ITA Matrix
The most power free search engine on the internet is likely ITA Matrix. The ITA Matrix is capable of searching multiple days, multiple airports, and multiple length of trips all at the same time. Its worth noting that it is POWERFUL, but a little more difficult to use than your normal search engine.
Trip Type: Choose between Round Trip, One-way, or Multi-city
Home Airport: The airport you are flying from
Destination: The airport you are flying to
Exact of Flexible: Choose if you are interested in exact dates or flexible dates
Dates: Enter the first date you are available to leave and the length of your stay
Number of Travelers: Choose the number of people on your trip
For this blog we are only going to focus on flexible days. After you are done entering your home/destination airports, selecting see calendar of lowest fares, and entering the number of travelers, turn your attention to the dates portion. The departing box is the earliest you are willing to leave. So if you are looking for a trip in March, we suggest entering March 1st. The length of stay is how many nights you are willing to spend on your vacation. If you are looking for a 6 night stay, enter 6. If you are a bit more flexible and the lowest number of nights you are willing to spend is 4 nights and the most is 7 nights, enter “4 – 7”. This will search all trips.
In our example we want a flight from Huntsville to Orlando in May between 4 – 7 nights.
ITA Matrix lays out the cheapest price for all nights considered (In our example the cheapest flights for 4, 5, 6, and 7 nights) on each date which the trip would start.
In our example, the cheapest flight for a trip starting on May 10th (boxed in red) is $106. When you hover over May 10th the prices for 4, 5, 6, and 7 nights are shown. The cheapest available is $106 for our trip!