Topic Wiki

Hidden-City Ticketing.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

Using

Searching a one-way from LGA-CLE on 07/06 comes up $500 for a nonstop.
To find a hidden-city ticket:
Search for a one-way from LGA::CLE and then going to CLE and cities within 300 miles and it will come up with the same non-stop flight (along with a throw-away leg to PIT) for $140.
Just don't do it too often and don't check luggage!

There's lots of other useful codes if people want similar demonstrations.
« Last edited by elikay on September 13, 2014, 09:48:55 PM »

Author Topic: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.  (Read 51391 times)

Offline josh nyc

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #100 on: February 28, 2011, 02:35:59 PM »
Its all about the codes and the flexibility. I was a full Kayak believer (well until a few months ago when Kayak started getting fritzy and not giving real time responses for all airlines) but the search options and functionality of the matrix (which ive only scratched the surface of) is the best by far. I just had to book 10 r/t flights for business to diff cities - not only was I able to ensure that I paid the cheapest price, but I was also able to figure out which award flights (on Jblue - I had vouchers that were expiring soon) were "cheaper" to me based on their current pricing (not in a ppm sense but in a straight value sense. If flt 1 is $100 and 1,000 points and flt 2 is $120 and 1,000 points, which one do you pay for/which one award etc). Also I prefer to fly out of LGA over JFK but will fly JFK/EWR if the price is right. Its a lot easier to compare and sort airports/flight times with ITA. Orbitz doesnt really let you play around.

If youre booking a trip and your dates and airports are set in stone, by all means go to orbitz

Offline Dan

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #101 on: February 28, 2011, 04:03:40 PM »
there is also a text file there with all the US airports ready for copy and paste..
Can you attach the txt file here please?
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Offline josh nyc

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #102 on: February 28, 2011, 04:04:20 PM »
<Edit by Dan: Thanks, I've put them into an attachment below>
« Last Edit: February 28, 2011, 04:24:23 PM by Dan »

Offline Dan

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #103 on: February 28, 2011, 04:23:39 PM »
Airport file attached.

Really what you need though is to weed that out and just pick the 50 or so airports where LCCs fly to, the other airport will almost never be cheaper.
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Offline josh nyc

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #104 on: February 28, 2011, 04:37:45 PM »
True - many of those airports are not going to come out cheaper and are a waste of time.
Also - if you search them all at once, in my experience it tends to overload the matrix and it takes forever to get the results. If you do want to search through every airport its better to split them up into 4 or 5 smaller searches

Offline moshegold

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #105 on: February 28, 2011, 04:59:36 PM »
Airport file attached.

Really what you need though is to weed that out and just pick the 50 or so airports where LCCs fly to, the other airport will almost never be cheaper.

When i try to copy and paste the airports into the search, it only pastes the first airport

Offline Dan

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #106 on: February 28, 2011, 05:03:27 PM »
When i try to copy and paste the airports into the search, it only pastes the first airport
Pastes them all for me just fine.
Control-A, Control-C, and Control-V.
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Offline iyc

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #107 on: February 28, 2011, 05:20:25 PM »
if you split the list to 2 it should work just fine and fast. it tends to get slow if you copy the entire list.

Offline moish

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #108 on: February 28, 2011, 08:41:42 PM »
When i try to copy and paste the airports into the search, it only pastes the first airport
me too. strange

Offline Chaikel

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #109 on: March 01, 2011, 02:49:11 PM »
What is it a list for? All US airports?
Is it ever cheaper to do a Canada leg?
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Offline E

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #110 on: March 01, 2011, 02:57:51 PM »
I dont know why but iv'e seen some of the ITA pro's say it's better to search fewer at a time. so not sure how much this file is actually helping.

Offline elikay

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #111 on: March 01, 2011, 03:28:38 PM »
When you search more, it misses stuff.

Offline yare

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #112 on: June 14, 2011, 04:48:44 PM »
is there any way to check on ita for a flight with a stopover of a certain amount of days?

Offline Chaikel

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #113 on: June 14, 2011, 05:35:37 PM »
is there any way to check on ita for a flight with a stopover of a certain amount of days?
Multi-city
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Offline yare

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #114 on: June 14, 2011, 06:37:35 PM »
Multi-city
lol, pretty bad miss.   thanks.

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #115 on: June 20, 2011, 06:17:03 PM »
There's lots of other useful codes if people want similar demonstrations.

Did this many times, (but never using Ita software) and have had much success!

Used it for DTW many times, with tickets to MKE, ORD, PIT, all on DL. 
DTW is notorious for having terrible o/w prices, so this works very well, especially last minute.

Anyone else have experience with DTW?

Offline Chaikel

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #116 on: June 20, 2011, 06:27:07 PM »
Did this many times, (but never using Ita software) and have had much success!

Used it for DTW many times, with tickets to MKE, ORD, PIT, all on DL. 
DTW is notorious for having terrible o/w prices, so this works very well, especially last minute.

Anyone else have experience with DTW?

I booked a LGA-DTW-BUF for less than 25% of the LGA-DTW flight.
Mot only that, it was booked at the ticket counter in LGA. Luckily most airline employees are clueless about geography.
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Offline aussiebochur

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #117 on: June 20, 2011, 06:33:19 PM »
I seem to find the most extreme cases with Delta.

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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #118 on: June 20, 2011, 06:45:22 PM »
I seem to find the most extreme cases with Delta.
That was my case
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Re: ITA Code Lesson #1: Hidden-City Ticketing.
« Reply #119 on: June 20, 2011, 08:54:31 PM »
I seem to find the most extreme cases with Delta.
At least with Delta I managed to get some back, when looking for a DTW - NYC flight, all I was able to find was DTW-NYC-Porto Rico!! for $180, which was considered good, because it was last minute. Ultimately the DTW-NYC flight was delayed two hours. The next morning (in NYC) I checked my itinerary online, and saw that I missed the previous night's flight to Porto Rico, because of the delay. Instead they booked me on a morning flight. I called up and said that I have no interest in flying there anymore, and requested a refund. They were able to refund me $140!!!
That was a great ticket, last minute, direct flight, for $40 after taxes, on Delta...