Cheap Flights and Creative Routing

I was recently contacted by Amber from CreditDonkey regarding my post a few years ago regarding the mobile app OnTheFly and the ITA Matrix which it interfaces with. Amber reminded me that with both Thanksgiving and Christmas quickly approaching, it might be helpful to remind folks about these handy tools to navigate the complex task of finding cheap flights.

CreditDonkey recently posted a very friendly refresher article on using the ITA Matrix website to find the flight you want. The article goes on to explain how to use flags to designate a carrier, allow or disallow long layovers, even the airport changes (for cities like New York where there are multiple airports in relatively close proximity).

To give you an idea of just how powerful this application is, Google went out of their way to purchase it and use it as the underlying engine for their Google Flights website. Though Google Flights is much faster, and in many cases allows for direct booking of flights, there are certain features that are only available in the original application. The good news is that you can still access the ITA Matrix to get exactly what you want out of your travel.

Amber also pointed out that while you can’t book the flight you find from the ITA Matrix website, you can leverage tools like OTAs (Priceline, Kayak, Flight Network, and so on), or use BookWithMatrix. BookWithMatrix offers not only a website, but a handy browser add-on (I have used it with both Firefox and Chrome).

BookWithMatrix Options

What’s your preferred search option to find the flights you want at the prices you want?

Author: Hari

Hey there! I’m a Clemson grad that travels quite a lot for work, and am the help of my lady working on traveling more for pleasure both solo as well as with my lady. This is a place for me to jot my thoughts… adventures… misadventures… fun products and the such.Before we get started, just a brief disclaimer: all thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not those of my employer. I will clearly identify all affiliate links as well. You don't have to use them, of course, but I certainly won't object if you do! :)If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me by email at... hari [at] traveling-tiger.comThanks for visiting!

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