Flying from different cities - cheaper prices

randomshenans · 14 Aug 2017 at 14:14

Everyone always says in articles, you fly from another destination instead and you can get some great value trips, then just tag on a cheap euro return on to it to get there.

I have to go to Sao Paulo next month and I'd like to have it cheaper, due to having to fork out for a million flights this year, it would be nice for it not to be another 1500 for this one, or a really sack 6 connections I had to Mexico.

Is there anywhere online you can check the cheapest places that fly to your destination? e.g. I put in Sao Paulo and it goes - fly from madrid for the cheapest return bla bla

Any good way of doing this?

Glaucus · 14 Aug 2017 at 14:31

i don't know of any like that but something must exist.
however skyscanner shows that from heathrow with 2 hour stop over in washington is about £610 through travelup (most dates in September)

Selekt0r · 14 Aug 2017 at 14:39

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ can do this.

Put in Sao Paulo as your destination. Then in the 'Departing from' put a central Europe airport like Munich (MUC) and then click on 'Nearby'. Ramp up the 'Nearby' to be within 2000 miles, and 'Select All' then close that box. The 'Departing From' box will now list all airports in that radius. You can now play with the other search settings (e.g. maximum number of stops etc.) and complete your search.

touch · 14 Aug 2017 at 14:45

https://www.google.co.uk/flights

randomshenans · 14 Aug 2017 at 14:59

Nice one, that looks simple enough to do!

Amp34 · 14 Aug 2017 at 17:20

Selekt0r said:
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ can do this.

Put in Sao Paulo as your destination. Then in the 'Departing from' put a central Europe airport like Munich (MUC) and then click on 'Nearby'. Ramp up the 'Nearby' to be within 2000 miles, and 'Select All' then close that box. The 'Departing From' box will now list all airports in that radius. You can now play with the other search settings (e.g. maximum number of stops etc.) and complete your search.

Just a note to go with that softwares, it's great for working out routes but take the prices with a bit of a pinch of salt. I've had a few times where the prices on that software aren't actually available.

You can't book through it so you'll either need to take the codes to a travel agent or try and book through other websites once done, which is where the discrepancy ends up.

Selekt0r · 14 Aug 2017 at 19:00

Amp34 said:
Just a note to go with that softwares, it's great for working out routes but take the prices with a bit of a pinch of salt. I've had a few times where the prices on that software aren't actually available.

You can't book through it so you'll either need to take the codes to a travel agent or try and book through other websites once done, which is where the discrepancy ends up.

True, you can't book directly through it, but it is powered by the same search engine as Google Flights ( https://www.google.com/flights/ ), which can only work with a maximum of 5 'departing from' airports. So, once you have got the best route/price from the more flexible/powerful Matrix search then you can stick your specific from/to into Google Flights and you should get the same results/prices as well as links to travel/booking agencies.

Amp34 · 14 Aug 2017 at 19:02

Should, but not always

.

Something I've never quite got to the bottom of as I believe it's also the back end of a lot of travel agent systems too.