Different Airfare--Qantas site and ITASoftware

I have been checking a flight after a cruise AKL to MEL on 10/19/18 and leaving MEL to LAX on 10/25/18. ITASoftware prices it at 2,901 NZD while the Qantas website shows 3,951 NZD. That's about $700 U.S. difference. If anyone in the know could shed some inside, I would really appreciate it. Usually the ITA website is right on.

QF systems are pricing it as two separate flights, not as a through fare.

Have you put those dates into ITA? The gap between flights makes this two separate tickets, not a connection.

This happened to us on an Air Canada booking to Bangkok. Got the flight details, fare basis, etc and called Air Canada. They had the flight, code, same everything. But their price was $1500, that was $500 more than the itmatrix price.

Tried AirCanada.com,Expedia, Travlocity, Cheapo, etc. No luck. Sometimes the flight combo did not show up or the price was $1500.

Finally tried Orbiz. The right flights came up at the right price. Hit the buy button and were able to select our seats. Same fare code as itmatrix.

This was all done within a 15 minute window.

I have never used Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz for flights. Are they considered consolidators?

I have never used Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz for flights. Are they considered consolidators?

No, they're called "online travel agencies" or OTAs. (By the way, they're all owned by Expedia.)

What I found odd about my experience my AC flights to Bangkok was not only did Orbitz have the same price/fare code etc. listed by itmatrix (the airline and other on lines did not) but when I checked my Visa bill the charge came through as an Air Canada charge, not an Orbitz charge.

We also liked the fact that we were able to select our seats on all five flight segments at the same time we bought the travel. We had the same sort of experience when we booked some inexpensive one way tickets on BA from Toronto-Istanbul on Cheapo. Same issue, fares were on itmatrix but not available from BA or a few other on line agencies. We book direct with the airline whenever possible however we are not willing to pay over the odds to do so if all things are equal.

The only time I’ve had an airline refuse to sell an ita matrix flight schedule was when the airlines said the international connection (layover) was to short. The airlines agreed that it was a “legal” connection, but not operationally practical and wouldn’t sell the ticket. I would guess that if one was able to back door buy the ticket via an OTA , it wouldn’t be long before they were getting a schedule change from the airlines. At that point, one may or may not like the new flights.

I have never used Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz for flights. Are they considered consolidators?

No. Third party TA sites for folks too lazy to do the research.

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I have been checking a flight after a cruise AKL to MEL on 10/19/18 and leaving MEL to LAX on 10/25/18. ITASoftware prices it at 2,901 NZD while the Qantas website shows 3,951 NZD. That's about $700 U.S. difference. If anyone in the know could shed some inside, I would really appreciate it. Usually the ITA website is right on.

Next time try bookwithmatrix dot com. This allows you to book the fare by copying and pasting the ITA itinerary into a different website that will book the itinerary for you.

Thanks to everyone for all your insights.

I have never used Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz for flights. Are they considered consolidators?

I may use one of these sites, or another like it, to do the initial search, BUT I still go to the airline direct to book it. Many times there will be many more flights to pick from at that point too, with better flight times or connections.

In my one experience, the three connections/layovers were all legal. It was not that Air Canada would not sell me the itmatrix routing. They would.

The issue was that they would not sell it for $1000. The airline agent had the flight, same fare codes, same routings etc. on his system at $1500.

I have been checking a flight after a cruise AKL to MEL on 10/19/18 and leaving MEL to LAX on 10/25/18. ITASoftware prices it at 2,901 NZD while the Qantas website shows 3,951 NZD.

QF systems are pricing it as two separate flights, not as a through fare.

 

Have you put those dates into ITA? The gap between flights makes this two separate tickets, not a connection.

Also, there is no difficulty with using one fare to buy one ticket for a one-way trip including a stopover embedded into it. That is what the ITA price is: one AKL-LAX fare component with a stopover in MEL.

The ITA price today is NZD 2,898.58. The price that the QF website gives today is NZD 3,948.58. That is a difference of exactly NZD 1,050.00.

Looking at the fare ladder for AKL-LAX fares, the base fare used by ITA (IZE9O) can be seen: NZD 2,700.00. It therefore looks like the QF website is using the IZE2O fare to price this: NZD 3,750.00, which accounts for the exact difference between the two results. It follows that I class availability is not the problem here.

I can't immediately see any difference between the fare rules which would account for the QF website not using the lower fare to price this itinerary. Expedia will price it using the lower fare (although personally I would not buy from Expedia unless there really is no alternative). So in the OP's shoes, I would be phoning QF to ask whether I can buy it using the lower fare, if necessary quoting the exact fare basis code I want (IZE9O) - and if not, why not (although I would not expect a standard call centre agent necessarily to be able to give a competent or accurate answer to that question).

Thank you globaliser for your explanation. I will try calling QA.