Flight API overview
What the service does, the three calls that make a ticket, and how these docs are organised.
In short
1 callFor people and agentsThe same list heads this page's Markdown:/flight/flight-overview.md
The Flight API is one interface to flight inventory from several suppliers. You integrate once; we route each search to a supplier, and every response names which one answered.
You request offers, prebook the selected fare, then book it. For Duffel, OEX collects payment at book. For LiteAPI, you pay through its checkout between prebook and book. You cancel a confirmed ticket separately.
For the Duffel payment flow:
There is no search step. Flight suppliers price as they search, so POST /v1/flight/offers returns bookable fares directly, each with a signed offer_reference and an expires_at.
Offers accept an optional supplier. Omit it to use the default Duffel route; set supplier: "LITEAPI" explicitly for LiteAPI. Bookings never take a supplier: prebook, book and cancel always go to the one that priced the offer, because the reference pins it.
API changes are announced in the changelog first; see Flight API versioning. If anything here is unclear, contact support and quote the x-request-id of the call.
How these docs are organised
- Tutorial: Book your first flight takes you from an itinerary to a ticket.
- How-to guides solve a job you already have: Flight search best practices, Add bags and seats to a flight booking, Cancel a flight booking, Retry flight calls safely, Airlines and airports.
- Reference is the contract: Flight API conventions, Flight API errors, Flight API versioning. The API reference below documents every endpoint and field.
- Explanation is the model: Flight itineraries and fares, Flight booking lifecycle.