely building roadblocks into all but basic RT searches.... at least in the Matrix2 consumer interface.

Wonder (if this is true) what has been driving this "dumbing down" ?

TrixieTang

Me, actually. My flight from BTR to SGN three weeks ago was about $200 per paasenger cheaper than it would have been flying out of MSY, despite the next connecting flight being in IAH in both cases. It's likely because of the circumstances- I booked a scant 10 days before departure.

So far, ITA is working really well if I search by region. I found a round trip to SGN for only $865 departing from RIC. I would have never thought to look at RIC.

ITA Hacker

Right, I wasn't saying that the price from different airports doesn't vary. My hypothesis in this case would be that the trip starting in IAH is at least as cheap as either one of those other airports.