Does anyone know a good way to book these flights online? I found an amazing price on a flight through matrix but none of the travel agents I visited today could replicate it. Is there somewhere online I can go to get that exact fare?
You can try searching for that exact flight on your favourite online travel agents. Note that ITA matrix might be finding flights bookable from overseas websites. You can also try the google flight search which I think ITA link to on their page.
Tired a few and no luck sadly. I found a 1700 flight to Berlin via Finnair which is more than 500 dollars cheaper than the next best price. Tried everything sadly even calling Finnair direct. No dice so far.
Did you follow the instructions - 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. eg. for a flight I just searched for - Fare 1: Carrier TG JEX2MAU MEL to LON (rules) Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code J Covers MEL-BKK (Business), BKK-LHR (Business) Fare Construction (can be useful to travel agents) MEL TG X/BKK Q444.00 TG LON 1979.67JEX2MAU TG X/BKK TG MEL Q444.00 1979.67JEX2MAU NUC 4847.34 END ROE 1.288089 XT 55.00AU 3.98WG 35.90WY 278.40GB 82.50UB 30.00YR Take that to an actual travel agent, and using their tools they will be able to price a ticket using that info. You may not be able to get that from online sites, but you could try and contact Expedia with that info.
Yeah I tried taking it to several. They all ran in to the same problem which seemed to be that on their software, the cheap booking class listed on the Matrix ticket (Class O) was not open for sale, while on Matrix it was showing up as available. Sad, felt too good to be true so I guess it must have been. I also found the Hipmunk you can use some of the search parameters used in Matrix to book a specific itinerary but it's a bit hit and miss.
I know there can be an awful lot of selling regulations, such as some fares are only available for sale in a particular country or by a particular agent group etc. I don't know how enough about what ITA is pulling, but I don't see how they'd get to see those fares if they aren't generally available. Maybe it's more to do with the travel agents own agreements that prevents it.
Did you make sure to price the fare as being sold from australia in AUD? If you have, then the right agent should absolutely be able to pull it up for you.
Yep, are you sure you changed the 'booking city' right down the bottom to your town/city you are buying the fares from. This could put restrictions on local deals etc depending on country that some airlines could be running at the moment
iv found over my last couple of trips to make sure you check out the budget airlines directly. airasia and all the others dont show up in ita matrix search... and airasia is considerable cheaper after taking into fact baggage.... yrmv ita is good, they need that website with all the controls under googles banner so its a lot faster....
Matrix ITA is not Google flights, I use ITA all the time when I call up qantas I read out all the info, and so what if I pay 35$ to pay for it over the phone, as for airlines like Finnair you book thru the AUSTRALIAN number, the page asks where your booking from,(local taxes), as for your class O fare it may just be 1 part of the leg. You can also go to a agent give them the codes, and see what they come up with, and if You want AirAsia you get what you pay for
You learn something every day. I though google flights was just matrix ita with an updated interface!
The prices are different and google flights do less airlines, you can't code in layover time or exclude star alliance of include cities
