Google Flights
Arcade.dev LLM tools for getting flights via Google Flights
4.1.1Google Flights Toolkit
Arcade's Google Flights toolkit lets LLMs search and resolve flight itineraries via the SerpApi Google Flights endpoint, returning structured results with direct booking links.
Capabilities
- Airport lookup: Resolve city names, country names, or airport names to IATA codes, including metropolitan area codes (NYC, LON, etc.) usable in flight searches.
- One-way & round-trip search: Query flights with full control over dates, cabin class, and passenger counts; round-trip fares are fetched in a single call to return accurately bundled pricing.
- Multi-city (open-jaw) search: Search multi-leg itineraries that are neither simple one-ways nor round-trips; bundled pricing is typically cheaper than equivalent summed one-ways.
- Booking option resolution: Convert a
booking_tokenfrom any search result into a list of airlines and OTAs selling that specific itinerary, with optional POST data for backend vendor hand-offs. - Direct booking links: Every search result includes a
google_flights_urlthat opens the pre-selected itinerary on Google Flights, enabling immediate user hand-off without a secondary lookup.
Secrets
SERP_API_KEY — An API key issued by SerpApi, the service that powers the underlying Google Flights data. To obtain one: create an account at serpapi.com, navigate to your dashboard, and copy the API Key shown there. Free-tier accounts include a limited number of monthly searches; paid plans are required for higher volume. The key must have access to the Google Flights engine — no additional per-engine toggle is needed on SerpApi's side.
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 |