Skip to content
FlightPowers
Get key

Recipe · Flights API

Round-trip search with Claude Desktop

Round-trip is a first-class paired-leg search: one object per itinerary with both legs already matched and a combined total, not two one-way lists the agent has to cross-join. The agent reads total_price and presents real bookable combinations.

Get a key on RapidAPI →All Claude Desktop recipes

Free tier on RapidAPI. No card to try.

Step 1 · Connect

Add to claude_desktop_config.json

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, paste the block under mcpServers, restart Claude Desktop. On a Mac the file is ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. The key lives in that file, never in the conversation.

connect · flights server
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flights": {
      "url": "https://flights.flightpowers.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "x-rapidapi-key": "YOUR_RAPIDAPI_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Bring your own RapidAPI key: every request is billed to your own subscription, never ours.

Step 2 · Ask it

The prompt

Verbatim: paste it, or anything shaped like it. The agent maps it to the call below.

“I need a round trip New York to Paris, out October 6, back October 13. What are my options?”

Step 3 · Under the hood

What the agent calls

No glue code: the agent reads the tool schema, picks the tool, and fills these parameters from your prompt.

tool call
// search_roundtrip_flights
{
  "from_airport": "JFK",
  "to_airport": "CDG",
  "departure_date": "2026-10-06",
  "return_date": "2026-10-13",
  "limit": 5
}

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.

total_pricestring

The combined price of the paired round-trip itinerary: one number for both legs, because they were searched together. total_price_as_number is the integer.

total_duration_secondsnumber

Travel time across both legs, in seconds, sortable without parsing a display string.

departure_flight_airlinestring

Operating carrier on the outbound leg.

return_flight_airlinestring

Operating carrier on the return leg, paired to the same itinerary, not cross-joined.

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 MCP server is bring-your-own-key: Claude Desktop sends your RapidAPI key with each call and usage meters against your own subscription on RapidAPI. There is no FlightPowers account and no second bill.
Does this need a server of mine?
No. The MCP servers are hosted at flights.flightpowers.com and hotels.flightpowers.com: you add a URL to Claude Desktop, not a deployment.
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.

Also works with

Round-trip search, elsewhere in your stack

Round-trip search in ClaudeRound-trip search in ChatGPTRound-trip search in CursorRound-trip search in Claude CodeRound-trip search in n8nRound-trip search in OpenClawRound-trip search in SmitheryRound-trip search in LangChainRound-trip search in ZapierRound-trip search in MakeRound-trip search in RESTRound-trip search in RapidAPIRound-trip search in Apify

More recipes

More to build in Claude Desktop

One-way flight search

Flights API · search_oneway_flights

Price-insights check

Flights API · search_oneway_flights

Cheapest-date scan

Flights API · search_oneway_flights

Hotel search

Hotels API · search_hotels

Rate-parity check

Hotels API · find_hotel_by_name

Fare-alert cron

Flights API · search_oneway_flights

Get live flight and hotel data

Live Google Flights and Booking.com data as clean JSON. Free tier on RapidAPI, no card to try.

Get a key on RapidAPI →See pricing

Free tier: 10 requests/month. No card to try.