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> Hipmunk was the absolute best Not sure I would put it as strongly as that. Hipmunk was OK, one of "the better" free tools out there. But I'm afraid it neve

> Hipmunk was the absolute best Not sure I would put it as strongly as that. Hipmunk was OK, one of "the better" free tools out there. But I'm afraid it never had anything on ITA Matrix. ITA always had copious amounts of extra special sauce. I extensively tried all competitors I could find (including Hipmunk) on a variety of real-world scenarios. Nothing ever came close to ITA and I was very worried indeed for its future when Google bought it.

tehwebguy 5y ago
Hipmunk had a great feature for sorting by “pain” and filtering takeoff / land times easier than anyone. But ITA was so comprehensive you could find loopholes, like when you add an additional destination and your first class ticket drops in price by 50% etc. It is super missed in the mileage community!
MAGZine 5y ago
Yeah, but you couldn't buy tickets on ITA which made its special sauce only go so far. What's the point of building the best schedule if its unpurchaseable, or unpurchaseable without a travel agent? Hipmunk actually let you use ITA syntax to search for very specific route constructions, which you could then buy.
- 1024core 5y ago
  IIRC, ITA gave you the flight details in the special syntax (code) that travel agents use, and you could just give that code to a travel agent and they'd be able to buy that exact flight for you.
- traceroute66 5y ago
  > Yeah, but you couldn't buy tickets on ITA which made its special sauce only go so far. I booked tons of tickets over the years using ITA as a basis. Its not that difficult. Get the itinerary finalised in ITA and then either: (a) Head over to the appropriate airline's website and enter in the legs; or (b) Call up the appropriate airline's reservations callcentre In 99.99% of cases, I was able to do it all online without speaking to anyone. There was only a tiny number where I had to call them up. The savings achievable via ITA far outweighed the minor inconvenience of double-keying.
  - tehwebguy 5y ago
    This was part of the benefit IMO, noobs couldn’t burn a ridiculous deal instantly. Our $900 business class (90% off error fare) YVR-HND-SYD roundtrip on ANA with free stopovers was the best one I ever booked with ITA’s help.
- arcticbull 5y ago
  These days you can use BookWithMatrix [1]. Paste in the ITA Matrix itinerary page at the end and it'll give you a bookable link with an OTA :) [1] https://bookwithmatrix.com/ https://bookwithmatrix.com/
  - 4ad 5y ago
    Unfortunately this has failed for me for complex flights, exactly the type of flights that ITA Matrix is most useful for. But calling a travel agent has always worked.
    - arcticbull 5y ago
      At one point I considered becoming a travel sub-agent so I could book some of these itineraries myself :)
- radicality 5y ago
  There's some sites that let you paste an itamatrix itinerary and show you places where you could potentially purchase it (eg https://bookwithmatrix.com/ https://bookwithmatrix.com/). If that doesn't work and you really want a specific itinerary, I've had good luck with amex travel concierge, where I provided them with copy-paste of ITA matrix and they made the booking.
- dzhiurgis 5y ago
  Google is sometimes the same - presents an option for either calling an agent (never worked for me) or buying same flight for $20k. Then you go to SkyScanner and get same ticket for maybe 10% more but via dodgy-ish website. p.s. Google seems to be the worst at bait and switch, but that's different story.

tehwebguy 5y ago

Hipmunk had a great feature for sorting by “pain” and filtering takeoff / land times easier than anyone. But ITA was so comprehensive you could find loopholes, like when you add an additional destination and your first class ticket drops in price by 50% etc. It is super missed in the mileage community!

MAGZine 5y ago

Yeah, but you couldn't buy tickets on ITA which made its special sauce only go so far. What's the point of building the best schedule if its unpurchaseable, or unpurchaseable without a travel agent? Hipmunk actually let you use ITA syntax to search for very specific route constructions, which you could then buy.

1024core 5y ago
IIRC, ITA gave you the flight details in the special syntax (code) that travel agents use, and you could just give that code to a travel agent and they'd be able to buy that exact flight for you.
traceroute66 5y ago
> Yeah, but you couldn't buy tickets on ITA which made its special sauce only go so far. I booked tons of tickets over the years using ITA as a basis. Its not that difficult. Get the itinerary finalised in ITA and then either: (a) Head over to the appropriate airline's website and enter in the legs; or (b) Call up the appropriate airline's reservations callcentre In 99.99% of cases, I was able to do it all online without speaking to anyone. There was only a tiny number where I had to call them up. The savings achievable via ITA far outweighed the minor inconvenience of double-keying.
- tehwebguy 5y ago
  This was part of the benefit IMO, noobs couldn’t burn a ridiculous deal instantly. Our $900 business class (90% off error fare) YVR-HND-SYD roundtrip on ANA with free stopovers was the best one I ever booked with ITA’s help.
arcticbull 5y ago
These days you can use BookWithMatrix [1]. Paste in the ITA Matrix itinerary page at the end and it'll give you a bookable link with an OTA :) [1] https://bookwithmatrix.com/ https://bookwithmatrix.com/
- 4ad 5y ago
  Unfortunately this has failed for me for complex flights, exactly the type of flights that ITA Matrix is most useful for. But calling a travel agent has always worked.
  - arcticbull 5y ago
    At one point I considered becoming a travel sub-agent so I could book some of these itineraries myself :)
radicality 5y ago
There's some sites that let you paste an itamatrix itinerary and show you places where you could potentially purchase it (eg https://bookwithmatrix.com/ https://bookwithmatrix.com/). If that doesn't work and you really want a specific itinerary, I've had good luck with amex travel concierge, where I provided them with copy-paste of ITA matrix and they made the booking.
dzhiurgis 5y ago
Google is sometimes the same - presents an option for either calling an agent (never worked for me) or buying same flight for $20k. Then you go to SkyScanner and get same ticket for maybe 10% more but via dodgy-ish website. p.s. Google seems to be the worst at bait and switch, but that's different story.