Review – ITA Software OnTheFly for Android

If you have ever booked an airline ticket online, then you have a very good chance you made use of fare information from a company called ITA Software. ITA is so important to the online world that Google purchased them earlier this year. ITA’s technology is what powers many of the major booking engines, including some from the airlines themselves.

So can you imagine how powerful an app could be if it had live access to the ITA fare data? Well, imagine no longer, because owners of an Android phone or an iPhone can download OnTheFly – ITA’s mobile application for airfare searches.

Unlike many other airline ticket applications, OnTheFly is designed with a specific kind of traveler in mind – the kind of traveler that doesn’t get scared when they see booking codes or fare constructions. If you understand how airline tickets work – an application like OnTheFly could be your best tool for fighting overpriced tickets – as long as you know where to look.

The application itself is very well made – the version I tested was for Android, and given the ITA – Google – Android links, it comes as no surprise that this is one well designed application.

The smart design starts when you enter an airport – in addition to the airport name or code you entered, it’ll also show other airports to consider.

In the case of Minneapolis, the closest alternative airport is 61 miles away, but when you enter one of the New York airports, you obviously get some better alternatives. Searches can be done by date, flexible dates, fare class, number of stops and a variety of other options.

The results matrix shows airfare by airline, along with the number of stops – making it very simple to pinpoint the best fare.
Results can expanded with other airports or alternative dates.

Once you’ve picked a fare, you can pick your times. Depending on the departure time, fares may go up, so this simple chart shows then the best time to fly will be.

And once you pick an actual flight, you can display its fare information, mileage and even its emissions data – which is great if you participate in a CO2 offset program.

Now – to be perfectly clear – OnTheFly is NOT a ticket booking application – it merely shows the best fares, from ITA’s database. Once you’ve found the perfect flights, you will need to call the airline and give them the information they need to actually book your ticket. Of course, you can also call your travel agent if you still happen to use one.

Thankfully, OnTheFly tells you EXACTLY what the airline will need to know in order to book the exact ticket you want. Since some of these tickets use specific booking codes, you’ll need this data to snag the fare you found.

Bottom line is that OnTheFly is the best mobile airfare search app I’ve ever tested – but it is most certainly not for everyone. If you just want to go online and book whatever looks cheap-ish, then you’ll probably want to stay away from it. But if you make a sport out of finding the absolute cheapest airfare, maximizing your miles and taking advantage of specific booking classes, you’ll get a real kick out of the power of ITA on your mobile device.

To learn more about ITA Software OnTheFly, and to find download links, head on over to their product page.

Google acquires ITA: the search for bargain airline deals is about to get even easier

You’re an avid traveler, right? Sure, why else would you be reading this? Chances are that you’ve spent some quality time at either Kayak, Airfare Watchdog, Bing Travel or one of the many other niche ticketing sites in search of deals over the past few months. To that end, you’ve probably spent next to no time at Google searching for the same thing. But the obvious question is this: “why not?”

That’s a question that has obviously been bugging Google, which is a master of all things search in most every other category. For whatever reason, Google has allowed a number of other, typically smaller competing sites to grow their user base without any interference. But if Google’s so great at finding images via keyword, remedies to your strange medical conditions or more details on that vehicle you’ve been meaning to investigate, why can’t it do the same for travel?

Enter ITA Software, a Cambridge-based software firm that was born from an idea within the minds of a few bright computer scientists from MIT. Currently, the outfit is home to a highly advanced QPX software tool for organizing flight information, which is used by leading airlines and travel distributors worldwide including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Bing, Continental Airlines, Hotwire, Kayak, Orbitz, Southwest Airlines, TripAdvisor, United Airlines, US Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and others. Moreover, it’s now offering a completely new airline passenger reservation system to improve the customer experience. And as of today, the company is an integral part of Google…
Google has ponied up $700 million in order to acquire ITA and turn the tables in the online ticket search business, but what’s most interesting here is that there’s a good chance the resulting search engine will not only do its own thing, but also bring in results from your existing favorites (Kayak, for instance). In a way, it’ll be the ultimate airline ticket search engine, pulling information from every nook and cranny available and organizing it in a way that the Average Joe or Jane can fully understand and take action on.

Once the acquisition is complete, Google aims to “make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket.” It’s important to note that much like Kayak, Google won’t actually be selling you an airline ticket directly; it’ll simply be providing the access to buy one. Still, this all sounds like a huge win for consumers who are tired of crawling three different airline search engines to get a somewhat comprehensive look at their options, and we personally can’t wait for this marriage to officially bear fruit.

[Source: Google]