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Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

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Re: Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

#21

Post by pintxo »

jd20 wrote: post #13
shshhdhs wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do support Ryanair, I’ve found great deals through it. Lots of other discount Euro airlines are unsupported though

I'm surprised Ryanair is supported, given that they've been engaged in a long and nasty lawsuit with Expedia, over scraping their fares. I was under the impression Ryanair only wanted to sell fares through their own website.

If I am not mistakne, one cannot book via Google Flights, they will send you to Ryanair for the booking. Would make it a different case than the Expedia one.

Re: Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

#22

Post by thaumasiotes »

crikli wrote: post #4

Off-topic but related: https://scottscheapflights.com is _amazing_. The Premium sub is worth every penny...my wife and I will be doing a ton more overseas travel in 2019 purely because of the deals this site finds.

For a typical overseas trip, how does your (ordinary, non-discounted) airfare generally compare to your food and boarding expenses?

Re: Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

#23

Post by scrollaway »

pintxo wrote: post #21
jd20 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised Ryanair is supported, given that they've been engaged in a long and nasty lawsuit with Expedia, over scraping their fares. I was under the impression Ryanair only wanted to sell fares through their own website.

If I am not mistakne, one cannot book via Google Flights, they will send you to Ryanair for the booking. Would make it a different case than the Expedia one.

Wonder why Ryanair would insist on having the user go through their website. Seeing as they monetize absolutely fucking everything, I suspect there's a bunch of crap they're doing with user data…

Re: Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

#24

Post by mtrovo »

I use https://airwander.com/ when flying overseas, I don't know how well it works for low cost airlines though.

It's a flight search engine that let you filter what connections there are between the cities you want to travel and help you book a single flight that is going to stay there as a stopover. Sometimes it finds some weird flights that doesn't make any sense if you're just trying to reach your destination but if you're just traveling it's quite nice.

Last time I used it I found a overseas flight that stopped in Lisbon but on the way back made a connection in Bologna that was +200 cheaper then the normal flight.

Re: Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

#25

Post by jayalpha »

mtrovo wrote: post #24

I use https://airwander.com/ when flying overseas, I don't know how well it works for low cost airlines though. It's a flight search engine that let you filter what connections there are between the cities you want to travel and help you book a single flight that is going to stay there as a stopover. Sometimes it finds some weird flights that doesn't make any sense if you're just trying to reach your destination but…

Airwanderer would be something I have been looking for a long time but it does not seem to work so well. Also, is it just my browser or why is it so difficult to see the layovers? I have to click on "fight details" to see this. Why?

http://www.cleverlayover.com also never worked for me. Good idea, bad executed.

Regarding travel websites, you may want to check out:

https://www.kiwi.com Sometimes finds insane travel routes.

http://www.vayama.com Lets me sometimes stay in Ethiopia for free a day when I fly from Asia to Europe. Does not show up on any other website I consult.

I have also had luck at times with

http://www.opodo.com

http://www.expedia.com (yes, sometimes an old dog still does the trick)

Re: Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

#26

Post by namdnay »

scrollaway wrote: post #23
pintxo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I am not mistakne, one cannot book via Google Flights, they will send you to Ryanair for the booking. Would make it a different case than the Expedia one.

Wonder why Ryanair would insist on having the user go through their website. Seeing as they monetize absolutely fucking everything, I suspect there's a bunch of crap they're doing with user data…

It's not related to data, it's related to direct vs indirect distribution. If you buy a ticket through a travel agency, such as expedia, they take a small cut, and the global distribution system takes another cut. If you book direct, they can keep that money :)

Re: Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

#28

Post by jayalpha »

jd20 wrote: post #13
shshhdhs wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do support Ryanair, I’ve found great deals through it. Lots of other discount Euro airlines are unsupported though

I'm surprised Ryanair is supported, given that they've been engaged in a long and nasty lawsuit with Expedia, over scraping their fares. I was under the impression Ryanair only wanted to sell fares through their own website.

Are they? I don't think that Ryanair minds anyone showing the flights. There are enough sites doing it (Kiwi, swoodoo etc.). They just don't allow you to sell tickets or collect fees which is the reason why most sites don't list them.

Re: Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

#29

Post by whazor »

whazor wrote: post #19

We (me and friend) are working on the same problem, however we are stuck at the next step. Namely the user interface: how do you let the user search through all the possibilities. We created some data structures that allow almost instant searching of such routes and we have scrapers running regularly on Ryanair, easyJet, wizzair, and Transavia. You can query the algorithm here: https://algo.tripchemy.com/routes/TSF?y…

To provide some more details:

- Instead of graph algorithms, we use more algorithms that originate from databases

- Currently the bottleneck is improving server parallelism and filtering/limiting the amount of results (cause the algorithm can send up millions and millions of rows back). Which in a sense is also a frontend problem: which locations do you want to visit?

Re: Ryanair, Hamiltonian Cycles, and using graph theory to find cheap flights

#30

Post by namdnay »

fyfy18 wrote: post #18
warp_factor wrote: post #12

back when I was a student, I would sometimes spend hours on Ryanair's website to find that type of deals. My base was Paris and I wanted to go to Stockholm for example. The direct Ryanair flight from Paris to Stockholm was expensive (Let's say 150 euros). I would manage to find two cheap flights that go for example from Paris to Rome and another one from Rome to Stockholm, both of those for 10 Euros each. The key is…

Most comparison sites will show you these routes, for example Kiwi lets me search indirect flights from where I am in a remote part of Spain to where I live the other side of Europe. There's no direct routes, but it gives me the option of connecting in Barcelona, Stansted or Hahn, or cheaper options if I want more that one stop. It also lets me search a whole month to find the cheapest flights in a given time period,…

There are several other reasons for not wanting to handle connections, including complexity of IT systems, negotiations with airports (bag transfer is more complicated), and general airline processes. I imagine they will end up doing it, Easyjet have started to act as feeders for global airlines - it's a clever idea
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