ITA Software is the world's leading airfare pricing and shopping system, the best free airfare search engine and itineraries planning tool.
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"ITA system accesses the same set of fare data used by airlines and travel agents, but it uses modern distributed computing techniques and fuzzy queries algorithm to search that data, operating on rows of small Linux-based servers, so its search can return hundreds of options, with the best deals highlighted in the matrix pricing display."
ITA Software User Interface Image Copyright: ITA Software, Inc.
ITA Software's user interface is very simple, clear and straightforward.
0. Specifying your search.
At top of the search window, you can specify Round trip, One way, or
Multi-segement air fare search.
1. Origin and destination.
At "from" or "to" text input fields you can input:
City names, City and state/country names, State names, and three-letter airport codes.
When your input is not uniquely identified, the system will list all possible options and let you select.
You also can specify more than one origin or destination.
Example: "Austin, TX; Houston, TX", or "AUS; IAH".
These two input fields is also used as ITA Route Language input. Please see
ITA advanced usage.
2. Alternative airports near your desired origin/destination
You can used this field as considering alternative airports near your desired origin/destination,
which may result in cheaper airfare results.
3. Dates of departure and return.
You may plan trips as far out as 330 days in the future.
4. Alternative travel dates.
You can choose one day early or later around your desired travel date.
This may result in cheaper airfare results.
5. Scheduling by departure or arrival.
6. Time of day you want to travel.
Combing with 5, you can limit ITA search results based on
your schedule.
7. Number and types of passengers.
It is useful when cheaper fares are available for seniors, youths, children, and infants.
8. Maximum number of stops to consider.
This option limit the search outputs like direct or one-stop flight only.
But you may miss the cheaper airfare. So leave the option as "no limit" when
you look for best airfare.
9. Sales city of the ticket you're buying.
This option only works for international
travel which originates outside the United States. At that case, this will be your home city.
Providing the correct sales city affects the fares and currencies used when pricing such
international trips.
10. Class of service.
This option only show up when you click "more options".
It provide first class or business class and better only options.
11. Whether or not to consider airport changes option and Check seat availability option.
At default both of them are checked. This option only show up when you click "more options".
12. The "Go!" button.
When you finish above inputs, click here and it will take
less than 60 seconds to show the results.
Reference:
ITA Help:
Detail online help document.
ITA FAQ.
Next:
ITA Advanced Search.
