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How To Use ITA Matrix To Find Cheap Flights

Brian Graham

Former Content Contributor

10 Published Articles

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Jessica Merritt

Editor & Content Contributor

108 Published Articles 549 Edited Articles

Countries Visited: 4 U.S. States Visited: 23

Table of Contents

What is the ita matrix, how to use the ita matrix to find cheap flights, how to search for flights on the ita matrix, how to book cheap flights found on ita matrix, ita matrix advanced search, results filtering tips for matrix ita software, using the calendar option to find cheap flights, multi-city filtering options, using currency and sales city to find the cheapest flights, earn maximum points when booking from the ita matrix, final thoughts.

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With the price of flights rising, it seems like everybody is looking for a cheap flight deal. 

You’re likely familiar with using points and miles options, online travel agencies (OTAs), and Google Flights to save money on flights.

But there’s another option: the ITA Matrix, powered by Google. Some of the savviest frequent flyers use the ITA Matrix to find cheap flights, as the search tool is the best out there. After you finish reading this guide, you can, too.

There’s a lot of ground to cover about the ITA Matrix, so let’s dive straight in!

The ITA Software Matrix is a powerful tool built by MIT scientists in the 1990s to solve the problem of finding cheap flight tickets. Before the ITA Matrix, no search engine could consistently return the lowest fares for travel. 

Today, the ITA Matrix is used by travelers — experienced and beginner — looking for options to book cheap flights. 

Unfortunately, you cannot directly book itineraries found through the ITA Matrix on the website. However, you can recreate the itinerary you make on ITA Matrix and then book it through another option, which we’ll talk about a little later.

First, you’ll navigate to matrix.itasoftware.com/search .

The homepage of the ITA Matrix is not unlike the standard OTA, albeit with some advanced features, which we’ll talk about below.

This is the fifth iteration of the ITA Matrix, and this update added some key features such as Geo Search, which is the ability to search by airport code, city, or nearby airport.

While the ITA Matrix can seem pretty advanced, knowing your way around the tool will help you quickly find cheap flights, even if you’re a beginner. Here are the options you have when searching for cheap flights using the ITA Matrix:

• Round-trip, one-way, or multi-city
• Departing from city
• Destination city
• Advanced routing codes
• Dates (exact or calendar)
• Outbound/departure date (exact or flexible date options and preferred times)
• Return/arrival date (exact or flexible date options and preferred times)
• Number of adults (children or seniors optional)
• Number of desired stops
• Extra stops allowed
• Other (airport changes, only flights with available seats)
• Currency (optional, defaulted to the currency of departure city)
• Sales city (optional, defaulted to departure city)

While we won’t go into the features similar to what you’d find on a standard OTA, there are several features to note.

The screenshots below use a sample one-way trip from New York (JFK) to Paris (CDG), though you can use the Matrix to search for one-way, round-trip, and multi-city flights.

Flight Options

Your booking options are round-trip, one-way, and multi-city. The first 2 you’re likely already familiar with, but multi-city is a feature you may not be as familiar with.

You’ll use multi-city if you’re booking travel that isn’t from Point A to Point B and back to Point A, such as in the example below. I’ve inputted a multi-city booking from New York (JFK) to Hong Kong (HKG) to Singapore (SIN).

The dates option allows you to choose by exact or flexible dates or elect to see a calendar.

You can pick your preferred time to depart and arrive and elect whether there’s some flexibility in your travel dates.

You can designate your preferred currency in this section.

Stops and Extra Stops

You have 4 options for stops when using the ITA Matrix: no limit, nonstop, up to 1 stop, and up to 2 stops.

For travelers using the ITA Matrix to find cheap flights, the “cabin” section is of the utmost importance. You have 4 options: the cheapest available, ITA premium economy , business class, and first class.

To make sure you’re only booking the cheapest flights available, make sure to select the “cheapest available” option.

There’s also an option to toggle on and off whether you are open to changing airports during your trip and an option only to show flights and prices with available seats.

That just about covers it for the first page of the ITA Matrix, so let’s get into how you’ll put it all together to create an itinerary.

Now that you know the features of the ITA Matrix, let’s search for flights. This sample itinerary is a flight between New York JFK and Paris (CDG) for dates in June 2024.

Once you get past the first page of the ITA Matrix, much of the hard work is complete. On the results page with the flights, you’ll see a myriad of airlines — in my case, virtually every airline that flies to Paris.

If you want to hide the matrix, you can simply hit “hide matrix,” though keeping it open is helpful, especially if you’re looking for nonstop flights.

To see flight options by time, select the “time bar” option to the right of “complete trips.” This option is helpful if you want to book (or avoid) a long layover. You can still sort flights by price.

Back on the “complete trips” tab, you’ll click either the “up” or “down” button on the “price” column to find the cheapest flights. You can also use the funnel widget to set a price range, include or exclude airlines, or avoid itineraries with tight or potentially risky connections.

The cheapest flights are in a different color and easier to spot.

In the example below, I set the range to exclude flights greater than $700. This is an easy way to ignore the more expensive flights and highlight the cheapest quickly. 

One section you should pay special attention to is the “advisory” column. This column will tell you whether there are things to be aware of before you book, flagging overnight flights, long layovers, or terminal changes.

A cool feature of the ITA Matrix is that it can tell how much money you’re spending per mile flown.

When you’re satisfied with your options, you can click on the price, which will take you to a separate page.

This page shows you the entire itinerary you created in ITA Matrix, plus some cool features such as plane type, mileage, and information about your departure and arrival airports.

All prices you see on the ITA Matrix include taxes and fees, which is mandatory. Additionally, while the Matrix includes a lot of airlines, some airlines are excluded from the search. The most notable is Southwest, which has long made it difficult to search for its flights outside of its proprietary website or app.

You can’t actually book flights found on the ITA Matrix directly through the website, which is a significant negative about the tool. 

If you’ve spent hours or days crafting the perfect itinerary, it might not be very pleasant to learn that you can’t actually book the ticket right away. ITA makes it clear that you cannot book directly.

Once you’ve reached the “Itinerary Details” page, you’re met with the following message: “How to buy this ticket. Tickets cannot be purchased directly from ITA Software. Provide this information to a travel agent to help them match the fares found. Make sure to provide the exact booking and fare codes shown.”

Luckily for you, this isn’t the end of the story – and you don’t have to actually call an airline customer service representative to complete your booking. You have 4 options to book itineraries found through the ITA Matrix :

• Directly on the airline’s website
• Through a booking site ( Orbitz , Expedia , Priceline , Travelocity , etc.)
• Through a travel agent
• BookWithMatrix (Best option)

Book Directly With the Airline

This first option is pretty simple, and you should have little trouble recreating your itinerary on the respective airline’s website, particularly if you have a simple itinerary. For instance, I created this sample booking between JFK and CDG on Delta (the same as in the example above), which priced out at $824 on the ITA Matrix.

I was able to replicate that same itinerary on Delta’s website, using the exact date and departure time.

Book Using an OTA

The next option is to book your ticket using an online travel agency (OTA). Like the option above, this option is helpful if you have a simple, non-complex itinerary, such as a one-way or round-trip flight, and ideally without stops.

Similar to booking directly through the airline, you’ll input your arrival and destination airports and dates into the OTA. As you see in the screenshot below, I was able to recreate the ITA Matrix itinerary on Expedia.

Of course, there are several things you should be aware of before booking through an OTA. You may find considerably cheaper rates if using lesser-known OTAs. But if you want more peace of mind, as well as an easier way to change or cancel your trip should your plans change, we recommend booking with either a better-known OTA such as Expedia or Priceline.

If booking through an OTA, make sure to book using a credit card that rewards for general travel purchases !

Book Using a Travel Agent

If you’d rather leave the fine details to the professionals, you can utilize a travel agent to book your ITA Matrix itinerary.

Finding a travel agent shouldn’t be too tricky. However, you will need a few details handy when contacting an agent, such as the booking and fare codes.

As you see in the screenshot below, I created an itinerary on Delta between JFK and CDG.

The details most useful to a travel agent are the booking code, flight construction, and flight number.

With those details, a travel agent should be able to recreate the trip and book it for you quickly.

Travel agents typically charge a fee to book your itinerary, and you’ll want to make sure to provide your agent with your loyalty program number to ensure you receive miles and other benefits for your booking.

BookWithMatrix

The above options are all perfectly fine for booking cheap itineraries made with the ITA Matrix. However, the best option is a platform called BookWithMatrix . This website allows you to book travel planned through the ITA Matrix by recreating the itinerary without calling the airline.

Booking flights with BookWithMatrix is relatively easy and only involves a few steps. You’ll start by searching for travel as you would typically through ITA Matrix. After you’ve hit the final page, this is where BookWithMatrix comes into play.

First, find the unique JSON code on the ITA Matrix site (you’ll need this for BookWithMatrix). You’ll find this on the bottom right-hand side of the “Itinerary Details” page. Make sure to hit “Copy itinerary as JSON.”

You’ll then navigate back to BookWithMatrix, paste the JSON code and wait for the bookable option to appear.

In this instance, BookWithMatrix allows me to book with Priceline or directly with Delta.

There are some things to keep in mind before booking using this option. BookWithMatrix says travelers booking refundable or business class tickets should double check the fare rules or classes before booking.

While OTAs like Priceline often respect the fare classes you select, BookWithMatrix recommends either calling after booking or (for more advanced users) checking the full Fare Rules on the final confirmation page.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some OTAs may not display the correct itinerary. You’ll want to ensure your travel dates, as well as the airlines chosen, port over to your respective OTA. 

Finally, if you think you’ll use the ITA Matrix regularly, it may be helpful to download the free BookWithMatrix web extension . To use this feature, navigate to an ITA Matrix results page. The icon should not be grayed out, and you can click it to take yourself straight to BookWithMatrix.  

The ITA Matrix is a powerful tool to help you quickly search for cheap flights. But if you’re already familiar with the basics, it may be helpful to skip straight to the advanced features of the tool.

Let’s take a look.

Routing and Extension Codes

Routing codes allow you to specify parameters for your flights.

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

You can set multiple filters at the same time:

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

To see these, you’ll select “Show Advanced Controls.”

Here, you’ll see a syntax of advanced routing and extension codes.

If I wanted to book a flight from Newark (EWR) to San Francisco (SFO), I would input the arrival and departure airport as I normally would. However, if I wanted to exclude all airlines except for United, I could do that by simply inputting the following code into the section: “C:UA.” That will only show nonstop flights to SFO. 

The advanced routing codes are also helpful if you want to add stopovers to your cheap flight. Below, I’ve created an itinerary for a Chicago (ORD) to Dubai (DXB) with a stopover in either Frankfurt (FRA) or Paris (CDG), using the following code: FRA,CDG.

And here’s the result. As you see, the ITA Matrix only displays itineraries with connections in either Frankfurt or Paris.

Mileage runners, in particular, will want to pay special attention to the “extension codes” box, where you’ll put in specific codes to find or filter out certain itineraries.

For instance, you can use “-CODESHARE” to disallow codeshares or “-PROPS” to avoid flights on propeller planes.

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

Price Filter

Selecting the price filter brings up a slide to filter to whatever price range you desire.

Hovering over the price will bring up the price per mile.

Airline Filter

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

Departure Time/Arrival Time Filter

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.

Duration Filter

If you know you have a maximum on-the-plane time before you go stir-crazy, this filter can help you choose your flight lengths.

As you see, I set the tool to filter out flights greater than 7 hours in length. Combined with the number of stops filter, this can really help finesse your travel!

From/To Airports Filter

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

Number of Stops Filter

For those 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.

Advisory Filter

The Matrix ITA program provides some “keys” that help you note exceptional cases for each trip. These include short and risky connections, long layovers, red-eyes, and a general “other” warning.

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

Complete Trip/Individual Flights/Time Bars Filter

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, with the first being a complete trip:

And the time bar:

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 display all of those in various colors to show you how your trip will lay out.

In the beginner’s guide, we primarily focused on finding cheap flights on specific dates. But the calendar option is much more powerful.

It can be used to find cheap fares for more flexible travel. To do this, you will select  “see calendar of lowest fares” from the dropdown menu.

As you see in the example, a flight between Newark and Brussels (BRU) shows me the lowest possible flight for a 7-day trip during the calendar dates. This is the quickest, and in our expert opinion, the best way to find cheap flights using the ITA Matrix.

Notice the cheapest airfare options are highlighted in orange. To select one of the options, 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.

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

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

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 for 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, 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 will 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 to 3 days)
• A flight from SFO to SEA (for my main trip, lasting 6 to 8 days)
• A flight from SEA to AUS
• Prefer flights on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines, or a Oneworld partner
• Prefer non-stop flights

I know I can’t get to SFO on an American Airlines or Alaska Airlines flight, so I’ll have to leave that open-ended. But I should be able to get one from SFO to SEA, and I can get one from SEA to AUS. Since my schedule is 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 several 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.

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

Trying to use The Platinum Card ® from American Express lounge benefits? Use the Matrix to search for flights that route through airports with lounges you want to try while still finding the cheapest fares. 

These 2 options fall under a bit of a sneaky tactic to finding cheaper flights using this search engine. 

That’s because it’s sometimes considerably cheaper to buy tickets in another currency, especially when currency exchange rates are sometimes favorable. Additionally, ticket prices are not always equivalent in various cities.

The currency and sales cities tools allow us to hedge different currencies and cities’ sales prices against each other to see if we can find a better deal. This will be helpful if you’re a U.S. traveler flying to Europe while the Euro, pound, or other currency is unfavorable. 

Once you’ve settled on travel dates and can recreate the trip on your respective airline’s website, you’ll want to use a credit card that rewards you for flights or travel purchases.

Here are a few of our favorites — all of which offer big welcome bonus offers and elevated earnings on flights:

• The Platinum Card ®  from American Express : 5x Membership Rewards points on flights booked directly with the airline or through  Amex Travel  (capped at $500,000 spent in purchases per calendar year, then 1x points)
• The Business Platinum Card ®  from American Express : 5x Membership Rewards points on flights booked through Amex Travel
• Chase Sapphire Reserve ® : 5x Ultimate Rewards points on flights booked through the  Ultimate Rewards portal ; 3x points on all other travel purchases
• Chase Sapphire Preferred ®  Card : 5x Ultimate Rewards points on flights booked through the Ultimate Rewards portal; 2x points on all other travel purchases
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card : 5x Capital One miles on flights booked through  Capital One Travel ; 2x miles on all other purchases (including travel)

As you now know, the ITA Matrix is a powerful tool for finding cheap flights, especially if you know how to make it work for you.

We hope this guide helps you navigate the ITA Matrix and book cheap flights using it like a pro!

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

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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 ITA Matrix to Search for Flights

Tips and tricks for using ita matrix, using bookwithmatrix.

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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.

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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.

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The ultimate guide to using the ita matrix for cheap flights.

Post originally Published November 16, 2022 || Last Updated November 30, 2022

• Using the ITA Matrix

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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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ITA Matrix Codes

The ITA Matrix ( http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ ) is flight research tool that was designed by MIT scientists in 1996. It was acquired by Google in 2010 and is the engine behind Google flights as well many of the webs' most popular travel booking sites such as Kayak & Orbitz. Whilst Google Flights allows you to book flights and the ITA Matrix doesn't, it's still the better tool due to its far superior searching capabilities. Once the ITA Matrix has found your ideal flights the bookings will can be made via google flights, the carrier or a travel agent site such as Skyscanner. It's searching features are highly customisable. They allow advanced searches using codes to filter on or dismiss certain airlines and airports, use certain airline alliances such as Oneworld, and compare date ranges.

The main page shows the interface which has 3 tabs; Return Trip, One-way and Multi-City. The majority of the options are self explanatory but clicking on 'Advanced Controls' right underneath the departure and destination fields allows you to use the advanced codes to highly customise the search.

Example Screenshots

In the first screen shot, a search is being performed for return flights from Jersey in the Channel Islands to Las Vegas, flying in Business Class or higher and with any airline in the Oneworld Alliance.

• Departing anytime on either the 14th, 15th or 16th August 2020 and returning on the 21st August (but not until after lunchtime).
• We know that there are no direct flights between the Channel Islands and Las Vegas so there will have to be one stop in London but we are happy to look at other options with up to 1 extra stop.
• We have unticked 'Only show flights & prices with available seats' as we may be able to get these fares direct with the airline or with an agent.
• Show prices in GBP

In this next example screen shot a similar search is being performed but this time using the Routing Codes to specify a carrier and the Extension Codes to specify a fare bucket.

• Departing anytime of day on the 15th August, 2020 returning anytime of day on 21st August.
• We use the Routing Code to specify British Airways as the Carrier for the first (and any subsequent flights) C:BA+
• We want to search for the cheapest First Class fares so we use the Extension code to set the Fare's Booking Code f bc=a
• Finally, we have unticked 'Only show flights & prices with available seats' as we may be able to get these fares direct with the airline or with an agent.

Other examples of routing and extension codes include just using the Airlines Codes and specifying not in the economy cabin

Routing Codes

ITA's routing codes are an advanced feature that lets you include specific notations in your search to quickly add restrictions. 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.
• Carrier Prefixes:
• 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 ISO3166 country codes
• A ~ indicates negation and can be applied to airport codes, airline codes, and attributes, such as red-eye flights or risky connections.
• A + indicates one or more flights or airports meeting the specified criteria.
• A * indicates zero or more flights or airports meeting the specified criteria.
• A ? 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.

Example Queries

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 “;”.  For example: f bc=i;alliance oneworld

Fare codes represent the different categories of tickets, each with its own price and set of rules. Some fare classes and codes are standard across all airlines, while some are different depending on the airline. Below are some examples which are typically the same across all airlines:

• Y: Full-fare economy-class ticket
• J: Full-fare business-class ticket
• F: Full-fare first-class ticket

British Airways has 22 fare classes and 4 redemption classes. Revenue fare classes are bookable for cash whilst redemption fare classes are for Avios or mileage bookings. Broadly speaking, the different fare classes within each cabin correlate both to the cost of the ticket as well as the flexibility of the fare offered. Of the 22 fare classes in BA, 12 of these are for economy class. thepointsguy.co.uk has some excellent further explanation on this.

British Airways Fare Codes:

For example, to specify the cheapest non-flexible Fare using a Booking Code use the following synatx:

• For First Class use: f bc=a
• For Business Class use f bc=i
• For Premium Economy use f bc=t
• For Cheapest Economy Class use f bc=s

Here are more Extensions Codes that can be used. When using multiple extension codes, separate them with a semicolon “;”. 

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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 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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How to Use ITA Matrix: The Most Powerful Airfare Search Tool

There are many ways to search for flights: airline websites, online travel agencies (OTAs), search aggregators like Kayak, and even visiting a human travel agent. However, many of these tools are trying to sell you something — a ticket for your next business trip or vacation — and may not always provide the most useful information.

It’s not that these companies are out to get you. There’s just an important difference between buying a ticket and searching for a ticket. ITA Matrix , a search tool purchased by Google several years ago, is designed exclusively for searching. You can’t buy a ticket from them, although many websites do use the same technology to operate their own booking tools. Google bought the company in part to develop Google Flights , another great tool.

In the first installment of this three-part review, I’ll show you why ITA Matrix is so important and how to perform basic search queries. In the second installment , I’ll cover some of the unique advanced routing language that ITA Matrix uses to make searching for airfare more powerful than anywhere else. Finally, the third installment will discuss how to use ITA to perform a few tricks like hidden city ticketing as well as other tips for saving money on airfare.

Why Use ITA Matrix?

ITA Matrix – often called “ITA” for short — is useful because it provides incredible control over the parameters of your search. You can look for specific flight numbers, limit connections, and compare multiple airlines at once (or exclude them). These are things you can do on other sites, but ITA does them better and does them all.

Finally, ITA provides more detailed information on fares than you’ll get from your average website. Did you know that the number of seats available on a flight and the price you pay are actually two separate things? Even the price is broken down into multiple components. You can dive deep into these details — or ignore them — using ITA Matrix.

How to Filter Search Results

Advanced routing language is key to making the most of ITA Matrix. However, it is a very complex topic, which is why we devote a separate post to explaining it. I’ll use a few examples in this introduction to get you started.

First, it helps to be familiar with airline and airport codes. Every airline is represented by a two-character IATA code. For example, United Airlines is “UA” and American Airlines is “AA.” These aren’t always abbreviations; JetBlue Airways is “B6.” Similarly, every airport has a three-letter IATA code. San Francisco is “SFO” and Dallas-Fort Worth is “DFW.” Sometimes several airports in a metropolitan area can be referenced at once using a city code, like “NYC.” If you’re ever unsure what the correct code is, a quick Google search can usually reveal the answer.

Second, remember that all advanced routing language is optional. In its absence ITA will just search all possible options. When you do use advanced routing language you add restrictions.

To search for a specific airline, enter that airline’s code.

Example 1: AA (one flight marketed by AA)

To search for one or more flights on a specific airline, enter that airline’s code multiple times for each flight, or use the plus symbol to specify no exact number.

Example 2: AA AA AA (three flights marketed by AA) Example 3: AA+ (one or more flights marketed by AA)

To search for a specific connecting airport, enter that airport’s code. You can use this with or without an airline code.

Example 4: AA DFW AA (two flights marketed by AA, with a connection in DFW) Example 5: DFW (a connection in DFW at some point in the journey)

If interested in more than one airline or airport, you can list multiple options separated by a comma.

Example 6:  AA,AS (one flight operated by AA or AS) Example 7: DFW,ORD (a connection in either DFW or ORD)

Step-by-Step Example of Using ITA Matrix

Define the query.

You’ll always want to enter your origin and destination airports. In addition, add some advanced routing language if you think it will be useful. Either click on the link to add the advanced routing language underneath the airport or add it after in the same line separated with two colons. (Don’t worry if ITA Matrix fills in the full name of an airport after you enter the three-letter code.)

In the example below, I’m searching for a round-trip flight from Chicago-O’Hare to Maui. Both formats for entering advanced routing language are shown, indicating a connection in Seattle or Portland on the outbound and a connection in San Francisco or Los Angeles on the return. No airline is specified.

After that you can choose your dates, number of passengers, and preferred cabin. If you’re flexible, you can tell ITA Matrix to search on the exact date or up to +/- 3 days. In this example I’ll choose +/- 1 day so that travel is still on the weekends.

Most of these other settings don’t need to be changed. It’s unusual to find discounted fares for children or seniors, and advanced routing language is a more convenient way to limit the number of stops than using the drop-down menu.

Do make sure that the box is checked to only search flights and prices with available seats (ITA Matrix is capable of searching for hypothetical fares even if the flight is sold out). You can also change the currency or sales city if you’re purchasing an international ticket. Sometimes a ticket will have a different price when purchased in other countries.

Viewing and Selecting Results

The search results are displayed in three formats: Complete Itinerary, Individual Flights, and Time Bars. The first two are probably formats with which you are familiar. They require you to sort through lists of fares and find the times and dates that work for you.

Time Bars is a less common format but could be more helpful. It represents each airline as a different color and uses a visual representation to show the time, duration, and connections for each itinerary. You sort the list by arrival or departure time, limit connections, and even hover over each bar to learn more about that flight.

Select each leg of the journey one at a time. The prices listed are always the lowest possible price including that option, which means other selections made later might raise the price — but at least one option will still be available at the price you saw previously. Orange text indicates the cheapest option on the page.

If you wish, you can work backwards by selecting the return journey from the top of the page to view those results first.

One of the best options here seems to be a Saturday morning itinerary with flights on Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. It’s not the cheapest option, but it is just $111 more, has a short connection, and doesn’t require taking time off work on Friday. After selecting this option I get a list of return flights.

Reading the Itinerary

After selecting the flights there will be a summary of the itinerary. This includes detailed information on the airline, flight numbers, aircraft type, and the booking class.

Below the itinerary is a blue box with a breakdown of the fare, including the base fare and any associated taxes and fees. This can be helpful to estimate the fees for the same itinerary when booked as an award ticket, or to calculate the number of frequent flyer miles you’ll earn on the base fare. There are also some tricks, like fuel dumping, that rely on this information.

Notice that this itinerary is actually a mix of four different fares. You can still buy them together on a single ticket. Sometimes mixing fares is cheaper, and sometimes one fare that covers the entire journey is cheaper. It’s difficult to predict.

The bigger issue is that there are three airlines in this itinerary, and airline websites like to promote their own fares. Travel agents (online and in person) sometimes do a better job helping you book tickets that have flights operated by several different carriers.

Use Flexible Dates for Lower Fares

It’s possible that I could book a lower fare if I removed some of the advanced routing language. Forcing my connections in certain cities eliminated some options. Another good way to find cheap fares is to be very flexible with dates. How flexible? You can tell ITA Matrix to search an entire month at once. Just choose the earliest possible departure and how long you want to be away. Enter a range of dates if you’re not sure. For a week-long trip you might search 5-6 nights. For a weekend you might search 2-3 nights.

I’ll try a new search, this time being more flexible with my itinerary and dates.

ITA Matrix can’t book tickets, but it is very good at finding the best options. Just know that you should be able to book the same itinerary for the same price on another website. You can try to reconstruct the results by going to the airline’s website directly, use an online travel agency, or by taking a screenshot to share with a human travel agent. Hipmunk is a particularly helpful online travel agency since it can understand some (not all) of ITA’s advanced routing language, enabling you to enter exact flight numbers if other options aren’t working.

Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

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What is the ita matrix and how can you use it for cheap flights.

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Do you like paying for your flights instead of using airline miles ? If so, you will want to use some of the most powerful flight search software in the world. That's where the ITA Matrix comes in. This Google-owned airfare search engine crunches metadata from most of the airline carriers to help you find the best flight prices and even discover hidden options the other search engines might miss! If you want a single website to scour all the flight information available, these tips can help you get the most out of the ITA Matrix platform from Google.

Use the ITA Matrix to help book your next flight.

What Exactly Can ITA Matrix Do?

ITA Matrix  is an all-in-one flight search engine that analyzes the flight routes and prices for most airlines. The platform was created by several MIT scientists in 1996 and was acquired by Google in 2010. In addition to being a standalone flight search engine, the ITA Matrix technology also powers Google Flights plus several other flight search engines like Kayak.

While Kayak and Google Flights use most of the ITA Matrix software , you still cannot experience the full capacity of the software unless you visit the official ITA Matrix website. In addition to the basic search field that every flight search engine uses, you can also filter results to display the following criteria:

Cost Per Mile

• Interactive Calendar
• Real-Time Filters

Color-Coded Time Bars

While these features are not exclusive to ITA Matrix, they do make the search engine more user-friendly so you can easily digest the data and it doesn't have the retro feel of the late '90s or early 2000s search engine when you performed an advanced search.

Let's look at some of the highlights of the ITA Matrix platform.

In-Depth Searches with the ITA Matrix

Since you can't buy any tickets through ITA Matrix (only research prices) their homepage is very straightforward and you won't be bothered with the latest specials or even pop-up windows for sister sites that some of the booking sites will employ.

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. Your search can be completely customizable!

Advanced Codes Is Your Friend

The real reason you might decide to use ITA Matrix is for their advanced coding capability. The advanced codes are the primary reason the Matrix is the most customizable metadata search engine.

Trying out the codes is the best way to learn them. Most of them are pretty easy to use and input, so, there won't be too much of a learning curve.

To help you discover all the possible coding options, click on the "Examples" and "Glossary" tabs by clicking the question mark icon in the departure and arrival boxes when you have clicked the "Advanced Controls" option.

There are a few button clicks involved, but, it is easy to get started. And, the code list boxes will remain open as you type different codes into your routing code and extension code boxes.

None of us want to pay more than we have to for anything in life and that applies to airfare too. Just like most grocery stores will give you the cost per ounce to help you quickly spot the best deal, ITA Matrix lets you compare prices by how much you pay per mile.

The cost-per-mile feature can be an easy way to decide the best time to redeem miles for award flights and when to pay cash.

Up to Six Multi-City Flights

ITA Matrix might also be one of the most powerful research tools for planning a multi-city travel itinerary. You can research up to six flights at once ! If you ask me, that's one epic trip. For each flight, you can also add advanced routing codes to quickly pinpoint the ideal flight for each segment of your trip.

Browse Flexible Dates

Another reason why you might enjoy searching for the perfect flight on ITA Matrix is for their flexible dates calendar. The flexible dates calendar is very similar in appearance to its sister site, Google Flights, where you can view the rates based on when you arrive and depart.

Compared to other travel sites, you might like the Matrix more because the calendar is the web page and not just a small pop-up window that appears only if you hover your mouse browser over your travel dates.

If you're a "picture person," you will also like shopping flight itineraries with the color-coded time bars.

The charts are easy to read and are arranged by price. The charts will assign a unique color to each airline and the size of the bar indicates the flight duration. A gray bar will show the length of a layover and the three-letter acronym indicates the connecting airport.

To the righthand side of each flight bar, there might be several advisory alerts. For example, a circle with a moon will indicate an overnight flight, a circle with an orange shade indicates a long layover, and a red circle indicates a tight connection window. These advisory symbols are universal to most, if not all, search engines and can help you quickly spot bad bargains.

Easily Spot Your Connecting Airports

If you prefer the traditional, text-based searches instead of the color-coded time bars, you can also easily filter through the different flight options by price, flight times, number of stops, and specific connecting airports.

To filter your search results by the connecting airport, you will need to look at the "Stops" column. Novice travelers will need to Google the airport codes if you don't know the difference between IAH, ORD, DFW, or EWR. For the advanced travelers that love the deep-data research, this won't be an issue.

What Can't ITA Matrix Do?

While the ITA Matrix is probably the most thorough flight research tool, it has several limitations:

• You can't buy directly through ITA Matrix
• Southwest Airlines flight prices are not displayed

There are some apps and websites that instantly access your flight research to create a buying session. Google Flights, for instance, offers a button that lets you instantly visit the carrier or travel booking site to purchase your flight option. It'd be nice if the next platform update would include this feature.

Summary on the ITA Matrix

The ITA Matrix is a powerful flight research tool. While you will still have to book your flights directly through the carrier, it can be a great research tool if you want to book a complex route or are a travel agent. Even though you can find most of the same routes on the carrier websites, you can retrieve the information in notably less time with the Matrix ITA.

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Book With Matrix

The easiest way to book ita matrix itineraries and trips.

Note: we are not affiliated with ITA Matrix or Google.

Instructions

Click “copy itinerary as json”.

On the right bottom of the page that shows the flights, click Copy itinerary as JSON in the Share & Export box.

Paste into BookWithMatrix

Paste the itinerary you find into BookWithMatrix's search box by pressing Ctrl + V to paste what you just copied

Plan travels with Wanderlog

What is google ita matrix.

ITA Matrix is one of the most powerful flight search tools on the Internet . (Learn more from this detailed guide to ITA Matrix at UpgradedPoints). However, up until now, after finding a flight, you would have to manually recreate the itinerary in a travel search tool and go through the entire search process again. With BookWithMatrix, you can book an ITA Matrix itinerary easily by pasting in the final results page from Matrix.

We created BookWithMatrix as we use Matrix as our main flight search tool due to its power, but we've found actually booking the flights to be inconvenient. We've used Matrix to find $350 business-class tickets to China, multi-leg trips to use in combination with miles to travel Southeast Asia, and the best times to visit our significant others in the US, and would love to make the process of finding great trips easier. If you have any questions or suggestions, contact us at [email protected].

Other resources for learning to use ITA Matrix

• UpgradedPoints also has a good guide for more advanced users on how to filter and use advanced routing codes on ITA Matrix to find cheap airfare .
• TravelCodex has a full series on how to use ITA Matrix, starting from the basics all the way up to advanced features.
• ThePointsGuy similarly has an excellent guide on other advanced ITA Matrix usage that goes into nifty filters for fare codes and other useful routing codes like aircraft and minconnect .

Other resources for power-travelers

• ITA Matrix Powertools Chrome extension can also help book flights from ITA Matrix. It supports opening links to more airlines' websites but fewer online travel agencies, but has great community support and is perfect for power-users!
• UpgradedPoints's credit card point partner transfer calculator can help you determine which airlines are most worth transferring your credit card points for.

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