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Introduction to ITA Matrix and Advanced Routing Language - Chicago Seminars 2014
- 1. Introduction to ITA Matrix and Advanced Routing Language Scott Mackenzie Chicago Seminars – 18 October 2014
- 2. What ITA Does …and Doesn’t Do • Search for flights • Specify fare classes • Specify carriers • Search multiple dates • Multiple display options • Some fare rules • Some saved searches • Combine multiple fares • Can’t book flights • Can’t search for awards • Can’t find some LCCs
- 3. Is ITA for You? • ITA is not meant to replace Kayak, Hipmunk, or your favorite airline • ITA is not meant to be used by infrequent travelers for typical round-trip flights • ITA is a great way to compare many options when you have specific needs …even if otherwise very flexible
- 4. But ITA Does NOT Do Magic! Credit: xkcd.com/1133 Sometimes the answer is: You will not fly today.
- 6. Let’s Go to the Site! • I will provide some overview of search options during this live presentation. • For those reading later, you can find detailed walkthroughs of each ITA feature on my blog: – Introduction to ITA travelcodex.com/2012/01/introduction-to-using-ita/ – Advanced Routing Language travelcodex.com/2012/01/advanced-routing-language-in-ita/ – Other Features travelcodex.com/2012/01/other-ita-features/
- 7. Example Searches Using ITA Matrix In this PowerPoint: • Fly a Star Alliance carrier booked with a United flight number to credit the miles to United MileagePlus • Book a W fare on United-operated flights to use a Global Premier Upgrade During Live Presentation: • Connect in two cities, one of which must not be Chicago, in order to add extra miles to my itinerary • The cheapest time to visit any of four European cities in the next month for a trip of 3-5 nights
- 8. Precautions before You Search • ITA will automatically price fares in the currency of the departure city – Change the currency if you want to see USD • If selecting multiple airports, ITA will automatically allow airport changes – Uncheck if you must arrive/depart from same airport
- 9. DEMO 1: Book a Star Alliance Carrier • Chicago to Barcelona, flying any Star Alliance carrier • Use the routing language: /alliance [name] – /alliance oneworld – /alliance star-alliance – /alliance skyteam • Remember this may exclude some partners such as Alaska Airlines or Etihad – They will still be included if sold as codeshares with an alliance flight number
- 10. Enter Routing Language Underneath
- 11. Initial Results Are Limited to Star Alliance You can filter results even further by choosing a carrier or the number of stops. To filter by both, click on the price where they intersect.
- 12. Display Results as “Time Bars” Prices indicate the lowest possible fare using each option. Orange is absolute lowest. Remember, total could go up after picking return.
- 13. Results Automatically Sort by Price To sort by price per mile, access ITA Matrix using a different URL: http://matrix.itasoftware.com/?showPricePerMile=true
- 14. DEMO 1: Book a Star Alliance Carrier Sorted by price per mile, you can see Turkish Airways at the top. This is a decent option, and they have a good lounge in Istanbul.
- 15. Hover on Flights or Stops for Details
- 16. Each Choice Narrows Future Results Sometimes there will be only one return option, usually due to rules that limit combining fares. Click on “Change” to go back and choose a new segment.
- 17. Go Back and Try Again This time we’ll fly Lufthansa via Munich. It’s less time and about $100 cheaper, although the price per mile goes up ($0.071 to $0.088).
- 18. Return Options Display the Final Price Note: We’re still sorting by price per mile
- 19. Finally, We Have a Complete Itinerary
- 20. Scroll Down to View the Fare Breakdown Base fare Total fare & construction Usually only two areas matter. Provide this information to a travel agent or search tool, especially the fare basis code (e.g., LLXNC415).
- 21. Fare Information Is Useful for Awards Base Fare: $135.50 * 2 Fuel Surcharge: $496 Taxes and Fees: $130.20 Miles always cover the base fare; not all carriers waive the fuel surcharge
- 22. You Can Also View Some Fare Rules
- 23. Learn the Three IATA Areas
- 24. What We’ve Learned… • How to specify basic information and simple routing language • How to view, sort, and backup as we navigate through search results • How to obtain useful information from the final itinerary – This last part is key. ITA doesn’t book anything, but we can still learn a lot from our search.
- 25. DEMO 2: Book a United W Fare • Booking a ticket eligible for an upgrade is difficult and depends on many factors: – Operating carrier – Fare class – Upgrade availability • ITA can’t help with the last one, but it can limit results to operating carrier and fare class
- 26. A Good First Start: Only UA Flight # “UA” means United Airlines and “+” means unlimited segments. Use “UA UA” to specify only two segments, or “UA UA UA” for three.
- 27. But Nearly All Flights Are Ineligible Codeshares indicated by “*” are ineligible, as are cheap fare classes such as “N”. Flights must be operated by United and W fare or greater.
- 28. Two Ways to Be More Specific The “O:” command indicates the flights must be operated by that airline, but it could be someone else’s codeshare. Don’t use “/ nocodeshare” for reasons we’ll get to in a moment.
- 29. Lesson: Better to Filter Some than All Results Using “O:” Problem: some codeshares, but at least UA metal Using “/nocodeshare” Problem: can’t specify fare class
- 30. Specify the Fare Class • Use “/f bc=[booking class letter]” to restrict results to a single fare class. • This command must come LAST. • Only ONE command with slash (can’t combine with “/nocodeshare”). • List each fare class separately using a pipe “|”.
- 31. Success! All fares are now on United metal and fare class W. Some flights are codeshares, but they’re easy to skip over.
- 32. Strategies for Searching by Fare Class • We specified two fare classes for the return. Why would we do that? – Possible no W fare exists. – Possible no W availability exists – Possible V fare is only slightly more expensive and will confer greater upgrade priority. • Don’t list every fare class and waste your time. But don’t limit yourself to one.
- 33. Open Questions • We specified two fare classes for the return. Why would we do that? – Possible no W fare exists. – Possible no W availability exists – Possible V fare is only slightly more expensive and will confer greater upgrade priority. • Don’t list every fare class and waste your time. But don’t limit yourself to one.
Editor's Notes
- Some of ITA’s features are available on other platforms. Hipmunk has used time bars since its inception by relying on ITA data, and Google purchased ITA and has incorporated some features into Google Flights. But in many ways ITA Matrix remains the most powerful way to control your search. ITA can show/exclude codeshares, combine fares on non-alliance carriers, and split the difference if there aren’t enough seats for your party.
- Not all fare rules will be relevant. For example, it doesn’t matter when the last stopover was if no stopovers are permitted.
- You’ll see “Area 1” or 2 or 3 used a lot in fare rules. This is what they mean. Fortunately the organization is pretty simple unless you’re looking at some obscure islands.
- You’ll see “Area 1” or 2 or 3 used a lot in fare rules. This is what they mean. Fortunately the organization is pretty simple unless you’re looking at some obscure islands.