Google Flights
Arcade.dev LLM tools for getting flights via Google Flights
4.1.0Google Flights Toolkit
The Arcade Google Flights toolkit wraps the SerpApi Google Flights API to let LLMs search, compare, and resolve flight itineraries programmatically.
Capabilities
- Airport lookup — resolve city names, country names, or airport names to IATA codes, including metropolitan area codes (NYC, LON, etc.) usable directly in search calls.
- One-way & round-trip search — query Google Flights for both trip types in a single call; returns itineraries with direct
google_flights_urlbooking links, avoiding the need for a separate booking-options lookup. - Multi-city / open-jaw search — search complex itineraries (3+ legs, open-jaw) as a bundled query, which typically yields lower fares than summing individual one-way searches.
- Booking option resolution — convert a
booking_tokenfrom any search result into the full list of airlines and OTAs selling that specific itinerary, with optional POST data for backend vendor hand-off.
Secrets
SERP_API_KEY — A SerpApi API key used to authenticate all Google Flights requests. Obtain it by creating an account at serpapi.com, then copying the key from your SerpApi dashboard. The free tier allows a limited number of searches per month; paid plans are required for higher volume. The key needs no special scope selection — a standard SerpApi key has access to all supported engines including Google Flights.
Store this secret in Arcade following the tool secrets guide. You can 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`` returned by ``search_flights`` or
``search_multi_city_flights`` 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". | 1 | ||
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 multiple
``search_flights`` calls 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 |