Google Flights Search

Search real flight prices and schedules from Google Flights via SearchAPI.io. Use when a user asks to find flights, check prices, compare options, or search around a date range. Always pipe results through the flight-scoring skill to rank before presenting, then ALWAYS save the search via the flight-price-monitor skill for automatic price tracking. Requires SEARCHAPI_KEY in .env.

Fetch live flight data from Google Flights via SearchAPI.io, then score and rank results using the flight-scoring skill, then ALWAYS save the search via the flight-price-monitor skill for automatic price tracking.

Install

bash

clawhub install google-flights-search

Requirements

• Python 3 — uses only stdlib (urllib, json, argparse). No pip installs needed.
• SearchAPI.io account — free tier includes 100 requests/month. Sign up here.
• SEARCHAPI_KEY — get your API key from SearchAPI.io after registering, then add it to .env at the project root. OpenClaw loads it automatically.

---

Quick Reference

Situation	Action
User asks for flights	Run search_searchapi.py, score results, then save via flight-price-monitor
Round-trip search	Add --return-date AND --top 5 to get return flight details
User says "around [date]"	Use --days 3 centered on that date
User says "cheapest in March"	Use --days 3 and pick a representative start date
Specific date	Use --days 1 (or --days 3 for ±1 flexibility)
Direct only	Add --stops 0
Multi-passenger	Add --adults N

---

Usage

bash

# One-way search
python {baseDir}/scripts/search_searchapi.py \
  --from TLV --to LON --date 2026-03-15 --days 3 --currency USD

# Round-trip with return flight details for top 5 (RECOMMENDED for round-trips)
python {baseDir}/scripts/search_searchapi.py \
  --from TLV --to BKK --date 2026-03-28 --return-date 2026-04-14 --top 5

All Parameters

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
--from	Yes	—	Origin IATA code (e.g. TLV)
--to	Yes	—	Destination IATA code (e.g. LON, LHR, LGW)
--date	Yes	—	Outbound date YYYY-MM-DD
--return-date	No	—	Return date YYYY-MM-DD (makes it a round-trip search)
--days	No	1	Number of days to search forward from --date (max: 3)
--currency	No	USD	Currency code (USD, EUR, ILS)
--adults	No	1	Number of adult passengers
--stops	No	any	0 = direct only, 1 = up to 1 stop, 2 = up to 2 stops
--class	No	economy	1=economy, 2=premium_economy, 3=business, 4=first_class
--top	No	—	Auto-fetch return flight details for top N outbound results. Use --top 5 for round-trips.
--departure-token	No	—	Fetch return flights for a specific outbound (advanced, rarely needed directly)
--booking-token	No	—	Fetch booking options (real airline/OTA URLs) for a specific flight using its booking_token

Destination codes

Google Flights accepts:

• Airport codes: LHR, CDG, TLV
• City codes: LON (all London airports), PAR (all Paris), NYC

Use city codes when the user hasn't specified a preferred airport.

---

Output Format

The script prints JSON to stdout.

One-Way / Outbound Only

json

{
  "origin": "TLV",
  "destination": "LON",
  "flight_type": "one_way",
  "date_range": { "from": "2026-03-15", "to": "2026-03-17", "days_searched": 3 },
  "currency": "USD",
  "total_results": 24,
  "showing": 15,
  "flights": [
    {
      "search_date": "2026-03-15",
      "airline": "El Al",
      "flight_number": "LY315",
      "origin": "TLV",
      "destination": "LHR",
      "departure_time": "22:00",
      "departure_date": "2026-03-15",
      "arrival_time": "01:30",
      "arrival_date": "2026-03-16",
      "duration_minutes": 270,
      "stops": 0,
      "layovers": [],
      "min_layover_minutes": null,
      "price": 1850,
      "overnight": true,
      "booking_token": "WyJDa..."
    }
  ]
}

Round-Trip with --top 5 (includes return flight details)

When --top N is used with --return-date, each of the top N outbound results includes a nested return_flight object with full return leg details:

json

{
  "origin": "TLV",
  "destination": "BKK",
  "flight_type": "round_trip",
  "return_date": "2026-04-14",
  "return_flights_fetched_for_top": 5,
  "flights": [
    {
      "search_date": "2026-03-28",
      "airline": "Etihad",
      "flight_number": "EY 610",
      "origin": "TLV",
      "destination": "BKK",
      "departure_time": "07:20",
      "departure_date": "2026-03-28",
      "arrival_time": "23:25",
      "arrival_date": "2026-03-28",
      "duration_minutes": 725,
      "stops": 1,
      "layovers": [{"airport": "Zayed International Airport", "duration_minutes": 185}],
      "min_layover_minutes": 185,
      "price": 1569,
      "overnight": false,
      "return_flight": {
        "airline": "Etihad",
        "flight_number": "EY 401",
        "origin": "BKK",
        "destination": "TLV",
        "departure_time": "01:05",
        "departure_date": "2026-04-14",
        "arrival_time": "08:15",
        "arrival_date": "2026-04-14",
        "duration_minutes": 670,
        "stops": 1,
        "layovers": [{"airport": "Zayed International Airport", "duration_minutes": 150}],
        "min_layover_minutes": 150,
        "overnight": false,
        "price": 1569,
        "booking_token": "EhkIAh..."
      }
    }
  ]
}

Important: The price is the combined round-trip price (same on both outbound and return_flight). The return_flight object has its own airline, flight number, times, layovers, and stops — use all of these when formatting results.

Booking Token Lookup (--booking-token)

After scoring, use the booking_token from each top result to fetch real booking URLs.

You must pass the same --from, --to, --date used in the original search. For round-trips, also pass --return-date.

bash

# One-way booking lookup
python {baseDir}/scripts/search_searchapi.py \
  --from TLV --to LON --date 2026-03-15 \
  --booking-token "WyJDa..."

# Round-trip booking lookup — MUST include --return-date
python {baseDir}/scripts/search_searchapi.py \
  --from TLV --to SGN --date 2026-03-29 --return-date 2026-04-14 \
  --booking-token "WyJDa..."

Returns:

json

{
  "mode": "booking_lookup",
  "total_options": 3,
  "booking_options": [
    {
      "book_with": "El Al",
      "price": 1850,
      "url": "https://www.elal.com/..."
    },
    {
      "book_with": "Kiwi.com",
      "price": 1820,
      "url": "https://www.kiwi.com/..."
    }
  ]
}

Use the first option whose book_with matches the airline (direct airline link). If no airline match, use the first option. If --booking-token fails or returns no options, fall back to vendor-booking-link.

---

Full Workflow

text

1. User requests flights
        ↓
2. Extract: origin, destination, date(s), passengers
        ↓
3. Run search_searchapi.py with --top 5 for round-trips
   → each result includes outbound + nested return_flight details + booking_token
        ↓
4. Apply flight-scoring rules to each result:
   - Calculate price score (0–50)
   - Calculate direct score (0–30)
   - Calculate convenience score (0–20)
   - Sum → total score
        ↓
5. Assign tags (Best overall, Cheapest, Direct, Night flight, +1 not a working day)
        ↓
6. Get booking links for each top result:
   a. Use booking_token → run search_searchapi.py --booking-token TOKEN → real airline/OTA URLs
   b. Fallback: if booking_token missing or fetch fails → use vendor-booking-link skill
        ↓
7. Format results using flight-results-formatter → table with both legs per option
        ↓
8. Present the formatted table to user
        ↓
9. Run save_monitor.py → save search for price tracking (MANDATORY)

Always score before presenting. Never dump raw JSON to the user. Always include booking links. Prefer booking_token for real URLs; fall back to vendor-booking-link if unavailable. Never link to Google Flights or aggregators. Round-trips MUST use --top 5 to get return flight details. Without --top, only outbound info is returned.

Step 8: Save Price Monitor (MANDATORY)

After presenting results, ALWAYS save the search for price monitoring. Build a compact snapshot from the top 10-15 flights as "Airline|FlightNum|DepTime": price pairs, then run:

bash

python3 {baseDir}/../flight-price-monitor/scripts/save_monitor.py \
  --user-id "<peer_id>" \
  --from <ORIGIN> --to <DESTINATION> --date <DATE> \
  --return-date <RETURN_DATE> \
  --currency <CURRENCY> --adults <ADULTS> \
  --channel <channel> --delivery-to "<delivery_target>" \
  --flights '<JSON snapshot>'

• --user-id: The peer ID from the session (e.g. whatsapp:[phone]). If unknown, use the user's name.
• --channel: The channel the user is on (whatsapp, telegram, etc.)
• --delivery-to: The user's address on that channel. Use last if unknown.
• --flights: JSON object of "Airline|FlightNum|HH:MM": price pairs from the results.
• Omit --return-date if it was a one-way search.

This overwrites any previous monitor for this user. A cron job checks every 2 hours and notifies the user of price changes.

---

Mapping Script Output → Scoring Inputs

Scoring field	Script field
Price	price
Stops	stops
Departure time	departure_time (extract HH:MM)
Arrival time	arrival_time (extract HH:MM)
Overnight flag	overnight
Duration	duration_minutes
Risky layover	min_layover_minutes < 60
Airline	airline
Flight number	flight_number
Route	origin → destination (IATA codes)

---

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Fix
SEARCHAPI_KEY not set	Missing .env entry	Add SEARCHAPI_KEY=your_key to .env
HTTP 401	Invalid API key	Check key at searchapi.io
HTTP 429	Rate limit hit	Wait and retry, or use --days in smaller batches
No results for a date	Route not available	Try adjacent dates or different destination airport code

---

Notes

• El Al does not fly on Shabbat — Friday evening and Saturday flights from TLV won't appear for El Al.
• Secondary airports: Wizz/Ryanair use LTN, STN, BGY etc. — when the script returns results from these, mention the airport to the user.
• Prices are per-person unless --adults is set. For groups, multiply accordingly and note total.
• Round-trip: Use --return-date YYYY-MM-DD --top 5 to search round-trip and auto-fetch return flight details for the top 5 results.