5 ms·

So sad to see matrix.itasoftware.com's amazing search engine get most of it's features ripped out and replaced with a pretty UI that does so little. For folks

by rabble 14y ago

So sad to see matrix.itasoftware.com's amazing search engine get most of it's features ripped out and replaced with a pretty UI that does so little. For folks who like hipmonk? Do you really travel? Their search engine also fails to find most good fares. Pretty but useless. Most people who are serious use expertflyer.com and matrix.itasoftware.com to find fares. Yes you have to learn a bit about how air fares are constructed, but this is hacker news not consumer news isn't it?

rubyrescue 14y ago
I can't agree more. hipmunk is totally useless for truly finding good fares. matrix is the only site i start with, then i go to sites that aren't on ITA (jetblue/southwest/some south american airlines like gol) but i try to avoid those airlines anyway (and like you i'm usually travelling internationally so they're not relevant)
mda 14y ago
May I ask which feature in Matrix you like is not available in Google Flights?
- sareon 14y ago
  I like being able to select a number of possible departure airports (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Detroit) and then my days I like being able to say +/- 2 days.
  - MertsA 14y ago
    You can do a lot more than that in Google Flights, just hit the plus sign on the right side of the departure box and you can add as many airports as you want, ditto for the arrival airport. Also, for the plus or minus 2 days just click on the little bar graph at the top right of the page instead of map view and it will show you months on either side. That feature is probably one of the best, there is a huge difference in prices depending on the date.
- jrockway 14y ago
  Matrix and ExpertFlyer also let you search fare classes, so if you know your upgrade instrument is based on the availability of X inventory, you can look for flights with available X inventory so you can upgrade.
- extesy 14y ago
  For me three features are missing in Google Flights: 1. International flights 2. Flexible dates (simple +-3 or the whole month overview) 3. Ability to specify connecting airport
ketralnis 14y ago
> Their search engine also fails to find most good fares Do you have an example of this? We get our data from the same place that Matrix does
- gwillen 14y ago
  Is there some way I can contact you directly the next time I find an example of this? I'm happy to send you all the diagnostic data your heart desires. I suspect in some cases it may be due to timeouts or row count limits. I tend to do very broad searches, and then narrow the results with filters. This works great in Matrix, but with Orbitz (which uses the same data source), I tend to hit invisible limits where I can see that some of the rows have just been cut off from the results. (E.g. I can book flights A or B for leg 1, and flights C or D for leg 2, but for the combination I can only book (A,C), (A,D), and (B,C). The B-D trip is in Matrix results but not Orbitz, and this kind of truncation only happens when I have lots of results. I don't know for sure that Hipmunk follows the same pattern, because I haven't used it in quite some time, but I'm happy to send bug reports IF AND ONLY IF I can have confidence that a real human is reading them.
  - ketralnis 14y ago
    > Is there some way I can contact you directly the next time I find an example of this? I'm happy to send you all the diagnostic data your heart desires Yeah, just use the Olark (live chat) bar on the bottom of the page, that should get you a real human

by rabble 14y ago

rubyrescue 14y ago

I can't agree more. hipmunk is totally useless for truly finding good fares. matrix is the only site i start with, then i go to sites that aren't on ITA (jetblue/southwest/some south american airlines like gol) but i try to avoid those airlines anyway (and like you i'm usually travelling internationally so they're not relevant)

mda 14y ago

May I ask which feature in Matrix you like is not available in Google Flights?

sareon 14y ago
I like being able to select a number of possible departure airports (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Detroit) and then my days I like being able to say +/- 2 days.
- MertsA 14y ago
  You can do a lot more than that in Google Flights, just hit the plus sign on the right side of the departure box and you can add as many airports as you want, ditto for the arrival airport. Also, for the plus or minus 2 days just click on the little bar graph at the top right of the page instead of map view and it will show you months on either side. That feature is probably one of the best, there is a huge difference in prices depending on the date.
jrockway 14y ago
Matrix and ExpertFlyer also let you search fare classes, so if you know your upgrade instrument is based on the availability of X inventory, you can look for flights with available X inventory so you can upgrade.
extesy 14y ago
For me three features are missing in Google Flights: 1. International flights 2. Flexible dates (simple +-3 or the whole month overview) 3. Ability to specify connecting airport

ketralnis 14y ago

> Their search engine also fails to find most good fares Do you have an example of this? We get our data from the same place that Matrix does

gwillen 14y ago
Is there some way I can contact you directly the next time I find an example of this? I'm happy to send you all the diagnostic data your heart desires. I suspect in some cases it may be due to timeouts or row count limits. I tend to do very broad searches, and then narrow the results with filters. This works great in Matrix, but with Orbitz (which uses the same data source), I tend to hit invisible limits where I can see that some of the rows have just been cut off from the results. (E.g. I can book flights A or B for leg 1, and flights C or D for leg 2, but for the combination I can only book (A,C), (A,D), and (B,C). The B-D trip is in Matrix results but not Orbitz, and this kind of truncation only happens when I have lots of results. I don't know for sure that Hipmunk follows the same pattern, because I haven't used it in quite some time, but I'm happy to send bug reports IF AND ONLY IF I can have confidence that a real human is reading them.
- ketralnis 14y ago
  > Is there some way I can contact you directly the next time I find an example of this? I'm happy to send you all the diagnostic data your heart desires Yeah, just use the Olark (live chat) bar on the bottom of the page, that should get you a real human