When I find a flight I like on the Matrix Airfare Search, it spits out a bunch of travel agent secret codes™. If I look for the same flight on the airline's web site, I often get much higher rates. As an example, looking at a flight from Cape Town (CPT) to New York (JFK), on December 31, 2013, I get the following from Matrix:
Cape Town (CPT) to New York (JFK) - Tue, Dec 31
Turkish Airlines Inc. Cape Town (CPT) to Johannesburg (JNB) - Tue, Dec 31
Turkish Airlines Inc. 41 Dep: 4:30PM Arr: 6:35PM 2h 5m Airbus A330 Economy (T)
Stop in JNB 1h 10m
Turkish Airlines Inc. Johannesburg (JNB) to Istanbul (IST) - Tue, Dec 31
Turkish Airlines Inc. 41 Dep: 7:45PM Arr: 5:30AM 9h 45m Airbus A330 Economy (T)
Layover in IST Wed, Jan 1 1h 55m
Turkish Airlines Inc. Istanbul (IST) to New York (JFK) - Wed, Jan 1
Turkish Airlines Inc. 3 Dep: 7:25AM Arr: 11:25AM 11h 0m Airbus A330 Economy (T)
Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees) $781.60
Total cost for 1 passenger $781.60
Provide this information to a travel agent to help them match the fares found.
Make sure to provide the exact booking and fare codes shown.
Fare 1: Carrier TK TA2PXOW CPT to NYC (rules)
Passenger type ADT, ONE-WAY-ONLY fare, booking code T
Covers CPT-IST (Economy), IST-JFK (Economy) $406.54
USDA APHIS Fee (XA) $5.00
US Immigration Fee (XY) $7.00
US Customs Fee (YC) $5.50
Turkish Int'l Airport Service Charge (TR) $6.80
(YR) $278.40
US International Arrival Tax (US) $17.20
South Africa Passenger Service Charge (ZA) $32.40
South Africa Air Passenger Tax (WC) $18.70
South Africa Passenger Safety Charge (EV) $1.60
South Africa Passenger Services and Security Charge (UM) $2.00
Subtotal per passenger $781.60
Number of passengers x1
TOTAL AIRFARE & TAXES $781.60
Changes to this ticket will incur a penalty fee.
Fare construction (can be useful to travel agents)
CPT TK X/IST TK NYC 406.06TA2PXOW NUC 406.06 END ROE 10.146090 XT 1.60EV 2.00UM 18.70WC 32.40ZA 6.80TR 5.50YC 7.00XY 5.00XA 17.20US 278.40YR
For this search, I specified USD as the currency, but left the Sales City field blank.
When I try to book the same flight on the Turkish Airlines web site, I get a rate of €797 (~USD$1079), or a USD$298 difference.
By looking at the details of the two sites, I see that it is indeed selling me the same flight.
How can I take advantage of the Matrix-provided travel agent secret codes™ to book the flight at the lower price? Or must I go through a travel agent to use these codes?