ita software travel matrix

How to use the ITA Matrix to find cheap flights

If you're always on the hunt for cheap flights, you're likely familiar with using Google Flights , Skyscanner or online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia. We're big fans of those platforms here at TPG, as they can save you a ton of money on flights.

But the most powerful tool of all is a little less known and a lot less sleek: the ITA Matrix , which is also powered by Google. This platform requires a bit more work to score cheap flights (more on that below), but if you know how to make ITA Matrix work for you, it can pay off.

Here's everything you need to know about the ITA Matrix.

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What is the ITA Matrix?

ITA Matrix is a powerful tool that allows you to search for flights -- though keep in mind that you can't actually book flights on the platform. For that, you'll need to go to the individual airline's website. You'll find many flights, though Google says each airline decides how much to participate.

Pros of the ITA Matrix

Most OTAs let you search for only specific travel dates. For instance, on Expedia you're locked into searching one date at a time.

The ITA Matrix allows you to select options like a day before, after, or plus/minus 1- 2 days. That little extra flexibility gets you to a ticket faster and could save you money if traveling on another day is cheaper.

Cons of the ITA Matrix

One of the biggest downsides to using the ITA Matrix is that while you can search for flights, you can't actually book them through the platform. You can provide the information you find to a travel agent or airline when booking a flight, or you can try to recreate the itinerary through the airline or OTA yourself.

How to use the ITA Matrix to search for flights

There are a lot of filters, but finding flights using ITA Matrix is pretty straightforward. You will enter your departure and arrival airports as you would through an OTA. You can search one-way, round-trip or multi-city itineraries.

Routing codes

To get the most out of ITA Matrix, you'll probably need to use routing codes. Google has a helpful FAQ sheet on understanding the codes, which at first glance can seem pretty complicated. I'll do a breakdown of how to use these later on, but using the codes, you can:

• Include only flights operated by specific airlines or alliances
• Specify the number of connections you are willing to make (e.g., nonstop flights only, or one connection only)
• Search for flights with a layover in a specific airport, or avoiding a particular airport (e.g., avoiding a connection through Los Angeles (LAX) on a Delta flight from Las Vegas to Tokyo )
• Limit the duration of an itinerary
• Exclude red-eye flights or flights with overnight stops

Related: Coronavirus cancellations: What to do if you've booked travel through an online travel agency (OTA)

Cost per mile filter

You can see mileage and price per mile when you hover over your preferred fare in the search results. On the search results page, click the price heading and click "show price per mile." This is a neat feature to use if you're booking a mileage run where you'd need a certain amount of qualifying miles to get or keep elite status.

Geo-Search filter

The Geo-Search filter lets you search by airport code, city, or nearby airport. This feature could be helpful if you live in an area served by several airports, like New York, and you want to avoid flying out of Newark, for instance.

Color-coded Time Bars

We'll talk more about the Time Bars below, but this option allows you to compare flights at a glance. It's helpful if you don't want to scroll through pages and pages of flights. It's also an easier way to see how long your connections will be if you aren't flying nonstop.

How to book flights using ITA Matrix

I'm going to walk you through finding a flight through the ITA Matrix to illustrate how all this works. I'll be searching for a one-way flight from New York (JFK) to Portland (PDX) for dates in June 2021.

In the dates section, you'll see an option to search by exact dates or view a calendar. The calendar feature could be helpful if your travel plans are flexible and you just want to find the cheapest fares. You can also search for flights by time if you prefer a red-eye or midday flight.

You can then pick what cabin you prefer, whether you want a nonstop flight and the currency you want the fare to price out in.

We'll talk a bit later about more advanced ways to search for flights, but after you hit "search," you'll see a page with your results. It's pretty self-explanatory, but I want to highlight the circle indicators on the right-hand side of the page under "advisory."

The advisory column shows you features you may want to avoid, like airport changes, long layovers and short connections that could be risky.

If you want a more visual overview of the flight options, make sure you hit "Time Bar."

After selecting your preferred flight, you'll see a detailed description, including the aircraft, fare class, whether you'll get a meal in-flight and whether there is onboard entertainment. Keep in mind that the aircraft could change before your flight.

Finally, you'll see the cost breakdown of the flight, the fare construction (you'll send this to your travel agent) and a Powertools section to book your flight through another platform. I'll talk more about this below. There is also a way to email the itinerary if you need to send it to a travel agent.

Can I book a flight with ITA Matrix?

As I said above, you can't book flights directly through the program. You do have some options for recreating your itinerary, however. You can use BookWithMatrix to generate a booking link from your ITA Matrix result.

All you have to do is paste your itinerary into the box and you'll see results. Let's say you want to fly from Newark (EWR ) to San Francisco (SFO) one-way. You want to fly United Airlines only, you don't mind a connection but you don't want to connect in Chicago (ORD) .

After the results page populates, you'll pick your preferred itinerary by selecting it. After you do that, you'll select the entire page and then paste it into BookWithMatrix.

You'll then see the itinerary on BookWithMatrix and a link to book the flight. If you don't want to go through all of those steps, you can use ITA Matrix's Powertools feature on the left-hand side of the page to book directly.

Can I search for hotels with ITA Matrix?

You can't search for hotels using the ITA Matrix. If you're trying to find a hotel for your trip, you're better off using a platform like Orbitz or Priceline or booking directly through your hotel chain to earn points on your stay.

Related: Online travel agency vs. booking direct: Your guide to the best way to book your next hotel

Can I book car rentals with ITA Matrix?

As with hotels, you can't search for or book rental cars using ITA Matrix. You can find rental cars through your preferred OTA or by booking directly through your preferred company. Make sure you're using a credit card that offers primary insurance for car rentals .

Related: 9 rental car rewards programs you need to know about

Can I use ITA to find a specific fare class or code?

You can use the Matrix to search for a preferred fare class. Let's say you want to fly from Atlanta (ATL) to Los Angeles (LAX) but you don't want to fly economy to get there. Here, you would use another tool ITA Matrix has called extension codes.

Using extension codes, you can filter out fare classes you don't want to be in or search only for first, business or economy fares. In this case, I used the extension code "+CABIN 1," which indicated I only wanted to fly first class.

What are ITA Matrix advanced codes?

ITA Matrix includes several powerful ways to search for a specific ticket, where conventional search tools only differentiate on price. In the advanced routing fields, you can input endless commands to find your perfect flight. There are three tabs (you can open the legend by clicking on the first "question mark" that will help you find the right code to put into ITA Matrix.

If you're looking for a specific flight on a particular carrier, you can search that way. In this instance, we'll use American Airlines as an example.

Let's say I'm looking for a flight from Miami (MIA) to Houston (IAH) , but I only want to fly American Airlines. I would then input C: AA, which would exclude all other carriers. This method can be helpful if you're loyal to a specific airline, but you're flying into a rival carrier's hub, like Houston, a United hub.

Connecting in London (LHR) can be a stressful experience for many travelers. Don't want to transfer there on the way back home? No problem: you can just use code ~LHR to prevent a stopover at Heathrow. Perhaps you wanted to fly Delta to the West Coast on two segments and you prefer to connect in Minneapolis (MSP) . In this case, the routing code you would use would be DL MSP DL.

As you can see in the screenshot above, each leg includes a stopover in Minneapolis.

How can I search ITA for specific alliance flights?

You can tell ITA Matrix to only search flights on your preferred alliance . You can also search for multiple alliances by separating them with a vertical bar character. Note that the only alliances supported are Oneworld , SkyTeam and Star Alliance .

In this case, I searched for flights from Newark (EWR) to Paris (CDG) on Star Alliance carriers only.

Bottom line

At first glance, the ITA Matrix can seem clunky and not very user-friendly. It's not as simple as plugging in your airport codes and dates and hitting enter. You'll have to do some work to find the flight you want. Once you get past those obstacles, you can find some cheap flights, whether you're traveling now or in the future.

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How to Use the ITA Matrix to Search for Flights

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Table of Contents

When ITA Matrix isn't the best search option

When ita matrix is the best tool to search for flights, how to book flights found through ita matrix, final thoughts on searching for flights with ita matrix.

For many travelers, the most important aspects when booking a flight are cost and schedule. However, sometimes you may need to find specific fare class availability or want to book a particular flight or aircraft type. For those advanced searches, most online flight booking engines fall short. Thankfully, you can use a tool like ITA Matrix to do the job.

Here are the ideal situations in which to use ITA Matrix to find the exact flight you want — and how to buy the tickets once you do.

First, let's reiterate that ITA Matrix isn't right for every flight search. You can use a flight search engine such as Google Flights for most flight searches. Many search filters and flight options that were previously only found in ITA Matrix are now available on Google Flights. That means you can stick to using Google Flights if you're looking to filter flight searches by:

Airline or alliance .

Connecting airports.

Departure and/or arrival times.

Layover duration (minimum and/or maximum).

Maximum trip duration.

Number of connections.

Even better, Google Flights will let you factor in the price of carry-on and checked bags. That's not an option you'll find on ITA Matrix.

» Learn more: Which airline should you fly now that change fees are history?

Flying a particular aircraft type

ITA Matrix is a great tool to search for flights using a particular aircraft type . For example, you can limit search results to flights on Boeing 777 aircraft by entering extension code aircraft t:777 .

This filter can come in handy on a route like New York to Miami. American Airlines’ 777 aircraft are configured for international flights, so every seat has an in-flight entertainment screen. In first class, you can catch a nap in a seat that reclines into a lie-flat bed. In either cabin, it's going to be a much better experience than the domestically-configured aircraft operating this route.

Or, perhaps you're an AvGeek and want to fly on an endangered aircraft like the Boeing 747 or Airbus A380. You can combine ITA Matrix's flexible route search with an aircraft filter to find the cheapest option to book and fly your white whale.

For example, you can search for Boeing 747 flights from New York City to just about anywhere in Europe by entering extension code aircraft t:747 and searching nearby airports within 1,000 miles of Zurich.

Japan Airlines is one of only a few airlines that opted to install just eight seats per row (instead of nine) on its 787 Dreamliners. When you add in the excellent onboard service, it's worth seeking a Japan Airlines Dreamliner for flights to Japan. To see which routes Japan Airlines is using its 787 on:

Enter potential departure or connection airports in the origin airport box.

Enter TYO in the arrival airport box to search both Tokyo airports.

In the routing code box, enter o:JL .

In the extension code box, enter aircraft t:787 .

Enter your dates and click search.

Excluding a particular aircraft type

You can also use ITA Matrix to avoid a particular aircraft type. For example, you can avoid flying on a CRJ-200 aircraft by entering the extension code -aircraft t:CR2 . Or, if you want to avoid all propeller planes, you can simply enter extension code -PROPS .

Booking a unique flight

Another time ITA Matrix can come in handy is when you're trying to book a unique flight, whether that's Alaska Airlines' Milk Run or United's Island Hopper. For these searches, you'll need to enter a specific flight number — or flight range — in the routing code box.

For example, say you want to find the cheapest date in June 2022 to fly a multi-stop flight on the Alaska Milk Run from Seattle to Juneau. To search through ITA Matrix:

Enter SEA as your origin and JNU as your destination.

Enter AS65,AS67 in the routing code box to limit searches to these Milk Run flights.

Select the "See calendar of lowest fares" option and enter 6/1/2022.

Click Search.

In this case, the calendar unveils that the cheapest rate is $199 one way. By selecting a date, you'll find the flight options for that date. For example, on June 14, 2022, Alaska flight 65 costs $199 and Alaska flight 67 costs $299 one way.

Searching specific fare class availability

NerdWallet recently shared the news that you can redeem Emirates Skywards miles for JetBlue Mint . However, JetBlue award flights aren't always easily searchable through Emirates' website. So the best way to search a range of dates or routes for JetBlue award availability is using a tool like ITA Matrix.

To book JetBlue Mint awards through Emirates, JetBlue needs to release "i" fare class space. That means you'll need to enter the routing code o:B6 [operated by JetBlue] and the extension code f bc=i [searching only for the "i" fare class] to search for JetBlue Mint award availability.

You can ignore the prices on the results page. Instead, focus on which dates have a price listed, as that will indicate that there is an I-fare class available on that date. While the calendar results will show two calendar months, keep in mind that ITA Matrix only searches one month from the date entered. You'll need to enter 7/1/2022 to search the month of July 2022.

ITA Matrix also helps make it easy to search a range of destinations. Say you want to fly JetBlue Mint to somewhere in the Caribbean on May 7, 2022. Enter an airport code in the general region — like St. Maarten — and use the nearby airport option to expand your search to any airport within 500 miles.

By searching through ITA Matrix like this, you'll find that St. Maarten isn't available on that date. But, you can book a JetBlue Mint award to St. Thomas or St. Lucia.

Then, you can search for that specific award flight by logging into your Skywards account through the Emirates website.

» Learn more: The best airline elite status this year

Boosting your mileage and elite status earnings

Searching for specific fare classes can also come in handy when booking flights for award mileage or elite status credits . For example, American Airlines flights credit to Alaska's Mileage Plan program based on the fare class you book and the distance of the flight. And there can be a big difference in earnings between different fare classes.

Perhaps booking the cheapest AA flight would leave your accumulated elite earnings just shy of earning the next tier of Alaska Mileage Plan elite status . In a case like that, it could be worth checking how much you'd need to pay for a higher fare class.

For example, in September 2022, the cheapest American Airlines fares between Seattle and Miami cost $208 round trip. Since these flights book into the "Q" fare class, you'll earn 1,362 Alaska miles (25% of the flight distance) and elite status credits from the round-trip flight.

Upgrading to the "N" fare class costs $50 more. However, the "N" fare class earns 50% of flight miles instead of 25%. That means you'll earn double the award miles and elite-qualifying miles. If you're hoping to top off your elite status earnings fast, up-faring your flight might make sense — rather than trying to fly another roundtrip Q or O fare class flight.

Connecting through a particular airport (or not)

Another way you can limit flight options is by the connecting airport. For example, if you want to check out the new Capital One lounge in Dallas-Fort Worth , enter DFW in the routing codes box. You can even throw in MINCONNECT 3:00 to the extension codes box to make sure that your layover is at least 3 hours long, giving you time to really explore and enjoy the lounge.

On the other hand, if you don't like a particular airport, you can use ITA Matrix to find flights that avoid it. For example, you can avoid flying through Chicago-O'Hare by entering routing code ~ORD .

Combining ITA Matrix codes

To do an intricate flight search, combine different codes. For routing codes, use commas to indicate preferred options. For example, entering routing codes AA, UA limits your search to only flights operated by American or United.

To combine extension codes, you generally need to enter a semicolon between the entries. For example, to search for a Japan Airlines-operated flight using a Boeing 787 aircraft and excluding codeshares, enter routing code o:JL and extension code aircraft t:787; nocodeshares .

When you want to narrow down a search based on multiple options, the symbol you use to connect those options varies from one use case to another. For example, to search for flights booked into one of several fare types, enter a vertical bar between the options: f bc=S|bc=N . To search for a range of aircraft types, just leave a space between options: aircraft t:787 t:777 t:767 .

ITA Matrix can be a handy tool for finding flight options. However, it has a significant limitation: You can't book flights directly through ITA Matrix. That means ITA Matrix users need to recreate their search through an online flight search engine or on an airline's website to book the flight(s) they want.

Thankfully, there's a trick for those who want to book a specific itinerary found through ITA Matrix. Book With Matrix lets you copy-paste your ITA Matrix itinerary into its website to generate a booking link for that exact itinerary.

For some Book With Matrix search results, you can opt to book directly through the airline. That's very helpful when using a credit card like The Platinum Card® from American Express — which requires you to book directly through an airline to earn 5 points per dollar spent on airfare. Terms apply.

» Learn more: The best travel credit cards right now

» Learn more: The best credit cards for online travel booking sites

ITA Matrix is an incredibly powerful flight search tool. You can use filters to limit by airline, flight numbers, aircraft type, airport, fare class and so much more that it wouldn't fit in this short guide. However, ITA Matrix is a tool for intermediate to advanced travelers looking to book specific flights. For most travelers, a flight search tool such as Google Flights will be the best option for searching and booking flights.

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This Secret Online Tool Used by Air Travel Experts Will Help You Find Amazing Flight Deals

ITA Matrix will help you find your ideal flight, down to the type of aircraft and length of layover.

• What is ITA Matrix?

How to Use ITA Matrix to Search for Flights

Tips and tricks for using ita matrix, using bookwithmatrix.

Hinterhaus Productions/Getty Images

You’re likely familiar with booking a flight on an airline’s website. You may even have experience searching for a route through an online travel agency like Expedia or a metasearch engine such as Google Flights or Kayak.

However, there’s a tool you can use to search for flights that’s even more robust and sophisticated, allowing you to find specific and complicated itineraries. It’s called ITA Matrix, and it’s the exact resource that powers Google Flights.

What is ITA Matrix? 

ITA Matrix is a powerful flight search engine that’s been around since 1996. Originally developed by computer scientists at MIT, it was acquired by Google in 2011 and became the basis for Google Flights. The ITA software is used by many other popular search engines , including Kayak and Orbitz.

ITA Matrix has a reputation for being a bit cumbersome to use. Even some travel experts aren’t sold on its merits. Jarrod West, a senior content contributor at Upgraded Points and the founder of Frequent Flyer Blog , sums it up: "I always found the usability of the site pretty wonky," he says.

While ITA Matrix certainly has its issues, the value it offers is worth spending some time learning how to use it. It can be especially valuable for travelers who need to book a complicated itinerary or frequent fliers who are particular about how and where they fly (down to the type of aircraft, airports to avoid, preferred airline alliance, and even the specific flight number).

Start your flight search on ITA Matrix by inputting basic information, including your origin and destination cities, travel dates, and whether you’re booking a round-trip or one-way flight. 

If you have some flexibility in your travel dates, there are a couple of options to try. First, you can search for flights that are plus or minus one to two days from your selected date. Or, you can choose "See calendar of lowest fares" to search by price.

You can also specify flight times, the number of stops, and cabin class. Be sure to check the box next to "Only show flights and prices with available seats" to limit your search to tickets that are actually bookable.

To take advantage of ITA Matrix's power, click on "Show advanced controls." This will allow you to input "Routing Codes" and "Extension Codes" that tailor your search to specific criteria. To bring up a list of available routing and extension codes, click on the question mark next to each of these fields. These codes allow you to narrow your search results by using specific parameters like a particular airline, type of aircraft, length of layover, and flight number.

For example, entering "AA" means you only want to see flights on American Airlines, "~DEN?" indicates you want a direct flight or a flight with just one stop in any airport except Denver, and "~CODESHARE" removes codeshare flights from your search results. 

These codes can be combined to create specific flight searches. While this may be unnecessary for casual travelers, frequent fliers will find these parameters to be helpful in finding exactly what they’re looking for.

Your search results list will show options for multiple airlines, sorted by price. Keep in mind not all airlines will appear on ITA Matrix. Low-cost carriers like Southwest, Allegiant, and Breeze aren’t searchable, for example. Search results can be viewed by "Complete Trips," "Individual Flights," and "Time Bars." The "Time Bars" tab is a handy visual graph showing the times and cost of each flight.

Once you find the flights you want, you can click on them for more information. Unfortunately, you can’t book flights through the ITA software, so you’ll need to take this flight information to another website to complete your booking.

A website like Google Flights is good enough for most flight searches, but there are many scenarios in which using ITA Matrix will prove valuable for savvy travelers. Keep these tips in mind to get the most out of ITA Matrix.

Advanced Airport Search

In a typical flight search, you’ll input the specific airports you want to depart from and arrive at. But that’s not necessarily the best option.

According to Alex Miller, founder and CEO of Upgraded Points, you can often get better deals by expanding your search. "Take advantage of ITA Matrix's 'Nearby Airports' feature to uncover savings opportunities," he says. "Expanding your airport search by just 50 miles can open up cheaper flight options you may have otherwise missed."

Advanced Routing Codes

Using advanced routing codes can be a great way to customize your flight search. For example, you can use this tool to help narrow your search to airports with your favorite lounges . Let’s say you’re a fan of Capital One lounges. You can use the code "DFW-IAD" to indicate you only want flights with layovers at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) or Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) , which are the only options that currently have a Capital One lounge .

Multicity Search

The multicity search feature is a great way to build an itinerary that’s more involved than a typical round-trip journey to and from the same airports. For example, you can search for flights from Chicago to Paris to Miami. Or, you can book flights from New York to Los Angeles, then San Francisco to Tokyo, and then Tokyo back to New York, all on one itinerary.

You can’t actually book your flights through ITA Matrix. For simple itineraries, it's easy to manually plug in the flight information to an online travel agency or airline’s website. However, that could prove to be difficult for more complicated itineraries involving multiple legs and airlines. 

For those instances, check out BookWithMatrix . This site allows you to copy and paste your desired itinerary from ITA Matrix into BookWithMatrix. Just click on "Copy itinerary as JSON" in ITA Matrix, then paste that into BookWithMatrix. Your itinerary will populate on BookWithMatrix, along with links to booking engines, to complete your reservation.

How to Use the ITA Matrix to Find Cheap Flights

Scott Keyes

August 2, 2023

10 min read

The ITA Matrix is a powerful piece of flight software, and it’s the force that powers Google Flights (and other search aggregators, like Kayak and Orbitz ). It was created by a group of MIT scientists in 1996, and Google acquired it in 2010.

The ITA software uses airline metadata to find the cheapest flights , but it also has a knack for finding specific options that aren’t as easy to unearth on other search engines.

You can do a lot of the same stuff on Google Flights, but not all of it. If you’re a more advanced searcher or know exactly what you want, you may prefer using the Matrix to more quickly and easily find the options that fit your specific needs. Basically, if you want a super customizable search, ITA Matrix is for you.

What ITA Matrix is good at:

• Customization. Want to find a morning flight to Tokyo on United with an overnight layover in San Francisco? You can use advanced codes to search for only those flights, and ITA Matrix results filters show things like the cost per mile and color-coded time bars. It’s ideal for a very experienced traveler (like mileage runners and road warriors) with specific travel needs.

What ITA Matrix is bad at:

• Longer load time. The search engine does not bring back results as quickly as other aggregators.
• Not fully comprehensive. Most airlines are included in ITA Matrix flights, but not all.
• Clunky interface. The ITA Matrix is not overly easy (or fun) to use, and if you don’t know your way around it, you’ll miss a lot of cool features.
• No booking. As with Google Flights, you’re unable to book directly through ITA Matrix.
• Multiple city search is limited to cities nearby. This is a recent change, and it means that if you’re just looking to get to Europe cheaply you’ll have to search options region by region (you can’t search London and Warsaw together, for example).

ITA Matrix Tutorial

In the first part of this tutorial we’ll show you how to search for flights with the ITA Matrix using a route from Los Angeles to Bangkok in June.

You’ll see Matrix’s range of search options immediately. You can:

• Book round-trip, one-way, or multi-city routes
• Pick the destination city (and nearby airports in the same country)
• Select the best time of day to arrive or depart
• Pick your cabin class
• Pick exact dates or flexible dates within a month
• Select the desired number of stops
• Select your currency and city of sale (the city from which you are purchasing the ticket)
• Include number of travelers
• Allow airport changes
• Only show flights and prices with available seats (you would uncheck this if you want to compare all fares across all airlines)

How to search for flights with the ITA Matrix

For this example, we’re looking for the cheapest flights in early June. ITA Matrix lets you select nearby airports, and you can also select “See calendar of lowest fares” to find the best option within a month after your departure date.

For everything else, we’re picking the cheapest available cabin class, with no limit on stops. We’re also looking to stay in Bangkok for two weeks.

ITA Matrix’s calendar option gives a very clear view of when the cheapest flights are.

(You can update the number of nights you’re looking to book from the calendar page as well.)

The cheapest date is from July 1st, for $773, returning on July 16th. This goes beyond the month calendar view—if you need to stay strictly within the June 6–July 5 dates, the cheapest routes start at $813.

Understanding and filtering ITA Matrix results

This is what the search results look like when you select the cheapest option on the calendar.

One of the really nice things about ITA Matrix’s search results is the ability to see what other specific airlines are charging for the same route. If you collect points with American Airlines, for example, you might be willing to fork over the extra couple hundred dollars to fly American.

From here, you can filter through these results. It’s pretty straightforward. The price drown-down menu gives you a slider that lets you increase or decrease the price:

These are your other options:

• Airlines - select your favorite airlines
• Depart - sort by departure time, such as afternoon or morning
• Arrive - same as departure time
• Flight duration - another slider bar to configure your hours of flying
• From/to - sort by airports
• Stop - sort by number of stops
• Advisory - you can add or remove advisories, like “risky connections” or “overnight flights”

When you click on the price of the flight, you’ll get a detailed itinerary. However, it’s important to understand you cannot book through ITA Matrix. You won’t even get referred to another website; instead, you have to keep the flight details handy and book via a travel agent or directly through the airline or another booking service.

You can see just how much mileage you get out of this route (shown to the right of the itinerary). You can also click on the links under “Airport Information” to learn more about the airports. Sometimes you’ll even get information about CO2 emissions, and cost per mile.

In the “How to buy this ticket” breakdown, you’ll notice information for “rules” and “Fare Construction.” If you’re booking this flight with a travel agent, they’ll need this information. This is useful especially if you can’t find this deal yourself on other search engines. Let the travel agent work his/her magic.

Let’s go back and search for a flight with more specifics. This time you’re flying from Los Angeles to London and you’re looking to get the best bang for your buck. The dates are more specific, but you want to play around with comfort and customization.

You don’t want an early morning flight, you’re looking for business class or higher, and you want to get there with minimal stops.

Note the “Nearby” menu option next to the destinations. With London, you can select a range of airports in the UK and France. This is useful for when you’re looking to just make your way over to Europe.

How to use ITA Matrix’s advanced features and routing codes

Now let’s explore some of ITA Matrix’s advanced features.

You might have noticed in your search results (like from Los Angeles to Bangkok) that you’re automatically taken to the “complete trip” breakdown. The “individual flights” tab lets you pick the best flight per leg of your journey.

Would you rather overnight on the way to Bangkok, but not the way back? You can do that here.

At the beginning of the search page, you might have noticed an option to view “advanced controls” underneath the boxes for departure and destination airports.  

When you click on “advanced controls” a whole new set of fields show up. And if you click the “?” next to each field, you’re met with some code breakdowns.

Don’t be overwhelmed. Once you know the basics, this gets easy (or at least easier ).

You can use these codes for:

• Choosing or avoiding specific airlines or alliances
• Forcing connections (or avoiding connections) in certain cities
• Creating a stopover
• Searching only direct flights on specific carriers
• Adding more filters (like cabin class)

These codes allow you to search for a very specific flight without having to navigate all the filters in the search results. Spend some time getting to know the syntax and definitions. The “Examples” tab is also particularly useful for wrapping your head around how this works.

Google Support has a full list of codes. For example, airlines are marked with their two letter codes, and airports are marked with their three letter codes.

You can do things like search for a direct route with a specific carrier (or more than one carrier), search only for connections in a certain city, specify airline alliances, and even set a minimum connection time.

Here’s an easy example. Let’s search from Austin to San Francisco, traveling direct only (as indicated by “N”) and with United Airlines (as indicated by the airline code “UA”).

The results are tailored perfectly.

Now let’s try a search with more specific search requirements. This time, we’re going from New York to San Francisco. But:

• We want to stop over for a few days in Chicago to visit family
• We want non-stop flights
• We’d prefer a flight with Oneworld alliance

We’d start in the multi-city tab, and select our destinations and dates.

As you can see here, the “N/ alliance oneworld” denotes a non-stop flight with a Oneworld airline.

Here are the results from the first leg.

Here is our final result.

$369.30 for three flights. Not bad at all!

You can really go as far in-depth with this as you want. Once you get a hang of the codes, the sky's the limit.

Changing currency with the ITA Matrix

Sometimes you can find cheaper fares when you change the currency and location. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to why this is so, but you can play around with it and see what results come up.

Taking our original example of Los Angeles to Bangkok in early June, ITA Matrix defaults to USD and Los Angeles as the sales city.

With that search criteria, and flexible booking for +/- 2 days, the cheapest airfare currently is $812.43.

When changing the sales city to New York City, there is no difference in cost, but when we change the currency to Thai Baht (THB), the flight is slightly more expensive at $822.

The difference isn’t significant, but it goes to show that playing around with your search options can yield different results.

Booking with ITA Matrix

It is important to understand that you cannot book through ITA Matrix. You can try to find your flights on an OTA (an online travel agency, like Google Flights), book directly through the airline, hire a travel agent, or use a website like BookWithMatrix.com—just remember if you’re not booking with the airline, the OTA’s cancellation policies apply.

How to see extra fees with the ITA Matrix

You won’t be able to see extra fees (like checked baggage or seat selection) until you’re starting the booking process through the OTA or airline’s website.

How to identify basic economy fares with the ITA Matrix

You can, however, identify basic economy fares with ITA Matrix—in a roundabout way. In the example below, you’ll see that your economy ticket is marked with either a (K) or a (S).

A quick search for United Airlines’ fare classes show that Economy (S) and Economy (K) means a step above Basic Economy, and you’ll earn 100% of your premier qualifying miles. However, fare classes can vary widely by airline. The Points Guy has a good explainer on fare classes .

Bottom line: The ITA Matrix can be clunky and complicated to use for the average leisure traveler just looking for the best price, but if you have very specific travel needs, it can quickly cut through the clutter to surface the exact flights you need.

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Founder & Chief Flight Expert

Published August 2, 2023

Last updated December 21, 2023

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Simple Flying

The ita matrix & how it works.

The ITA Matrix is a comprehensive tool for searching flights. It's so good that it powers the Google Flights website.

Have you heard of the matrix? No, not a new installment of the science fiction movie starring Keanu Reeves. It’s the ITA Matrix. Intrigued? Then please read on.

The ITA Matrix is a comprehensive tool for searching flights . This is not your ordinary flight search tool. It is the A380 of flight search platforms that provides an all-in-one flight search engine that analyzes flight routes and prices for most airlines . It’s so good that Google bought the platform.

The Google factor

The platform was created by several MIT scientists in 1996 and was acquired by Google in 2010 when it purchased ITA Software, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, flight information software company. The price tag was hefty, $700 million.

Still, Google’s strategy included creating a new, easier way for users to find better flight information online and hopefully encourage them to make their flight purchases. Thus, Google Flights emerged, but the original ITA system was kept operational.

In addition to being a standalone flight search engine that also powers Google Flights, the ITA Matrix technology also runs several other flight search engines, such as Kayak.

Google’s launch into this world of travel planning follows a move to allow passengers, airlines, and online travel agencies easier ways to compare flights and airfares. What is the benefit for these parties? Increased web traffic with more potential customers to airlines and travel agency websites.

Unlike other well-known flight search systems, ITA Matrix doesn’t allow users to book and purchase tickets. However, it offers a comprehensive way of finding those hard-to-find travel combinations often overlooked via commercial sites.

Using the Matrix

Using the ITA Matrix may seem very similar to other popular flight search platforms. In addition to the basic search field that every flight search engine uses, you can also filter results by:

• Cost Per Mile
• Interactive Calendar
• Real-Time Filters
• Color-Coded Time Bars

However, there is so much more one can do on the site. One of ITA Matrix’s strengths is the ability to quickly search several items at once effortlessly. On the homepage, you can search for the following types of flight itineraries:

You can also enter advanced control codes to include or avoid specific airports and cities, airlines, alliances, and even specific flight numbers. It gets interesting when wanting to fly on a particular aircraft, airline, or even an extended layover in your favorite city. Search options allow multiple airlines with certain layovers during selected dates and times.

This is just a sampling of what the ITA matrix can do. While you can’t actually book a ticket, the site is the best option to find a complicated itinerary and then book the ticket through the airline’s site. Take a look and see for yourself what awaits in the matrix.

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Over the years, I’ve lost track of the number of hours I’ve spent playing around with ITA Matrix, a very powerful piece of software originally created by MIT scientists in the 1990s and now owned by Google.

ITA Matrix feels like Google Flights on steroids, as though it was developed specifically for aviation geeks like ourselves who go to great lengths to guarantee an aircraft type, book the absolutely tightest connection, or earn the most qualifying miles for our dollars.

Despite its power, ITA Matrix is not necessarily known for being the most user-friendly. So while we’ve mentioned it in passing a few times before, it’s now time to dig a little deeper into the inner workings of one of the most powerful flight-search tools out there.

This installment is a guide to ITA Matrix’s full suite of features. We’ll cover the basics of ITA Matrix, with some of the more common filters and specifications, as well as more advanced maneuvers, in this article.

In This Post

Basic search options, advanced controls, putting it all together, more advanced controls, how to book itineraries found on ita matrix, ita matrix powertools.

ITA Matrix is accessible at the website matrix.itasoftware.com , and the search engine is available directly on the home page. The old interface has been replaced by a modern one, while the core functions remain the same.

To start, we have options for round-trip, one-way, or multi-city flights at the tabs on the top of the “Find your flight” box.

We’ll focus on one-way flights for most of this guide, as round-trips follow essentially the same process with the opposite direction included. Later on, we’ll look at multi-city searches, as they are slightly more complex.

Origin & Destination

We begin by inputting our origin and destination airports. ITA Matrix allows you to input either the airport code or the city name, where the city name encompasses all airports within the city.

For example, “Toronto, ON, Canada – All airports” would include Toronto Pearson (YYZ), as well as Toronto Billy Bishop (YTZ).

I recommend sticking with airport codes rather than city codes for maximum precision, especially as things get more advanced later on.

The first noteworthy feature is ITA Matrix’s “Nearby” feature, which identifies nearby airports to the one you’ve selected that can allow you to save money on airfare. After all, for the budget-conscious traveller, a short bus or train ride can prove to be a worthy endeavour if it allows you to save a few hundred bucks on your flights.

After inputting “YYZ” for Toronto, click on the “YYZ” button to bring up the “Advanced Airport Search.” This search allows you to specify the distance you’re willing to travel away from your origin airport.

You can either pick them individually or simply “Select all”, and the field will automatically populate with the corresponding airport codes.

The same goes for the “Destination” field, where you can choose to fly to any airport within a certain distance from the one you prefer.

This is particularly useful for Europe, since airfares can vary significantly between neighbouring countries: for example, flying into Munich instead of Salzburg (a mere 68 miles away) can often be significantly cheaper.

Travel Dates

Next, we have the dates. You can choose between “Search exact date” or “See calendar of lowest fares”.

The former option allows you to specify exact dates, but also lets you expand that selection to the day before, the day after, +/- 1 day, or +/- 2 days. To enable this, you’ll have to click on “Add Advanced Controls” to bring up the drop-down menus (similar to how ExpertFlyer ’s flexible date selection works).

You can also filter for the preferred time of day for your departing flight.

With the calendar, you’ll be looking one month at a time, so you’ll begin by selecting the first date of your desired month-long period. ITA Matrix will return an entire month’s worth of airfare results in the form of the calendar over this month-long period.

If you’re booking a round-trip, then you’ll also choose the length of your stay in terms of the number of nights (either a fixed number or a range); ITA Matrix will then search for the cheapest fares across the entire range of possibilities for outbound and departure dates.

Other Criteria

Then, you can also specify the number of passengers, class of service, and how many stops you’d like on your journey.

The “Stops” setting allows you to set an absolute limit on the number of connections, whereas the “Extra stops” allow you to specify how many stops beyond the minimum possible number of stops that you’d be comfortable with.

Finally, you can toggle whether you’d like to allow airport changes on the way (such as flying into LaGuardia and out of JFK, if it’ll result in a cheaper fare), your preferred currency (I like to set this as CAD or USD for easy comparison), and the “sales city” of the fare (accounting for the fact that airfare and/or fare availability can often vary depending on where it is purchased).

We can see an “Advanced Controls” button just under the dropdown list to search for exact dates or a calendar of lowest fares.

Clicking on this will cause a couple of additional fields to appear under the “Origin” and “Destination” fields: Routing Codes and Extension Codes.

There’s a little question mark you can click on, which will provide more information on what arguments these fields accept as parameters and the appropriate syntax.

Routing Codes

We’ll begin with the Routing codes. There are generally two types of codes we can input as Routing codes: preferred connections and preferred airlines.

ITA Matrix’s list of examples for Routing codes is as follows, and we’ll also take a look at some of our own examples:

Here are a few of the rules you can use to specify an exact type of itinerary on an exact airlines, using the two-letter IATA code for the airline:

“AC”: Direct flight on Air Canada

“AC+”: One or more flights on Air Canada

“~AC”: Direct flight that must not be on Air Canada

“~AC+”:  One or more flights, which must not be on Air Canada

Combining the above rules using a comma separator:

“AC,UA”: Direct flight on either Air Canada or United

“AC,UA+”: One or more flights on either Air Canada or United

“~AC,UA”: Direct flight that must not on either Air Canada or United

“~AC,UA+”: One or more flights, none of which can be on either Air Canada or United

To specify two or more flights, you simply list the airline codes one after the other:

“AC UA”: Direct flight on Air Canada, followed by a direct flight on United

“AC UA+”: Direct flight on Air Canada, followed by one or more flights on United

For preferred connections, the syntax is similar. Inputting “NYC” means that you must have a connection in New York, while the tilde (~) is used to indicate where you don’t want to stop. Just like before, think of commas as “or” and spaces as “and”.

Here are a few examples:

“JFK”: A connection at New York JFK airport

“NYC”: A connection at any one of New York’s three airports (JFK, LGA, EWR)

“NYC,DEN”: A connection in either New York or Denver

“NYC DEN”: A connection in New York, followed by a connection in Denver

“NYC DEN,LAX”: A connection in New York, followed by a connection in either Denver or Los Angeles

Everything we just discussed can be combined together into as specific a combination as you’d like.

One example in ITA Matrix’s list above is “DL CHI DL”, which means: a Delta flight, followed by a stop in Chicago, and then followed by another Delta flight.

Extension Codes

Let’s now move on to the Extension codes. Here is the list of examples that ITA Matrix provides when clicking on the question mark:

At first glance, you’ll notice that there’s some overlap between the Extension codes and the Routing codes we discussed above.

One of the examples given by ITA Matrix is “-AIRLINES AA BA”, which “prohibits flights on the specified carriers”, and this can also be accomplished using “~AA,BA+” as a Routing code.

The most useful Extension codes are probably “MINCONNECT” and “MAXCONNECT”, where using “MINCONNECT 20:00” – specifying a desired connection time of at least 20 hours – can be a viable strategy to force an overnight layover.

In a similar fashion, “MAXCONNECT” can be used to avoid an overnight layover or simply to eliminate “awkward” layovers of 6–10 hours, which isn’t really enough time to see the city but might also be too much time to simply hang out in the lounge.

“PADCONNECT” is an interesting option here, which will automatically add the amount of time you choose to the minimum connection time at every stop.

So if you write “PADCONNECT 00:30”, it will only show flights where every stop had at least 30 minutes added to the minimum connection time, which some travellers might prefer for the peace of mind.

Something that’s not listed in the examples, but can be of avid interest to aviation geeks, is the aircraft used on each flight.

This can be inserted as an Extension code using “AIRCRAFT t:xxx”, where xxx represents the IATA code of each aircraft. For example, if we’re looking to fly on the A380, the full input would be “AIRCRAFT t:380”.

Another nifty trick that can be useful is “MAXDUR hh:mm” , which can be used to specify the total duration of the trip. For example, if I input “MAXDUR 10:30” on a flight from Toronto to Vancouver, the total duration including flights and layovers cannot exceed 10 hours and 30 minutes.

(Note: I’ve been using uppercase Routing and Extension codes to be consistent with ITA Matrix’s syntax, but lowercase appears to work just fine too.)

We’ve just covered most of ITA Matrix’s basic features, but let’s put it all together using a few examples.

Let’s use the elementary school-style of forwards and backwards thinking to test our understanding.

In the first example, we’ll input commands into ITA Matrix to find the cheapest flight for our desired trip, and in the second example, we’ll examine an ITA Matrix input, dissect what it means, and think about what kinds of flights ITA Matrix should output as a result.  

Example 1: Putting Together a Search

Let’s say you’re looking to travel one-way from Halifax to Vancouver anytime in March 2023, and you don’t mind travelling up to 100 miles within either the origin or destination to catch a cheaper flight.

You aren’t picky about aircraft type, but in order to minimize inconvenience, you don’t want more than one connection along the journey.

Furthermore, that one connection shouldn’t be longer than two hours, given that you want to strike a delicate balance between rushing for the next flight and sitting idly in the terminal.

Since you have status with Air Canada through Everyday Status Qualification , you’ll be looking to fly with Air Canada to take advantage of your free checked baggage allowance. You can also possibly use eUpgrades to book in economy and upgrade to business class .

First, input “YHZ” as the Departure and “YVR” as the Destination, selecting the calendar of lowest fares and inputting March 1, 2023 as the start of the month-long period (so as to search across all dates in March 2023).

Then, use the “Nearby” button next to the origin and destination fields to select all airports within a 100-mile radius from both.

For Stops, choose “Up to 1 Stop” with no extra stops. Also, uncheck “Allow airport changes”, since you don’t want to be changing airports during your layover.

Finally, use the Advanced Controls to select Air Canada flights only, with a maximum connection time of two hours.

All said and done, this is what the search input looks like:

And here is the search result:

We can see that the cheapest possible price is $535, with other fares around $20 more expensive.

Since you want to leave earlier if possible, go ahead and select March 1. The next screen will show us all the available flight results on that date:

Clicking through on the $535 fare brings you to this page, where you can view the details of my selected flight.

We can now see that instead of flying out of Halifax, the cheapest flight actually departs out of Charlottetown instead.

Looking back to the list of flights on March 1, perhaps you decide that the price difference between $535 and $557 isn’t quite great enough to justify the commute to Charlottetown, so at this point you might choose to simply go with the itinerary departing out of Halifax for $557 instead.

Still, it’s a good thing that we searched for nearby airports to begin with, since you might’ve accepted the Charlottetown departure if it had represented greater savings.

Example 2: Analyzing a Sample Search

Let’s take a look at the following sample search and analyze what it means (the cut-off Extension codes read as “MINCONNECT 04:00; AIRCRAFT t:380”):

First off, we can see that we’re searching for a flight from any New York City airport to Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) in Singapore.

We are specifically looking to fly within a two-day window around May 25, 2022, and only in First Class.

The Routing codes indicate that we’re willing to fly only on Singapore Airlines for any number of segments with any number of stops. This would encompass the New York–Singapore direct flight (the longest in the world), as well as the one-stop fifth-freedom routing via Frankfurt.

Meanwhile, the Extension codes indicate that the only aircraft we’re considering for the journey is an Airbus A380 on all segments, and of course, we need at least four hours in-between our flights to break up the journey.

In the previous examples, we mainly discussed fare codes in the “Itinerary” section, specifically focusing the most commonly used ones: MINCONNECT, MAXCONNECT, and MAXDUR. We used these to specify the minimum connection time, maximum connection time, and maximum trip duration, respectively.

Now let’s talk about another section of extension codes, which pertain to the fare class (also known as a fare code or fare bucket) of specific airlines or alliances that we wish to fly.

Specifying a Fare Class

The examples provided by ITA Matrix are all useful, but let’s focus on the “F BC =” code, which allows you to search for one or several specific fare classes even within the same cabin.

For example, you might wish to book a specific fare code to optimize your Air Canada eUpgrades , or to ensure you earn 100% miles on your ticket when credited to a given frequent flyer program.

Let’s imagine that we wanted to specify an Air Canada “M” fare, which is the lowest Flex fare that doesn’t require a co-pay fee when using eUpgrades on an international booking.

To request a flight in a certain fare code, we simply enter “F BC=M” in the Extension Codes field.

The resulting search pulls up the Air Canada fare in the “M” booking class.

Marketing vs. Operating Airlines

Something else that the savvy traveller might care about is the marketing and operating airline for a given flight.

After all, in the world of transatlantic joint ventures, codeshares are a necessary and common occurrence. However, whether you’re aiming for airline elite status or simply trying to maximize your mileage earnings, you’ll notice that most loyalty programs have different earning rules depending who is marketing and who is operating the flight.

For example, under the Aeroplan loyalty program , tickets issued by Air Canada will eventually be subject to fare-based instead of distance-based points earning, which will result in lower points totals for most travellers.

If the flight is marketed by a partner airline, like Lufthansa, instead, even if it’s operated by Air Canada, you may come out ahead in terms of the number of Aeroplan points you earn.

To request a flight operated by an airline, we use the extension code “O:” followed by the airline’s two-letter IATA code. If we want a transatlantic flight operated by Air Canada, we would write “O:AC” in the routing code.

Now, if we also wanted to specify flights marketed by Lufthansa in order to avoid Air Canada’s new fare-based points earnings, we would input “O:AC” in the routing code and “AIRLINES LH” in the extension code, like below.

(Note: Entering “AC” as the routing code is not  the same as entering “O:AC”. The former specifies a flight that’s operated by and marketed by Air Canada, while the latter only specifies the operating airline, allowing you to further specify the marketing airline in the extension codes.)

The resulting search pulls up the desired flight that’s operated by Air Canada but marketed by Lufthansa. Booking this flight on a Lufthansa-issued ticket would allow you to continue earning Aeroplan points based on distance flown, rather than based on the fare you paid under the new Aeroplan program.

As you can see, ITA Matrix’s advanced routing and extension codes are incredibly powerful and customizable.

I encourage you to visit the website and play around with all the advanced controls we’ve discussed, and maybe some that we haven’t, to get started building the itinerary of your dreams (or nightmares…)

ITA Matrix is a powerful tool for understanding airfare and pricing out exact itineraries. However, by design, it doesn’t provide a direct link to book the itineraries that it finds.

Instead, you’ll have to either work with a travel agency (online or brick-and-mortar) to book itineraries that you find on ITA Matrix, or book directly with the airline.

I’d recommend always booking directly with the airline if possible, for the usual benefits such as having an easier time making changes, requesting refunds, or rearranging your travel plans in the case of IRROPS .

If you work with a travel agent, you can likely send them the itinerary and they can construct the fare through the travel agency’s ticketing portal.

There are a few successful data points out there of travel agents that work with fixed-value points programs (such as Amex Travel, BMO Rewards, or CIBC Aventura) being able construct these customized ITA Matrix itineraries and help you book them using your loyalty points, although this likely comes down to the skill and willingness of the individual agent.

However, there’s one very useful tool that can help get around ITA Matrix’s limitations and empower you to book itineraries yourself: ITA Matrix PowerTools.

PowerTools is a custom add-on developed by members of the FlyerTalk community to make ITA Matrix even more powerful than it already is, and is by far the smoothest way to book your ITA Matrix itineraries.

The final piece of software we’ll cover here is ITA Matrix PowerTools, an add-on to ITA Matrix that supercharges its capabilities even further. This requires a little more technical know-how than the previous items we’ve discussed, but still nothing too extreme.

Remember that ITA Matrix is great for finding fares, but doesn’t actually allow you to book anything through its native software. ITA Matrix PowerTools is a piece of JavaScript software that allows you to book itineraries that you find ITA Matrix itineraries via online travel agencies (OTAs).

There are a few different ways to install ITA Matrix PowerTools, and I recommend checking out the FlyerTalk thread for the full installation instructions.

Once PowerTools is installed, it should look something like this (for reference, this is on Google Chrome):

Navigate to matrix.itasoftware.com , and you’ll know that PowerTools is active when you see the “Passengers (1a)” bar the top left of the screen.

Note that PowerTools full functionality can only be found on the old interface. This old interface will eventually be removed from the ITA Matrix website, but hopefully the full functionality of PowerTools will eventually be incorporated into the new platform.

To get to the old interface, click on the link on the yellow banner on the main website.

Enter in all of the information as you would have otherwise done in the new interface.

To book an itinerary, simply begin your search using the guidelines outlined above. For this example, let’s search for a simple Toronto to London itinerary as a non-stop only:

Looking at the options, our traveller decides to go with Air Canada rather than the British Airways or American Airlines codeshare options. Even with a price difference, their Aeroplan Elite Status status will come in handy for both lounge access and eUpgrade potential. 

Compared to before, the page with all fare information is looking considerably more filled out.

The entire right-hand side is powered by ITA Matrix PowerTools, showing the mileage, the cents-per-mile calculation, as well the list of booking options, each providing a direct booking link to the airline or OTA’s website.

There’s also a Where To Credit link underneath the booking links, which will bring you directly to the exact fare on the Where to Credit website, showing you how many miles you’ll earn when crediting this flight to all of the possible frequent flyer programs.

This is very useful for putting together mileage runs, or simply for figuring out how many redeemable miles you’ll be earning before you book. 

Booking is as simple as it looks: clicking on your desired airline website’s or OTA’s link will bring up the corresponding booking page with all your fare options selected exactly as searched on ITA Matrix.

Let’s click on the Air Canada booking link, since it’s generally best to book directly with the airline whenever possible. Note that if you click the “+” sign next to Air Canada, there will be an option to choose a country from which you’d like to purchase the fare or to add a promo code, should you have any extra 15% off codes lying around.

This brings us to the booking link on the Air Canada website, as if we had searched directly on the website itself. Simply click through to complete the booking.

For the savvy traveller, ITA Matrix is one of the most all-encompassing tools out there for finding, understanding, and maximizing airfare, especially when combined with the ITA Matrix PowerTools browser extension.

While ITA Matrix’s searching and filtering functions and advanced routing codes are already extremely powerful, PowerTools takes things to the next level by offering additional insight into the fares you find, as well as allowing you to book directly with the airline or online travel agency of your choice.

As you can tell, ITA Matrix is one of the most powerful travel tools we’ll be covering in the “Use It Like A Pro” series.

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How to Use the ITA Matrix Tool: Insider Tips for the Cheapest Flights

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For those of you who have not heard much about the ITA Matrix I’m sure you’ll have many questions, but probably the most important question, how you can use the ITA Matrix flight search tool to find the very cheapest flights available. Launched way back in 1999, ITA Software created the ITA Matrix. The ITA Matrix is essentially a data tool that has access to every commercial flight including the price of the flight.

With so much data ITA Software was able to create an insanely useful tool for travelers to help them find not just the flights promoted and advertised by each airline but give the power back to the traveler enabling them to create their own flight itinerary based on their needs, rather than the airlines.

This really was the start of the tools now available such as Google Flights, Sky Scanner, Expedia, etc… You can’t book flights using the ITA Matrix. Unlike some of the search tools, the ITA Matrix has no marketing incentive to ‘recommend’ flights’ to you based on how much the flight search tool is being paid.

This meant you always get results based on what you need, not just based on which airline is paying the most. Google purchased the ITA Matrix from ITA Software in 2017 and much of the ITA Matrix functionality now exists within Google Flights – but that’s not to say the ITA Matrix doesn’t still hold a lot of value.

What Is the ITA Matrix?

We’ve covered the history of the ITA Matrix but let’s look at what the ITA Matrix is exactly and how it could benefit you.

The ITA Matrix is a flight search engine. It gives you the ability to really deep dive into lots of different flight permutations, a vast array of filters and options, and really helps you find the best routes, most suited times based on your travel needs – and also the cheapest flight prices.

All flight prices are shown in real-time – although of course airlines can change the flight prices in an instant, so a price you see today may of course have changed by tomorrow. It gives you the power of your flight searches. Want to search for different cabins, and multi-city flight trips, search across an entire month for the cheapest days and times – all options are available.

As a rule, the ITA Matrix has more filters and options than standard and traditional flight search tools although since Google purchased the ITA Matrix their Google Flight Tool has now started incorporating much of the data and functionality. It may not be long before Google Flights matches the search capabilities of the ITA Matrix (as much of the technology has been in-built) but I’m sure we’ll see the ITA Matrix on our screens for a while longer.

How to Use the ITA Matrix to Find the Cheapest Flights – Full User Guide

Now on to the main reason you visited this page. How to use the ITA Matrix to find the cheapest flights based on your travel needs. To help guide you through the ITA Matrix search screens and walk through how to use it, below you will find a step-by-step guide:

#1 Visit the Google ITA Matrix website

The first step of course is visiting the ITA Matrix website by clicking here . The tool isn’t available via an app, so you’ll need your phone browser or a laptop or computer.

#2 Choose your Departure and Arrival destinations with Short Code and Carrier tips

You can simply enter where you’re flying from and where you want to go to and carry on to Step 3 and the rest of the search fields. But , if you choose the ‘Advanced Controls’ option you’ll open up a new world of options, possibilities, and permutations. I will warn you this is probably best suited to advanced users but I will try and walk you through the options.

The main Syntax screen shows the options available. All entries are abbreviations and shortcode to help with the database search. For example ‘N: AA’ code means you want to fly this leg of the flight nonstop (i.e. not stop-overs) and on American Airlines (AA).

By clicking on the ‘Examples’ tab you’ll see some placeholders of possible entries. For example ‘DL CHI DL’ means you want to fly Delta for the full length of your flight, and also want to stop over in Chicago. Yes, the tool is that customizable. You just need to know all the shortcodes. These can be found by simply Googling the relevant carriers’ codes and airport codes (e.g. London Heathrow is LHR).

#3 Choose the date, date range, and times of your flights

You can just enter the outbound and inbound dates, but the ITA Matrix is much more powerful than that.

Search Exact Dates

Using the ‘Search Exact Dates’ option you can enter the outbound and inbound dates as well as, in the third drop-down menu, the ability to select different date ranges and options.

The options are:

• On this day only – this is the default option, and to be used for an exact match
• Or day before – this option searches for the date you entered plus the day before
• Or day after – this option is for flights on your chosen date, and the next day
• Plus minus 1 day – this will search for flights on your chosen date, the day before, and the day after
• Plus minus 2 days – this will search for flights on your chosen date and up to two days before and two days after

These options are really helpful and can save multiple searches on other flight search tools if your planned trip has to be around a particular date but the date you intend to fly is flexible enough to allow for a day or two on either side. The ITA Matrix is flexible enough to allow you to be very specific on your outbound flight but more flexible on your inbound flight – and vice versa.

As well as date options you also have the flexibility to choose time options too.

The time options available on both outbound and inbound flights are as follows:

• Early Morning – (before 8am)
• Morning – (8am – 11am)
• Midday – (11am – 2pm)
• Afternoon – (2pm – 5pm)
• Evening – (5pm – 9pm)
• Night (after 9pm)

You can choose different outbound and inbound flight times of course. You also have the option of ‘No preferred times’ and the tool will search all flight times for those dates.

One limitation that could be improved is to allow the flexibility to choose an outbound flight with the flexibility to fly a day or two before or after, but so that the inbound flight is x days following – although this level of filtering is possible using the ‘See Calendar of Lowest Fares’ option.

See Calendar of Lowest Fares

The Calendar of Lowest Fares option is really useful for really flexible travelers who can travel when they choose. Simply choose any date and your search results will include all flights for that date and a whole month after to help you find the lowest fare. You can now see a field to allow you to search for the return inbound flight exactly x days after the outbound (i.e. so that your trip will be for 5 nights, 7 nights or even between 5 and 7 nights by using ‘5-7’ as in the example I have shown below).

#4 Select the travelers

No frills and whistles here. Simply choose the number of Adults, Children, and Seniors who will be flying The default option will show a drop-down menu to choose the number of adults flying.

The last set of filters give you another set of drill-down filters to help you produce the flight(s) that meet your exact requirements.

Let’s walk through them one by one:

This filter gives you standard cabin class searches.

• Cheapest Available (which is almost always Economy class)
• Premium Economy
• Business Class or Higher (i.e. Business Class and First Class)
• First Class

Unfortunately, the ITA Matrix doesn’t provide multi-cabin flight options (e.g. Economy outbound and Business Class inbound). For this you will need to search for one cabin option to find the lowest price and look for upgrade options directly with the airline.

For example, if you fly to New York from London Business Class with TAP Air Portugal you will save around 40% from the direct Business Class flights with BA or Virgin, but whereas the BA and Virgin flights are direct, the TAP Air Portugal flight requires you to fly to Lisbon first and then change for the long-haul flight adding another 5 hours to your overall journey.

This is one small example but by increasing the number of stop-overs can mean a much cheaper flight but of course this comes with the caveat of a longer overall journey time.

Extra Stops

This filter is a little confusing hence Google has added a field explanation. The Extra Stop option can be used if you want to increase the number of flights shown above the number your filter would ordinarily show. The ITA Matrix is designed to show you available flights based on your search and will attempt to limit flight results down based on your choices.

If you set Extra Stops to ‘Up to 1 Extra Stop’ and by default, your search results were only going to display direct routes, you will now see direct routes as well as flights with one extra stop. If the minimum number of stop-overs for your flight was already one, by selecting ‘Up to 1 Extra Stop’ you will now see the minimum of 1 stop-over as well as 2 stop-overs (as you’ve added one more).

Slightly confusing I know but limit the number of stopovers as much as you need to, but increase if you are looking for stop-over options and potentially cheaper flights.

Allow airport changes

This is selected by default but be careful here. This means you may need to change airports during a stopover or could mean you may not fly back to the same airport you flew from. This isn’t too bad if you booked a taxi to and from the airport, but not ideal if you travel by car – as you’ll then need to arrange to travel between airports to collect your car.

This is where balancing up the cheapest price with inconveniences such as this is.

Using New York (again) as an example it’s perfectly feasible to fly into JFK airport but then decide to fly back from Newark. This could work out cheaper than a flight back from JFK – and if you are heading to and from Manhattan the journey time from Times Square to JFK is similar from Times Square to Newark.

Only show flights with available seats

It’s recommended to keep this option selected, which is by default, as you only really want to search for available flights. On the other hand, if you are researching or searching for routes and flight times, rather than prices and availability, it may make sense to untick this option so that you see all flights happening whether they have availability or not.

#6 Currency and Sales City

If you are flying from London, then by default your Currency will be GBP and the default sales City will be London.

If you are looking to book a one-way flight from New York to London, then your default currency will be USD, and Sales City will be New York. You can overwrite these options of course. You may want to search for one-way flights from New York to London but want to pay in GBP – if so, then simply enter GBP into the Currency field and or London into the Sales City field.

#7 Search for Flights

Press the Search button and let the ITA Matrix do its thing and search all airlines and flights.

Just before you select a flight, hover your mouse over a date and you’ll see different prices based on whether you searched for multiple travel days.

As you can see if you fly on 6th October instead of the 3rd October, you could save £573!

For example, I asked the ITA Matrix to show me the cheapest Business or First Class flights to New York between 5 and 6 nights. Instead of showing both prices at once, you will need to hover your mouse over each date to see the prices for all options.

#8 View Results and Other Options

We now have our results. The prices here are slightly lower than ITA Matrix first showed. Flights prices fluctuate very often as prices change based on demand.

Flights by Specific Airlines

Although our initial search didn’t filter out or just include certain airlines, it’s here we can compare our preferred airline against the others. It may not be the cheapest but if your preferred airline, and the airline you collect points for, is only slightly more expensive than the cheapest option it may make sense to stay loyal and earn the point and tier points.

Individual Flights

By default, the ITA Matrix will show you results for a complete trip but you may want to look at the outbound and inbound flights separately. To do this select the ‘Individual Flights’ option: The same filters apply to individual flights as they do the round trips.

This is a useful tool. It doesn’t change your filters or flight results, but it does show your flight search results in a more visual, Gantt-like, chart helping you better interpret and see the flight times.

The color coding by the airline is a nice touch.

Sort and Filter Options

Above each column, you’ll notice beside the column heading a drop-down arrow. This header bar is much more than just a sort button.

As you can see, when the ‘Depart’ header is selected, another filter window appears allowing you to fine-tune and narrow the search results even more. These are the same filters and fields we saw on the search form, but you may want to search as many results as you can and then filter down the results from there.

Each column heading allows you to choose different options based on times, prices, number of stops and even journey length.

Night Flights

Flying through the night may be a requirement if you have a business meeting to attend the following morning or may be something you want to avoid at all costs.

The Advisory column has a useful moon icon to denote where at least one of the flights on your trip is, what would be considered, a night flight.

Even More Details

Just before we select a flight, if you hover your mouse over any flight you will see a ‘Details’ link appear to the right of the flight result.

By clicking on the Details link you will open up a view showing a lot more details about that particular flight

Flight numbers, duration, and even aircraft type is shown.

#9 Choose a Flight

Once you have exhausted all options and filters and have chosen your flight, you’ll be taken to an Itinerary Details screen

If you’ve not already had sensory data overload, here are some more for you! Not only will the ITA Matrix show you the details about your flights but it will also show to you the complete breakdown of your fare.

#10 Book a Flight Shown on the ITA Matrix

You’ll notice there is no traditional ‘Book Now’ button shown anywhere on the screen. This is because ITA Matrix is a search tool, it doesn’t allow you to book tickets or pass you to the airline. What the ITA Matrix will do though is provide the codes for this trip. With this information, you can take to a travel agent or call an airline and they will be able to find the same trip, and you can book directly with them.

We of course though live in an online world today, and you may just want to do this online instead. Now I know the cheapest day (7th October to 12th October) and the cheapest airline (Delta Airlines) I can visit the Delta Airlines website and search for this exact flight now.

Although there is a £7 difference, I think we have now found our flight – and we know it’s the cheapest option for our needs. We can now book the flight through the Delta website and look forward to our trip knowing that 20-30mins worth of research has made sure we’ve found the cheapest flight and the best deal!

#11 More Search Options

Throughout this guide so far, our walk-through scenario was based on a round trip. You may though need just a one-way flight or even more customized options with a multi-city trip.

One Way Flight Searches

Very similar to the walk-through we have made for round-trip flights but this time without the inbound destination fields.

Multi-City Flight Searches

Again, similar to steps 1 through to 10 we have already followed, the Multi-City search allows you to add multiple flights as part of one overall trip.

You’re not just limited to two flights – using the ‘Add Another Flight’ option, you can add up to 6 flights in total as part of one trip.

This should be plenty for even the seasoned travelers amongst you! Complete the same 1-10 steps, add as many separate flights as you need (up to 6) and then let the ITA Matrix tool do its thing. Remember though the more flights, options, and selections you add the longer the tool will take to run. It can take up to several minutes to complete.

ITA Matrix Tool vs Google Flights

Why are we not just using Google Flights instead? Both ITA Matrix and Google Flights are owned by Google. We are seeing more and more features of the ITA Matrix form part of the standard Google Flight functionality. The ITA Matrix is a data geek’s delight. This though, as you will see, can make the interface more confusing to understand.

Other flight search engines focus on the user experience and usability of taking a visitor through the flight search and booking process as quickly and easily as possible. The more complex the experience the more likely they are to lose potential customers along the way. ITA Matrix is different. It isn’t looking to make a sale. Instead, they are focused on information and data.

The interface may be more complex, but the results can help you not only find cheaper deals but flights that are more suited to your requirements. Google Flights is a great tool though and comes with its own advantages, such as trip inspiration and itinerary builder plus hotel prices too. Our own full and complete guide on using Google Flights features and how to save money on your next flight can be found here.

We would perhaps use the tools for slightly different reasons. For very specific in-depth queries with very specific flight requirements, we would use the ITA Matrix tool. If we were looking for trip inspiration and hotel rates to create a holiday price, then I would turn to Google Flights.

Question: How do I book a flight with the ITA Matrix?

Answer: You can’t book a flight through the ITA Matrix. You can use the ITA Matrix to find the cheapest and best flights for your trip and then either quote the codes provided by the ITA Matrix to either your travel agent or airline or you search for the provided flight through the airline’s website and book your flight directly with them.

Question: Is the ITA matrix legit?

Answer: The ITA Matrix is absolutely legit. The ITA Matrix was created by ITA Software back in 1999. The ITA Matrix was bought by Google in 2017 and so is a very reputable, reliable, and legit flight search tool to use. You can use the ITA Matrix to search for the cheapest flights and use the information to book the flight through your travel agent or airline directly.

Question: Does the ITA Matrix Exclude Basic Economy flights?

Answer: No, the ITA Matrix does not exclude Basic Economy flights. The cheapest price found includes the basic economy offering from most airlines (e.g. Virgin Economy Light). This means you do not need to find a standard economy fare with an airline and then search to see if they offer a basic economy version.

The ITA Matrix Guide – The Insider’s Notes

The ITA Matrix tool is definitely a flight search tool you should consider if you have very specific and exact search requirements that fall outside the general flight comparison search engines. The user interface is not as slick as the other flight tools but what it lacks in usability it more than makes up for features and data – lots of data!

The ITA Matrix is owned by Google, so is as reliable and trustworthy as flight search tools and software comes.

You can’t book flights on the ITA Matrix, and they will not direct you to the airline’s website to make the booking. Instead, the ITA Matrix will show you the trip’s relevant flight codes which can be given to your travel agent. Alternatively, once you’ve found the right flight for you simply visit that airline’s website and search and book through them directly.

About The Author

The Points Insider Team

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Learn the basics

Overview: how to use matrix, various results views, sorting and filtering your results, how to book a flight, beyond the basics, advanced searching tips, search with multiple airport options, repeat a previous search, search with flexible travel dates, using the ita routing codes, where can i book a flight at the price you showed, what does the total price include, supported browsers, i have a suggestion to improve your product, i’m having trouble running a search on matrix, i want to use your product in a commercial application, what are airlines’ policies for specific services, why aren’t some flights are included in the results, why can’t i see the results that i’ve seen before, versions and upgrades.

• Visit matrix.itasoftware.com and enter in the details about your flight.
• The Round Trip tab is open by default. Click the One Way tab if you’re looking for one-way flights.

• To specify where you'd like to fly from and fly to, just start typing the name of a city or airport and you'll see a list of matching airports. You can enter multiple airports separated by commas if you're flexible.
• Click Search when you're done.
• To modify your search, use the back arrow within your browser or click the Modify search link within the display.

Once you see the results for your trip search, you can choose how you'd like to review them. Click one of these views using the links above the table headers about halfway down the page and on the right:

Complete Trips : For round trip itineraries, see both departure and arrival flights grouped together. For multi-city itineraries, see all flights together. This view is useful when you want to find a good combination quickly.

Individual Flights : See each part of your journey listed separately so you can choose each flight on its own. This view is useful when you want to pick and choose each flight in your journey. As you select flights, the options available for the other flights may change due to airline pricing rules. To select flights in a different order than the default, click a different part of your journey from the itinerary at the top of the page.

Time Bars : See a timeline chart for each part of your journey with available flights organized by day, time, and duration. The colored bars represent time spent on the flight and are labeled with the airline's abbreviation. The grey bars represent layover times and are labeled with the airport abbreviation. The dates correspond to the time zone of the departure airport.

You can also see price per mile when hovering over the price in the search results.

At the top of your results, you’ll see a summary of the airlines that market flights on your route and their prices, broken out by the number of stops in the itinerary. Click the prices to filter your results to flights operated by that carrier with that number of stops, or click an airline or number of stops to limit by those criteria.

Above your results, click one of the column headers and then the link that's shown to sort flights by Price , Airline , Depart , Arrive , Duration , From/To , Stops , or Advisory . To sort in the other direction, click the column header again and click Reverse sort order . When you click a column header, you can also choose specific preferences to narrow down your results. For example, click the Depart column to select only flights leaving in the morning.

Try the Advisory column to filter out trip plans with sometimes undesirable features like airport changes, terminal changes, preferred cabin class unavailable, overnight flights, risky connections, short connections (less than 30 minutes for a domestic flight and less than 60 minutes for an international flight), and long layovers (longer than 120 minutes domestic or 240 minutes international).

ITA Software does not offer the ability to make reservations directly. However, you can use the information that we provide on the itinerary details page to book your tickets with the airline or a travel agent.

Please see for our list of airlines and travel companies who use ITA Software's airfare pricing and shopping technology, and who may be able to assist you.

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If you're unable to book a particular flight at the price you saw on our website, please see our FAQ .

Here are some additional options on the search page to help you control aspects of your search results:

Flight dates

Use the Arrival and Departure drop-down menus to indicate whether you want to leave or arrive on a specific date. This is particularly useful for long flights – especially those that cross the international date line.

Use the This day only drop-down menu to indicate how closely the search should stick to your entered date. For example, search for your date plus a day or two after or before.

The Currency field allows you to specify a particular currency for your flight results. If left blank, the currency used will be the currency of the Sales city.

Due to airline business rules, the currency, fares, taxes, fees, and flights available for sale can vary by city. Before searching, make sure that the sales city is accurate so that you get the right information for your location. If left blank, the sales city is set to the departure city of your flight search. Click the Learn more link for additional detail before choosing an alternative sales city.

Cabin class

Use the Cabin drop-down menu to choose which cabin of service you want included in your search.

If there aren’t enough results for flights in the cabin that you requested, your results might include flights with other cabin options to make sure you have a good number of flights to choose from. These added flights will be marked with a triangle icon in the Advisory column. You can filter out results that are in other cabins by clicking the heading for Advisory and unchecking Preferred class unavailable .

Airport changes

The Allow airport changes option is selected by default to help you find the lowest fares from all possible airports. If you would like to return to the same airport you departed from, uncheck this box.

Available seats

The Only show flights and prices with available seats option is selected by default to help you find only flights that are available for purchase. If you would like to see all fares and flights, including those that are unavailable for booking, uncheck this box.

If you're flexible about where you'd like to fly from and fly to, you can enter multiple airports separated by commas. You can also enter one airport (like BOS) and then click on the location icon to look for nearby airports. Click OK to add your selected airports to your search entry.

If you've searched before, you'll see your six most recent journeys as links above the first fields in the form. Click one of the links if you want to use it as the basis for a new search.

Next to Dates , you can select the See calendar of lowest fares  option to find the lowest fares available within a 30 day period.

• Enter a value of zero within the Duration (nights)  field for same-day travel. Enter a range with a dash if your plans are flexible, such as 7-9 for a trip of about a week.
• For weekend trips, enter 2-3.

After you search, you'll see a calendar showing the lowest price for trips beginning on the day you specified. Choose a departure day from the calendar to get a list of itinerary options.

ITA's routing codes are an advanced feature that lets you include specific notations in your search to quickly add restrictions. Using the routing codes, you can:

• Include only flights operated by specific airlines or alliances
• Specify the number of connections you are willing to make
• Search for flights with a layover in a specific airport, or avoiding a specific airport
• Limit the duration of an itinerary
• Exclude red-eye flights or flights with overnight stops

In Matrix, click the Add Advanced Controls button to see the routing code fields, and then enter your codes in the fields stated Routing Codes . The rules defined by the routing codes only apply to one departure-destination pair at a time. For round-trip flights, this means you must enter the codes after the departure field (for your outbound trip) as well as after the destination (for your return trip), and for multi-city flights, you must repeat the codes for each departure-destination pair for which they should apply.

General Rules

The routing codes uses the following general rules:

• Airlines are represented by their two letter codes.
• Airports are represented by their three letter codes.
• A direct flight is a flight with only one flight number, though it may have one or more take-off and landing. A non-stop flight is a flight with only one take-off and landing.
• C indicates marketing carrier.
• O indicates operating carrier (the carrier whose logo is on the plane).

Airline codes entered without a prefix are assumed to mean marketing carriers (i.e., the carrier whose flight number is displayed, including codeshares.)

• F can be used to identify a specific flight number or as a placeholder, indicating a flight segment. For example, if you want to make your trip in three segments, you would enter [F F F].
• The prefixes C, X, and F can be used in your query to make it visually clearer what you are trying to accomplish, but they are optional. If you use them as a prefix, be sure to follow them with a colon. If you omit the prefixes, the system interprets two-letter codes as marketing carriers, three-letter codes as airports for connection points, and airline codes followed immediately by numbers as flights.
• Countries are represented by their two-letter ISO codes. See Wikipedia's page on ISO codes for information on country ISO codes.)
• ~ indicates negation and can be applied to airport codes, airline codes, and attributes, such as red-eye flights or risky connections.
• + indicates one or more flights or airports meeting the specified criteria.
• * indicates zero or more flights or airports meeting the specified criteria.
• ? indicates zero or one flight or airport meeting the specified criteria.

Codes apply to flight segments in the order they are specified, and restrict your results to the number of segments specified. If you want the code to apply to more than one segment, add + or ? to the code.

If you want to specify something for a particular flight segment and allow any additional flight segments before or after the specified segment, you should add F? before and after the codes you have specified. For example, to ensure you fly at least one leg of the trip on American Airlines, enter [AA] to restrict your search to itineraries with exactly one direct flight by American Airlines. Use [F* AA F*] to restrict your search to itineraries with at least one American Airlines flight, and some itineraries that can include additional flights from any carrier.

Flight segments are separated by spaces. When multiple options are acceptable for a particular flight segment, separate them with a comma, and be careful to omit any spaces.

Again, the order of the codes is important. For example, if you want a stop over in Denver followed by a stopover in Atlanta, you would enter [DEN ATL] in the routing code field, and the system would interpret this as a stop in the first city code followed by the other. To include stop in Atlanta followed by Denver, you need to repeat your search with the cities in the opposite order, or you can do both searches at once by including both options for each stop [DEN,ATL DEN,ATL]

Each code applies only to one segment of the trip, so they must usually be entered in each box.

Example Queries

ITA Software does not offer the ability to make reservations on our website or mobile app directly. However, you can use the information we provide to book your tickets with the airline or a travel agent. You can find this information on the itinerary page. Please see this list of airlines and travel companies who use ITA Software's airfare pricing and shopping technology, and who may be able to assist you.

Please also know that the data we show can unfortunately change at any time in any direction. We generally have a very high accuracy rate, and we update our data as fast as anyone in the industry and faster than most. That said, these changes are determined by the airlines, and we do not know when or how the data will change. We're always working with the airlines to improve the quality of our search results, but it may be possible that a specific fare you see is no longer available.

If you're unable to book a particular flight at the price you saw on our website, please use the Feedback button at the bottom of the page.

Our prices include standard taxes and fees. The airline may charge additional fees, such as baggage fees.

Matrix can be accessed using most recent browsers. This includes the following specific versions:

We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Please let us know how we can improve our products by clicking on the Feedback button at the bottom of the page.

We're sorry that you’re having trouble!

Here are some common solutions that we encourage you to try if you haven't already:

• Try another browser, such as Google Chrome, Firefox, or Edge.
• Disabling any extensions or add ons that you may have recently added or updated
• Clearing your temporary internet files and cookies
• Updating to the latest version of your browser

If you still have the same problem after trying these steps, or you're having trouble booking a flight at the price we quoted, please send a feedback using the Feedback button at the bottom of the page.

We're thrilled that you're interested in ITA Software by Google products. Hosted by ITA, QPX is delivered via a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. At this time, we do not offer a free or small business version of our software for integration in other websites.

For more information about QPX, please check out our product information page .

Policies for services such as infants in lap, pets, maximum luggage weight, seat recline design, and seat selection fees are determined by the airlines and vary from carrier to carrier. Please contact the airline directly to find out their policy.

Our Business Development team works with airlines to determine the best way for them to use our products and services, and each airline decides the extent to which they wish to participate. We're always looking for ways to expand our coverage; if you're an airline who would like to work with us, please contact us using our product information page .

Sometimes a flight search for a one way flight from A to B shows tons of results, and B to C shows tons of results too, but if you do a multi-city search from A to B and B to C, you might not see any results. The doesn’t sound intuitive, but there's an explanation for the behavior -- speed. Broad searches that require the comparison of many itineraries are inherently slower, while more narrow searches can be deeper in the same amount of time and therefore return better searches. We are always striving to improve this behavior, but there is always a trade-off between search depth and search time.

Also, airlines file rules that limit our ability to connect flights into itineraries. It might not be possible to purchase the flights from A to B to C on a single ticket.  Additionally, flight availability is constantly changing, so you may see slight variations in the results you get when repeating your search.

The original Matrix was introduced by ITA Software in 1999. A major upgrade was introduced in late 2009 in response to the user feedback received over the years. The last major upgrade of the interface was done in early 2022. Please ensure your browser bookmark points to matrix.itasoftware.com . The ITA team looks forward to your thoughts and feedback as we continue to add more innovative features.

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Matrix ITA Advanced Guide: Tips for Finding Cheap Airfare

Brian Graham

Former Content Contributor

10 Published Articles

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First: Earn Travel Points When Making Your Booking!

Price filter, airline filter, departure time/arrival time filter, duration filter, from/to airports filter, number of stops filter, advisory filter, complete trip/individual flights/time bars filter, finding the cheapest fares, matrix ita advanced routing codes table, using the advanced routing codes, multi-city filtering options, using currency and sales city to find the cheapest flights, final thoughts on advanced matrix ita features.

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The advanced features of the Matrix ITA Software can be difficult to understand, but they can definitely add value in your search for the cheapest flights. We can all search for a basic flight and find out where to book it, but are we really getting the best deal?

Read Part 1: Basics of Using the ITA Matrix >>

Don’t throw away the opportunity to earn valuable travel points when using ITA Matrix to book flights, hotels and trips.

There are many  travel rewards credit cards that’ll earn you 2-3x points per $1 spent on travel purchases, but among our favourites (and cards we use all the time) are the Chase Sapphire Preferred ® Card  and the American Express ® Gold Card .

We like these cards because they collect what’s called “flexible points” and this means that you’re able to transfer them to different airline and hotel partners. This flexibility makes them (very) valuable.

You can read our articles on Chase transfer partners as well as the American Express transfer partners  if you want to find out more.

Alternatively, there are also specific  airline credit cards  if you want to get additional airline benefits and perks.

In general, you want to try to do a few things to find the cheapest flight:

Tip #1:   Check a standard trip from your city to the destination (and back if appropriate) using your desired dates (this is what we did in the beginner’s section).

Tip #2:   Filter results to figure out what really works best for your itinerary (advanced filtering).

Tip #3:   Check flexible dates. Not just +/- 2 days from arrival and departure time, but also a totally flexible trip (both dates and length using the calendar option).

Tip #4:   Check a variety of routing codes to get more specific results.

Tip #5:   Check a variety of departure and destination options, in case it would actually be cheaper to go MORE places using the multi-city option.

Tip #6:   Check to see if another currency or sales city has a cheaper option.

All these tips will be explained below. It’s also important to note that the cheapest airfare isn’t always the one that costs the least amount of money for the ticket. You also have to consider things like time spent traveling, other transportation costs, the value of what you’re seeing, and more.

For instance, say you find a ticket that costs $30 less, but it means you arrive at a time when public transport is unavailable. You might end up spending $50 on a taxi, which makes the cheaper ticket a moot point!

In another example, cheap tickets may mean booking on an airline where you have no status , in which case you may spend more because of baggage fees.

Considering airport options is also important. If you travel into another airport, you may be able to take public transport more cheaply and see more sites while you’re there.

Think outside the box to truly get the best value , not just the best price !

Hot Tip: A better price will almost always be the wiser financial choice, even considering points. Due to the marginal increase in points per transactions, we need to attack it from that end first and then add in our favorite points earning tricks .

Results Filtering Tips for Matrix ITA Software

Let’s take a closer look at the results screen to see some filtering options. Here is a photo of an example results page, with all the different filtering options pointed out:

Selecting the price filter brings up the following option. You can basically slide the filter to whatever price range you desire, and you can see that the filter itself shows little marks where flights are showing up.

If you choose the “Show price per mile” filter, you’ll simply see that data under each price.

Using the airline feature will obviously allow you to select and deselect any desired airlines for your itinerary.

If you click these filters, you can select the times of day you want to filter by. This allows you to select only times that work for you when considering your schedule and other conflicts.

If you know you have a maximum on-the-plane time before you go stir-crazy, this filter can help choose your flight lengths. Combined with the number of stops filter, this can really help finesse your travel!

This feature allows you to choose which specific airport you want if you searched for all airports in a certain zone. Use it to choose whichever location works best for your trip.

For those of us concerned with the total trip length more than how much time you’ll spend on a plane, you can choose the number of stops: nonstop, 1 stop, 2 stops, etc.

If your itinerary has any advisories, they will be visible here. These are little notifications that help point out some things that may make your trip more difficult.

These filters help you get into more details about your flight and take control of how you want to travel. Take a look at the differences between them below:

Notice that the “Complete trip” bar finds the lowest round trip with all the data it has, the “individual flight” finds the lowest price for each leg , and the “time bar” uses the individual flight model and visually depicts the time of the flights.

Also notice that the time bar displays all the different dates selected in your date filter, which in this case was +/- 2 days. If there were multiple connections, it would show all of those in various colors to show you how your trip will lay out.

Using the Powerful Calendar Option to Find Your Cheap Air Tickets

The calendar option is a very powerful way to find cheap fares for the more flexible travel. This is less useful if you need specific dates, unless you just want to spot check your prices to see what kind of a deal you’re getting.

Here is how to fill out the calendar option:

In this example, we chose the “calendar of lowest fares,” departing 2/1/2015 with a 5-10 night length of stay and no limit on our extra stops.

We did this because the calendar will show a month of dates after the one chosen, all including anything from 5-10 nights.

Choosing no limit on stops will truly give us the lowest fare we can find. Here are the results returned:

Notice the cheapest airfare options are highlighted in orange. It turns out that the dates we had chosen to fly before were just about our cheapest option overall. To select one of the options, just click on the date of departure and select your flight.

When you highlight the date you want, you’ll also get a subcategory option of how many dates you want to stay, which shows you the price options for each of those.

When you click on the trip length, notice that the line with the dot at the end expands to show which date you’ll start and end on. Then, you can click on the price of the trip to bring up that option.

Once you’ve chosen your desired itinerary, you’ll be brought to a screen with even more options, and it defaults to showing you the results using the time bars.

You’ll be selecting the flights individually. Notice this result has a bit of each of the different pieces of information, so have fun filtering down from here:

Hot Tip:   Use the Matrix ITA Advanced Features in order to find your cheapest fares, then book them using your best points-earning cards to ensure you get top value for your trip!

Matrix ITA Software Advanced Routing Codes

If you’ve used Google Flights , Kayak , or any other travel search tools before, then you know there are some certain limitations to them if you wanted a really specific type of flight. ITA Matrix crushes all of those barriers!

You may have noticed by now that there’s an option to select “Advanced routing codes” when you’re searching for your flight. If you did so before, you would have seen the following two boxes appear:

After opening those, you may have clicked on the radio button with the question mark to learn more, and then been quickly overwhelmed and confused. Don’t worry! It’s a lot to take in, and you certainly don’t need to know all of it .

This is a powerful tool, and these are the most powerful features for making the Matrix ITA software your own travel agent.

Routing codes allow us to set more specific parameters for our flights so that when we do our searches, we don’t have to worry about filtering anything else out.

Some of the options are the same as the filters on the results screen, but many of them are only usable here.

You can do multiple things with it, and you can set multiple filters at the same time:

• Search or leave out specific airlines/alliances
• Search number of connections to find direct flights, 1 stop, 2 stops, etc.
• Only include or avoid certain airports (whether direct flights, connections, or multi-city)
• Include or exclude certain trip lengths or advisories (overnights, short connections, etc.)

In this syntax, you’ll refer to airlines by their two-digit code (e.g. American Airlines is “AA”) and airports by their three-digit code (e.g. O’Hare is “ORD”).

Hot Tip:   The Matrix ITA becomes an incredible redemption booking tool when you use the advanced routing codes. You can search for all kinds of scenarios, such as potential open jaws , alliance-specific, or airline-specific flights. You’ll have to know some of the rules yourself, but once you do this can be a quick way to find options!

A list of some useful codes follows (taken from Google Support ):

What a list, right? So how do we REALLY use these codes? This is where it helps to have some ideas about what you want to do with your trip.

Are you just trying to get directly to your destination so that you can start a vacation? Are you trying to see some sites but pay the least amount of money? Are you trying to connect to see a friend on the way?

Using our Austin to Seattle example, I’m going to search for flights that connect through San Francisco airport for at least one night so I can see a friend on the way. Here is what I would have to search for that:

I tried a couple different searches, and many of them had connections that weren’t overnight, which is what I wanted.

There is no code that I know of right now to FORCE overnights, so instead I used a long minimum connection to force the majority of results to be overnights. Here is what I got:

It’ll cost a bit more money to do, so ultimately I’ll have to decide if that is worth it. But I got what I wanted from the search results.

Try playing around with your own ideas, such as booking the departing and return flight separately, since there are so many combinations we can’t cover them all!

The next advanced feature of this online travel agent software is the multi-city search. This option is technically available on most airline sites, but it often goes overlooked and under-appreciated.

You can see more and pay less in many cases if you have a few options of additional cities to see.

In addition, you can utilize the advanced routing codes we just went over to help you specify what you really want.

It may take a few iterations of different searches (rarely can we do only do one search when using advanced features), but it could be worth it.

In my case, I decided that if I’m going to spend extra money, I’d rather stay some extra days to see my friend. So I’m going to look at a multi-city flight into SFO rather than just a transfer.

Here’s the difference: before, I was searching for transfers , but now I want a stopover or open jaw . A transfer is less than 4 hours, a stopover is between 4 and 24 hours, and an open jaw is greater than 24 hours.

First, let’s think about what I want:

• A flight from AUS to SFO (stopover/open jaw, from 2-3 days)
• A flight from SFO to SEA (for my main trip, lasting 6-8 days)
• A flight from SEA to AUS (to get me home ASAP afterward because I’ll be exhausted!)
• Prefer flights on AA, AS, or a Oneworld partner
• Prefer non-stop flights

I know I can’t get to SFO on an AA or AS flight, so I’ll have to leave that open ended. But I should be able to get one from SFO to SEA, and can definitely can one from SEA to AUS. Since my schedule’s a little flexible, I also chose some flexible dates.

Here is how I input all this into the Matrix ITA software:

In my search, I got a number of results. Remember that in this mode, it defaults to individual flights, but we can still change it to complete trips. I ended up choosing my flights and got the final price as shown.

Note that it’s slightly more expensive than the transfer option, but it also gives me two days instead of eight hours!

So play around with that option to see what kind of great deals you can find!

Hot Tip:   Trying to make use of that new The Platinum Card ® from American Express ? Use the Matrix to search for flights that route through airports with lounges you want to try, while still finding the cheapest fares. 

These two options fall under a bit of a sneakier tactic to finding cheaper flights using this search engine. The basic idea is this: currency exchange rates are sometimes favorable for us, and for whatever reason the ticket prices are not always equivalent in various cities.

What this allows us to do is hedge different currencies and cities’ sales prices against each other to see if we can find a better deal.

Changing the sales city is likely more effective when we’re talking international travel. However, we can change the sales city for the Austin/Seattle example to a foreign currency and see what happens.

Here are a few results for London , Paris , Tokyo , and Sao Paulo. Remember that in USD, the standard lowest fare we saw was $196.20.

As you can see, there is a bit of a difference between the prices, but nothing to write home about. There have been instances that produce better results, so give it a try.

Not only is the Matrix a powerful search tool with its basic features, but its advanced features can really help expand your ability to find flights.

From filtering to using routing codes, you will find endless ways to research your trip. Even better, while you used to be required to book through the airline website, you can now book through ITA if you use the BookWithMatrix.com site!

That’s all we have for the advanced features of the Matrix ITA. Hopefully you enjoyed learning some new ways to search! Good luck on your next trip!

Part 1: Learning to Use the ITA Matrix >>

For rates and fees of the American Express ® Gold Card, click  here . For rates and fees of The Platinum Card ® from American Express, click here .

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i use matrix ita to find a specific fare class or code.

You certainly can by using the advancing routing code features. To do this, you need to put the following code into the advanced routing code box for your itinerary:

/f bc=g (find only G class fares)

/f bc=v|bc=y (find only v or y class fares)

What are the Matrix ITA Advanced Codes?

Matrix ITA codes are used in the “Advanced routing codes” section of the search form. Use the Matrix ITA routing codes to find more specific travel options. There are a variety of codes, a few of which are as follows:

How can I search for Matrix ITA Oneworld partners or general alliances?

To search for alliances, you need to enter the following code into the advanced routing code box:

/ alliance oneworld (or “star-alliance” or “skyteam”)

Will I still earn miles if I use the Matrix ITA to find flights?

Not a bad question. In fact, some of the fares you find may limit or completely impair your ability to earn miles when you fly. This is because airlines have special “discount” fares, and some of these have rules against earning miles.

However, you will always earn points and miles through your credit cards, so make sure to use your travel rewards card or your airline credit card when booking.

Will I be able to book my itinerary through Matrix ITA's website?

Booking directly on the website through ITA is not possible, but you can use BookWithMatrix.com to easily book flights found through the Matrix.

What is better, Google Flights or Matrix ITA?

Well, that depends on what you are looking for. Obviously, Matrix ITA is a powerful search tool. It can do many things that Google Flights cannot.

However, Google Flights is more quick and seamless. A search you do for a flight will show up almost instantly, versus some lag time in the ITA.

Therefore, determine your flight goal to help decide which tool will serve you best!

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About Brian Graham

Brian’s first ever airplane ride was in a private turbo-prop jet. He was merely an intern boy trying to make a good impression, but it turns out the plane made an impression on him.

It wasn’t until Brian relocated to Dallas, TX, and moved in with an American Airlines employee that he truly discovered how incredible travel could be.

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UponArriving

ITA Matrix Guide: (Extension Codes & Power Features) [2019]

ITA Matrix can be described as the most customizable search engine for searching for flights. It’s what Google uses as their backbone for Google Flights and what airlines use to make their website search engine work better.

In this article, I will go over common uses of ITA Matrix and what you could do with the software. While at first glance it looks somewhat dated, it’s definitely not about looks and much more about what you can do with some of the key power features, such as extension codes.

Table of Contents

What is ITA Matrix?

ITA Matrix is one of the most frequently used programs in the award travel community.

ITA software is developed for airlines search engines. Think of it as the backend of their search engines on their own website. So, ITA Matrix is an extension of the software for the consumer level.

Matrix 3.0 software is capable of a handful of different tasks. One could use the software for finding out fuel surcharges, mileage runs possibilities, and advance mixed cabin solutions for first and business class. The amount of controls one has with the software creates almost infinite possibilities.

Sadly, beyond searching for flights and displaying prices, there is no possible way to book and pay for the flight you find on Matrix. So, one has to manually replicate the itinerary that they find from the Matrix search in other search engines that allow you to purchase tickets from. There are services like BookWithMatrix , but that solution works half the time in my experience.

How to use ITA Matrix extension codes

ITA Matrix has something called extension codes. Extension codes can be used to manipulate itinerary searches or fare results. Think of it as a filter, but with far more detailed customizability.

The use of extension codes is the single feature that makes Matrix one of the most powerful tools for searching for flights. When using multiple extension codes, you must separate them with a semicolon “;”. 

Here are the extensions codes that are known:

ITA Matrix Extension Codes for Itineraries

Ita matrix extension codes for faring, common uses for ita matrix.

As mentioned above, there are many different ways of using the ITA Matrix search engine software. Some uses range from simple to complex, but there is a use for everyone. Below I will go over the most common uses for the Matrix software.

Fuel surcharges and taxes

For everyone using points and miles, we will always run into award redemptions that have hefty fuel surcharges and taxes imposed onto the ticket. Instead of going through the clunky airline’s website to find out the fees or call the airline if it’s not bookable online, you can just use Matrix to do a quick look up.

To check fuel surcharges and taxes using Matrix, you will first put in your itinerary that you were planning to redeem points and miles for. Don’t worry about the departure dates. The dates will not matter since fees and taxes will be the same every day.

Once you find the flight that has the same routing that you wish to redeem points and miles for, you will click on the price bringing you to a page with the price breakdown and fare conditions. Anything below the base fare and above the subtotal will be your fees and taxes.

In the example above the fees and taxes for an award ticket with certain programs will total $111.20. All you have to do to find out the total for fees and taxes is to add up charges below the base fare and above the subtotal.

Here is another example of another route and what one might see for fees and taxes.

This use of the Matrix is used by Daniel and myself the most. It can save tons of time doing a quick search on Matrix for the fees and taxes versus calling the airline if the flight is not bookable online.

Price per mile

One feature that makes the Matrix amazing pricing out tickets is the ability to show the “price per mile” for a single trip. This is great if you want a number that represents the value of the distance you are flying.

To show the price per mile, you select the option to show the price per mile under the flight’s selection of the search.

Once selected you will then see the price per mile under the total price.

Calendar view

Now if we change to the calendar view, we can see a month and set the nights I would allow during the time we want to travel. For the night’s range, the difference between max and min in a range cannot be greater than seven days.

What makes the Matrix calendar view so unique is speed and view it gives compared to other calendar views. The calendar works for both round-trip and one-way searches. It searches a month later than the date set. For round-trip calendar searches, you can set the number of nights you want to spend at the destination along with the ability to set a range of nights. Do note, the difference between max and min in a night range cannot be greater than seven days.

Compared to Google Flights calendar view, Matrix has the nights range, while Google Flights doesn’t make a huge difference for round-trip ticket searches.

Time bar view

One of the most unique ways to view flight results in ITA Matrix is by selecting “time bars” at the top right of the flights results page. This view gives you a nice new perspective of when the flight is leaving, the connections, and the airline.

As you see in the picture above, the airlines are displayed above with their color-coded IATA code.An IATA code is a unique airline identity name and an example would be DL for Delta Airlines, WN for Southwest Airlines, and AF for Air France.

Viewing the time bars you can move your mouse over the flight and it will display more detailed information like the aircraft, duration of the flight, exact time, and cabin.

Individual flight view

For round-trip searches, you have the ability to select your outbound and return flights. This helps if you cannot find the combination of flights you want for your return itinerary. Other websites have this type of feature, but it’s certainly a nice feature to have.

When you are on the flights result page, you can select “individual flights” to bring up the view.

Filtering for airline alliance or airline

Only want a certain alliance or airline in the search results?

There are two ways to set these parameters. One would be at the top where it says airlines during calendar view or while viewing the flight results on the flights result page. Or there is a simpler way where you can input the alliance name as a code only showing the alliance airlines or specific airlines that you set right on the search page.

Here are the codes regarding alliances:

• Syntax: alliance code
• Example: alliance star-alliance (oneworld or skyteam could work in the place of star-alliance)

To input the code, you will need to click on “advanced controls” and type the codes into the “extension codes” box.

For specific airlines, it’s the same process, just different codes. If you’re inputting multiple airlines, don’t forget to separate airlines with a space.

Specific booking classes

Booking class, also known as fare class, are normally no big deal for the person who wants the cheapest ticket. However, for people who want to use a systemwide upgrade or earn a certain amount of miles will find booking classes important.

In ITA Matrix, one can specify booking classes by typing in the extension code of the airline you want to fly.

You will then have “f” follow indicating it’s for the fare and “bc” for booking class followed by “=” with the booking code you need. Remember if you are using multiple extension codes you must divide them with a semicolon “;” to keep it readable to for Matrix.

• Syntax: F BC= code |BC= code|…
• Example: f bc=w

Multiple airports

If you wanted to do multiple airports, it’s also possible to use the nearby feature displaying airports within a certain radius or typing in the airport codes manually like in the examples below. This is a great feature if you are flexible with your destination.

When adding more than one airport, you must separate the airport codes with a comma. 

You could get pretty creative with adding different destinations. However, note that multiple destinations might turn up flights returning from a different airport than your outbound flight destination.

Finding cheap fares, specifically in business and first class

Using ITA Matrix for finding cheap fares is probably my favorite use for the software. Matrix works very differently from travel agencies, like Expedia, Orbits, Trips, etc.

See, Matrix instead works by finding the cheapest fare available, even though it’s not shown on sites like Expedia. You could think of it similarly to Google Flights, Momondo, Sky Scanner, and Kayak in the way that it finds the cheapest possible flight, but instead Matrix will usually always show the cheapest based on the airline’s current price and not what is shown on a third-party travel agency site.

Sometimes one has to call the airline or contact a travel agent to get the pricing shown on Matrix since the online prices might not be available or might have to find a unique third-party travel agency site that has the special discount fare, like checking Momondo.

Secondly, Matrix is customizable when it comes to searching for flights and the codes one can use. While other search engines have similar features, the Matrix is fast with its extension codes.

Mix cabin fares can result in cheap flights. Most of the time you can find a cheap round-trip ticket, but the one-way way ticket will result in a higher price tag. So, you could do a round-trip flight with one-way in business or first class and the other way in economy sometimes half the price.

Besides searching for unique business and first class fares by playing with the results, you can use extension codes that allows you to manipulate results or seek out certain sweet spots in fares. 

The extension code that makes the specific class required you will type in the codes below:

• Syntax: +cabin code
• Example: +cabin 1

If you prohibit a specific cabin, you can use this code below:

• Syntax: -cabin code
• Example: -cabin 1

Meaning of numbers:

• First class: 1
• Second/business class: 2
• Premium economy: Premium-coach

With these codes, you can specify the class you fly, the fare code, and mix and matching codes are possible. One way is to do mix cabins for cheap one way tickets in business or first class.

The great thing about the Matrix is how you can add more exnesion codes to force results and find possible itineriares that traditional searches cannot show. I really recommend playing with the extension codes as much as you can.

Finding fare rules easily

Finding the rules for a fare is super easy with ITA Matrix. Once you find the flight you want to book, you will select “rules” displayed next to the fares on the “itinerary” page.

Knowing the fare rules lets you know what the limitations are for the fare, how flexible it is, and fine print for the fare you want to book. The fare rules typically don’t show up on third party travel agency websites. So, being able to quickly check fare rules on another website besides the confusing airline’s own website saves a ton of time.

How to book an ITA Matrix flight

ITA Matrix is a search engine powerhouse, but if you want to book a flight that you see on ITA Matrix, then you might have to set aside some more time.

The easiest way to book the flights you find is to use a website called BookWithMatrix . It works sometimes, but it can find popular airlines itineraries in big markets. However, it struggles to find flights with niche airlines or destinations outside of North America and Europe.

If BookWithMatrix doesn’t work on finding the best flight, I recommend trying to replicate the same flight search in Google Flights , Momondo , Skyscanner , Kayak , Trip , and with the airline directly. 

TIP: Before booking your flight, don’t forget to use a cashback portal that can give you back extra cash back or points. I recommend checking Cash Back Monitor .

While there are more features I could have covered with ITA Matrix, the features above are my favorite and I find the most useful. I could have covered more basic features, but I believe that would be redundant.

I hope this guide helped you see the potential of ITA Matrix and if you have any questions about one of the features or if you think I should add another feature, just drop a comment below.

Steve is a senior contributor for UponArriving and spends close to 300 nights a year in hotels while traveling the world and trying to eat as much as he can. Steve has spoken at summits like the FBZ Elite Summit in Austin. He holds top-tier elite status with almost every hotel program as a Marriott Ambassador , Hyatt Globalist , Hilton Diamond , IHG Spire , and GHA Black. Utilizing credit card points and miles, Steve takes over 100 flights per year while experiencing some of the top first class and business class cabin in the sky.

I have used Matrix to find the flight I wanted – then called Amex Platinum travel, emailed them the fare construction and had them book it.

A person’s success does not depend on his wisdom, but perseverance

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Travel Codex

Your Resource for Better Travel

How to Use ITA Matrix to Find the Best Flight

Like KVS Tool and ExpertFlyer, ITA Matrix is only useful as a source of information. You cannot book a flight. What you can do is get a lot more information about that flight, and I believe its results tend to be more comprehensive than what you’ll find searching with an ordinary online travel agency. Once you know that cheap flight exists, actually booking it somewhere else becomes much easier.

Subsequent posts will describe how to use special filters and tricks in ITA Matrix and its advanced routing language to find some of these great fares. Right now, I want to introduce you to the basic search process and also explain some of the extra data you’re going to see. To use an example, I will show you how to use ITA for a simple trip from Seattle (SEA) to Washington-Dulles (IAD).

Three Ways to View Search Results

You can start your search just be entering the city names or three-letter airport codes. Either way the search fields should be self-explanatory. Select “exact dates” and enter your preferred travel times. Other options on this page will be covered in a future post.

Like most online search tools such as Orbitz or Kayak, there is a bar at the top of the results page with the lowest fares available on different carriers, sorted by the number of stops. Clicking on a name will give you only that carrier, and clicking on a price will give you only flights on that carrier at that fare. These prices are all-in, so you don’t have to worry about hidden taxes added later.

Complete Trips

Below the bar, the default option is to display results as “complete trips.” Each entry contains all the information about every leg of the journey, but there’s often too much detail in my opinion to sort through it easily.

What if you like the first leg and just want to change the return journey? You might be scrolling for a while if there are several options. Especially far in advance, most itineraries from the same airline will have the same fare regardless of departure time, and it may be difficult to compare carriers with slightly different fares.

Individual Flights

Choosing “individual flights” will give you another list, but this time you have the chance to select just your outbound flight before continuing and selecting the return option. (If you had performed a multi-city search, you would have three or more pages of search results.)

One key difference is that the top of the page displays a shaded box with flights that have already been selected. You can go back and change these selections or even skip ahead if you want to choose your return flight before the outbound.

At all times the price you see is the lowest possible fare based on that selection and all previous selections . This means if you pick that flight, there will be some option you can pick on future pages that will result in the same final fare (the lowest possible fare is indicated in orange text), but there will also be some options that may result in a higher fare.

Sometimes choosing one airline also restricts your airline choices on the next page, if some airlines refuse to issue a ticket with different carriers. If that happens, you might need to book separate one-way tickets in each direction if you really want to fly on different airlines.

My favorite view option is “Time bars,” in which each flight is displayed as a bar from takeoff to landing so you can easily see which flights might fit your schedule best. This was innovative back in the day and has since been copied elsewhere. Options with connections are also obvious because they have a two colored bars with a grey connection bar in between.

Quickly Viewing Trip Details with Time Bars

At any time you can hover over a flight to get a yellow box with more information about it, including flight number, times, aircraft, cabin class, and booking class. You’ll notice that each colored bar has an airline code telling you who is marketing the flight, such as AS for Alaska Airlines or UA for United Airlines.

However, if it’s a codeshare flight operated by a different airline, there will be an asterisk next to the airline code. For example, AS* means the flight is marketed by Alaska Airlines (Alaska Airlines puts their flight number on it) but the airline operating the plane is different. Maybe it’s an American Airlines codeshare, so when you show up at the airport you’ll check in with American Airlines and fly on an AA-branded plane.

Codeshares are good to watch out for because seat configurations and service levels vary. A codeshare can also affect how many miles you earn and your ability to get an upgrade. As before, hovering over the flight bar will show you more information about the actual operating carrier.

Examining Trip Details with ITA Matrix

After selecting both outbound and return legs for my journey, I finally reach a summary page with the itinerary details. But below that summary is a blue box with rich information on “ fare construction ,” which is industry lingo for how base fares, inventory, and other rules are combined to create a ticket with a specific price for a specific itinerary.

Despite this detailed information on how the ticket is priced, you cannot buy it from ITA Matrix. This is only an example of what is available. Some light grey text at the bottom labeled “Fare construction” may be helpful if you have a complex itinerary and want to forward this to a human travel agent. However, I usually find that I have enough detail to book it myself through the airline’s website or an online travel agency.

The Argument for Comparison Shopping on ITA Matrix

Why start your search on ITA Matrix if you still have to go elsewhere? All search engines have a “time out” when they give up and provide you with the results they found up to that point. They aren’t going to spend unlimited resources on every request. ITA Matrix will search for about a minute before it times out. I find that online travel agencies often give up sooner, and airline websites obviously don’t show you the competition.

Besides, I recommend against booking on online travel agency if you can avoid it, since it creates problems making changes or making other modifications to your journey. Always try to book through the airline when it’s time to pay. If you’re going to comparison shop first, it might as well be on ITA Matrix, which isn’t trying to sell you something.

There are many advanced features available only from ITA for narrowing your search results for complicated queries. The kind you might use for mileage running or fuel dumping — both of which have fallen out of favor — or when trying to find the cheapest flight to any of several vacation ideas during spring break. I’m starting you out easy to make sure you get the basics. But I promise you’ll see just how useful ITA Matrix can be by the time I’m done.

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About Scott Mackenzie

Scott is a former scientist and business student who created Travel Codex to unravel the complexity of travel loyalty programs. After 11 years in Seattle, he now lives in Austin with his wife and flies over 100,000 miles every year.

Facts about Google’s acquisition of ITA Software

Competition.

• What people are saying
• Claims vs. Facts
• Press release

Acquisition

What does ITA Software do? How does the technology work? ITA Software’s QPX software uses algorithms to combine and parse multiple sets of flight information from airlines, including pricing and availability data, to create an up-to-date database that can be searched across.

Why are you buying ITA Software? Google is buying ITA Software to create a new, easier way for users to find better flight information online. By combining ITA Software’s expertise with Google’s technology, we will be able to build new flight search tools for users that will make it easier for them to search for flights, compare flight options and prices, and get them quickly to sites where they can buy their tickets.

Why do you have to buy ITA Software, when you could just license their QPX service from them like other websites do? We think we can make more significant innovations and bigger breakthroughs in online flight search by combining our engineering expertise with ITA Software’s than we would by simply licensing ITA Software’s data service.

Product Plans

When will you launch these new flight search tools? In addition to customary closing conditions, this deal will also be subject to regulatory review, which could take some time. We will not be able to begin work on product development with ITA Software until after the deal closes, and we cannot predict how soon after closing we will be able to offer a new product.

Will you be launching new ad formats? How would you monetize this new product? Because we have just announced our agreement to acquire ITA Software, we don’t have detailed plans to share about how new flight search tools will be triggered or appear on Google results pages, or how they will be monetized.

Travel Industry

Doesn’t this mean that Google’s long-term plan is to enter the travel search business? Searches for travel-related information are among the highest-volume queries we receive at Google. We are innovating in a number of ways to make it easier for users to search for travel information and to deliver more useful results to them. It’s also important to note that our goal will be to refer people quickly to a site where they can actually purchase flights, and that we have no plans to sell flights ourselves.

Will links to existing travel meta-search companies be de-emphasized to favor Google’s new flight search tools? Because we have just announced our agreement to acquire ITA Software, we don’t have detailed plans to share about how new flight search tools will be triggered or appear on Google results pages or how they will be monetized. Our goal has always been to provide users with what we think is the best and most useful information possible. No matter what type of flight search tools we eventually develop, we will, of course, clearly label any results displayed as the result of a commercial relationship with Google.

Are you trying to compete with companies like Orbitz and Kayak? The online travel industry is competitive, with a range of companies that provide different solutions for users. Google is interested in building new flight search tools for users that will make it easier for them to search for flights, compare available flight options and prices, and get them quickly to sites where they can buy their tickets. We’ll work to continue to have productive partnerships with as many online travel companies and industry players as possible.

How is this related to the Travel or Flight Status search information that is already available on Google? Does ITA Software power those already? Google currently offers two travel search features. First, our flight tracker search feature enables users to see flight status for arriving and departing US flights. When users type the name of the airline and the flight number (e.g. “ united 741 ”) into the search box, Google will return updated flight information from flightstats.com. Second, we offer a travel search feature to help users looking to book travel. For example, search for [New York to SFO] and Google offers you the option to specify a date range and choose from a variety of online travel services to see results. Both features are aimed at improving search quality and neither is based on any financial compensation to or from Google. Neither feature relies on data from ITA Software.

Whatever form it takes, how can Google do something like this without unfairly ranking its own content over competitors? Our goal has always been to provide users with what we think is the best and most useful information possible. We see opportunities to improve the search experience for users searching for flight information on Google. It’s important to note that our goal will be to refer people quickly to a site where they can actually purchase flights, and that we have no plans to sell flights ourselves.

Does this acquisition require regulatory approval in the United States or Europe? The transaction is subject to normal pre-merger notification procedures in the United States only. ITA Software’s European revenues aren’t large enough to warrant European regulatory review. We think this combination will benefit travelers as well as those seeking their business, but closer scrutiny has been one consequence of our success, and on that basis we wouldn’t be surprised if there were regulatory review before the deal closes.