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Comment by aidenn0 | Hacker News Reader

Slightly OT, but what's a good flight search tool now that hipmunk has shut down? I was super bummed when that happened because they just presented so much useful information on a single screen.

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I've always heard that ITA Matrix is the most powerful flight search tool that exists. Not a polished UI like Hipmunk though. https://matrix.itasoftware.com/ I have no real complaints with Google Flight search though.

The problem with Matrix is that it only searches through standard GDS, and you don't get the direct fares that some airlines publish. A metasearch like kayak also aggregates the direct feeds from airlines

(Yes, airline distribution is a messy domain)

I believe google owns ITA.

That's true, it was acquired a few years back, but ITA Matrix is still supported as a separate interface with different capabilities than Google Flights.

When looking for the cheapest tickets, I tend to search all three (which tend to give dramatically different fares for some reason):

flights.google.com fareboom.com skyscanner.com

Searching for the cheapest tickets is easy. Hipmunk let me find reasonably priced tickets that fit my schedule better.

I tried to find something like a free API for flight details and prices to query. It surprised me that I didn't find something easy, complete, and free. Shouldn't the airlines want to make it easy for people to access their flight schedules and sell tickets? Maybe they do and I just didn't find it.

and do so in an incognito window, preferably behind a VPN with an IP address from an undeveloped country.

I generally use Kayak. Used to use Skiplagged for hidden city ticketing as well. It certainly feels like price discovery has gotten a lot easier...and I tend to book with the airline anyway in case I have to deal with customer service.

Kayak is silly expensive for me, maybe it’s my origin city. And the multiple airline for international is just messy

I'm using the team at flightfox. Not search but if you do long haul it's a major time saver and it pays for itself. During the early lockdown they also managed to get every single flight we had refunded, making me a fan for life.

https://flightfox.com

In Europe there's azair.eu.

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