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How to Use ITA Matrix: The Most Powerful Airfare Search Tool

Scott Mackenzie

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July 3, 2020

There are many ways to search for flights: airline websites, online travel agencies (OTAs), search aggregators like Kayak, and even visiting a human travel agent. However, many of these tools are trying to sell you something — a ticket for your next business trip or vacation — and may not always provide the most useful information.

It’s not that these companies are out to get you. There’s just an important difference between buying a ticket and searching for a ticket. ITA Matrix, a search tool purchased by Google several years ago, is designed exclusively for searching. You can’t buy a ticket from them, although many websites do use the same technology to operate their own booking tools. Google bought the company in part to develop Google Flights, another great tool.

In the first installment of this three-part review, I’ll show you why ITA Matrix is so important and how to perform basic search queries. In the second installment, I’ll cover some of the unique advanced routing language that ITA Matrix uses to make searching for airfare more powerful than anywhere else. Finally, the third installment will discuss how to use ITA to perform a few tricks like hidden city ticketing as well as other tips for saving money on airfare.

Why Use ITA Matrix?

ITA Matrix – often called “ITA” for short — is useful because it provides incredible control over the parameters of your search. You can look for specific flight numbers, limit connections, and compare multiple airlines at once (or exclude them). These are things you can do on other sites, but ITA does them better and does them all.

Finally, ITA provides more detailed information on fares than you’ll get from your average website. Did you know that the number of seats available on a flight and the price you pay are actually two separate things? Even the price is broken down into multiple components. You can dive deep into these details — or ignore them — using ITA Matrix.

How to Filter Search Results

Advanced routing language is key to making the most of ITA Matrix. However, it is a very complex topic, which is why we devote a separate post to explaining it. I’ll use a few examples in this introduction to get you started.

First, it helps to be familiar with airline and airport codes. Every airline is represented by a two-character IATA code. For example, United Airlines is “UA” and American Airlines is “AA.” These aren’t always abbreviations; JetBlue Airways is “B6.” Similarly, every airport has a three-letter IATA code. San Francisco is “SFO” and Dallas-Fort Worth is “DFW.” Sometimes several airports in a metropolitan area can be referenced at once using a city code, like “NYC.” If you’re ever unsure what the correct code is, a quick Google search can usually reveal the answer.

Second, remember that all advanced routing language is optional. In its absence ITA will just search all possible options. When you do use advanced routing language you add restrictions.

To search for a specific airline, enter that airline’s code.

Example 1: AA (one flight marketed by AA)

To search for one or more flights on a specific airline, enter that airline’s code multiple times for each flight, or use the plus symbol to specify no exact number.

Example 2: AA AA AA (three flights marketed by AA)
Example 3: AA+ (one or more flights marketed by AA)

To search for a specific connecting airport, enter that airport’s code. You can use this with or without an airline code.

Example 4: AA DFW AA (two flights marketed by AA, with a connection in DFW)
Example 5: DFW (a connection in DFW at some point in the journey)

If interested in more than one airline or airport, you can list multiple options separated by a comma.

Example 6: AA,AS (one flight operated by AA or AS)
Example 7: DFW,ORD (a connection in either DFW or ORD)

Step-by-Step Example of Using ITA Matrix

Define the Query

You’ll always want to enter your origin and destination airports. In addition, add some advanced routing language if you think it will be useful. Either click on the link to add the advanced routing language underneath the airport or add it after in the same line separated with two colons. (Don’t worry if ITA Matrix fills in the full name of an airport after you enter the three-letter code.)

In the example below, I’m searching for a round-trip flight from Chicago-O’Hare to Maui. Both formats for entering advanced routing language are shown, indicating a connection in Seattle or Portland on the outbound and a connection in San Francisco or Los Angeles on the return. No airline is specified.

After that you can choose your dates, number of passengers, and preferred cabin. If you’re flexible, you can tell ITA Matrix to search on the exact date or up to +/- 3 days. In this example I’ll choose +/- 1 day so that travel is still on the weekends.

Most of these other settings don’t need to be changed. It’s unusual to find discounted fares for children or seniors, and advanced routing language is a more convenient way to limit the number of stops than using the drop-down menu.

Do make sure that the box is checked to only search flights and prices with available seats (ITA Matrix is capable of searching for hypothetical fares even if the flight is sold out). You can also change the currency or sales city if you’re purchasing an international ticket. Sometimes a ticket will have a different price when purchased in other countries.

Viewing and Selecting Results

The search results are displayed in three formats: Complete Itinerary, Individual Flights, and Time Bars. The first two are probably formats with which you are familiar. They require you to sort through lists of fares and find the times and dates that work for you.

Time Bars is a less common format but could be more helpful. It represents each airline as a different color and uses a visual representation to show the time, duration, and connections for each itinerary. You sort the list by arrival or departure time, limit connections, and even hover over each bar to learn more about that flight.

Select each leg of the journey one at a time. The prices listed are always the lowest possible price including that option, which means other selections made later might raise the price — but at least one option will still be available at the price you saw previously. Orange text indicates the cheapest option on the page.

If you wish, you can work backwards by selecting the return journey from the top of the page to view those results first.

One of the best options here seems to be a Saturday morning itinerary with flights on Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. It’s not the cheapest option, but it is just $111 more, has a short connection, and doesn’t require taking time off work on Friday. After selecting this option I get a list of return flights.

On the first page I was promised a fare of $1,113 — and there are several return options that are still available at that price. Others may be more expensive. The bets option is probably to return on Friday. It’s not only cheaper but also means that I’ll be able to return home that weekend. Many of the more expensive flights are Sunday night redeyes. I’ll select the first option from the list, which minimizes the connection time in San Francisco.

Reading the Itinerary

After selecting the flights there will be a summary of the itinerary. This includes detailed information on the airline, flight numbers, aircraft type, and the booking class.

Below the itinerary is a blue box with a breakdown of the fare, including the base fare and any associated taxes and fees. This can be helpful to estimate the fees for the same itinerary when booked as an award ticket, or to calculate the number of frequent flyer miles you’ll earn on the base fare. There are also some tricks, like fuel dumping, that rely on this information.

Notice that this itinerary is actually a mix of four different fares. You can still buy them together on a single ticket. Sometimes mixing fares is cheaper, and sometimes one fare that covers the entire journey is cheaper. It’s difficult to predict.

The bigger issue is that there are three airlines in this itinerary, and airline websites like to promote their own fares. Travel agents (online and in person) sometimes do a better job helping you book tickets that have flights operated by several different carriers.

Use Flexible Dates for Lower Fares

It’s possible that I could book a lower fare if I removed some of the advanced routing language. Forcing my connections in certain cities eliminated some options. Another good way to find cheap fares is to be very flexible with dates. How flexible? You can tell ITA Matrix to search an entire month at once. Just choose the earliest possible departure and how long you want to be away. Enter a range of dates if you’re not sure. For a week-long trip you might search 5-6 nights. For a weekend you might search 2-3 nights.

I’ll try a new search, this time being more flexible with my itinerary and dates.

Search results for flexible dates begin with a calendar view. The cheapest fares are in orange. Hover over the departure date to see how prices change with the length of stay. After making a choice, you’ll see more detailed information about each flight as in the first example.

ITA Matrix can’t book tickets, but it is very good at finding the best options. Just know that you should be able to book the same itinerary for the same price on another website. You can try to reconstruct the results by going to the airline’s website directly, use an online travel agency, or by taking a screenshot to share with a human travel agent. Hipmunk is a particularly helpful online travel agency since it can understand some (not all) of ITA’s advanced routing language, enabling you to enter exact flight numbers if other options aren’t working.

Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

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Save Money with Hidden City Ticketing and Other Tricks Using ITA Matrix

Scott Mackenzie

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July 6, 2020

ITA Matrix is popular among frequent flyers and travel hackers because it provides so much control over the parameters of your search. You can force connections in a certain city, exclude airlines, and even pick exact flight numbers. Some of these functions are possible with other websites but can be extremely cumbersome. Finding a great itinerary with ITA Matrix can make it easier to reconstruct elsewhere for cash or award tickets.

There are many examples of saving money on air travel. This article describes three examples, some simple and others complex, that can be done more easily with ITA Matrix than on most other airline websites or online travel agencies. Before reading this article, I strongly recommend you read my introduction to ITA Matrix as well as a detailed primer on advanced routing language.

Split Fares When Availability Is Limited

There are multiple booking classes in each cabin, and each of them has a different price and a different number of seats for sale. When one sells out, customers are forced to buy the next most expensive booking class.

One of the rules when booking air travel is that everyone in the reservation gets the same treatment. That means if you have two people in your party and there is only one ticket left in the cheapest booking class, then both of you will need to book the more expensive booking class.

There is an alternative. Book one person at the cheaper fare and the other person at the more expensive fare. This might save $20 or $200 depending on the difference, but the point is that you don’t need to buy the same expensive ticket for everyone if they aren’t in the same reservation.

Most websites won’t alert you to this opportunity. ITA Matrix will. Look for an asterisk in the search results, which indicates that the price you see is an average of two different fares.

In this example, $176 per person is actually the average price of an S fare that costs $155 and a V fare that costs $197. Booking separately saves $42. If you were to decide to book this flight on the American Airlines website after finding it, remember to search for one person at a time.

Find Cheaper Routes Using Open Jaws

Many round-trip journeys can be ticketed by combining two separate one-way fares. When these fares begin and end in different cities, the itinerary is called an “open jaw” because of the gap between these cities. A “double open jaw” has a gap on both ends.

Open jaws can save time, money, or both. Perhaps you want to visit two different islands in Hawaii, or you want to take a grand tour of Europe by starting in Berlin and ending in Rome. Maybe flights are expensive from your home airport, but you are willing to drive to a couple of nearby cities. (Even flying out of New York-JFK and returning to New York-LaGuardia is an open jaw, albeit a very small one.)

These itineraries are easy to search for. Remember from the earlier discussion of advanced routing rules that you can list multiple options for connecting cities by separating each airport with a comma. You can also separate multiple origin airports or multiple destination airports with a comma.

Here’s an example of searching for a non-stop, round-trip ticket from Washington-Dulles to any of three different airports in Europe on a Star Alliance carrier.

In the results below, Rome is much more expensive than the other two options for the outbound journey. You can scroll through the results or click on the “From/To” button to filter them. These prices are all for round-trip travel and just represent the lowest possible fare; they could change after selecting the return journey.

I’ll select Brussels as the outbound destination. Brussels is also the cheapest option for the return. However, Rome isn’t as expensive on the return journey as it was during the outbound.

It turns out that by flying into Brussels and returning from Rome it is possible to pay $72 less than if I began the journey in Rome. I’m going to see both cities anyway (and everywhere in between) so why not change the order to save a few dollars?

Be careful when performing these searches! Multiple airports create many, many more results for ITA to explore, so you shouldn’t use too many unless you also place additional restrictions such as a preferred carrier. In this example, I limited my search to the carriers in a particular airline alliance.

Hidden City Ticketing

Finally, you can use ITA Matrix to easily search for hidden city fares. These take advantage of the rules airlines use to price flights according to supply and demand between any two cities, not necessarily the cost of operating the plane.

Imagine there are high fares for a flight from Seattle to Minneapolis, but there are low fares for a flight from Seattle to Chicago. Minneapolis is on the way to Chicago, so even though non-stop flights are available to each city it is also possible that some connecting flights exist. Passengers who buy a connecting flight to Chicago might pay less than travelers to Minneapolis even though everyone takes the same initial flight.

Why? Because the airline can charge different prices and still fill the plane. That’s the only reason necessary. Connecting passengers are important to maximize revenue even if they pay less that non-stop passengers. Sometimes it creates strange situations like this one.

Hidden city ticketing takes advantage of the fact that a passenger can book a trip to Chicago, get off the plane in Minneapolis, and never show up for the connecting flight. It only works for one-way travel because the rest of the ticket will be canceled as soon as that flight is missed. If you need to travel round-trip, book separate tickets in each direction.

Search for hidden city tickets by entering the hidden city (i.e., where you plan to miss your flight) as a connection using advanced routing language. Then enter one or more other airports as the destination. You don’t care where as long as it’s cheaper than the hidden city. You can list multiple airports separated by commas.

Another option is to use the “Nearby” function to automatically select airports from a list. This trick often works best if the hidden city is a hub, so you might look for airports near that hub.

Here’s an option for a flight from Seattle to Chicago-Midway that connects in Minneapolis for just $107.

If you tried to book a flight from Seattle to Minneapolis, the cheapest option has a connection and costs $36 (34%) more.

Actually booking the same Delta flight that would be used for hidden city ticketing costs $328 (207% more).

WARNING: Hidden city ticketing is against the rules at most airlines, and customers who do it too often may be at risk of losing their frequent flyer miles or being refused service. The occasional flight is unlikely to be an issue, but if delays or cancellations interrupt your trip remember that the airline is only obligated to get you to the destination you purchased, not the hidden city!

Summary

There are many, many ways to use ITA Matrix to explore cheap fares and exploit loopholes in airline pricing. These are just three of the easiest tricks for beginners. Others, like fuel dumping, require more experience and are more likely to cause trouble. As you become more comfortable using ITA to search for air travel you’ll be well prepared for new opportunities to save money on travel.

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