ITA Matrix Example: MINCONNECT extension code
So you’re ready to up your flight searching game. After you’ve mastered finding flights on airline websites and Google flights, it’s time for you to learn a more robust tool. Keep in mind that ITA Matrix isn’t necessarily the best option for looking for flights. In fact, some sale fares will not show up in the search results. That being said, using ITA Matrix is a great way to narrow down specificities that intermediate and advanced travelers seek out in their travels.
In this post we are going to look more closely at the MINCONNECT extension code of ITA Matrix. MINCONNECT is used to specify the minimum connection time at an airport. We find this feature useful in three different scenarios:
Making sure you have enough time to comfortably connect at a busy airport
Leaving extra time at the connecting airport to give us more time at our favorite lounges
Forcing an overnight connection when the only other option is a short connection
Making sure you have enough time to comfortably connect
One problem that can quickly derail any trip is a missed connection. This is especially true when connecting at airports that allow tickets to be sold with very short connection times. Since we are Oneworld travelers and mostly American Airlines flyers in the US, we often see these tight connections at Phoenix (PHX) and Charlotte (CLT). While we usually think we can make the shortest connection, and we carry travel insurance to cover this eventuality, missing a connection can make the travel day much longer than initially anticipated. To counter this, we can set the minimum connection time to a comfortable hour.
For example, this flight from Palm Springs to Dallas connects in Phoenix.
The first flight that’s often on offer on Google flights will have a 58 minute connection. While this may seem doable, we’ve missed this connection multiple times in the past year. To prevent it from happening, we will use the MINCONNECT extension code. In the box we will type “MINCONNECT 60”
Once that is entered into the extension code box, the results will eliminate any connection that is less than an hour. Now the first flight listed has a 2.5 hour connection. We find this much more comfortable, especially when these are the first few segments of a larger trip
Leaving extra time at the connecting airport to give us more time at our favorite lounges
Another reason to use the MINCONNECT extension code on ITA Matrix is to create more time to visit your favorite lounge or get work done. We find this to be especially useful when we are connecting through an airport like Dallas, where we like to visit the Flagship lounge. Likewise, sometimes I’ll know in advance that I’ll have a meeting at a specific time, and it’s nice to be able to have buffer time at the lounge to attend these meetings virtually.
Without using the MINCONNECT extension code, the shortest connection we usually get in Dallas is 92 minutes. If we want more time at the lounge, we can use the MINCONNECT extension code and make sure we have more than that. Therefore, we’ll type in “MINCONNECT 95” to make sure we only get results with a longer layover. In this case, the shortest connection is now 2.5 hours, enough time to check into a meeting, eat breakfast, and get a shower before the flight to New York.
Forcing an overnight connection when the only other option is a short connection
The last reason we generally use the MINCONNECT extension code is to force an overnight connection. Usually, we are doing this when we are searching for a longer itinerary from Palm Springs, CA to Europe. Often, to maximize British Airways tier point earning on these trips, we connect in Phoenix and JFK. However, the first flight of the itinerary from Palm Springs to Phoenix can come with a 34 minute connection time (yes, you read that right … 34 minutes).
While we think we can generally make this connection, more than once, our bags have not made the connection. Since we’re traveling all the way to Europe, this means our bags will probably arrive at least a day late. To counter this, we often use the MINCONNECT extension code on ITA Matrix to force an overnight layover at PHX the night before the rest of our itinerary, while arriving in Europe at the time of day we like most.
In this case, we’ll type in “MINCONNECT 600” to force a minimum 10 hour layover, and the results will immediately display the flights we like to take.
*Note, there are other ways to accomplish this same result through filtering, but we find it easier to filter out flights we don’t want before the results are displayed
Conclusion
The MINCONNECT extension code for ITA Matrix is a useful trick to narrow down flights on a complex itinerary. We find it useful to force longer connections at airports we know will be busy, airports that have misconnected our bags in the past, and to build in more time to visit our favorite lounges.
