5 ms·

Kayak and Hipmunk get a lot of praise for their UI but if you want to use a hacker interface for finding flights, http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ http://matrix.i

by casca 14y ago

Kayak and Hipmunk get a lot of praise for their UI but if you want to use a hacker interface for finding flights, http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ is the way to go. It's not as pretty, but is incredibly feature-rich, not limited to the US and regularly finds me prices that are significantly cheaper than anyone else.

scotth 14y ago
Have you tried out Google Flights? I've been told it's based on this same technology, and has a much better UI. And be sure to click around. It has some interesting tools, like prices for flights to your destination flown out of nearby airports.
- patrickod 14y ago
  I believe that ITA software is owned by Google. They license it to others as well.
- brianbreslin 14y ago
  wow google flights is super fast!
  - edouard1234567 14y ago
    My guess is that they predict the most common searches and constantly query and cash results for these searches, something I don't think Kayak or hipmunk does. I don't think you can launch a search product on google if it takes more than .xx seconds to return the result...
    - cshesse 14y ago
      It could have something to do with the fact that Google owns ITA.
      - edouard1234567 14y ago
        I think that owning ITA allows them to have more data to mine/predict and better access but it doesn't explain how fast the searches are. Most airfare searches still hit GDSs which are relatively slow to respond. The only way I can think of Google can deliver such a performance is by intelligently pre-caching airfare searches. Google?
    - brianbreslin 14y ago
      I'm not so sure, I looked for a few random flights. However, having built my own very rudimentary internal flight search tool from the global flight list, I can tell you there are roughly 7 million flights per month, a small data set by google standards.
      - edouard1234567 14y ago
        It's not the size of the dataset that is relevant but more that this dataset changes in realtime : price + availability. These requests go through GDSs that are relatively slow, that's why so called real-time search engines like kayak are fairly slow. What do you exactly mean by 7M flights? Keep in mind that most search requests involve a combination of flights (leg), outbound, inbound and sometime multiple stops...
- baby 14y ago
  not working in Europe. God damn!
mherdeg 14y ago
It was a sad, sad day when they shut down the old http://matrix1.itasoftware.com/ http://matrix1.itasoftware.com/ interface. It was much more keyboard accessible with faster navigation between inputs, and the forward and back buttons always did exactly what I expected. Also really miss the "weekend search". It was a really great service, but I guess it wasn't exactly making them money.
koeselitz 14y ago
Kayak, Hipmunk, Google Flights, Orbitz, and almost every other aggregator licenses ITA Software's system, actually. And most major airlines use it internally. It's good enough that it's pretty much the de facto standard and framework.
- ciniglio 14y ago
  Maybe not Google anymore, since Google acquired ITA :-). But obviously they still use it
spez 14y ago
FYI - you can access most of ITA's routing language on Hipmunk, if you type :: after an airport code. The advantage of using us is we can make you a booking link to actually purchase the itinerary.
- casca 14y ago
  Thanks, that's interesting. The issue for me is that Hipmunk only serves the US market and won't let me enter multiple airports as source or destination. My best results have started with a list of 20 possible sources and destinations which is unfeasible to search with any other publicly available service.
  - goldfish 14y ago
    You can enter multiple airports (as long as they're in the same time zone). Just separate them with commas.
    - raldi 14y ago
      Have you considered watching to see if a user searches for, e.g., flights out of JFK immediately after an identical search for flights out of LGA, and then gently highlighting the feature?
      - PompomCris 14y ago
        There're a slew of new flight booking startups like http://wuhutravel.com http://wuhutravel.com and http://sillk.co http://sillk.co that I believe are trying to entice younger travellers by apparently launching features like you just mentioned raldi (based on screenshots I've seen on dribbble from their designers)...
    - bgruber 14y ago
      i'd like to reiterate that hipmunk should make it clearer that multiple airports is supported now. It used to not work, and therefore I used Kayak.
- 14y ago

by casca 14y ago

scotth 14y ago

Have you tried out Google Flights? I've been told it's based on this same technology, and has a much better UI. And be sure to click around. It has some interesting tools, like prices for flights to your destination flown out of nearby airports.

patrickod 14y ago
I believe that ITA software is owned by Google. They license it to others as well.
brianbreslin 14y ago
wow google flights is super fast!
- edouard1234567 14y ago
  My guess is that they predict the most common searches and constantly query and cash results for these searches, something I don't think Kayak or hipmunk does. I don't think you can launch a search product on google if it takes more than .xx seconds to return the result...
  - cshesse 14y ago
    It could have something to do with the fact that Google owns ITA.
    - edouard1234567 14y ago
      I think that owning ITA allows them to have more data to mine/predict and better access but it doesn't explain how fast the searches are. Most airfare searches still hit GDSs which are relatively slow to respond. The only way I can think of Google can deliver such a performance is by intelligently pre-caching airfare searches. Google?
  - brianbreslin 14y ago
    I'm not so sure, I looked for a few random flights. However, having built my own very rudimentary internal flight search tool from the global flight list, I can tell you there are roughly 7 million flights per month, a small data set by google standards.
    - edouard1234567 14y ago
      It's not the size of the dataset that is relevant but more that this dataset changes in realtime : price + availability. These requests go through GDSs that are relatively slow, that's why so called real-time search engines like kayak are fairly slow. What do you exactly mean by 7M flights? Keep in mind that most search requests involve a combination of flights (leg), outbound, inbound and sometime multiple stops...
baby 14y ago
not working in Europe. God damn!

mherdeg 14y ago

It was a sad, sad day when they shut down the old http://matrix1.itasoftware.com/ http://matrix1.itasoftware.com/ interface. It was much more keyboard accessible with faster navigation between inputs, and the forward and back buttons always did exactly what I expected. Also really miss the "weekend search". It was a really great service, but I guess it wasn't exactly making them money.

koeselitz 14y ago

Kayak, Hipmunk, Google Flights, Orbitz, and almost every other aggregator licenses ITA Software's system, actually. And most major airlines use it internally. It's good enough that it's pretty much the de facto standard and framework.

ciniglio 14y ago
Maybe not Google anymore, since Google acquired ITA :-). But obviously they still use it

spez 14y ago

FYI - you can access most of ITA's routing language on Hipmunk, if you type :: after an airport code. The advantage of using us is we can make you a booking link to actually purchase the itinerary.

casca 14y ago
Thanks, that's interesting. The issue for me is that Hipmunk only serves the US market and won't let me enter multiple airports as source or destination. My best results have started with a list of 20 possible sources and destinations which is unfeasible to search with any other publicly available service.
- goldfish 14y ago
  You can enter multiple airports (as long as they're in the same time zone). Just separate them with commas.
  - raldi 14y ago
    Have you considered watching to see if a user searches for, e.g., flights out of JFK immediately after an identical search for flights out of LGA, and then gently highlighting the feature?
    - PompomCris 14y ago
      There're a slew of new flight booking startups like http://wuhutravel.com http://wuhutravel.com and http://sillk.co http://sillk.co that I believe are trying to entice younger travellers by apparently launching features like you just mentioned raldi (based on screenshots I've seen on dribbble from their designers)...
  - bgruber 14y ago
    i'd like to reiterate that hipmunk should make it clearer that multiple airports is supported now. It used to not work, and therefore I used Kayak.
14y ago