Are there "traditional" travel agents receiving requests online for ITA fares?

Question

I found a really nice fare in ITA. I cant get that price in any of the usual flight search engines. I tried hipmunk with its extended search capabilities (maybe I didnt explore them to the max) and I still didn't get the price.

I went through the several options listed in other questions.

I went to several travel agents and none of them was able to get me the ticket. Some just don't bother, others don't have the knowledge and the one that took most time didn't have the last leg of the ticket available. I have no ideia why.

Calling the company (it's only one) was also disappointing since I was waiting for someone for almost 20 minutes.

Trying search engines (I tried them almost all) didn't work as already mentioned.

I would like to find someone that really knows about this and is available online. A traditional travel agent with a web service seems to be the way.

Are there any reliable online "traditional" travel agents to whom I can request the ticket based on ITA fare construction online?

Answer 1

Skytravelagent (STA) is (from what I can gather) the go-to travel agent of Vielfliegertreff, the German-language equivalent of Flyertalk. They specialize on mileage runs, "creative ticketing" and so on (according to their own description) and from what you read in the forum I would go as far as trust them.

The catch is that STA is Germany-based and the website is available only in German. However I can't imagine they don't know enough English to understand your request and the ITA code is the same in any language. I also can't imagine that there would be a problem from billing, at least in Europe. They have a contact form or find their email/phone here.

Finally you should take note that (AFAIK) not all ITA solutions are actually bookable - sometimes there are fares that just don't work out, I'm afraid. (edit: see your own question here)

(no affiliation with STA and I have never personally used their service)

The above has been confirmed by the official Sky Travel Agent Facebook page:

Answer 2

Yes.

Propeller Travel will do this. (But note that Propeller Travel levies a fee for their ticketing service.) I am also aware of a few employees at BA who will accept ticketing requests by email, so it is worth making friends with your local airline ticketing staff.

The ITA Matrix, powered by QPX, uses some very sophisticated pricing algorithms to find a very good price. Many travel agents, especially those less experienced, will struggle to find some of the more complex prices it calculates. Their pricing systems may not be as advanced as QPX and may get a different price, usually one much higher. You should refer such agents to the fare construction, both the horizontal construction and the explicit fare list, as this may be of use in coaxing their computer into finding a cheaper construction.

Also you should ensure that ITA is pricing out of the same sales city as the one in which your agent is based. By default it prices at the origin city. You can overrule that in the advanced options. The sales city matters a lot.