Recipe · Flights API
Fare-alert cron with REST
The verdict field makes alerting trivial: poll on a schedule and fire only when price_range_in_relation_to_other_periods === "low". No home-grown price-history database needed, because Google’s band IS the history. Send the buy_link in the alert so the user can book from the notification.
Free tier on RapidAPI. No card to try.
Step 1 · Connect
POST to api.flightpowers.com
The API on our own domain, with an OpenAPI spec at a fixed path. x-api-key, x-rapidapi-key and Authorization: Bearer are all accepted and equivalent. The key is the one RapidAPI issued you; there is no second account.
curl -X POST "https://api.flightpowers.com/v1/flights/oneway" \
-H "x-api-key: $RAPIDAPI_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"from_airport":"LHR","to_airport":"JFK","departure_date":"2026-10-13"}'Bring your own RapidAPI key: every request is billed to your own subscription, never ours.
Step 2 · The job
The job
The job in plain words. In REST you express it as the configuration below instead of a prompt.
“Every morning, check JFK→LHR fares for my December dates and alert me when Google’s verdict flips to low.”
Step 3 · Under the hood
The request
One POST, flat JSON in, flat JSON out. Field names are the ones in the OpenAPI spec.
POST https://api.flightpowers.com/v1/flights/oneway
{
"from_airport": "JFK",
"to_airport": "LHR",
"departure_date": "2026-12-10",
"limit": 3
}One request per run. A daily check is about 30 requests a month.
Step 4 · Read the response
Fields your logic reads
The response is flat JSON. These are the fields this recipe branches on, with what each one means.
pricestringThe fare as Google Flights displays it: “$56”. The numeric twin price_as_number rides alongside for sorting and arithmetic.
price_range_in_relation_to_other_periods"low" | "typical" | "high" | nullGoogle’s verdict on the current fare against that band, the single field alerting, ranking, and “book now” logic branch on.
buy_linkstring (URL)A Google Flights deep link that reopens this exact itinerary. Hand it to the user; it just works.
Questions, answered plainly
- Is my key billed to me?
- Yes. The key is the one RapidAPI issued you, and usage meters against that subscription whichever host you call. There is no FlightPowers account and no second bill.
- Does this need a server of mine?
- No. It is one HTTPS request from whatever already runs your code. The OpenAPI spec is at flightpowers.com/openapi.json if you want to generate a client.
- What does it cost?
- The Google Flights Live API's free tier is 10 requests/month with a hard cap: enough to verify your key works, not to evaluate. The PRO plan is $10/month for 2,500 requests, and every plan includes every endpoint. A single daily check is about 30 requests a month: past the free tier’s 10, comfortably inside PRO.
Also works with
Fare-alert cron, elsewhere in your stack
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Live Google Flights and Booking.com data as clean JSON. Free tier on RapidAPI, no card to try.
Free tier: 10 requests/month. No card to try.