Google Flights
Arcade.dev LLM tools for getting flights via Google Flights
4.1.2Google Flights Toolkit
The Google Flights toolkit lets Arcade-powered agents search real flight inventory, resolve itineraries to bookable vendors, and look up airport codes — all via the SerpApi Google Flights endpoint.
Capabilities
- Airport lookup: Resolve city names, country names, or airport names to IATA codes, including metropolitan codes (NYC, LON, TYO, PAR) that span multiple airports.
- One-way & round-trip search: Search flights with a single call; round-trips require both
outbound_dateandreturn_date— never substitute two one-way searches, as airlines price these independently. - Multi-city / open-jaw search: Query multi-leg itineraries in one call; the bundled fare is typically cheaper than summed one-ways.
- Booking option resolution: Pass a
booking_tokenfrom any search result to retrieve the airlines and OTAs selling that exact itinerary, with optional POST data for backend vendor hand-off. - Direct booking links: Every search result includes a
google_flights_urlthat opens the pre-selected itinerary on Google Flights, usable immediately without a follow-up lookup.
Secrets
SERP_API_KEY — An API key issued by SerpApi, the service that proxies Google Flights data. To obtain one: create or log in to an account at serpapi.com, navigate to Dashboard → API Key, and copy the key shown there. SerpApi offers a free tier with a limited monthly search quota; paid plans are required for higher volume. The key authenticates every request this toolkit makes to the SerpApi Google Flights endpoint.
For configuring secrets in Arcade, see https://docs.arcade.dev/en/guides/create-tools/tool-basics/create-tool-secrets. You can also manage secrets directly at https://api.arcade.dev/dashboard/auth/secrets.
Available tools(4)
| Tool name | Description | Secrets | |
|---|---|---|---|
Resolve a ``booking_token`` to the airlines and OTAs selling that itinerary.
Pass a ``booking_token`` from a one-way, round-trip, or multi-city
flight search result to get the vendors selling that specific
flight. The token encodes the route, dates, cabin class,
and passenger counts (every segment for multi-city), so there are
no ``travel_class``, ``num_adults``, or ``num_children`` parameters;
supplying a cabin or party size would silently disagree with the
itinerary the token was issued for.
Leave ``include_booking_post_data`` off (the default) when an LLM
is comparing prices; turn it on only when a backend needs to
rebuild the vendor hand-off, since the POST body is multiple
kilobytes per option. | 1 | ||
Find IATA airport codes for a city, country, or airport name.
Metropolitan codes (NYC, LON, TYO, PAR, ...) are accepted as a
``departure_airport_code`` or ``arrival_airport_code`` in flight
searches and mean "any airport in this city". | |||
Search Google Flights for one-way or round-trip itineraries.
For a trip where the traveler returns to their origin, issue a
single call with both ``outbound_date`` and ``return_date`` set.
Do NOT issue two separate one-way searches in opposite directions
and sum the prices: airlines price round-trip fares independently
from one-way fares, so the sum of two cheapest one-ways is rarely
equal to the cheapest round-trip and is typically more expensive.
Each returned itinerary carries a ``google_flights_url`` that opens
that specific pre-selected flight on Google Flights, so you can hand
the user a booking link straight from these results without a
separate booking-options lookup. | 1 | ||
Search Google Flights for a multi-city (open-jaw) itinerary.
Use this for trips that are neither a simple one-way nor a round-trip
(e.g. an open-jaw three-leg trip that ends back at the origin).
The open-jaw bundle is typically cheaper than the equivalent set
of one-way searches summed; never substitute several one-way
searches for a single multi-city query.
Each returned itinerary carries a ``google_flights_url`` that opens
that specific pre-selected itinerary on Google Flights, so you can
hand the user a booking link straight from these results without a
separate booking-options lookup. | 1 |