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Please advise on other resources or did I misuse the following sites? Example: My friend and mom want to travel from Hong Kong (ie origin) to Toronto (ie destination). My mom can leave whenever from Dec 2014 to Jan 2016 inclusive, but my friend wants to leave in Dec 2014 or Jan 2015. They'll travel in one direction only and not return to HK, but will buy a roundtrip if it's cheaper than a one-way ticket. This doesn't duplicate How can I do a “broad” search for flights? because I've already tried:

1. http://adioso.com/hk/hong-kong-to-toronto-ca-december: For one-way fares: The presentation uselessly shows only one week at a time. For roundtrip: Same problem as in 2 below 'For roundtrip'.

2. http://matrix.itasoftware.com: For one-way fares: Thanks to user Gagravarr, I thought to retry with Internet Explorer, on which prices did appear in the calendar, unlike in Firefox 34.0.5 which I first used.
For roundtrip: The 'Matrix Airfare Search' requires you to specify 'Length of stay', but this thwarts my goal to minimise the price, without any care or need for a specific departure and return date.

3. http://www.skyscanner.com: For one-way fares: Why are there magnifying glasses on certain dates (example), the prices for which are inefficiently revealed only after clicking on each date? Yet when I tried this yesterday, the website exhibited the prices normally.
For roundtrip: I picked 'Whole Year' for the dates. The first problem is that prices for departure and return flights are listed separately. Second, this pricing display (for ostensibly every day) is misleading, because upon choosing a specific departure date, the website immediately limits the available dates for your return flights, so the total fare can be costly.

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  • About the point 3, SkyScanner saves the results of previous searches and shows you when you ask for non specific dates (i.e. "whole year"). So, you see the prices for the last search in these dates, but if nobody has search for this specific date, then you see a "magnifying glasses" sign to make your own search.
    – Ivan
    Dec 14, 2014 at 20:01
  • @Ivan Thank you, but I don't understand your comment, sorry. Whose previous searches are these? I'm confused because you later write if nobody has search for this specific date? Then you wrote you see a "magnifying glasses" sign to make your own search, but whenever I see the magnifying glasses, I will have already searched myself?
    – user13759
    Dec 14, 2014 at 22:17
  • @Ivan Do you mean something similar or different from quityourjobandgo.com/skycanner-review? This website claims: You will notice that some dates don’t have a price next to them but instead display a magnifying glass. There are flights on those days but Skyscanner hasn’t checked those prices for a while. if you select one of those days Skyscanner will check the price and display the result on the next screen when you click Show flights, that’s a little inconvenient but it’s easy enough to go back and change my choice if that works out to be a really expensive day.
    – user13759
    Dec 14, 2014 at 22:18
  • Are you sure you're giving the ITA Matrix the right options? For me, it displays a calendar of a month, each day with the lowest price in it, and I only have to click through to get the details
    – Gagravarr
    Dec 15, 2014 at 1:29
  • @Gagravarr I may be misusing it, so please see the following 2 screenshots of mine. Do they clarify? What's the problem? 1. i.stack.imgur.com/wpMqx.jpg and 2. i.stack.imgur.com/fRbVa.jpg
    – user13759
    Dec 15, 2014 at 3:47

1 Answer 1

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You're doing something wrong with the ITA Matrix, it does what you need! If you ask it for fares for See calendar of lowest fares, then it will show you the prices on the calendar screen. You still have to click through to see what flights come in at those prices, but you will see the lowest per-day price!

For your case, start out like this:

ITA Matrix

Then when you search, the results screen will show prices

Prices

If you want prices in CAD rather than HKG, put in a sales city of Toronto and a Currency of CAD on the search screen. By default, it goes for the origin city's pricing and currency.

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  • Thank you for the screenshots, in view of which I just retried this whole process. The problem appears to be with Firefox 34.0.5, on which the prices are still absent. Yet when I use IE, the prices DO appear. I'll email itasoftware.com about this, but do you know what the problem is? 'For roundtrip', would you mind commenting on this? Am I right about there being a problem?
    – user13759
    Dec 15, 2014 at 6:07
  • For a throwaway round trip, I'd suggest you'd need to do a few searches. One for 1-7 days, one for 8-15 days, one for 16-21 days. I very much doubt a throwaway ticket will be cheapest for a very long trip. Quite quick to just hit Modify Search then change the trip length!
    – Gagravarr
    Dec 15, 2014 at 6:37

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