Matrix ITA but for award flights?
Mar 21, 2021, 12:23 pm
#2
Join Date: Nov 2004
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ExpertFlyer pro version (paid) lets you search for awards etc. There may be others. I’ve never personally used it but I’m sure you can find more in the posts via search.
https://www.expertflyer.com/
https://www.expertflyer.com/
Mar 21, 2021, 12:34 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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I'm not sure what you mean "like Matrix ITA" (because I've never used it), but while paid ExpertFlyer can only search each airline's own award inventory, Award Nexus (www.awardnexus.com) lets you search an alliance at a time, and it's free up to a point for FlyerTalk members (click on "more signup options" under the green Purchase button for how to sign up for free as a FlyerTalk member).
Mar 22, 2021, 3:25 pm
#5
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A key difference of course is that Matrix ITA is free, whereas most, if not all, award search websites are trying to make some money. (which quite frankly is perfectly reasonable for all of the effort / value involved)
Mar 24, 2021, 7:39 pm
#6
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There is no equivalent nor will there ever be. Simple reason - sites like ITA Matrix rely on airlines publishing fares and availability to global distribution systems. They use this data to find and price flights across many airlines at once. Airlines do not publish this data for award travel, particularly on the fare side and sometimes even in the availability side.
Sites like ExpertFlyer will help you locate award availability for the airlines that publish award inventory data (and not all do)... but then they have no basis upon which to price it.
Other sites try to manually compile award charts from various airline websites to show you the lowest possible # of miles required between specified countries, but don’t actually check availability. Such sites are also stymied by airlines which no longer publish award charts, like Delta and United. They also tend to quickly fall out of date since it’s a huge effort to manually gather info on all the programs and maintain it.
Long story short - using a couple different sites can you help piece things together, but there is no place out there that will scan all airlines for awards and price them in miles in the style that ITA does for paid travel.
Sites like ExpertFlyer will help you locate award availability for the airlines that publish award inventory data (and not all do)... but then they have no basis upon which to price it.
Other sites try to manually compile award charts from various airline websites to show you the lowest possible # of miles required between specified countries, but don’t actually check availability. Such sites are also stymied by airlines which no longer publish award charts, like Delta and United. They also tend to quickly fall out of date since it’s a huge effort to manually gather info on all the programs and maintain it.
Long story short - using a couple different sites can you help piece things together, but there is no place out there that will scan all airlines for awards and price them in miles in the style that ITA does for paid travel.
Mar 24, 2021, 7:41 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Virginia USA
Posts: 1,232
There is no equivalent nor will there ever be. Simple reason - sites like ITA Matrix rely on airlines publishing fares and availability to global distribution systems. They use this data to find and price flights across many airlines at once. Airlines do not publish this data for award travel, particularly on the fare side and sometimes even in the availability side.
Sites like ExpertFlyer will help you locate award availability for the airlines that publish award inventory data (and not all do)... but then they have no basis upon which to price it.
Other sites try to manually compile award charts from various airline websites to show you the lowest possible # of miles required between specified countries, but don’t actually check availability. Such sites are also stymied by airlines which no longer publish award charts, like Delta and United. They also tend to quickly fall out of date since it’s a huge effort to manually gather info on all the programs and maintain it.
Sites like ExpertFlyer will help you locate award availability for the airlines that publish award inventory data (and not all do)... but then they have no basis upon which to price it.
Other sites try to manually compile award charts from various airline websites to show you the lowest possible # of miles required between specified countries, but don’t actually check availability. Such sites are also stymied by airlines which no longer publish award charts, like Delta and United. They also tend to quickly fall out of date since it’s a huge effort to manually gather info on all the programs and maintain it.
Mar 24, 2021, 7:43 pm
#8
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In addition to that, most airlines expressly forbid scraping data from their sites/systems in an automated fashion.
Mar 25, 2021, 1:58 am
#9
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Mar 25, 2021, 2:58 am
#10
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But you have to pay them for the service...
Mar 27, 2021, 12:06 pm
#11
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Flightplan: How to search a year of award inventory
TLDR: Flightplan is a set of command-line tools I built to scrape airline award inventory, and then display it in a fancy web UI. It's free, cross-platform, and open-source. You download and run it on your own machine. If you know how to program JavaScript, you can also use it as a library to write your own scraping scripts. Below is a condensed write-up of why I created it, and how it works. You can read the full version here: Flightplan: A new way to research flight awards
New Website: https://www.flightplantool.com
Github Repo: https://github.com/flightplan-tool/flightplan
Video Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMtiucIPOxs
***
New Website: https://www.flightplantool.com
Github Repo: https://github.com/flightplan-tool/flightplan
Video Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMtiucIPOxs
***
Jul 19, 2022, 10:23 am
#12
Join Date: Jul 2022
Posts: 1
You can search for award availability on ITA, but it's complicated. I found this article which details how to search using fare codes, but only for one airline is it written. I found this thread looking for an already put-together guide on the rest of the airlines, but theoretically, it's the same process,m just learning to use the airport codes, and fare codes.
Well, I can't post links yet apparently, but it's from thrifty traveler, and here's a bit from the article:
This article is about finding an available companion ticket availability, but the concept is the same.
Moderator's edit: Here is a link to the article: Struggling to Use Your Delta Companion Ticket? Read This Guide
Well, I can't post links yet apparently, but it's from thrifty traveler, and here's a bit from the article:
A Next-Level Tip to Find the Right Fares
How on earth can you find those L, U, T, X, and V fares you need to use these certificates? Are you supposed to just search route after route on Delta until you finally come up with a result?
There’s a tool that can easily help you zero in on flights that work: It’s called ITA Matrix. I’ll show you exactly how it can help in this situation.
Think of ITA Matrix like Google Flights on steroids … and then some. While it’s a fairly advanced platform, it has a ton of powerful features that you won’t find on Google Flights or other sites. Most importantly, it allows you to search for specific fare classes … including the ones you need in order to find flights to use your Delta companion certificate.
***
How on earth can you find those L, U, T, X, and V fares you need to use these certificates? Are you supposed to just search route after route on Delta until you finally come up with a result?
There’s a tool that can easily help you zero in on flights that work: It’s called ITA Matrix. I’ll show you exactly how it can help in this situation.
Think of ITA Matrix like Google Flights on steroids … and then some. While it’s a fairly advanced platform, it has a ton of powerful features that you won’t find on Google Flights or other sites. Most importantly, it allows you to search for specific fare classes … including the ones you need in order to find flights to use your Delta companion certificate.
***
Moderator's edit: Here is a link to the article: Struggling to Use Your Delta Companion Ticket? Read This Guide
Last edited by TWA884; Jul 19, 2022 at 11:01 am Reason: Copyright violation. Redacted excess quoting. Inserted a link to the article. Formatting.