Welcome to the Expert Case for ITA Matrix

Before reading the Expert Case, I am assuming you have already read and understood the ITA Matrix Beginner Case and my ITA Matrix Intermediate Case.  After you finish the Expert Case, you will be a master at ITA Matrix.  The Expert Case has these 4 sections:

• Price vs. Price per Mile Case – Orange County to San Francisco
• Another Price vs. Price per Mile Case – Los Angeles to New York City
• Calendar View – What day should I visit my grandma in Florida?
• More ITA Matrix Advanced Routing Codes

 

Price vs. Price per Mile Case – Orange County to San Francisco

By default, ITA Matrix shows the cheapest flights at the top of the page, followed by more expensive flights below.  In the example below, you will see $59 for a one way flight between Orange County, CA (SNA) and San Francisco, CA (SFO).  Below the price is “$0.159 per mile” which means 15.9 cents per mile.  By taking this flight, I am buying miles at 15.9 cents each plus I get a trip to San Francisco.

$59 sounds like a great deal for a one way flight, but if you are looking to acquire frequent flyer miles for a free flight, you may want to look for another flight, given that Orange County, CA (SNA) to San Francisco, CA (SFO) is only 372 miles.  I value United miles at 2 cents each, which equals 372 x .02 = $7.44 value.  To look for a better deal, click the PRICE button and click the “sort by price per mile” link.

The chart updates with the cheapest (price per mile) flight at the top.  In this case, the cheapest option is 9.1 cents per mile, flown on Delta, with 2 stops in Salt Lake City, UT (SLC) and Seattle, WA (SEA) for $178.  Even though the cents per mile is lower, this is not really a deal because I only value Delta Skymiles at 1 cent each, therefore, this routing would only provide 1,953 x .01 = $19.53 in value.

To see which option is the better deal, I take the price of the ticket and subtract the value of the miles I would earn by flying on that routing.

• My United Flight: $59.00 – $7.44 = $51.56.
• My Delta Flight: $178.00 – $19.53 = $158.47.  
• I would definitely purchase the United flight over the Delta flight because the Delta flight is 3 times more expensive.

 

Another Price vs. Price per Mile Case – Los Angeles to New York City

In the example below, a one way flight between Los Angeles, CA (LAX) and New York, NY (LGA) costs $167.  Below the price is “$0.067 per mile” which means 6.7 cents per mile.  By taking this flight, I am buying miles at 6.7 cents each plus I get a trip to New York City.

US Airway miles are great because they can be credited to United, but is there a better (price per mile) “deal” out there?  Let’s take a look.  Click the PRICE button and click the “sort by price per mile” link.  Look at that, if instead of flying LAX to LGA, I can fly from Burbank, CA (BUR) to New York, NY (JFK) for 6.4 cents per mile.  Even though $187 is $20 more than $167, the price per mile is better, which means that the more expensive flight must be longer.  

To visualize this, I use Great Circle Mapper and entered “LAX-PHL-LGA, BUR-SFO-JFK” and clicked the MAP button.  As you can see, both flights are pretty similar.  Below the map, are the distances from each point on the map.

• LAX-PHL-LGA is $167 and 2,497 miles, we divide them and get $167 / 2,497 = 6.688 cents, or 6.7 cents per mile.
• BUR-SFO-JFK is $187 and 2,912 miles, we divide them and get $187 / 2,912 = 6.422 cents, or 6.4 cents per mile.
  
• So far, the United flight from Burbank, CA (BUR) to New York, NY (JFK) looks like it is a better deal.

Since both US Airways and United miles can be credited to United, and since I value United miles at 2 cents each, let’s see what is actually the best deal.

• LAX-PHL-LGA is 2,497 miles, so 2,497 x .02 = $49.94, subtract that from $167, equals $167.00 – $49.94 = $117.06.  
• BUR-SFO-JFK is 2,912 miles, so 2,912 x .02 = $58.84, subtract that from $187, equals $187.00 – $58.24 = $128.75.  
• Therefore, the LAX to LGA flight is cheaper than BUR to JFK.
• P.S. If you value flying from Burbank, CA (BUR) or flying into New York, NY (JFK) at more than $10, chose the BUR-SFO-JFK flight instead.

 

Calendar View – What day should I visit my grandma in Florida?

It is my grandma’s birthday in December, so I wanted to fly down to Miami and visit her. Even though her birthday is at the end of December, she said I could visit her any time in December. So now we can use ITA Matrix’s calendar view.  This works great for one way trips as well as round trips.  I can leave out of any Los Angeles area airport (LAX, BUR, LGB, SNA, ONT) and fly into Miami, FL (MIA) or Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL).  I select “see calendar of lowest fares,” select December 1, and type “2-4” nights. Make sure to keep the box marked “allow airport changes” checked.

Here is a calendar view, showing the cheapest day to leave on a 2 to 4 night trip.

By moving my mouse over the orange $280 December 7 box, another box opens up telling me that the cheapest roundtrip flight is 3 nights, flying back to Los Angeles on December 10. As you can tell, spending one less or one more day would only cost $9 more.

My top 2 choices are on Jet Blue.  The first one leaves from Long Beach, CA (LGB) with a connection in New York, NY (JFK) before landing at Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL) at 11:09PM.  The flight arrives past my grandma’s bedtime and is 9 hours and 47 minutes long.  The second flight is $25 more expensive, leaves from Los Angeles, CA (LAX) and is only 4 hours and 40 minutes long.

I wonder if there are better times on any other days?  Maybe, let’s take a look.  Click the “modify search” link at the top to go back to the first page.

I will first look at nonstop flights on my outbound.  To view the advance search settings, click the “advanced routing codes” link and type “N” (for nonstop flights only) in the space between my departing and destination boxes, then click search.

Thursday, December 5 through Sunday, December 8 all have nonstop flights on the outbound, starting at $305.

In the upper right corner of some of the boxes, there is a symbol that looks like a crescent moon, which indicates that one of the flights is overnight.  I do not like overnight flights, so I un-check the “include overnight flights” box.

The calendar updates and I chose the Saturday flight with 3 nights in Florida.

I narrowed down my selection by searching for “no flights with advisories (overnight red-eye flights), round trip tickets that cost less than $340, no flights that leave before 8AM, and no flights that arrive after 9PM.”  After narrowing it down, this is my only option.  I select that flight and start working on my return flight to Los Angeles.

Since there is only one flight that is less than $340, my choice is easy.

Now my perfect flight is complete.  If you look carefully, you will notice that my outbound flight is LAX to Miami but my return flight is Fort Lauderdale to LAX.  That is not a problem as I will show you how to purchase this flight online.

From here, I would go to AA.com and enter my departure city (LAX), my arrival city (MIA), departure date (12/7/2013), my arrival date (12/10/2013), and click the “refine your search” link below the blue search box.

The easiest way to include find my return flight from Fort Lauderdale is to select “30 miles” from the drop down box because Fort Lauderdale is 21 miles from Miami. Since both of the flights are nonstop, select “none” for number of stops.  Click the GO button at the bottom to see the flights.

American Airlines has three different types of economy options, but I want the cheapest flight, so I click the arrow below the Choice box and watch as the list updates with the cheapest flight at the top of the page.

Select the cheapest flight by click the circle next to $333.  Ignore the other options unless you want to pay extra for a checked bag and group 1 boarding.

Scroll down to the return flight options and click the arrow below the Choice box to sort flights by price.  Our FLL to LAX flight says “included” which means it will not increase the price above $333.  On the other hand, there are several other choices to chose from for an extra $19.  If I wanted to leave from MIA or spend more time with grandma, I would choose one of the other flights.

Everything looks right; correct flight and the correct round trip price.  At this point, I would purchase my ticket and call up grandma and let her know my plans.

 

More ITA Matrix Advanced Routing Codes

Hat tip to SeattleFred for his Flyer Talk Post about advanced routing codes.  His original post is from 2004, and since then, ITA Matrix has changed some of the formatting. Therefore, I have used SeattleFred’s information and updated it to current standards.

Restricting flights to certain airlines

Command: “XX,XX”
Example: look for only Delta and American flights
From: BOS :: DL,AA
To: LAX :: DL,AA

Preventing flights on certain airlines

Command: “~XX”
Example: do not look for Delta flights
From: BOS :: ~DL
To: LAX :: ~DL

Maximum duration of itinerary (in minutes)

Command: “/ maxdur XXX”
Example: flights shorter than 7 hours (420 minutes)
From: BOS / maxdur 420
To: LAX / maxdur 420

Set minimum & maximum time for connections (in minutes)

Commands: “minconnect XX”, “maxconnect XX”
Example: no less than 1 hour, no more than 2 hour connections
From: BOS / minconnect 60, maxconnect 120
To: LAX / minconnect 60, maxconnect 120

Extra connection time (in minutes)

Command: “padconnect XX”
Example: require 20 minutes more than airline recommended connection times
From: BOS / padconnect 20
To: LAX / padconnect 20

Prevent overnight flights, airport changes, red eye flights, propeller planes, trains, helicopters, or surface travel

Commands: “-overnight”; “-change”; “-redeye”; “-prop”; “-train”; “-helicopter”; “-surface”
Example: no overnight stops, no airport chanes, no redeyes, and no propellor planes
From: BOS / -overnight; -change; -redeye; -prop
To: LAX / -overnight; -change; -redeye; -prop

“/f bc=w” for tickets in the W fare class or “/f bc=w|bc=y” to search for tickets in W or Y class.

“/alliance star-alliance” to search Star Alliance members like United, US Airways, Lufthansa

“/alliance oneworld” to search oneworld members like American Airlines, British Airways

“/alliance skyteam” to search SkyTeam members like Delta, Air France, KLM

Here are some other helpful ITA shortcuts, compliments to Scott @ Hack My Trip.

 

Want to learn more about ITA Matrix?

If you want to review other ITA Matrix scenarios, read my ITA Matrix Beginner Case and my ITA Matrix Intermediate Case.